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TRANSACTIONS
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
NEW ZHALAND INSTITUTE,
1869.
WO) br, 0
EDITED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE BOARD OF
GOVERNORS OF THE INSTITUTE,
BY
JAMES HMC TOmR. M.D: ShR: Ss:
Wen VES Oe
IssuED Apriz, 1870. \o o
Wel tah tN Gt ON:
JAMES HUGHES, PRINTER, LAMBTON QUAY.
TRUBNER & Co., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
PREFACE.
Tue first volume of the ‘‘Transactions” contained several Communications
and Essays that had accumulated from previous years, and it was therefore
anticipated in the Preface that the succeeding volumes would not equal it in
size. The present issue, however, has not fallen off in this respect, as it
contains almost an equal number of pages, which are of larger size ; while the
number of original Articles has increased from twenty-three to sixty-three,
contributed by thirty-two different authors.
The arrangement of the work has been improved by dividing it into
Sections, according to the subjects treated of.
Part I. contains the original communications of the various Societies,
during the Session of 1869, which have been selected for publication by the
Councils of the Societies, and approved by the Board of Governors of the
Institute.
These Articles have been classified, for convenience of reference, under
the following Sections: I. Natural History,—II. Botany,—ITI. Chemistry,—
IV. Geology,—V. Miscellaneous.
There are three exceptions to this arrangement, owing to the papers
not having been received in time for insertion in their proper places :—
a Zoological paper by Dr. Haast, ‘On the Ziphid Whale,” and one on a
Botanical subject by Mr. Buchanan, appearing among the Miscellaneous
Articles; and at page 385, near the end of the volume, an Ornithological
paper, by Mr. Buller, has been inserted.
Part II. contains Lectures on Scientific subjects, delivered during the
year, in addition to one, by Mr. Fitzgerald, reserved from last year.
Part III. consists of the Minutes of the Proceedings of Meetings
of the various Incorporated Societies, which have been condensed from
Reports furnished by the Secretaries. Among these Reports will be found
abstracts of papers that have not been printed at length, and the Annual
Addresses of the Presidents of the Societies.
In the Appendix will be found an abstract of the Meteorological
Returns for the year.
The number of members of affiliated Societies, who are entitled to
receive copies of this volume, gratis, according to the lists published in the
lv
Appendix, has increased from 255 in 1868, to 342 in last year. The
Governors also distribute, as presentations or in exchange, about fifty copies
in addition, to various Learned Bodies and Public Libraries.
Although the supply of algebraic type, obtained for the purpose, is still
imperfect, the two papers by Captain Hutton, reserved from last year, have
been printed in this volume ; the deficiencies being supplied by a few letters
and signs not generally used in mathematical formule, for which the reader’s
indulgence is requested.
Amongst the papers reserved are several relating to purely medical
subjects, chiefly communicated to the Medical Section of the Auckland
Institute. As these papers do not contain matter of general interest, the
Board considered it advisable to hold them over for future publication, in
a separate form, for the professional reader.
Whenever it was found possible, without delaying the progress of the
work through the press, proof sheets were submitted to the authors for
revision, but in the majority of cases this was found to be impracticable ;
in which case the final revision, as well as the preparation of the papers
for the press, was performed by the Editor. In one instance, the author,
Mr. Potts, came from Canterbury to revise the proof sheets of his paper on
“ Birds,” for which attention the Editor desires to express his thanks.
Although every care has been taken to avoid typographical errors, it
is necessary to call the attention of authors, and the Secretaries of Societies,
to the desirability of forwarding the manuscripts in a more legible form ;
as, in several instances, the papers had to be re-copied before they were
placed in the hands of the printer, thereby greatly increasing the chance of
misinterpreting the author’s meaning.
Several small errors have been observed since the work has passed
through the press, but only those that seriously affect the author’s meaning
have been placed in an errata slip. ~
The Illustrations to the present volume have all been drawn on pre-
pared paper, by Mr. Buchanan, and transferred to stone at the Government
Lithographic Press,—the Hon. the Colonial Secretary having allowed the
Board to make an arrangement with the Government Printer, for the
purpose of securing for the work the superior appliances and skill available
in the Government Printing Office.
The Editor has again to acknowledge the great assistance which he has
received from Mr. R. L. Holmes, who, at considerable personal inconvenience,
remained in Wellington to superintend the passing of the work through the
press.
The thanks of the Board are also due to Mr. J. Buchanan, who has
devoted a large portion of his leisure time to the illustrations of the
work.
ERRATA.
Page 49, in Foot-note, for ‘‘170,000” read ‘‘ 189,000.”
93
3?
101, line 23, for ‘‘ sepals, 4-valvate” read ‘‘sepals 4, valvate.”
107, ,, 39, change parenthesis from before ‘‘ Hleogeton,” to
; commencement of line.
145, ,, 31, for ‘‘unitica” read ‘‘ mutica.”
164, in Foot-note, for ‘‘ scientific” read ‘‘ specitic.”
165, line 7, for ‘‘ extinct” read ‘‘ recent.”
167, ,, 21, for ‘‘Turritella” read ‘‘ Tornatella.”
222, ,, 48, for ‘‘our” read ‘‘one:”
, 285, ,, 30, for ‘‘instructive” read ‘‘instinctive.”’
289, ,, 29, for ‘‘quarrel” read ‘‘ general.”
371, ,, 53, after ‘‘rocks,” for full-stop insert a comma.
388, ,, 50, for ‘“‘ white-crested” read ‘‘ white-breasted.”
CONTENTS.
PAGES
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS of the PRESIDENT, Str Grorcer F. Bowen, G.C.M.G.,
delivered to the Members of the New Zealand Institute series 24,
1869 om 3—9
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS, delivered to the Members of the Wellington Philo-
sophical Society, June 19, 1869, DY J. C. Crawford, F.G.S.,
Vice-President . 806— 398
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS, delivered to the Members of the Auckland Institute,
June 7, 1869, by T. B. Gillies, President a ... 405410
ANNIVERSARY Appress, delivered to the Members of the Philosophical Institute
of Canterbury, October 8, 1869, by Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S.,
President . 421424
INAUGURAL ADDRESS, delivered to the Members of the Otago Institute, J wy? 20,
1869, by His Honor Mr. Justice Ward . . 425—427
TRANSACTIONS.
Natura Hisrory.
