﻿84 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



terrestrial birds could roam at will. In no other way can we account for the 

 existence of the same species of Dinornis over the whole of iS"ew Zealand. "We 

 might even assume that the human race made its appearance, when this com- 

 munication still existed, entirely, or at least partially, because it is rather 

 difficult to conceive that a people in such a low state of civilization could have 

 built canoes siifficiently large and strong to cross the boisterous strait now- 

 existing between the islands. ' In any case, we may safely conclude that the 

 human races in the southern hemisphere are of far greater antiquity than 

 might appear at first sight, and, instead of migrations, possible and impossible, 

 to explain the peopling and repeopling of New Zealand, geological changes 

 might afford a more satisfactory explanation. If we admit the former 

 existence of land in the Pacific Ocean, either as a continent or large island, 

 where now the boundless ocean rolls, and if we further suppose this land 

 inhabited by autochthones, of whom we find remnants all over the islands, 

 either still existing or extinct, and only proving their former existence by 

 their works of art, the whole problem is solved. Such an explanation is, 

 moreover, in better accordance with the present state of geological and 

 ethnological science. 



It appears to me that the flakes, which have generally a sharp-cutting edge, 

 have also been vised by the moa-hunters for the purpose of cutting, perhaps, 

 also, as small scraping knives to prepare their meals, or, what is still more 

 probable, to assist them in eating their food, because doubtless they would 

 have required some instrument to cut through the sinews and ligaments, or to 

 otherwise divide the meat after being cooked in the large ovens, which from 

 their size would easily have contained a whole bird. The principal specimen 

 of flint implements which I obtained from the locality in question, is of the 

 so-called spear-headed pattern, closely resembling those found in the post- 

 pliocene beds of France, and in many other spots of the same geological age in 

 Europe. It is four and a half inches long and two inches at its broadest parts. 

 There is, however, one great difference between this antipodean tool and those 

 of Europe, namely, that the former is flat on one side, all blows having been 

 struck on the other. That their form and peculiar manner of manufacture ai-e 

 not accidental is proved by similar specimens collected by Captain Frazer and 

 now in the Otago Museum, to which I alluded already. There are at least 

 half a dozen amongst them which have exactly the same form, being at the 

 same time only chipped on one side. 



Two other specimens found at the Rakaia are flint implements, manufac- 

 tured in the form of a chopper, about six inches long and three inches bi-oad, 

 and three-fourths of an inch at its thickest part. They are also flat on one 

 side with a ridge near the centre on the other, whence they have been worked 

 towards the edges, which are both shax'p. At one corner a piece has been 



