52 transactions. — Misceltaneous. 



of vegetable mould mixed with small, mostly angular iDieces of rock, over- 

 lapped them and took their place. This latter deposit is about one foot 

 thick. Below both the kitchen middens and the somewhat contempora- 

 neous deposit outside the cave, lies a layer of decomposed rock, a gritty bed 

 enclosing a number of angular pieces of rock, the whole derived from the 

 calcareous sandstone by which the valley is bounded. In this deposit the 

 excavations were carried on to a depth of two feet, but without showing the 

 least sign that it had either been disturbed or that traces of animal or 

 human life had been entombed in it during its formation. The princi^Dal 

 deposits accumulated under the rock-shelter may, faute tie mieux, best be 

 described as a dirt-bed, which doubtless owes its formation to the occasional 

 presence of an autochthone race in the locality, and whose scanty kitchen 

 middens give us a glance into the wandering life of its members. However, 

 what appeared to me astonishing was the scarcity of the remnants of their 

 food, the whole thickness of the bed (more than a foot) consisting of ashes 

 and refuse, too minute to be recognised. The largest, bed on the eastern 

 side was about twenty-five feet long by ten feet broad ; amongst it only a 

 few objects were found. Amongst these some few pieces of moa bones were 

 the most interesting, but they showed 'convincingly that they were portions 

 of remnants of a meal, all the leg bones having been broken for the extrac- 

 tion of the marrow, and resembling in every respect the fragments collected 

 in the Moa Bone Point Cave, and at the Eakaia Encampment. These 

 fragments, as far as I could recognise them, belonged to the two Meionornis 

 species, bu'cls of small size, and some of the swiftest runners of the Dinorni- 

 thidce. Besides these bones, the presence of which proves occuj)ation of the 

 moa-hunters during their expeditions, and by which my suggestion that 

 No. 9 may represent a moa gains in probability, there were a number of 

 bones of smaller birds amongst the kitchen middens, of which those of the 

 kiwi (Aptenjx oweni) were the most prominent. Other remains belonging 

 to the animal kingdom, and showmg that the moa-hunters had come from 

 the sea coast, were a few marine shells, mostly Mesodcsma novce-zcalandice, 

 the x^ipi of the Maoris. The presence of phalanges of a large fur seal, 

 probably Arctocephahts cinereus, so far inland in such locality was rather 

 surprising, unless we assume that they perhaps were used for playing some 

 game. Besides these there were a few small pieces of wood, probably 

 firesticks, some fragments of chert and flint, either cores or chips ; several 

 pieces of dark sandstone, of which one is a fragment of a polished stone 

 implement. Another large piece of calcareous sandstone had evidently 

 been chipped to a point. In the other somewhat smaller heaps on the 

 western side, which have a length of about sixteen feet, with a greatest 

 breadth of eight feet, also some few fragments of broken moa leg bones 



