6 



White, Assistant Superintendent of the Works, to the effect 

 that bones were then being met with in considerable num- 

 bers. He advised also that as some of them were being 

 thoughtlessly or wilfully damaged it would be desirable that 

 steps should be taken to secure them. Accordingly Mr. F. R. 

 Zietz was instructed to go to the locality on the following 

 morning to act on behalf of the Museum. 



On reaching Swanport he found that a large number 

 of bones had already been exposed, most of them having been 

 promiscuously thrown into a hole, while others had been 

 shovelled with the soil into the trucks and tipped on to the 

 embankment. Mr. Zietz, who was present on the spot during 

 a part of April 6 and during the whole of April 7 and 8, 

 with the assistance of Mr. White and of Messrs. Bott, sen. 

 and jun., rescued as many as possible of these bones, but 

 owing to the indiscriminate way in which they had been 

 treated the individual identity of all the skeletons so handled 

 was unfortunately lost. During Mr. Zietz's stay, however, 

 other skeletons were exposed as the cutting advanced, but never 

 in such numbers as before his arrival ; but these, however, 

 he was able to secure more or less completely. 



I visited the locality myself for the first time on April 14, 

 when the cutting had advanced about 25 yards from its begin- 

 ning. The length of the exposed section was then about 

 50 yards and its height, at the centre where it was highest, 

 about 6 ft., and, from what has been said of the contour of 

 ground, it will be understood that the height of the section 

 gradually diminished to vanishing point towards either end. 



The face of the section showed the following features : — 

 The top layer was the undisturbed, rather sandy, surface soil, 

 about 8 in. to 1 ft. thick where it was intact, though most 

 of this had been previously scraped off by the scoop. 

 Below this was a dark, in parts almost black, layer about 

 18 in. thick. Its basis was sand, with which were inter- 

 mixed immense quantities of mussel (Unio) shells, broken 

 into small fragments, with some unbroken valves, ashes, and 

 fragments of limestone blackened by fire. A few hammer- 

 stones were also found in this layer (plate v.). 



This extensive, dark layer covering the whole section 

 evidently formed a great accumulation of kitchen - midden 

 material, indicating long usage as a camping-ground. 



Underlying the above was a layer of reddish sand from 

 2 to 3 ft. thick (plate v.), descending into which were occa- 

 sionally seen extensions of the material of the kitchen - 

 midden layer. At the bottom of such leads bones were 

 usually found, thus showing that such had been buried after 

 the accumulation of some, at least, of the kitchen-midden 