Arr. I. On the New Zealand Sword-fish. By F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S.E. .. 138—16
II. On the Tuatara (Hatteria punctata). By F. J. Knox, L.R.C.8.E. ... 17—20
III. On the Anatomy of Naultinus Greyit. By F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S.E. ... 20—21
TY. On the Balznide, or Whales with baleen. By F. J. ae L.R.C,S. E.
With Notes by Dr. Hector 21—28
V. On Seals of the genus Stenorhyncus, capt on ihe tess Coast of
Otago. By J. ‘8. Webb 28—32
VI. Ona (probably new) variety of the Small- nailed Seal, ESP obhs yncus
Leptonyx, of Cuvier, and De Blainville, and allied to the Phoca
Leopardina of Jameson. By Rev. Charles Fraser, M.A., F. G.S. 33—34
VII. On a species of Ophisurus, found on the Coast of New Zealand. By
James Hector, M.D., F.R.S. With anatomical observations By
F. J. Knox, L.B.C.S.E. 34—40
VIII. On the Birds of New Zealand. By T. H. Potts ae 40—78
IX. Description of two Birds new to the Fauna of New Zealand. Py
Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. a : 78—S80
X. On the introduction of the Pheasant into the province of heard.
By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. 8b 80
XI. On the Katipo, a poisonous spider of New Zealand. Py! rp W. Wright
L.M.P. New Zealand a 81—84
XII. On four Fishes, commonly found in the Riv er pens with a con-
sideration of the question, ‘‘ What is Whitebait ?” By Ll. Powell,
M.R.C.S.St. A. 6 8487
vi
Art. XIII. On the New Zealand Frog ( Leiopelma Hochstetterii ); with an account
XLV.
LXIII.
XIV.
BXeVe
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
LXI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXITI.
XXXIV.
of a remarkable feature) 1 in the history of some cece of Australian
Frogs. By A. Wander Aitken :
Preliminary notice of a Ziphid Whale, probably Berar dies Annee
stranded on December 16, 1868, on the sea beach, near New
Brighton, Canterbury. By J ulius Haast, Ph.D., F.R. ci
Notes on the Crain eleey, of New Zealand. By Walter Buller,
IDR IbIS by JAE R Sh aii
Borany.
On some new species of New Zealand Plants.
of the Geological Survey Department
On the Botany of the Thames Gold Fields. By T. Kirk
An account of the Puka (Meryta Sinclairii). By T. Kirk
On Grasses, and other plants, adapted for pasturage in the Province
of Auckland, especie, with ce to indigenous kinds. By
T. Kirk aa
On the occurrence of Orteerer a ee new to Ais Flora of New
Zealand. By T. Kirk..
On the discovery of Tecsten and othe genera of Rhizocarpe,
new to the Flora of New Zealand. Byp Karke:
By John Buch
On Epacris purpurascens, Br., in New Zealand ; with remarks on -
Epacris paucijiora, A. Rich. By T. Kirk
On the structure and colour of the fibre of Phormium tenaz.
T. Nottidge
On the structure of ite ‘Leaf of Pree tenax.
F, W. Hutton, F.G.8..
On the New Feel ae ( Bil mium tenwe "). By Majo
Heaphy, V.C.
On the Vegetation of a neighbourised of Cheistonnrelt eles
Ricear ton, Dry Bush, ete. By J. F. Armstrong. With Intro-
ductory Remarks on the Distribution of Plants in the Province of
Canterbury. By J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S.
On Irrigation as applied to the growth of New Zealand Flax.
J. C. Crawford, F.G.8.
On the Naturalized Plants of New Zealot EAT: with regard
to those occurring in the Province of Auckland, By T. Kirk .
List of Plants found in the Northern District of the Province of
Auckland. By J. Buchanan, and T. Kirk nt
By
By Captain
Py
CHEMISTRY.
On the production of certain Crystalline Phosphates and Arseniates.
By W. Skey, Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand
On the effects of the application of the Hot Blast to Blow-pipe
purposes ; and the proposed substitution of Heated Air for
Oxygen in the production of certain thermal and peu nS
effects. Preliminary notice. By W. Skey
On the alkalinity of Carbonate of Lime. By W. Skey
On the absorptive properties of ee and its direct hydration by
contact with water. By W. Ske
On the examination of the bark “ws OeEnoee gr prandifli, fo
Alkaloids. By W. Skey ac a
On the extraction of the poisonous A ara of ae Tutu plant
(Coriaria ruscifolia). By W. Skey
On the Fusibility of Platinum in the Blow- time Flaine: By
W. Skey
On the application of Tears and Bromine’ for the detection of
gold when in minute quantities. By W. Skey
PAGES
87—88
. 190-—192
... d80—392
88—89
89—100
. 100—102
. 102—106
106
107
. 107—108
. 108—111
a6
. 116—117
. 118—128
~ 129131
. 1381—146
. 239—247
146—148
148—150
. 150—151
151—152
152
153—155
155
. 156—157
Vil
GEOLOGY.
PAGH
Art. XX XV. Remarks on the Coast Line between Kai Iwi and Waitotara, on
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII.
XXXIX.
XL.
XLI.
XLII.
XLII.
XLIV.
XLVI.
XLVII.
XLVIII.
XLIX.
L.
LI.
. On the Drainage Sores at Reiners Sean By J. SBebos C. E
. On the Comparative Performances of certain River Steamers on the
. On the Mechanical Principles involved in the Flight of ie
the West Coast of the Province of eee zy R. Pharazyn,
F.R.G.S. . 158—160
On Alluvial Gold in ‘the Provities of Wallington, By J. C,
Crawford, F.G.S. sa 160
On the Geology of the North Head ‘of Manukau Hashonn By
Captain Hutton, F.G.S. 161
Description of Lava Caves at the ‘ Three Kings,” near Ancelaral
By James Stewart, C.E., Assoc. Inst. C.K sae . 162—163
On the Wanganui Beds (Upper meen
the Geological Survey of New Zealand
On the Tertiary Series of Oamaru and Moeraki.
By J. Buchanan, of
. 163—166
By ‘Cheetos Traill 166—169
Account of a visit to a Hot Spring called ‘‘ Te Puia,” near Wangape
lake, Central Waikato, Auckland; in lee 1868. By
R. Gillies .. 169—173
On Improvements in the ape comses for Extracting ca Saving Gold.
