72 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



but I think it can be accepted as reliable, as I cross-examined both men, and 

 found their account to agree in every particular. 



However, to strengthen this important point, on the 31st October, during 

 my presence, the men picked up a portion of another polished adze, which fell 

 out of the face of the agglomerate bed, just broken into, and when examining 

 that face carefully I had the satisfaction to find the spot whence it had fallen 

 out, so that there is no doubt but that it had been embedded in that 

 asrijlomerate. 



On the other hand, in the dirt bed near the entrance of the cave, generally 

 close to the agglomerate, or Avhen missing, sometimes in contact with the 

 marine sands, several broken polished stone implements were excavated, to- 

 gether with pieces of gritty sandstone, some of which had been grooved during 

 the process of sharpening. 



As these fragments were found amongst the undisturbed kitchen middens 

 of the Moa-hunters, there is not the least doubt that the same were possessed 

 of polished stone implements, as well as of chipped flint tools, probably em- 

 ploying the former for the building of their dwellings, or manufacture of their 

 canoes and wooden implements, whilst the latter were probably used for the 

 chase or for cutting up and preparing their huge game for the oven and their 

 meals. And as I shall show further on in the description of the numerous 

 Moa ovens outside the cave, that similar polished stone implements were ob- 

 tained in contact with Moa bones in undisturbed positions, I have to modify 

 my former views in assuming that the I\Ioa-hunters did not possess polished 

 stone implements. Thus the excavations in and near the Moa-bone Point 

 Cave fully confirm the observations concerning this point made, and published 

 by Messrs. Mantell and Murison some years ago. 



My former opinion was based upon the careful examination of hundreds of 

 Moa-cooking ovens in the Rakaia encampment, Mliere I obtained great quan- 

 tities of chipped stone implements, some of them remarkably well shaped, 

 amongst the kitchen middens of the Moa-hunters, but in the same dej)osits 

 never any polished ones, and as the latter were mostly found in deep caches, 

 and the locality had been, according to Maori tradition, a favourite encampment 

 of theirs, it was natural to be led to the conclusion that the few polished stone 

 implements turned up here and there by the plough were like the caches of 

 later (Maori) origin. 



Section No. G gives the details of the beds, with the two ovens near the 

 entrance of the cave. 



Having determined that the beds were perfectly undisturbed, with the 

 excej)tion of the few cases already alluded to, it was of great importance to 

 ascertain if, besides the stone implements found amongst the kitchen middens 



