INTERESTING CAVE DISCOVERIES AT SUMNER.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8526, 22 November 1889, Page 3

INTERESTING CAVE DISCOVERIES AT SUMNER.

The Christchurch Press gives a lengthy account of the exploration of some caves, the entrance to which was recently discovered in the course of quarrying operations near Snmner. It will be remem* bered,, says bur contemporary, that from a cave in that locality the late Sir Julius von Haast obtained a largn number of moa bones, among them being a perfect skeleton. The new discovery is scarcely less important, for the explorations of the newly-foand cave by two scientific men, both.rehable anthonties, and one of them the successor of the late professor, have broaght to light a, number of interestin** bone? and relics, among the former being .. the remains of a species of swan hitherto ' unknown. . Mr Meeson, in giving a general descripof tfee pave, referred to -..courtesy

shown and assistance given by Mr Monck, the proprietor Of the land, on the occasion of the visit made to the 6a V c by the writer and Mr For.es on the 10th September, Mr Monck handed over to them . for further examination and future dei posit io the museum such of the bones as they found to be riiost interesting, and offered to facilitate a more complete exploration of the Save. The cave was not So large as the one at Moa Point, , explored Tiy Sir Julius von Haast, p\xt_ there was one particular ill whicli Its investigation should be more profitable and interesting, and that v a g {],' c faefc that unlike the other U' had for a number of years, ftt present unknown, but perhaps hundreds, been shut up from the light of day ahd effectually secured nm m 'J. raVft ß es °» successive occupants. Ihe discovery waa made accidentally through the removal of material whicli was needed for the Sttmuer road. The opening was laid bare, and almost the hrst person to enter was the son of the proprietor. He saw When he gdtsarue distance in two bright eyes -tlaring at him from the darkness, and immediately afterwards a oat was seen to emerge from the oav_. It hftd probably entered through some crevice laid open the night before, and which the workmen had not observed, or possibly by come other opening frpm the surface of tbe hill into a .remote part of the cave not yet explored. ,C_e geological aspect of the cave seemed to be precisely similar to that of the one at Moa Point. It was a hollow in the dolerite lava, formed by the washing away -f loose material between the harder rocks. The two eaves were about half a mile apart, and were the same in every respect as regarded elevation above and distance from the sea, and singularly enough, each waa exposed to the northeast and protected from the north-west by a similar point of rock, Thafc perhaps accounted for the formation of the eaves, the points being exposed to the full force of the north*east breakers, and perhaps the protection from the north-west, the land side, gave those particular cave dwellers at a subsequent time that privacy and security which among such people, when every man's hand was against that of his neighbor, were matters of no slight importance. The new cave consisted of three chambers, like those at Moa Point, but the apartments were smaller and more equal in aize. The exact measurements and nature of the material of which the debris consists were matters for fnfciire examination. The quantity of fragmentary bones of fishes and of the moa found by digging which ; had taken place previous to their visit , showed that those were the animals prin- i cipally eaten by the natives inhabiting < the cave. Mr Monck had carefully pre* i served at his house the articles that nad i been found by him in the cave. They ] would form the nucleus ot a small museum. ] Among them theindispensables for a fisher- ( man seemed to preponderate. Therewerea ■ couple of well-made paddles and a nicely ] carved scoop, 12in long, for baling the 1 water out of a canoe. They were found i on the surface of the floor in the outer i chamber of the cave. Besides these tliere i were fish-hooks in considerable quantity, ) sinkers for fishing tackle, pieces of flax i cloth, and a large number of stone imple- i ments, adzes, chisels, _c, iv different i conditions as to polish and finish. There . was also a fern root pounder, and a large _ number of fragments of an instrument a like a [comb, with teeth 4sin long. This c was of wood, and the question arose, was ] it a comb or spear for fishing with ? Great f handfuls of human hair were found, and j feathers of various birds, mostly aquatic, t There was a considerable number of frag- { ments of implements of wood, the preci.e j\ nature aud purpose of which it would be . difficult to decide. All were of Maori % manufacture, and nothing whatever of t European origin had been found, clearly f showing that the cave gave, as far f as it went, a faithful photograph J of the