By T. Heale, C.E. F
Notes on the Geology of the Gutiine Islands of New Feat:
with extracts from Official Reports. Communicated by J ames
Hector, M.D., F.R.S., Director reolgeial Pavey of New
Zealand . ;
Notes on a (eallection of Seerien remains, from the Woaipaca Rives
Canterbury, in the possession of J. H. Cockburn Hood, Esq. By
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S. . 186—189
NGabay aNaoue:
On University Education, as adapted to the circumstances and
prospects of the Colony of New Zealand. By Rey. Charles
Fraser, M.A., F.G.S. ... . 192—196
On the Goncel Principles of an ancation aah for Nev ew
Zealand. By W. S. Hamilton, Mathematical Mesh Nv etmetae
College aan Grammar School a3
On the River Systems of the south portion of the Province of
. 174—176
176—186
. 196—197
Wellington. By J. T. Stewart . 198—203
On the Raising of the s.s. ‘‘ Taranaki.” By J. T. Stewart . 203—211
On Thorough Drainage. By J. C. Crawford, F.G.S. . 211—213
On the Surface Fail of sees as a ee for Under Drainage
By James Baber, C.E 213
. On Sewage Irrigation, inal its results, sath a Sketch of the Main
Drainage Systems of London and Paris.
By 8. Tancred, Assoc.
Inst. C. E.
. 214—218
219
Waikato. By James Stewart, C. E. . 220—221
. On the earlier Earthquake Waves observed on gy icoast of Noe
Zealand. By C. Davie, Chief Surveyor, Province of Canterbury 222—223
. On a series of Tables for facilitating the Calculation of Altitudes
from Barometrical Observations in Mountainous Countries ;
explanations. By E. Dobson, C.E., Assoc. Inst. C.E
with
. 223—226
. The earth of New Zealand, a bad Conductor of Electricity, as
compared with that of other countries. By F. E. Wright . 226—227
Albatros. By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. 227—232
. On the Mechanical Principles involved in the Sailing Flight of the
Albatros. By J. 8S. Webb . 233—236
. On Sinking Funds. By Captain F. W. “Hutton, E.G.S. . 236—239
. On the Sand-worn Stones of Evans’ Bey By W. T. L. Travers,
ELS. 247—248
vill
LECTURES.
PAGES
On the Nature of Art. By James Edward Fitzgerald ae . 251—265
Man’s Place in Creation. By C. W. Richmond, one of the J udges of he
Supreme Court of New Zealand _... . 267—281
The Modern Aspect of Natural Theology. By C. W. Richens one of ne
Judges of the Supreme Court of New Zealand . 281—297
On the Changes effected in the Natural Features of a New Conte by the
Introduction of Civilized Races. By W. T. L. Travers, F.L.8. Part 1 ... 299—313
Ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto Part 2... 313—330
On certain Modern Projects of Inter-communication, and their relation to New
Zealand. By F. Wakefield, F.L.S. eae ae ... d31—341
On the Geology of the Province of Wellington. By J. C. Crawford, F.G.S. ... 343—360
On Mining in New Zealand. Abstract of four Lectures. Py James Hector
M.D., F.R.S., Director Geological Survey of New Zealand . . 3861—384
PAPERS AND VERBAL DESCRIPTIONS.
1. On the preservation of meat by bi-sulphite of lime. By J. C. Crawford, F.G.8. 396
2. On dusting vines and fruit trees, affected with Week with flour of sulphur:
ete. By J. C. Crawford, F.G. S. 396
3. On the poisoning of an Elephant, through eating Tutu ( Content Pie foe ).
By J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S. 299
4, On Silver Ore from Stewart's Tela ey W. Shey, Analyst Geol. Survey of
New Zealand 30 399
5. Comparative review of the way in ish gold occurs in the North and South
Islands of New Zealand. By J. Hector, M.D., F.R.S. a 400
6. On the. Mud Fish (Neochanna phaes are How Hokitika. By J. Hecto,
M.D., F.R.S 402
7. On a ee Meteor observed in Wellington, Noveubee 8, 1869. By
Rev. A. Stock, B.A. 402
8. Preliminary notes on the bones of a fossil Penguin. Be Hector M. Dy, eR: S. 403
9. On the decrease of Honey in the Auckland Province. By R. Todd, OE. .. All
10. On Artificial Stone. By A. G. Purchas, M.D. Hee .. All
11. On the Latent Heat contained in the Se verent in the Atmosphere, By
J. A. Wilson ‘ .. 413
12. On a remarkable PHenorenon pureed at a Hot Spring near Tae Taupo. By
Captain J. G. Corbett ne : Ws .. 414
PROCEEDINGS.
Minutes oF MEETINGS: SEssION oF 1869.
Wellington Philosophical Society... sis dus .. 3895—404
Auckland Institute ae sa ... 404—417
Philosophical Institute of Canterbury ae ot ... 417—425
Otago Institute ies ree 60 ues ... 425—430
APPENDIX.
Meteorological Statistics of New Zealand for 1869 “5 ae .. 431
List of Earthquakes in New Zealand in 1869 sae sae ... 433
List of Members oa sot vee iis .. 435
Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute ... vad sid x
Abstract of Rules and Statutes of the New Zealand Institute... we.) XI—Xil
List of Incorporated Societies BR a Aa xiii
List of Office-bearers, and Extracts from the Laws of Tecroren Societies ... xili—xvi
CHART Pw
ive)
o
ix
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Sword-fish of the Southern Seas, showing anatomy of the head
. Skull of Balena marginata, Gray ...
. Rorqualus major, and R. minor
Ophisurus Nove Zelandice
Nests of New Zealand Birds
Ditto ditto
Ditto ditto
Isoctes Kirkii, Braun. Bao
Phormium tenax—showing structure ae leaf
Sections between Kai Iwi and Waitotara rivers ...
. Section along the coast north of Manukau Harbour, ete.
Sketch Plan of Caves at ‘‘ Three Kings,” near Auckland
Map showing river ayes of the southern parts of the Province of Wel-
lington
Lifting apparatus a for sisi °° Toe
Junction of Moawhanga with Rangitikei rivers ...
Geological Map and Section of Grey Coal-field
Section of Shakespere Cliff, Wanganui
Fish of the River Avon, Canterbury
Sand-worn Stones of Evans’ Bay
Sketch Map of Province of Auckland, North
Map and Section of North-Western District of Otago
Drainage Works at Remuera Swamp
Comparative Map of New Zealand and Aretealieat Cordillera ...
PAGE
14
22
26
34
50
58
66
106
112
158
160
162
198
204:
354
380
164
84
246
132
372
218
366
NEW ZEAL AND DN Sy ew) ake
ESTABLISHED UNDER AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NEW ZEALAND,
ENTITLED ‘‘THE New ZEALAND INnstTITUTE Act, 1867.”
