322 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Nov. 
joints to be of use for stone implements.. Probably ancient stone-quarries 
will be found along the margins of nearly all the larger igneous intrusions in 
districts where Maoris were formerly numerous. 
The D’Urville Island stone is exceedingly resistant to atmospheric 
weathering, and the worked faces of the quarry have a very fresh appear¬ 
ance. There is no trace of blackening by fire on the faces which have been 
worked, but probably this was the main method by which the surface stone 
was removed. None of the quarried faces are more than a few feet in 
height, and it would be easy to build earth round the boulders and make 
fires on top. Relatively few hammer-stones were observed in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, in contradistinction to the Rush Pool quarry, and those found 
consisted of amphibolitized gabbro in water-worn boulders of oval shape, 
up to 1 ft. in their greatest diameter. The ground for a distance of a 
Fig. 1.—Ancient Stone-quarry on D’Urville Island. 
The scale is shown by the geological hammer near the middle of the picture, the handle 
of which is 14 in. in length. The larger boulders show worked faces, and the 
smaller debris in the centre represents the spoil. 
hundred yards below the main quarry, shown in fig. 1, is littered with chips 
and flakes of the stone. Apparently it was a tractable medium, as very 
few rejected pieces could be found on which much work had been done. 
During the short time at my disposal I obtained only three pieces which 
had been roughed out as toki, one of them showing the beginnings of the 
“ pecking process.” The haft end of a small polished narrow toki found 
isolated a little distance down the ridge still shows rough scratches, as if 
it had broken before the polishing was finished. Probably, however, the 
procedure in the great majority of cases was to rough out the stone near the 
quarry, and finish the pecking and grinding at home. The very large 
number of unworked rejected flakes, of sizes and shapes that could not have 
caused their rejection, is almost certainly explained by the fact that the 
Maoris always preferred stone untouched by weather, and quarried off 1 ft. 
or more of the outer surface before using any stone. 
