THE OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1190, 19 September 1874, Page 4

THE OTAGO INSTITUTE.

A meeting of the Otago Institute was held on Monday, Mr I. T. Thomson in the ohair. THE EABNSOMX'GH CAVE, Oapt Hutton read the following :— During the course of last summer I twice visited this cave, accompanied, on hoth occasions by Dr A, T, Thomson j and although it has already been very well described by Dr Thomson himself ( Trans. N.Z. Inst, IV., p. Ill), by the Hon. Captain Fraser (ibid. V., p, 102), and by Mr Cockhurn H-od (ihid. VI,, p. 387), the importance of the subject will, I hope, he a sufficient excuse for my bringing Jt under your notice once more. The rocks of the district are mica-schist, dipping lOdeg. S.S.E,, and thecavo in question appears to. have been formed by a gentle slipping of a portion of the rooks towards the valley of the Conroy, the dip not having been altered by the slip. The cave itself is very irregular in outline, but always narrow, and quite different in character from the ordinary caves found in limestone countries. At the furthest point that can be reached the cave communicates with the surface by means of a small opening in the roof, and it is continued still further on by a fissure too narrow to get into. This surface opening at •he end, as well as the lateral opening mentioned by Captain Fr<isor, ensure thorough ventilation to the whole of the cave. The inclination of the cave is rather stsep, averaging one in three from the entrance to the extremity. The floor is filled, to a considerable depth, with fine mica, t ceous sand, derived from the decomposition of the ' mica-schist rocks in the district, and it appears to be gradually filling up. It Is only in the upper part of the cave, near the entrance, and in the talus formed at the entrance by the debris fallen from above, that remains of Dinornls and Cnemiornis have been found, while the extremity of tho cave contained a considerable number of bones of a duck,'* belonging apparently to an extinct genus, together with its nest* and eggs, and also a few botes of parrots, hawks, and other small birds which have not yet been examined. With these were also the remains of rats the Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatum), fragments of the egg-shell of the moa, asd the jaw of a pleurodont lizard. A few of the wing-bones of the duck still retain portions of skin and feathers attached to them, and many of both wing and lep bonen are gnawed half throuah by rats. A portion of the skin of a rat was also found, but without uny hair on it, This rat's skin, as well as the wing of the duck with skin attached, was found under several inches of gand • and, indeed, I am not aware that any were found on the surfaoe of the floor. In fact, the whole of these bones were mixed together in such a way as to lead to the conclusion that the rat and the duck were contemporaneous. _ It may, I think, be taken as certain that the rocks on oith«r side of the cave have not moved since the bones were deposited in it, and I quite agree with Dr Thomson and Mr Hood, that the cave was never inhabited, either by man or by the moa. The ducks, however, must have lived in it, as they built their nests and laid their eggs there, and probably rats and the tuatara lived with them. I also agree with Captain Fraser, that no storm water could have washed the moa remains Into the cave, and think that Mr Hood's suggestion that the birds fell in accidentally, and were unable to extricate themselves, Is the only possible explanation of the facts. The bones of the parrots and smaller birds may, perhaps, have been taken in by the rats. I have already remarked that the cavo is gradually filling up, owing to its steep inclination, and the fact that it is not yet filled up shows that its orifiin cannot date back for a very long period of time. The fact of the rats having gnawed the bones of the ducks shows that they were omniverous, and therefore probably the brown rat (Mus decumanus), but it may be poß^ sible to determine this from the remains that they have left behind them ; which are not, however, very numerous. The brown rat may have been introduced into this Province by the whalers in the early part of this century, but it certainly could not have existed here previous to that. The remains of the rat appeared to me to be mixed up pell-mell with those of the duck, but as the surface of the floor had been disturbed by previous explorers, the appearance may have been deceptive. Whether the remains of Cnemiornis and the Moa are contemporaneous or not with those of the duck, there is notfireot evidence to show, as each are found at opposite ends of the cave ; but as many of the moa bones were found in the talus at the entrance of the cave and others on the surface of the floor, there is no reason for supposing that they are older than^, - thoße of the duok, while the hones of both appear to have lost an equal amount of organic matter. The moa bones mentioned by Mr Hood as occurring above those of the duck must, I think, have been moved down into that part of the cave by visitors. I never saw any in that position myself, although they occur abundantly in the upper part of the cove, and may, therefore, in one sense, be said to lie above those of the duck, which are found only in the inner, or lower, part of the cave. None of the moa remains are marked by rats' teeth, and the only reason that I can offer in my explanation of this is, that the fleshy remains of the moa may have been covered up with sand. In order to ascertain whether there was any special quality in the earth of the cave which would assist in preserving the skin and flesh of animals, Professor Black has kindly had analysed for me 6ome of the micaceous sand from the floor of the cave, and a fragment of incrustation from the side. On the whole I am Inclined to think, notwithstanding the fact that at least three of the birds found in the cave belong to genera now extinct, that the weight of the evidence goes to show that these remains are not very old. and that probably they do not date further back than the commencement of the present century. I may also mention that during the autumn the cave has been carefully cleared out by Mr Martin for the Museum Committee, and tliat the whole of the bones that he obtained have been deposited in the Otago Museum, together with all the more valuable raoa remains from the cave, which have been most liberally presented by Dr. A. T. Thomson. In the discussion which took place, Mr Gillies said many of the old settlers had made statements which left the impression that the moa was a comparatively recent bird. He had, for instance, heard old settlers and whalers say that they had seen dogs gnawing moa bones_ ; this being mentioned as an indication of their freshness. The Chairman remarked that the statements of the old settlers as to what they had observed should be got from them while there was an opportunity of doing so. He mentioned that moa bones were plentiful on the surface of the Province eighteen years ago, but had since disappeared from the surface. Having disappeared in eighteen years, they might expect that eighteen years previous to that time they must have been very fresh at the places where the Maoris apparently used the flesh for food. OTHER PAPERS. Papers were read on the following subjects :—: — "On the Zodiacal Light, as seen in Southern Latitudes," by Mr H. Skey ; " Description of a New Sea Anemone, "by Profes&or Cough trey (read by Captain Hutton) ; " Description of two New Species of Mollusca," by Captain Hutton. f This duck is about the size of Anas superciliosa. It has heavy legs, comparatively small wings, but with a well-developed koel to its sternum, and a remarkably short bill. The egg is ovoid, and measures 2.oin. in length, by 1.75 in. in breadth.

Mr Loinel Levy, proprietor of the Globe Theatre, in London, has presented the Duke of Edinburgh, as a wedding gift, a dessert service of solid gold. Its value is between 30QQ and 4000 guineas.