﻿8 2 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



have been informed that the very same locality was covered with moa bones, 

 but whether broken or entire I could not ascertain. 



As previously observed, the piincipal ovens and kitchen-middens are 

 situated some distance from the banks of the rivers ; about twenty acres are 

 raore or less covered with them, so that in some instances they must have oifered 

 some difficulty to the plough. Although now mostly disturbed, I conld readily 

 recognize the form and diameter of these cooking-places. Some of them were 

 of an oval shape, eight feet long and five feet broad, others more circular and 

 about eight feet in diameter. Generally covered by three to four inches of soil at 

 the border, they are about eighteen inches deep in the centre. The outer rim is 

 generally built up by larger stones, smaller ones fill the interior, piled in four 

 to five layers upon each other, of which, of course, many by the intensity of 

 the heat have been split into angular fragments. Occasionally, small pieces 

 of charcoal are still found lying between them. From five to eight of these 

 ovens are usually in close proximity, with intervals of about twenty yards 

 between them and the next group ; the ground between having probably been 

 the camping ground of the moa -hunters. I may here add that these pre-historic 

 people without doubt cooked their food in the same manner as the aborigines 

 of the present day, which has been so often described that I need not repeat 

 it here. There are seldom any moa bones or other remnants of their meals 

 amongst the stones of the ovens ; these are generally situated a few feet from 

 them, where the ofial has been thrown in a heap, together with the cbips of 

 their rude stone implements. Large flat stones, ten to twelve inches long and six 

 to eight inches broad, are sometimes found near them, together with a roundish 

 long boulder, also of large dimensions, which I have little doubt have been 

 used for breaking the bones in order to extract the marrow, or for poxmding 

 other materials. All these stones, without exception, had to be carried from 

 the rivers or sea-shore to the plains, and their great quantity testifies that for 

 a long time this locality mxist have been a favourite resort of those inhabiting 

 the country at that distant period. 



I assume also that this spot was to them very important in a strategical 

 point of view ; the natives, after crossing the lagoon with their rafts or canoes, 

 being out of the reach of their enemies, who, without the same means of 

 conveyance, could only cross with difficulty and loss of time. Scattered over 

 the ground an enormous quantity of pieces of flint are strewed, proving that 

 the manufacture of rude knives or flakes must have been carried on upon the 

 spot for a considerable period of time. The most primitive form of stone 

 implement, and of which a great number is found lying all over the ploughed 

 gi'ound, consists of fragments of hard silicious sandstone, broken off" apparently 

 "with a single blow from large boulders, and for the manufacture of which 

 considerable skill must have been necessary. The boulder was always selected 



