McKay. — On the Mentity of Moa-hunters and Maoris. 101 



decomposition, of a thickness not less than 12 or 14 inches in places. This 

 was overlaid by a bed of grass and fern-leaves in which European and Maori 

 materials were freely mixed. The thickness of the purely shell-bed was in 

 places scarcely short of 5 feet, the other overlying beds varying from a few 

 inches to 2 feet. 



The inner caves offered no points of interest, save that fire-heaps and Moa- 

 bones w^ere found in them. 



Excavations outside the cave gave much the same results as the excava- 

 tions inside, viz., that polished implements occurred associated with Moa and 

 dog-bones in beds having comparatively few or no shells, and I cannot enter- 

 tain a doubt but that the Moa-hunters were, as well as the more modern 

 Maoris, possessed of instruments of high polish, both in wood and stone. The 

 Moa-hunters also hunted the seal, as their bones are freely mixed with those 

 of the Moa, and fragments of nets would seem to show that the fisherman's art 

 was not unknown to them. 



In the cave Moa-bones did occasionally occur in the upper shell deposits, 

 but they were of rare occurrence, and were undoubtedly foreign to the bed in 

 which they occurred. I have reason to believe that the clear and distinct line 

 of parting between the beds containing Moa-bones and the overlying shell-beds 

 (the materials of neither transgressing their proper boundary) marks a very long 

 blank in the history of the cave as a human habitation, and that only the de- 

 sertion of the cave during Moa-hunting times, in order to follow the game to 

 its furthest fastnesses after its extinction on the hills of the neighbourhood, 

 can account for the fact in a satisfactory manner. Such a radical change of food 

 as is indicated by the very different material of the deposits could not have been 

 brought about in a short time j and whether or not it be agreed that its more 

 recent occupants were the same race, the fact must remain the same, that it 

 was uninhabited during the period of the final extinction of the Moa in a large 

 district of the surrounding neighbourhood. 



With regard to the vexed question whether the Moa-hunters were Maoris or 

 another race, I cannot think tbat any light has been thrown upon the mystery, 

 for a mystery it yet remains in spite of several very ingenious endeavours to 

 enlighten us upon the matter. Hitherto every attempt in this direction has 

 failed, more or less. But it is doubtless easier to propound a theory than to 

 defend it against the attacks of an opponent. It is a subject of surpassing in- 

 terest, and one that may well engage the attention paid to it by several of our 

 chief scientific observers, who, though by no means arriving at the same con- 

 clusions, yet ably and stoutly defend each his own theory on the subject. 



With all deference to the maturer judgment of those whose studies in time 

 past may have been directed to the subject, I cannot regard as of high value 



