The destruction of the ahu has continued in more modern days. A manager, whose sheep had found the fresh-water springs below high water, thinking they were injuring themselves by drinking from the sea, erected a wall round a large part of the coast to keep them from it. For this wall the ahu came in of course most conveniently; it was run through a great number and their material used for its construction. One wing of Tongariki has been pulled down to form an enclosure for the livestock. In addition to the damage wrought by man, the ocean is ever encroaching: in some cases part of an ahu has already fallen into the sea, and more is preparing to follow; statues may be found lying on their backs in process of descending into the waves (fig. 43). One row of images, on the extreme western edge of the crater of Rano Kao, which were visible, although inaccessible, at the time of the visit of the U.S.A. ship _Mohican_ in 1886, are now lying on the shore a thousand feet below. As the result of these various causes the burial-places of Easter Island are, as has been seen, all in ruins, and many are scarcely recognisable; only their huge stones and prostrate figures show what they must once have been. [Illustration: FIG. 42. AHU MAITAKI-TE-MOA, SEAWARD SIDE. An image ahu partially destroyed and changed to semi-pyramid type. A statue from Raraku lies in foreground; another statue of different stone forms part of the main wall. ] [Illustration: FIG. 43 AHU RUNGA-VAE, ON SOUTH COAST, UNDERMINED BY THE SEA. Statue has fallen backwards. ] PREHISTORIC REMAINS STATUES AND CROWNS [Illustration: FIG. 44. [_Opposite fig. 45_ ] [Illustration: FIG. 45. RANO RARAKU FROM THE SEA. ] [Illustration: FIG. 46. RANO RARAKU FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. Images prostrate in foreground and erect on slope; quarries above. ] [Illustration: FIG. 47. RANO RARAKU, INTERIOR OF CRATER. Diagrammatic sketch showing position of statues on slope and in quarry. ] CHAPTER XIV PREHISTORIC REMAINS (_continued_) STATUES AND CROWNS Rano Raraku, its Quarries and Standing Statues—the South-east Face of the Mountain—Isolated Statues—Roads—Stone Crowns of the Images.