original Maori life. Some of v the articles had apparently been in* a tended for ornament, such' as certain v little articles shaped like tho chclea A of a crab or lobster, and others of the t shape nnd size of a penny piece with a hole } through the centre. One article would r almost lead to the belief that the Maoris } manufactured toys for their tamariki or j pickaninnies. It was a fairly well-carved a image of a dog about 4in long. Ita tail t was so curled up as to form a ring, by c which it could be suspended either as an r ornament or charm. It might, however, s have only been the handle of some imple- • r ment or weapon, as there were few articles _ bespeaking a frivolous life. Most of the t things were such as would be demanded c by hard necessity. Of such would be the ( fire-sticks, kauwahi, tbe fernwood beater, , patuaruhe, pieces oif spear, fragments of j the parts of a boat, and so forth. Many s of the fragments were more or less charred, , and tliere was other evidence that in f one part of the first chamber of the cave, cooking was usually done, and a fire often kept burning. The entrance to the outer chamber was easy enough, scarcely involving stooping, but to explore the middle chamber it was almost needful to glide snakewise, and as for the , third chamber, that was practically un- * explored. The approach was narrow and i circumscribed, and was almost filled with debris. Yet it was evidently once much ' frequented, for the lava rock which ' formed the doorway was worn perfectly smooth at all exposed points, as if by human beings or other animals passing \ daily or hourly to and fro, and rubbing against the sides. There, and ia the outer chamber lay the fields for digging and clearing away. The second chamber was less inviting to the explorer, but might prove more productive of bones and other relics than ifc promised, Mr Forbes in his paper confined himself to a preliminary account of a few of the osteological fragments which had been found in the cave. The bones he exhibited might belong to one species only, and they indicated a species of swan new to Australasia, which probably inhabited New Zealand at a period which cannot be considered, geographically, very long past, bnt which was now extinct in the colony. He then proceeded to describe the bones, and to give bis reasons for coining to the conclusion at which he had arrived. He considered the difference between the size ot the remains found and those of the Cheopis atrata, or black swan of Southern Australia, to warrant the inference of a new species, which from the general similarity of the bones to those of the Cheopis, he pnrposed to designate as a new species of the same genus, Cheopis Sumnerensis. The period during which the cave had been blocked prevented any likelihood of the possibility of an introduced black swan of excessive size finding its way into the cave. The bones of the Sumner swan indicated at least two specimens, but they were scarcely likely, picked up so far apart as they were, and in so cursory an examination of the cave, to have belonged to only two specimens, nor wos it at all likely that they had found, in the remains of the specimens captured and eaten by the former residents in Monck's cave, the remains of the only specimens that visited New Zealand. He took it, s therefore, if these birds were immigrants and not residents they had there further indications of the extension of the air fauna of New Zealand (especially of the water-frequenting birds) additional to those of that and other families which had already manifested themselves to him in the examination of the small bones in the collections in the museum which had been gathered in the Glenmark swamp, as well as in the other districts of the colony, and an account of which he hoped to lay before the society on another occasion. In the explorations of the cave which he hoped to undertake at an early date, he was in great hope that additional' portions of the skeleton might be discovered, to enable him to obtain a fuller knowledge of the osteology of the bird, whose addition to the fauna of New Zealand, it it be ' farther confirmed, was a fact of the | greatest interest. Besides the black : swan of West Australia the only other southern hemisphere species were the beautiful black-necked swan ("Cysnus nigricollis") which frequented the Straits of Magellan and bred on the Falkland Islands, and the somewhat aberrant " Cygnus cascaroba," which inhabited Chili and the Argentine Republic, and also visited the Falkland Islands. "Cascaroba " was the smallest species of swan known. The fanna aud flora of New Zealand .possessed not a few genera common to regions so distant as South Africa and South America. The interest and the importance therefore attaching to the presence in New Zealand of a species of Cygoid-e, whose other representatives are so widely dissevered aa South American and Sonth Australian must be evident.