Haast. — Researches in Sumner Moa Cave. 70 



from a consideration of the sequence of the beds of human origin, their age 

 and peculiarities, I think it will be useful if I offer in conclusion a short 

 resume of the work performed, contemplated as a whole. 



The excavations have shown that a nearly level floor of marine sands 

 existed, resting upon the rocky bottom of the cave, these sands bein<* 4i feet 

 above high- water mark at the entrance of the cave, and gradually rising to 8 

 feet near its termination. 



There is no evidence from which it could be concluded when the big block 

 at the entrance of the cave fell down from the roof to narrow the former so 

 considerably, but I have no doubt that this took place before the sea hud left 

 the cave entirely, by being shut out by the boulder bank in front of the 

 entrance, the crown of which rises 16 feet above high-water mark. 



However, both the boulder bank and thi rock at the entrance of the cave 

 prevented the drift sands from entering and filling it, so that when the Moa- 

 hunters landed with their canoes in some of the nooks of the rocky shore in 

 the vicinity they found a capital shelter in the cave, whilst the Peninsula, then 

 an island, and the opposite shores of the main island offered them a fine 

 hunting ground. 



It appears from the examination of the sea sands that the first visitors of 

 the cave entered it only occasionally, and still more rarely used it as a cookinc 

 place. This might have taken place after the waves of the sea had been shut 

 out from the cave by the formation of the boulder bank in front of it, probably 

 assisted by a rise of the land, but it is possible that at exceptionally high tides 

 the water still entered the cave, as some of the broken Moa bones, and of the 

 boulders of which the cooking ovens in the south-western portion were formed, 

 were embedded nearly twelve inches deep in the sands, unless we assume that 

 they might have been brought into that position by the next inhabitants 

 having walked over them, and thus having trodden them down. 



The bed of ashes and dirt, which here and in a few other places underlies 

 the agglomeratic bed, clearly proves that before the last-mentioned deposit was 

 formed fires were lighted occasionally upon the sands. 



The discovery of drift wood in the cave, often of considerable size, of several 

 seal skeletons, and of a portion of a lower human jaw, is a proof that during 

 the deposition of the sands it was easily accessible to the waves of the sea. 



I have already observed that in the marine sands we came across blocks of 

 rock of all sizes having fallen from the roof, and possessing a more or less 

 rounded shape, such as is exhibited by scoria, formed in its upper and lower 

 portions during the flow of a large lava stream. 



When the waves of the sea finally retreated, a great number of these frag- 

 ments fell for a considerable time from the roof, forming a nearly uniform layer 





