140 
The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
[May 
bore the same aspect as it did when the early missionaries and traders 
visited these parts—patches of white-pine (Podocarpus dacrydioides ) being 
scattered over a level land, often swampy and always somewhat dreary. 
The totara-trees may not, of course, have been a local growth, but may have 
been swept down from the upper waters of the river. 
Among the timber removed from the bed of the river one large stump 
attracted attention on account of its peculiar form, inasmuch as it was 
quite sound and resembled the stump of a tree that had been felled, though 
Surface of tree-stump felled by stone tools, dredged from the Ohinemuri River. 
bearing no marks of clean-cut surfaces such as are left by metal tools. It 
is owing to the intelligent interest displayed by the stall of the company 
that this stump has been preserved and lodged in the Dominion Museum, 
and that we are enabled to state that it illustrates a phase of Maori 
industry in pre-European days—viz., tree-felling with stone tools. Portions 
of the cut surface have been somewhat affected during immersion, pro¬ 
bably by the action of drifting gravel, but not seriously so. The timber 
is still sound, and the cut surface still retains the peculiar ragged surface 
that was so marked a characteristic of this act of working timber across 
the grain as practised by the Maori. . The tree has been felled very 
low down, this lower scarf being just clear of the roots, so that it must 
