Canterbury and Westland. 413 



•existed principally upon the chase of the Moa, the sand dunes had 

 scarcely reached the foot of the Peninsula, where now the Ferry road 

 crosses the Heathcote, and consequently that the whole breadth of the 

 sand dunes from opposite that locality to the Sumner bar, where they 

 have now their south-eastern termination, have been formed since. 



These series of sand dunes have a breadth of several miles, and 

 consequently a long period of time must have necessarily elapsed duing 

 which they were gradually built up by wind and waves. During quater- 

 nary times, or the Moa-hunter age, the extensive estuary of the Heath- 

 cote- Avon in its present form was not yet in existence. Close to the 

 cavity now called the Moa-bone Point Cave, and on its western side, a 

 hard doleritic lava-stream, now passed through by the Sumner road 

 cutting, reached for some distance into the sea, forming a small head- 

 land, against which, principally on its eastern side, the waves of the Pacific 

 Ocean broke with considerable force. Masses of rock were detached 

 by the surf, being taken along in an easterly direction for about a 

 quarter of a mile, forming a ridge, gradually becoming lower and losing 

 itself amongst the sands. The formation of this ridge principally took 

 place when this portion of the Peninsula was some twelve or fifteen 

 feet lower than at present, the upper line of boulders being about 

 sixteen feet above the present high-water mark. When the land rose 

 again, the sea was cut off by this boulder ridge from the entrance of 

 the cave, a hugh rock lying here nearly across, protecting it at the 

 same time from being filled up by the deposits of drift sands 

 now forming on the flat, close to it. A second and lower line of 

 boulders was formed in front of the former about five feet above the 

 present high-water mark, with a small terraced space behind it. Since 

 then, other deposits, formed in the Avon-Heathcote estuary, have been 

 added as a small belt in front of this last line of boulders, brought into 

 its present position by the action of the open sea. In section ]S~o. 1, 

 Plate No. 9, I have given the necessary details in illustration of these 

 points. 



It will also be seen from this section that most valuable and con- 

 clusive evidence is offered to us, as to the time of the first appearance 

 of the Moa-hunters, and their disappearance from the field, when these 

 gigantic birds became either extinct or were driven to less congenial 

 localities inland, and I therefore shall in the following pages offer a 

 condensed account of my excavations in that cave and its neighbour- 

 hood, together with some conclusions upon the results obtained. 