1869.
BoarDd OF GOVERNORS,
EX OFFICIO.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
THE HON. THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON.
NoMINATED GOVERNORS.
1869.
THE HON. COL. T. M. HAULTAIN| W. T. L. TRAVERS, ESQ., F.L.S.
THE HON. SIR DAVID MONRO | J. HECTOR, ESQ., M.D., F.R.S.
JAMES ED. FITZGERALD, ESQ. | ALFRED LUDLAM, ESQ.
ELECTED GOVERNORS.
JAMES COUTTS CRAWFORD, ESQ., F.G.S.
THE HON. DANIEL POLLEN.
JULIUS HAAST, ESQ., Pu.D. F.RB.S.
Honorary SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
A. LUDLAM, ESQ.
MANAGER.
JAMES HECTOR, ESQ.
1870.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
THE HON. THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON.
NoMINATED GOVERNORS.
THE HON. SIR DAVID MONRO | J. HECTOR, ESQ., M.D., F.R.S.
JAMES ED. FITZGERALD, ESQ. | ALFRED LUDLAM, ESQ.
W. T. L. TRAVERS, ESQ., F.L.S. C. KNIGHT, ESQ., M.R.C.8.
ELECTED GOVERNORS.
HIS HONOR MR. JUSTICE WARD.
T. B. GILLIES, ESQ.
JULIUS HAAST, ESQ.,.Pu.D., E.R.S.
ABSTRACTS OF RULES AND STATUTES,
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE,
GAZETTED IN THE ‘‘ NEW ZEALAND GazETTE,” Marcu 9, 1868.
Srotion I.
Incorporation of Societies.
1. No Society shall be incorporated with the Institute under the provisions
of “The New Zealand Institute Act, 1867,” unless such Society shall consist
of not less than twenty-five members, subscribing in the aggregate a sum of
not less than fifty pounds sterling annually, for the promotion of art, science,
or such other branch of knowledge for which it is associated, to be from time
to time certified to the satisfaction of the Board of Governors of the Institute
by the Chairman for the time being of the Society.
2. Any Society incorporated as aforesaid shall cease to be incorporated with
the Institute in case the number of the Members of the said Society shall at
any time become less than twenty-five, or the amount of money annually
subseribed by such Members shall at any time be less than £50.
3. The bye-laws of every Society to be incorporated as aforesaid shall
provide for the expenditure of not less than one-third of its annual revenue in
or towards the formation or support of some local public Museum or Library ;
or otherwise shall provide for the contribution of not less than one-sixth of its
said revenue towards the extension and maintenance of the Museum and
Library of the New Zealand Institute.
4. Any Society incorporated as aforesaid which shall in any one year fail
to expend the proportion of revenue affixed in manner provided by Rule 3
aforesaid, shall from thenceforth cease to be incorporated with the Institute.
5. All papers read before any Society for the time being incorporated with
the Institute, shall be deemed to be communications to the Institute, and may
then be published as proceedings or transactions of the Institute, subject to the
following regulations of the Board of the Institute regarding publications :
Regulations regarding Publications.
(a) The publications of the Institute shall consist of a current abstract of
the proceedings of the Societies for the time being incorporated with the
Institute, to be intituled “ Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute,”
and of transactions comprising papers read before the Incorporated
Societies (subject, however, to selection as hereinafter mentioned), to be
intituled, “‘ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.”
(6) The Institute shall have power to reject any papers read before any of
the Incorporated Societies.
(c) Papers so rejected will be returned to the Society before which they
were read.
(d) A proportional contribution may be required from each Society
towards the cost of publishing the proceedings and transactions of the
Institute.
Xi
(e) Each Incorporated Society will be entitled to receive a proportional
number of copies of the proceedings and transactions of the Institute to
be, from time to time, fixed by the Board of Governors.
(7) Extra copies will be issued to any of the Members of Incorporated
Societies at the cost price of publication.
6. All property accumulated by or with funds derived from Incorporated
Societies and placed in the charge of the Institute shall be vested in the
Institute, and be used and applied at the discretion of the Board of Governors
for public advantage, in like manner with any other of the property of the
Institute.
7. Subject to “The New Zealand Institute Act, 1867,” and to the fore-
going rules, all: Societies incorporated with the Institute shall be entitled to
retain or alter their own form of constitution and the bye-laws for their own
management, and shall conduct their own affairs.
8. Upon application signed by the Chairman and countersigned by the
Secretary of any Society, accompanied by the certificate required under
Rule No. 1, a certificate of incorporation will be granted under the Seal of
the Institute, and will remain in force as long as the foregoing rules of the
Institute are complied with by the Society.
Section IT.
For the Management of the Property of the Institute.
9. All donations by Societies, Public Departments, or private individuals,
to the Museum of the Institute, shall be acknowledged by a printed form of
receipt, and shall be duly entered in the books of the Institute provided
for that purpose, and shall then be dealt with as the Board of Governors
may direct.
10. Deposits of articles for the Museum may be accepted by the Institute,
subject to a fortnight’s notice of removal, to be given either by the owner of
the articles or by the Manager of the Institute, and such deposits shall be duly
entered in a separate catalogue.
11. Books relating to Natural Science may be deposited in the Library of
the Institute, subject to the following conditions :—
(a) Such books are not to be withdrawn by the owner under six months’
notice, if such notice shall be required by the Board of Governors.
(6) Any funds specially expended on binding and preserving such deposited
books, at the request of the depositor, shall be charged against the books,
and must be refunded to the Institute before their withdrawal, always
subject to special arrangements made with the Board of Governors at
the time of deposit.
(c) No books deposited in the Library of the Institute shall be removed
for temporary use except on the written authority or receipt of the
owner, and then only for a period not exceeding seven days at any one
time.
12. All books in the Library of the Institute shall be duly entered in a
catalogue, which shall be accessible to the public.
13. The public shall be admitted to the use of the Museum and Library,
subject to bye-laws to be framed by the Board.
Section IIT.
14. The Laboratory shall, for the time being, be and remain under the
exclusive management of the Manager of the Institute.
LIST OF SOCIETIES
INCORPORATED WITH THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.
NAME OF SOCIETY. DATE OF INCORPORATION.
WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. . . dune 10, 1868.
AUCKLAND INSTITUTE ; : June 10, 1868.
