Haast. — On an ancient Native Burial Place. 87 



placed by a bed of sandy clays, in the centre above the rock they exhibited 

 the character of true drift-sands, gradually thinning out towards the west. 

 This deposit, with one exception, contained all the human skeletons and a few 

 Moa-bones, which were, however, quite intact. "With the exception of the 

 skeletons no sign of human occupation, such as ovens and kitchen middens, 

 were found in it. This bed, in ascending the slopes, gradually disappears, and 

 the uppermost bed No. 4, which on the western side lies directly upon the 

 slope deposit, No. 2, ascends to the termination of the slope. 



This uppermost layer (No. 4) consists partly of drift-sand, partly of 

 vegetable soil and slope deposits. During its formation the shell-fish eaters 

 were more or less frequently the inhabitants of the locality, preferring the 

 western side, where a few small caves and a favourable aspect of the hill 

 offered them a welcome shelter. It is on the eastern side, about 18 inches to 

 2 feet thick, diminishes to less than 1 foot in the centre, and gradually gains a 

 thickness of 5 feet in the smaller western portion. The kitchen middens con- 

 tained in this uppermost bed, and which sometimes form layers throughout the 

 whole thickness, consist mostly of shells of which the Chione stutchburyi 

 (cockle) is the most numerous. 



Mesodesma chemnitzii, Amphibola avellana, and Mytilus smaragdhais are 

 also well represented; bones of different species of seals and of the hapuku 

 {Oligorus gigas) were also collected by me. These kitchen middens often 

 forming continuous layers of a thickness of 2 to 3 inches, and in some instances 

 swelling to several feet, thus resemble in every respect those of the shell-fish 

 eating population in the cave and on the adjoining sandhills, and are doubtless 

 their equivalent in time. 



At the bottom of this bed, and reposing in a shallow grave, excavated 

 in the slope deposit (No. 2) a human skeleton was found by the workmen, 

 according to them of small stature. It was buried lengthwise, lying on 

 its face, and the bones were so fragile that in removing them they crumbled 

 to pieces. No stone implements or ornaments of any kind were obtained 

 near it. Unfortunately I was not present when the same was disinterred, 

 but an intelligent workman, who was present at its discovery, and in whose 

 veracity I have all confidence, gave me this information. Moreover the 

 shallow excavation was well defined where the bones had been lying. Of 

 course, I have no means of judging if the body to which this skeleton 

 belonged had been buried during or after the period when the other bodies in 

 the central and eastern portion had been interred, although it is evident from 

 its position that the shallow grave was excavated in the slope deposit (No. 2), 

 and that the body was buried long before the shell-fish eaters occupied the 

 ground from the following observation : — A little higher up, but close to this 



