Haast. — Address. • 53 



were obtained, but too small for recognition of the species. There were 

 also some phalanges of the fm- seal, a number of bones of small birds, and 

 several marine shells, some of them fragmentary, belonging to Mesodesma 

 iwvcc-zealandicv, Mactra discors, and Mytilus smaragdinus, the New Zealand 

 mussel. Flakes of chert and flint were, as usual, present, as well as some 

 fragments of a polished stone implement. There were also two large sub- 

 angular boulders of sandstone, doubtless brought up from the river-bed of 

 the Waikari. 



Principally towards the centre of the rock-shelter, and where the older 

 deposits were thinnest, occurred above them accumulations of Maori and 

 European origin. Amongst them are, in the collection made, several pieces 

 of Haliotis iris, the pawa shell of the Maoris, which had evidently been 

 worked, but the presence of numerous pieces of Newcastle coal, of ribs and 

 other portions of the sheep, and the iron tip of a man's boot, told clearly 

 its tale. This bed, about six inches thick and about eight feet long and 

 four feet wide, was resting on both sides on the older deposits with broken 

 moa bones. It is in this spot where the water during heavy rain, as 

 experienced by Mr. Cousins and myself, is flowing against the wall of the 

 rock-shelter, and it therefore stands to reason that these remnants of 

 European occupancy could easily be trampled into the ground, and thus 

 reach a deeper position than they otherwise naturally would have possessed. 

 No remains of red or black paint, or of a receptacle for the paint, were 

 amongst the kitchen middens. These excavations revealed another im- 

 portant fact — namely, that the small drawings which were close to the floor 

 of the rock-shelter, and often reached to it, but were too faint to be copied, 

 never went below it. It perhaps would not be too rash to surmise that the 

 people who formed the kitchen middens made the paintings, during their 

 visits, lying on the ground, when the lower ones were executed ; on the 

 other hand, they could just reach the top of the shelter when they stood 

 upright to finish the larger figures previously described. I must confess I 

 was rather disappointed not to receive a larger quantity of objects from the 

 kitchen middens, and of more interest. We must, therefore, conclude that 

 the rock-shelter was only seldom visited by man, and then was only 

 inhabited for a very short time. 



I hope that, very soon, I shall have another opportunity to communicate 

 to you the results of further researches on this very interesting subject. I 

 trust that some of our members will also take their share in the elucidation 

 of a question which may throw considerable light upon the pre-historic 

 inhabitants of these fail' islands, on which so many members of a race 

 different from their present aborigines have found a happy home. 



Since the above was written, I had the great advantage of consulting 