PurosopuicaL INSTITUTE oF CANTERBURY . October 22, 1868.
Oraco INSTITUTE October 18, 1869.
-
OFFICE BEARERS OF THE WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY.
“1869.
_ PRESIDENT.
SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B.
Vick PRESIDENTS.
His Honor I. E. FEATHERSTON, M.D., Superintendent of Wellington,
J. GC. CRAWFORD, Esea., F.G.S.
CouNCIL.
WwW. T. L. TRAVERS, Esq., F.L.S. R. PHARAZYN, Esq., F.R.G.S.
W. B. D. MANTELL, Esq., F.G.S. J. HECTOR., Esq., M.D., F.R.S.
J. KEBBELL, Esq.
Hon. SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
R. PHARAZYN, Esa.
1870.
PRESIDENT.
Ww. B. D. MANTELL, Esoq., F.G.S.
VicE PRESIDENTS.
J. GC. CRAWFORD, Esoa., E.G.S. ee: PHARAZYN, Esa, F.R.G:S.
CouNCIL.
W. T. L. TRAVERS, Esq., F.L.8. J. KEBBELL, Esa.
J. HECTOR, Esq., M.D., F.R.S. W. LYON, Esq., F.G.S.
W. BULLER, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S.
Honorary SECRETARY, pro tem.
R. PHARAZYN, Esa.
x1v
Extracts from the Laws of the Wellington Philosophical Society.
5. Every Member shall contribute annually to the funds of the Society the sum of
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6. The annual contribution shall be paid in advance, on or before the first day of
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annual payment for life. :
: 17. General Meetings for business of Members of the Society shall be held in the
evening of one day or more in each quarter (the time and place of meeting to be fixed by
the Council, and duly announced by the Secretary), to receive the Secretary’s Report,
and to carry out the general objects and business of the Society.
OFFICE BEARERS OF THE AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.
1869.
PRESIDENT.
T. B. GILLIES, Ese.
CouUNCIL.
Rev. J. KINDER. [ T. PEACOCK, Esa.
A. G. PURCHAS, Esa., M.R.C.S.E. &. J. STRATFORD, Esq., M.R.C.S.E.
Caprain F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S. THOMAS KIRK, Esa.
F. WHITAKER, Esa.
SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
T. KIRK, Esa.
1870.
PRESIDENT.
A. G. PURCHAS, Esq., M.R.C.S.E.
CoUNCIL.
His Honor T. B. GILLIES. J. STEWART, Esa., C.E.
Caprain F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S. T. HEALEH, Esg., C.E.
T. PEACOCK, Esq. - 8. J. STRATFORD, Esa., M.R.C.S. E.
SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
T. KIRK, Esq.
Extracts from the Laws of the Auckland Institute.
4. New Members on election to pay one guinea entrance fee, in addition to the
annual subscription of one guinea; the annual subscriptions being payable in advance on
the first day of April for the then current year.
5. Members may at any time become Life Members by one payment of ten pounds
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10. Annual General Meeting of the Society on the third Monday of February in
each year. Ordinary Business Meetings are called by the Council from time to time.
OFFICE BEARERS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE
OF CANTERBURY.
1869,
PRESIDENT.
JULIUS HAAST, Ese., Ph.D., F.R.S.
VicE PRESIDENTS.
J. S. TURNBULL, Esq., M.D. | H. J. TANCRED, Esa.
COUNCIL.
Rey. Canon WILSON, M.A. C. DAVIE, Esa.
ED. JOLLIE, Esa. T. NOTTIDGE, Esa.
W. PACKE, Esa.
HonorARY TREASURER.
J. W. 8S. COWARD, Esga., L.S.A.
Honorary SECRETARY.
Rey. C. FRASER, M.A., F.G.S.
1870.
PRESIDENT.
JULIUS HAAST, Esq., Ph.D., F.R.S.
Vick PRESIDENTS.
Rev. Canon WILSON, M.A. | T. NOTTIDGE, Esa.
CoUNCIL.
C. DAVIE, Esa. H. J. TANCRED, Esa.
R. M. FEREDAY, Esa. W. ROLLESTON, Esa., B.A.
E. JOLLIE, Esa. SELBY TANCRED, Esa., C.E.
Extracts from the Laws of the Philosophical Institute of CanteTbury.
VII. The Ordinary Meetings of the Institute shall be held every first week during
the months from March to November inclusive.
XXV. Members of the Institute shall pay two guineas annually as a subscription to
the funds of the Institute.
XXVIT. Members may compound for all annual subscriptions of the current and
future years by paying thirty guineas.
XV1
OFFICE BEARERS OF THE OTAGO INSTITUTE.
1869-70.
PRESIDENT.
His Honor Mer. Justice WARD.
VicE PRESIDENTS.
ALFRED ECCLES, Esq., F.R.C.S.E. | ARTHUR BEVERLEY, Esa.
CouNcIL.
L. O. BEAL, Esa. ; STUART HAWTHORNE, Esa.
Caprain FRASER. Rey. D. M. STUART.
ROBERT GILLIES, Esa. JAMES SMITH, Esa.
J. T. THOMSON, Esa.
Honorary TREASURER.
W. D. MURISON, Esa.
Honorary SECRETARIES.
J. S. WEBB, Esa. | T. M. HOCKEN, Esq, M.R.C.S.E. -
Extracts from the Laws of the Otago Institute.
3. From and after the Ist September, 1869, any person desiring to join the Society
may be elected by ballot, on being proposed in writing at any meeting of the Society by
two members, on payment of the annual subscription for the year then current.
4. Members may at any time become life members by one payment of ten pounds
ten shillings, in lieu of future annual subscriptions.
9, An annual general meeting of the Members of the Society shall be held on the
second Monday of July in each year, at which meeting not less than ten members must
be present, otherwise the meeting shall be adjourned by the members present from time
to time, until the requisite number of members are present.
16. The Council shall have power to appoint stated times for meetings of the Society
and Council, and may from time to time make and alter regulations for the conduct of
business at such meetings, for the management of any library or museum belonging to
the Society, and generally for the conduct and management of the affairs of the Society
and Council.
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
OF
THE PRESIDENT,
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE F. BOWEN, G.C.M.G,.
DELIVERED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE, AT THE
ANNIVERSARY MEETING, HELD ON THE 24TH JULY, 1869.
