Page:Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute - Volume 1 (2nd ed.).djvu/20

6 always evidence that they were dragged into these caves by beasts of prey; but New Zealand caves have failed to show any such cause for the presence of Moa bones in them, or that any animal existed beyond larger forms of those now inhabiting the islands. These cave Moa bones, and probably those found in certain alluvial deposits, he considered to belong to a period before the arrival of the aborigines. He then described the several circumstances under which the remains of the Moa are found associated with works of man in such a manner as to leave no doubt that they co-existed with the earliest aborigines, and were largely used as food, along with seals and a variety of other animals. From the examination of the umus, or Maori ovens, there was evidence that cannibalism prevailed at the time the Moas were used for food, but only in the North Island. Certain works of art associated with bones in these early deposits appeared to indicate a period when many of the implements in common use among the Maoris, and supposed to have been brought with them from Hawaiki, were unknown to these early aborigines. The highly prized pounamu, or greenstone, appears also to have been discovered in New Zealand at a later date. The most ancient of these ovens which he had examined were scooped out in the surface of marine deposits, generally blue clays or sands, such as those deposited in estuaries or tidal lagoons, and were never covered by other than fresh water or blown sand deposits.

Those at Waingongoro, in the North Island, and at Awamoa, in Otago, were the oldest he had seen, and contained fragments of stone used as cutting implements, of kinds which showed that even at that early period the natives had extensively explored the interior of these islands. In Otago, especially, it is probable that the interior was their usual dwelling place, and that they only paid occasional and periodical visits to the sea coast. He referred to certain rude figures which he discovered drawn on the walls of a cave in the Waitaki Valley (see illustrations)—among which was rudely depicted the likeness of a Moa by some early aboriginal artist—and proceeded to describe the causes which led to the extermination of those birds. The lecturer said that this must have taken place within a very short period after the appearance of man, adducing the very slight and obscure allusions in the most ancient Maori traditions to their existence as proof of this.

After alluding to the probable habits and mode of life of the Moa, and to the present representatives of the class of birds to which they belong, Mr. Mantell concluded by saying that in his lecture he confined himself to the subject of the Moa, the native word including these birds as a whole, leaving the different species of Dinornis, Palapteryx, and other genera which have been made, to those who believe that they have the necessary data. For his part he did not believe that, with the exception of the very fresh skeleton