McKay. — On the Identity of Jloa hunters and Maoris. 99 



height will indicate. The entrance, 40 feet in width, is obstructed by large 

 masses of the upper bed having fallen across the entn 



The middle cave is but a lower recess at the further end of the outer cave, 

 and measures 16 feet in length, 14 feet in width, and is not more than 10 feet 



high. 



The inner, or third cave, is reached by a narrow passage at the further end 

 of the middle cave, and is but a narrow opening, so low as to be entered witli 

 some difficulty. All three caves contained Moa-bones, flint implements, and 

 much charcoal, though the accumulations of importance were nearly all 

 contained in the outer cave. Exact measurement showed the sandy floor of 

 the cave to be but a few feet above the level of high-water mark, though the 

 accumulation of drift sand outside reached an elevation considerably higher. 



The barrier of fallen rocks in the entrance of the cave doubtless prevented 

 the ingress of drift sand to the outer chamber of the cave, and they may 

 therefore have been in their present position before the final recession of the 

 sea. But the perfectly smooth and level floor, even close up to the rocks, 

 indicates that the water flowed in and out in one unbroken sheet, and that 

 therefore the rocks in question must have fallen at or subsequently to the 

 elevation of the land. Examinations outside the cave showed that occupation 

 had originally taken place on a very uneven surface, many of the original 

 sand hills yet forming the highest part of the present ones; the depressions 

 being but filled-up hollows of yet greater depth, beneath the superficial drift 

 of which often occurs a bed containing works of art and bones of man, dog, 

 Moa, etc., resting on the undisturbed sand beneath. 



Much drift wood lay scattered over the sandy floor of the cave, and above 

 that was a bed of breccia, the accumulated debris from the roof of the cave, 

 which was somewhat unequal in its distribution, reaching its greatest thickness 

 near the middle of the cave, where in places it was from 3 to 4 feet, and where 

 the roof was very uneven consisted of larger material than elsewhere. This 

 bed contained great quantities of bird bones of small size, and many seal bones, 

 some of rare or unknown species, together with a few flints and a piece of 

 obsidian, evidently here through human agency. But the chief interest 

 attaching to this bed is the occurrence of a human jaw and one of the 



principal bones of the heel, in a spot where it had evidently not been 

 disturbed. The jaw was found buried 6 inches beneath the surface of the 

 sand, and immediately below the remains of a seal that had evidently 

 been stranded there. In the conglomerate itself the further finding of several 

 charred seal bones, where the bed was about 15 inches thick, and the fact that 

 the driftwood underlying it was much burned on its upper surface, is evidence 

 that the cave was occupied thus early. Still, while not doubting that the 



