412 Geology of 



or severing their extremely tough sinews, chipped flint imple- 

 ments were in request. The Moa-hunters in their turn in order 

 to cut through the hard sinews of the Dinornitliidce were also 

 obliged to use similar primitive implements, forming them either 

 by splitting off a flake from a hard sandstone boulder, or taking 

 when the material was obtainable, either flint, obsidian, or quartz, 

 as offering the best cutting edges for the purpose. I have been 

 informed that a number of polished stone implements, similar to those 

 obtained at Bruce Bay have been found in some other auriferous beds 

 at the "West Coast, all testifying to the long period during which that 

 portion of the country was occupied by man. 



The facts at our disposal on the eastern side of the Island, confirm 

 fully the observations made on the opposite coast. One of the most 

 interesting localities where a great deal of valuable information was 

 obtained by me, is the so-called Moa-bone Point Cave, and the sand- 

 dunes adjacent to it. In the previous chapter I have shown how in 

 post-pliocene times from the material brought down by the enormous 

 glacier torrents, forming huge shingle-fans at the foot of the 

 glaciers, two bars were thrown across the sea near Banks' Peninsula ; 

 one to unite the northern or "Waunakariri- Ashley deposits with the 

 northern slopes, another to connect the southern or Bakaia-Ashburton 

 beds of the same nature with the southern slopes of that isolated 

 volcanic system, behind which a large lake was formed, of which Lake 

 Ellesmere is the last remnant. Of the northern bar we can trace the 

 inner or western shores through Kaiapoi to the neighbourhood of 

 AVoodend. In this large fresh water lagoon (occasionally an estuary 

 basin) the "Waimakariri, Selwyn, and sometimes the Bakaia, discharged 

 their waters, having an outlet near the north-western slopes of Banks' 

 Peninsula, of which we can easily trace the lines of dunes and shingle 

 by which the eastern shore of that lake was formed, being in the begin- 

 ning very narrow, and only gradually, as more and more material 

 was added, assuming a greater breadth. Thus, we are able to follow 

 the different lines of these earliest-formed beds from the mouth of the 

 Waipara, where they are comparatively narrow, along the eastern 

 boundary of Christchurch to the northern foot of the Peninsula, 

 gradually becoming broader, and diverging more and more. 



It is an important fact that the ovens and kitchen middens of the 

 Moa-hunter are confined to the inner lines of the dunes. Thus it is 

 evident that when the former inhabitants of this part of Xew Zealand 



