Haast. — Researches in Sumner Moa Cave. 73 



of the Moa-hunters, no other objects of human workmanship were associated 

 with them, in order to gain some more insight into the daily life of that 

 primitive people. 



However, if we consider that the cave was only occasionally frequented, we 

 could not expect to find many objects of that nature, unless a fortunate accident 

 had preserved to us some of their more valued utensils and ornaments ; and 

 although I was rather disappointed in that respect, the few objects found 

 proved sufficiently that the Moa-hunters made their domestic tools neatly, a 

 is generally the custom of primitive races. 



In the dirt bed above the agglomerate in the anterior portion of the cave 



we obtained a needle 4*25 inches long by 0-20 inches broad, neatly finished, 



made of the humerus of a nelly (Ossifraga giyantea), and bodkin made of the 



distal portion of the tibia of the same bird, doubtless used for making holes 



through which the needle was passed afterwards ; also, the canine tooth of a 



dog, with a hole bored through it at its base, worn without doubt as an 



ornament. 



Amongst the pieces of wood collected from the lower beds, there is an 



apparatus for kindling fire, made of Carpodetus serratus (komaku), the fire to 



be obtained by rubbing the stick lengthwise on the other flat piece, several 



fragments of worked timber, firesticks, portions of spears and of canoes, the 



whole being so soft when excavated that it could easily be cut by the finger 



nail. 



In appendix B a list of all the objects found is given, so that I need not 



particularise any other here. 



The curious fact first observed at the Rakaia encampment that none of the 

 bones of the kitchen middens were gnawed by dogs, was also recognised in and 

 near the cave, the smallest bones, without exception, being quite intact, except 

 where cut or broken by human hands. 



On the other hand, in the upper or shell beds, many of the bones appeared 

 to have been gnawed by rats and a few by dogs. 



In any case, the hypothesis first put forward in my paper on the Rakaia 

 encampment, that the Moa-hunters chased the dog for food, without having it 

 domesticated, certainly gains by these new observations in probability. 



Amongst the smaller birds enumerated in the appendix, of which none are 

 extinct, the presence of the bones of the kakapo (Stringops habroptilus) and of 

 the large kiwi or roa (Apteryx australis) proves that these birds inhabited the 

 peninsula and its neighbourhood from where they have now disappeared a 

 long time. The only fish bones obtained in the lower beds belonged, mostly 

 all, to the hapuku (Oligoms gigas). 



beds 



L 



