272 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand. 



cave properly, in order to see what bones it contains ; but so 

 far as we saw there were no bones of men, or other animals 

 (except Moas), in it ; nor any marks of fire, sculpture, nor 

 figures of any description on the walls of the cave. 



It is evident that this cave has been long known to the 

 New Zealanders ; the very name, " the cave of the Moa," 

 suggests to the mind the question, Was that name given to 

 it because Moas lived in it, or because it contained large 

 quantities of Moas' bones ? My own opinion is, that it de- 

 rived its name from the latter circumstance ; for we were 

 told on our first visit, that the Maoris were in the habit of 

 resorting to this cave to procure the skulls of the Moas, to 

 keep the powder which they used for tattooing. We only 

 got four skulls in this cave, and the scarcity of them was 

 accounted for by their use in former days as powder-holders. 

 There was nothing to lead us to think that these bones had 

 been deposited in the cave by water, for we found a remnant 

 of almost every bone in the body, from the spine and the 

 rings of the trachea down to the last bone of the toes ; the 

 bones belonged both to the largest and also to the smaller 

 species of Moas. The animals evidently came to this cave 

 to die. The cave, in the first instance, was probably a fis- 

 sure in the stone, but from the appearance of the walls, and 

 from there being numerous small cavities communicating 

 with each other, I think its formation may have been assisted 

 by the erosion of water. The bones we got in this cave had 

 the appearance of having been exposed to the air ; some of 

 them were incrusted with limestone, and in some of them 

 the cancellated structure was filled with earth and carbonate 

 of lime ; some of the bones had a more recent-like appear- 

 ance than others, and the perfect edges of some of the deli- 

 cate processes shewed that they had been exposed to little 

 rolling : there were few long bones in the cave ; and on our 

 asking what had become of them, we were told that they 

 had been taken away to be made fish-hooks of, such being 

 the practice in former times, before the introduction of iron. 

 A sketch of this cave accompanies this paper. — (Plate II.) 



Description of the Cave called by the New Zealanders Te 

 Anaoteatua, or the Cave of the Spirit ; in which Moas' bones 

 were found. — This cave is about a mile from the native set- 