GENTLEMEN,—
It is the well-known duty of the President of every Society, such as
is the New Zealand Institute, to open the annual session with a review of the
proceedings of the past year, and of the general condition and progress of the
Association. This is a deliberate pause, as when a guide, showing a mountainous
and interesting country, calls upon a party of travellers to look back on the
scenes which they have just passed, and the difficulties which they have
already surmounted, and to contemplate the prospect around and before them.
In my Inaugural Address at the opening ceremony of last year, I
explained the character and objects of this Institute; and showed that the
main object of the Legislature in founding it, was to provide guidance and
aid for the people of New Zealand in the practical work of colonization. The
recently published volume of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Institute,
and of its affiliated societies, during the first year of its existence, proves that
this eminently practical object has been carefully kept in sight ; while there is
abundant promise of future usefulness. It should here be mentioned that the
value of this volume has been considerably increased by the incorporation of a
series of Essays, some of which were placed at the disposal of the Governors,
in a printed form, having been issued at Dunedin shortly after the Exhibition
of 1865, through the indefatigable exertions of the Honorary Secretary, Dr.
Kcecles. The progress already achieved appears to have been appreciated
c
4,
throughout the Colony ; for a large accession has lately taken place to the
number of members of the affiliated socicties ; while new socicties have been
organized, and propose to seck incorporation,
As the first volume of our Transactions has been for some time in the
hands of the members of the Institute and of the public, it is only necessary
for me to refer bricfly to some of its more prominent contents. Tt cannot fail
to be generally acknowledged that the records of the proceedings of the several
departments are rernarkable for the great variety of topics which they embrace.
And here ( should mention that the brilliant essay by Mr. Fitzgerald, to
whose eloquence we all listened with delight, has been, by his own desire,
reserved for the volume to be published next year,
Axmong the less formal communications embodied in the printed Proceed-
ings, we observe practical suggestions concerning building materials, agricul-
tural processes, and metallurgy ; on the preparation and manufacture of the
indigenous flax (Phormium tena), which is rapidly becoming an important
industry in this Colony ; notices of the results of the chemical analyses of a
great variety of vegetable and mineral productions ; and records of the striking
natural phenomena that occurred during the past year.
The communications published at length afford elaborate information ;
and f will now glance at a few of the chief points of interest which they
present.
The first paper, by Mr. Crawford, calls attention to some obscure pheno-
mona respecting erratic boulders in the North Island, which appeared to him
to have required the intervention of ice to effect their distribution, Considering
the vast extent of surface over which the operations of that mighty ice tool,
the glacier, have recently been recognized in the Northern Hemisphere, our
goologiats should search closely for similar evidence in all the mountain centres
of Now Zealand, Dr. IMaast, and other explorers, have shown that in the
South Island there are still glaciers rivalling in magnitude those of the Alps
of Murope; that in former ages they were even of greater extent, and that
there are no sufficiently marked differences in the climate of this country to
warrant the assumption that glaciers could not have existed at some remote
period, in valleys radiating from the mountains, which are even now visible
from Wellington, as ranges covered with snow during several months of the
yoar. It appears, indeed, that so lately as in 1863, an avalanche of ice forced
its way for a distance of seventy miles, from Ruapehu, in the centre of this
island, to the sea, by the Wangachu river,
Mr, Mantell’s address on the Moa, is particularly valuable, as embodying
the results alike of his scientific knowledge and of his extensive researches,
Many of you, gentlemen, have had the pleasure of inspecting the group
of skeletons of the Moa in the Christchurch Museum, 'The effect is very
striking and suggestive; and when we consider that these are stated by
5
Dr. Haast in his paper on the Measurements of the Moa, to be but a few,
selected from the remains of nearly two hundred skeletons obtained within a
small area in the Province of Canterbury, we are enabled faintly to imagine
the strange appearance of this country when these gigantic birds roamed over
it in large flocks.
The admirable paper by Mr. Travers, dealing with the principles involved
in the discrimination of the various species of plants, proves that our local
botanists are co-operating with those of Europe in settling many of the higher
questions of their science. In another paper, Mr. Travers has applied his
botanical knowledge to a very practical purpose, by an able dissertation on the
manufacture of the New Zealand flax. Sir David Monro has also contributed
to the botanical literature of this country, an Essay as charming in style as it
is valuable in substance.
I will not recall the disagreeable sensations which the earthquake waves
caused in last August, by commenting on the descriptions given of them by
Dr. Hector and Dr. Haast, beyond congratulating the members of the Institute
in having the facts so well recorded in our Transactions, concerning phenomena
which have excited a world-wide interest. In this, as in many other respects,
our acknowledgments are due to the accomplished Director of the Museum,
Dr. Hector, who is also the editor of our Transactions,
Time and space will permit me only to glance at several other interesting
papers, such as those of Mr. Colenso, respecting the History, Language, and
Customs of the Maoris; of Mr, Buller, and Captain Hutton, on Ornithology,
the former of which has called forth a eritique from Professor Finsch of
Bremen, and a rejoinder by the author, all of which appear in the volume ; of
the Bishop of Wellington, on the Celtic origin of the English vowel sounds ;
of Mr. Dobson, on the Present State of Applied Science in the Province
of Canterbury ; of Mr. Henry Travers, respecting the Chatham Islands ; of
Mr. Kirk, on the Flora of several parts of the Province of Auckland ; of
Captain Vine Hall, on the Island of Rapa; of Mr. Pharazyn, on the Taranaki
Tron Sand. I would also direct attention to the Inaugural Address delivered
to the Auckland Society, by its first President, Mr. Whitaker, as I have stated
on a previous occasion, “Co-operation is the secret of success in all scientific
pursuits ; and the New Zealand Institute, while leaving its affiliated societies
unfettered in the performance of their separate functions, will publish their
chief transactions on a uniform plan, thereby concentrating the information
collected by local observers throughout the country, and providing for the
preservation, in a permanent and accessible form, of the result of their labours.”
Passing from the records in the annual volume, it now seems desirable
to notice briefly the progress which has been achieved during the past year,
under the auspices of the Institute, in various points of practical and scientific
enquiry.
6
1. The establishment of a uniform system of time, to be observed throughout
the Colony, in pursuance of a decision of the Legislature to that effect, has ren-
dered necessary the erection of a small Observatory, which is now nearly complete.
2. The attention of the Government having been solicited by Commodore
Lambert, to the expediency of a more accurate determination of the longitude
of this Colony, a Board has been appointed to take advantage, for this purpose,
of the above-mentioned Observatory. As this establishment will be in
communication, by electric telegraph, with all other stations, it may be
rendered available for determining the differences of longitude between the
several parts of these Islands.
