﻿Haast. — Moas and Moa Hiinters. 89 



ai'e, however, rare, which might suggest that the clog was only exceptionally 

 eaten, either when its owner was short of provisions, or perhaps when some of 

 these animals were killed by the Moas during the chase. I have, however, 

 already given some reasons why we are almost compelled to believe that the 

 dog was not domesticated by the moa-hunter. Some few shells were also 

 found between the bones, consisting of freshwater mussels (UnioJ, and of a 

 large Mytilus. 



Bearing in mind what the Hon. "W. Mantell states in respect to the 

 occurrence of the bones of men, together with those of the Dinornis, dog, and 

 seal, in the kitchen-middens of the Northern Island, I conchided that the 

 moa-hunters must have been cannibals ; however, the most careful search, 

 continued for a nuraber of days, has never brought to light the smallest 

 portion of a human bone at the Hakaia. And, although this evidence is 

 merely of a negative character, it is strong enough to induce the belief that 

 the moa-hunters were not addicted to anthropophagy, as Mr. Mantell's 

 observations might suggest. Had the inhabitants of the Eakaia encampment 

 been cannibals, there is no doubt, in my mind, that amongst the thousand 

 fragments of bones passing through my hands, at least some of the human 

 skeleton should have appeared to bear witness. Mr. F, Fuller, who lately 

 discovered a small moa-hunter encampment in Tumbledown Bay, near Little 

 Kiver, found close to it, amongst some sandhills, the traces of a cannibal 

 feast, but there was nothing to connect the one with the other. 



Some other localities, in which the ancient population has left evidence of 

 its presence, are the flat near Moa-bone Point, on the road to Sumner, another 

 near Mr. Joseph Palmer's former residence among the sandhills near the 

 Avon, and on the opposite side below Mr. Vv'^right's property. Here, moa 

 bones, broken in the usual manner, associated with those of the seal and 

 tympanic bones of whales, are exposed by the sands having been shifted by 

 the wind. Similar flakes, manufactured of flint and sandstone, occur also 

 there, together with great quantities of pipi shells ( Venus intermedia) and of 

 Amphihola avellana. The contents of the ovens consist of common river 

 shingle, but also of rough pieces of volcanic rocks, derived from Banks 

 Peninsula, and which must have been brought all the way, unless we admit 

 that during the time of the moa-hunters the sandhills in question were still 

 close to the sea shore, or at least fringing an arm of the sea, running round 

 Banks Peninsula. Another locality, where Mr. John D. Enys has collected 

 flint implements of the same type as those described previously, is situated on 

 the western flanks of Mount Torlesse, about 3,000 feet above the sea level. 



From all these observations I am led to the conclusion that the moa- 

 hunters have left their traces in many localities in both islands, of which only 

 a very few are at present known to us. I have no doubt that furtlier search 



