﻿Haast. — Moas and Moa Hunters. 83 



in sucla a form tliat if fractured in the right waj it would yield a sharp 

 cutting edge. These rude sandstone flakes are very different from pieces 

 detached by heat in the ovens, where the natural joints of the rocks are 

 always exhibited, while here the roxigh surface of the broken side attests 

 clearly that the specimens have been obtained artificially. These primitive knives 

 are mostly three to four inches long and two to three inches broad, possessing a 

 sharp cutting and sometimes serrated edge ; but there are also some of larger 

 dimensions, being six inches long and nearly four inches broad. Some of them 

 have evidently been much used. They were probably employed for cutting 

 up the spoil of the chase, and severing the sinews. Similar specimens have 

 been obtained in abundance in the Northern Island. Their frequent occur- 

 rence may be accounted for by the rapidity with which they were manu- 

 factured, and consequently they were of small value. 



The really properly worked or chipped flints are so very rare that I 

 obtained only a few of them, although of chips and flakes I could collect 

 several hundreds, of which many show that they have been used. Before 

 entering upon a description of the former, I wish to speak of the material 

 which has been selected for the manufacture of the greater portion of them. 

 The principal regularly shaped implements consist of a greyish greasy-looking 

 peculiar flint rock, the original bed of which is not known to me. If it 

 should exist in this part of the South Island, the only locality might be in the 

 neighbourhood of Gebbie's Pass (Banks Peninsula), where so many varieties 

 of silicious deposits occvir. Another reason for believing that the rock has 

 been brought from a great distance is its scarcity, which shows that unlike the 

 sandstone knives or flakes, the ancient inhabitants took greater care of it. From 

 specimens received from Dr. Hector and Captain Frazer, it appears that it has 

 also been extensively used in the interior of the Otago province. There is in 

 the Otago Museum a series of flne specimens manufactured of the same i-ock, 

 collected in a short time in or near the Manuherikia plains by the last-named 

 gentleman, so that there is no doubt that we must seek in that neighbourhood 

 the original workshop whence they were derived. There are also, but far 

 less frequent, smaller implements and flakes made of chert, porcellanite, and 

 a few of chalcedony, semi-opal, cornelian, and agate, probably collected for their 

 hardness in the neighbourhood. But the most interesting objects were small 

 pieces of obsidian, in lithological character identical with that obtained near 

 Tauranga. It is thus evident that a race so remote from our own times must 

 have had communication with the ISTorthern Island, and as the different species 

 of Dinornis, as far as I can judge from Professor Owen's di^awings and des- 

 criptions, are identical in both islands, it forces us to the conclusion that in 

 the era of their existence Cook Sti-aits did not yet exist, but that both islands 

 formed part of a larger island, or even continent, over which the wingless 