3. Much practical interest attaches to the accurate investigation of the
prevailing currents of the ocean, and the ends of science would be promoted
by taking systematic observations with the thermometer and dredge round the
New Zealand coasts. Some progress has already been made in this direction,
and we may confidently rely on the co-operation of the Admiralty, in this, and
in all other enquiries of a similar nature.
4, The reports of the Meteorological Department show, that the machinery
for carrying out this important branch of research is now thoroughly organized,
and that full dependence may be placed on the results, as affording an exact
comparison of the climate in the several districts of these Islands. Meteoro-
logical data, respecting the southern latitudes, will be of great assistance to the
expeditions organized to visit these seas in 1874-1882, with the special object
of making astronomical observations of the same kind as those, which first,
one hundred years ago, led Captain Cook to this quarter of the globe. It
should never be forgotten that it was an expedition planned for the purpose of
one scientific determination, which ultimately brought about the settlement of
the entire group of the Australian Colonies.
5, From the reports of the Geological Department it will be seen that
fossils have been obtained which will facilitate the comparison of our coal
strata with those of the neighbouring Australian Continent ; also, that New
Zealand is not without representatives of the secondary formations, containing
the remains of gigantic reptiles, similar to those occurring in England, and so
familiar to us through the writings of Buckland and Mantell. :
To the same department belong Captain Hutton’s Reports on the Thames
Gold Fields, showing, in a clear and suggestive manner, the wonderful
development of that district.
IT have already detained you too long, and can now only allude to many
more interesting subjects ; among others, to the efforts of the several Acclima-
tization Societies already established in New Zealand. We may confidently
hope that, sooner or later, they will be as successful in introducing the salmon
and other fish, as they have already proved in introducing so many of the
animals and birds of the Old World.
In concluding this imperfect sketch, it would be unpardonable to omit a
further and fuller reference to the fact, that this is the hundredth year since
the arrival, in New Zealand, of Captain Cook. He landed for the first time in
this country, in October, 1769, at Turanganui, which he afterwards named
Poverty Bay,—apparently because the ferocity of the Natives of that district
(of which we have lately had fresh and terrible experience), prevented him from
obtaining water and other supplies for his crew. When, some months ago, I
visited Turanganui, and stood on the spot where tradition reports that the
illustrious navigator first set his foot on these shores, the thought struck me
that it would have cheered his gallant spirit, amidst his many dangers and
distresses, if his imagination (a faculty seldom wholly wanting in great men)
could have portrayed the future destiny of the Terra Australis—of the vast
Continent and Islands of the Southern Ocean—previously invested, like the
fabled Atlantis of old, by the reports of the early Dutch and Spanish navigators
—with a dim and mysterious interest, but which Cook first made practically
known to his own countrymen, and, through them to the civilized world. It
would, however, have required prophetic inspiration to foretell, that in the
“Great Southern Land,” in which Cook first recommended the foundation of
British settlements, there would arise, within less than a century after that
recommendation, a British Empire, embracing a territory nearly as large as
Europe, and already far surpassing in wealth, in trade, in all the arts which
advance and adorn civilization, those American colonies, which, a hundred
years ago, were on the eve of renouncing their allegiance to the mother
country. It need scarcely be mentioned, among the many obvious proofs and
illustrations of these statements, that, in 1769, the trade of all the Colonies
which now form the American Republic and the Dominion of Canada, did not
much exceed in value three millions sterling yearly ; whereas the trade of New
Zealand alone now reaches nearly ten millions sterling, while the annual trade
of all the Australasian Colonies reckoned together amounts to sixty millions
sterling. Again, the richest and most populous city in North America, a
century back, was Boston, which, though then more than one hundred and
fifty years old, contained only 20,000 inhabitants. Now, in 1869, Melbourne,
the largest and wealthiest city in the southern hemisphere, though barely
thirty-five years old, contains not far from 150,000 inhabitants.
Many here present must be familiar with the celebrated passage in one
of the most eloquent speeches of Edmund Burke, where the aged statesman,
Lord Bathurst, is supposed to have foreseen, in his youth, with the aid of a
heavenly guide, the rise of American colonization from insignificance to
greatness during his own lifetime—that is, during the first seventy years of
the eighteenth century. “Suppose,” said the brilliant orator, “that the angel
of the auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of
the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate, men of his age, had
8
opened to him in vision, that when in the fourth generation, the third Prince
of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that nation,
which (by the happy issue of moderate and healing councils) was to be made
Great Britain, he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back
the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a higher
rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new one. If amidst
these bright and happy scenes of domestic honor and prosperity, that angel
should have drawn up the curtain and unfolded the rising glories of his
country ; and whilst he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial
grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, scarce
visible in the mass of the national interest, a small seminal principle, rather
than a formed body, and should tell him: ‘Young man, there is America,
which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of
savage men and uncouth manners, yet shall, before you taste of death, show
itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the
world. Whatever England has been growing to, by a progressive increase of
improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by succession of civilizing
conquests and civilizing settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years,
you will see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life?’
If this state of his country had been feretold to him, would it not require all
the sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make
him believe it? Fortunate man he has lived to see it!” . . . I need not
remind you that the progress of America during the first three quarters of the
eighteenth century, which appeared so wonderful to the statesmen of that age,
was insignificant when compared with the progress of Australia and New
Zealand within the memory of many of those whom I now see around me.
The centenary of the first arrival of Captain Cook in these seas has been
commemorated at Sydney by the erection of a statue in his honor. The
foundation stone of the pedestal was recently laid by the Duke of Edinburgh,
the great grandson of that sovereign whom Cook had proclaimed the lord of
this mighty segment of the globe. On that occasion His Royal Highness
spoke in words that well deserved to be recorded, as follows :—‘ One of the
happiest privileges which the members of the Royal Family enjoy is, that of
being able to do honor to the memory of great men and of noble deeds, by
their presence at such a ceremony as that which we are met to perform to-day.
