﻿122 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



filled np. Further iuvestigation sliowed that they had been used for cooking 

 the Moa, great quantities of bones being discovered in each oven that was 

 examined. The ovens lay about ten or fifteen yards from the creek, and were 

 covered with about six inches of silt. Mixed with the pieces of half-charred 

 bones were innumerable fragments of moa egg-shells. In some of the cooking 

 places these latter were found in layers, showing that a vast number of eggs 

 must have been consumed as food. And scattered throvigh the ovens were 

 found rude chei't implements, many of which bore signs of having been used. 

 Most of these were fashioned like knives, and had been employed, no doubt, to 

 cut the flesh and sinews of the bird. Some heavier implements were also 

 found ; one of these was shaped like a cleaver, and had probably been used to 

 break the large bones. In one oven the jaw of a young dog was discovered, 

 mixed up with the bones and knives ; and from the same place were taken 

 out several fragments of polished stone implements. A great deal of importance 

 is to be attached to the discovery of the latter under such conditions, as, if it 

 is conceded that the polished implements and the chert flakes were used by 

 the same people, Dr. Haast's theory of a palaeolithic period and a neolithic 

 period for New Zealand will have to be abandoned. The two different kinds 

 of implements have, according to Dr. Haast, been found at the same spot, but 

 he thinks that careful research will prove that they have not been used at the 

 same time nor by the same people. On the banks of the Little Rakaia green- 

 stone adzes and other polished Maori implements have been turned up by the 

 plough ; but he explains that it is known that the Maoris frequented the 

 locality on account of it being a favourable fishing ground. In the case of 

 the Puke-toi-toi Creek, however, it is unlikely that the natives ever visited 

 the spot with any other object than that of moa-hunting. There is a small 

 volume of water in the creek, and there being no eels in it there was nothing 

 to attract the natives to the locality. Even such a common article of food as 

 the ITnio, a fresh water mollusc, which is to be met with in great quantities in 

 the Taieri River, some four miles distant, does not inhabit the creek. It 

 appears tolerably certain, therefore, that the moa-huntei"S were the only people 

 who ever visited this encampment, as no known means of sustenance is to be 

 procured nearer than the Taieri River. I think it cleai'ly established, from 

 what I have stated, that the moa-hunters used both polished and rudely 

 fashioned stone implements. The latter were easily made, and must have been 

 of greater service in cutting the flesh of the Moa than any of the polished 

 tools we know of. On the terrace above the ovens, and within about twenty 

 yards of them, was found the place where those rude knives held evidently 

 been manufactured. Traces of fires were to be seen, full of innumerable 

 fragments of chert, and all round the fires broken stone knives co;ild be picked 

 up. A further examination of the debris of those fires which had been 



