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were intelligences with an advanced technology for whom the covering of vast distances in aircraft of the most varied kinds was no problem. People may doubt my theory, but they must admit that it looks as if it had been child's play for the original sculptors to cut the stone colossi from the hard rock. The Americans are building an airfield; they are digging up the ground for a concrete runway. But I did not see any systematic excavations, nor have I heard of plans for any. The islanders—and why not indeed?—-go about their business without worrying. The tourists who take the trouble to come here marvel at what they see and take souvenir snaps for the family album. Serious archaeological investigations that could clear up the puzzle are not taking place. the material for them was taken from a different quarry from the one used for heads and bodies. I have actually seen the ‘hat’ quarry. In comparison with the quarry in the Raro Raraku crater it is like a gravel pit dug by a child. The quarry must have been far too cramped a workplace for making the big red hats. The red hats themselves, which are brittle and porous, also make me sceptical. I incline to the assumption that the red hats were cast from a mixture of gravel and red earth. Many hats are hollow inside. Did their sculptors want to save weight to make transport easier? Anyone who accepts the method of making the hats by a cast of gravel and earth—and it sounds reasonable—simultaneously has the baffling transport problem solved. The round hats must simply have been rolled from the gravel pit to the sites of the statues, which were always situated lower down. When we discussed this possibility, Mayor Ropo thought that the hats must have been much larger when they were made in the gravel pit, because they would have lost a lot by abrasion when they were rolled down. That may be so, but even today the hats are a respectable size, with a circumference of 25 ft and a height of 7 ft 2 ins. It must still have been quite a feat to put such headgear on the heads towering 33 ft above the ground. Perhaps it was only a spare time activity for them. But perhaps they had a very specific purpose in mind. Did they get bored with the statue game one day? Or did they get an order that compelled them to stop. At all events they suddenly disappeared. So far no deep excavations have been made. Perhaps remains would be found in the lower strata that would make possible a significantly earlier dating. It is known that the Moais, as the islanders call the statues, once wore red hats on their heads and that Were they cut out and carved here at all?