Haast. — On a Moa-hunter Encampment. 9 



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Both Moa-liunter and Maori ovens and kitclien middens are scattered all 

 over the spit j the former are only visible when the sands have been blown 

 away, or the sea has washed into the beds above them, but both being — as on 

 the sand hills, near the Moa-bone Point Cave — in several spots mixed to- 

 gether in a remarkable manner. Generally, however, they are very distinct, 

 and show clearly that a considerable period of time must have passed away 

 before the Maoris, after the disappearance of the Moa-hunters, took again 

 possession of that locality. This is made still more striking by the discovery 

 of the curious fact that the Maori or shell-beds are never found at a lower 

 level than about 2 feet above high-water mark, while the Moa-hunter beds, as 

 far as I could ascertain, actually occur in some of the back waters of the 

 estuary, 2 feet below high-water mark, thus showing, conclusively, that since 

 the Moa-hunters had ceased their work of destruction, and before the shell-fish 

 eaters had reoccupied the ground, the country had been sinking considerably. 

 And if we admit that the former would not have dug their ovens in wet 

 ground, and thus would have kept the bottom of their ovens at least a foot or 

 so above high-water mark, we cannot escape admitting the inference that the 

 country between the occupation of both populations has been sinking about 3 

 feet. 



The annexed sections (PL III.) will demonstrate this more fully. Near the 

 southern side, the sandspit is formed into several small hillocks, which, where 

 the Moa-hunter kitchen middens are exposed, show under a capping of 3 to 4 

 feet of blown sands with sometimes a small layer of vegetable soil on the top, 

 several beds of ashes, often separated by 9 to 15 inches of drift-sands. Each 

 ash-bed is generally continuous, and 3 to 6 inches thick. The boulders, by 

 which the huge cooking ovens of the Moa-hunters are formed, were generally 

 situated below the ash-beds, whilst the remains of their meals are scattered 

 most frequently all through them, as well as lying above and below them. 



The succeeding shell-fish eating population generally had their camping 

 grounds in the hollows between those hillocks, and, as is clearly discernible, 

 frequently used the cooking stones of the Moa-hunter ovens, which had rolled 

 down the sides from the beds higher up, being gradually destroyed by wind 

 and weather. There are even a few localities where a talus, formed of sands 

 and the remnants of the Moa-hunter feasts, actually covers the younger shell- 

 beds, and of which I give an instance in section No. 3 (PI. III.). However^ 

 when we descend to lower ground we soon observe still more distinctly the 

 great difierence between both deposits as to their position ; this is princi- 

 pally clearly brought to view when the sand-banks abut against the estuary, 

 and the river has cut into them. Here the shell-beds are exposed in low 

 vertical banks, but never descending lower than 2 feet above high-water mark. 