But when the man whose fame we desire to commemorate, has, by a life
of great discoveries and of scientific research, increased so materially the
territorial extent of the empire, and has conferred so great benefits upon the
whole civilized world by his valuable additions to geographical knowledge, and
when, by these noble actions he has shed a lustre upon the profession to which
he belonged, and to which I am so proud to belong—I mean the maritime
service of the greatest maritime nation of the world—then indeed I feel that a
9
very high honor is conferred upon me in having my name associated with this
memorial of his greatness. There is no one among the names of England’s
heroes more deserving of this recognition on your part, and none whose career
could be held up as a brighter example to every Englishman, than that of
Captain Cook. Humble as his origin was, he possessed that true nobility of
character, which has for its object, not the aggrandizement of self, but the
welfare of the nation. He is among the chief of those who, in making
Englishmen proud of their name and of their mother country, have helped to
cement in one powerful brotherhood the subjects of the British Empire in
every part of the world. In conclusion, I trust that there are many among
the sons of Australia who will emulate his example, and gild with noble deeds
the name of this great country, and the fame of England.”
Had the present circumstances of this country permitted,it, the Duke
of Edinburgh would have been requested, on behalf of the New Zealand
Institute, to join with us in some similar celebration. There can be no doubt,
but that the time wiil come when there will arise in this country, as at
Sydney, a monument to the memory of Captain Cook. Meanwhile, let us
at least place on record, among the Transactions of the Institute, that we are
not forgetful that this is the hundredth anniversary of his first arrival in New
Zealand ; and that we yield to no community of our countrymen, elsewhere,
in admiration for his character, and for the magnificence of his achievements.
It has been truly remarked that Cook, as a seaman and navigator, occupies
the first rank in nautical history and science; and that later mariners and
observers, though they have added to his discoveries, have rarely found it
possible to dispute them. In his charts and journals nothing is uncertain,
nothing is irrelevant, the modern investigator starts from them as from
authorities of undoubted accuracy. A few years ago, I had myself a favorable
opportunity, in concert with the late lamented Commodore Burnett, during our
voyage of 1,200 miles along the eastern coast of Queensland, from Moreton
Bay to Cape York, of verifying the vivid truth of Cook’s observations.
Every bay and headland was, at first sight, easily recognized from his graphic
descriptions, often from the picturesque and somewhat humorous names, for
example—Cape Upstart, Cape Bowling Green, the Glasshouse Mountains, and
the like, which he had assigned to them. In a word, the fresh explorations of
every_year display more fully the value of Cook’s discoveries, and the almost
prophetic foresight with which he was guided and inspired. It has been said,
without any exaggeration, that he stands forth as the founder of a new era in
nautical discovery, and as the revealer of a new world.
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.
1869.
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.
1869.
I.—NATURAL HISTORY.
Art, I.—On the New ZEALAND Sworp-Fiso. By F. J. Knox, L.R.G.8.E.
’ (With Illustrations. )
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, June 19, 1869.]
At a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, held September 15,
1868, I communicated a brief notice of the cranium and other portions of a
Sword-Fish (Xiphias, Linn.), presented by me to the Museum, which was read,
with the supplementary note by Dr, Hector. (See “Trans. N. Z. Institute,
Vol. 1, page 44.) I now communicate the further details which were then
promised.
The specimen had been stranded on the west coast of the North Island,
near Waikanae, in the month of June, 1867. Like most other strangers, this
fish attracted immediate attention, and was so cut up that I was only able to
procure the preparations now in the Museum, which are insufficient to enable
me to determine, with anything like precision, the particular species. From
Dr. Giinther’s catalogue of the Acanthopterygian fishes in the collection of the
British Museum, it appears that there are eight different specimens, divided
into two genera :—
1. Xiphias, ventral fins, none.
2. Histiophorus, ventral fins, present.
Now, the portion I procured being only the cranium and anterior part of
the dorsal fin, it is impossible to determine even the genus, with anything like
scientific precision. In the meantime, I may remark that in Xiphias gladius,
according to Dr. Giinther, there are ‘‘no teeth, neither in the jaws nor on the
palate,” whilst in the Histiophorus, there are small teeth in the jaws and on the
_ palatine bones ; and it is important to remark that Cuvier (McMurtrie’s
D2
14
Translation, 1834) does not mention the presence of teeth. This, if correctly
stated, would place the specimen in the genus //istiophorus, as the entire
interior of what may be considered the buccal cavity, is covered with almost
microscopic teeth, so placed, that the food (supposed by me to consist chiefly of
the cuttle fish), when seized or impaled, cannot escape. J would add, that Dr.
Giinther, in his description of the specific characters of the Histiophorus, as
distinguishing it from Xiphias, says “small teeth in the gaws and on the palate
bones ; none on the vomer.” Now the teeth, in the specimen before the Society,
are developed on the mucous wembrane covering the hard palate and lower
jaw, and are, in no sense, in the jaws ; so that if the specimen described by
Dr. Giinther had been macerated, and the osseous surfaces denuded of the
mucous membrane and periosteum, there would not have been- the vestige
either of teeth or socket. I find from a specimen of the eel and hapuka, now
on the table, that the system of dentition strictly resembles that of the Sword-
Fish (Histiophorus). The teeth are so placed as to be pointed from before
backwards, allowing the food, or the finger, to pass towards the throat without
obstruction, but rendering a retreat impossible, at least in the living animal,
when feeding, and probably very hungry. This is probably intended to
compensate for the want of cutting (incisor), holding (canine), grinding (molar)
teeth. The muscles acting on the jaws (temporal and masseter) are of
enormous size, red in colour, and resembling the muscles in the carnivorous
mamumalia.
When I left Scotland, in 1840, there was, in my brother’s private museum,
undoubtedly the finest and most extensive collection of the skeletons of fishes in
Europe, amongst others, the skeleton of a Sword-Fish. The specimen was
taken in the Firth of Forth, and after exhibition, was purchased by my
brother. A hurried examination of the anatomy was made, and I think
plaster casts of the viscera taken—which, I may remark, is an admirable mode
of preserving. The preparation of the skeleton was handed over to me. It
proved rather a heavy affair, owing to the complete saturation of every texture
with a tine fluid oil. It was too large for any of the glazed cases in the
museum, and was accordingly placed on the top of the cases. I may state that
this skeleton always appeared to me to present rather an ideal, than a natural,
form, as it seemed out of proportion, and deficient in framework.
The fragments I have now presented to the Colonial Museum, are part,
therefore, of the second specimen that has come under my personal notice.
In Dr. Giinther’s Catalogue, Vol. i, 1860, the Xiphiide form the
eighteenth family of the Acanthopterygian, or soft-finned fishes, divided into
two genera, containing eight species. The British Museum appears to possess
only the following specimens :—
I! XIPHIAS.
Gladius—
(a.) Seven feet long. Stuffed. Margate.
(6.) Half-grown. Stuffed.
(c.) Upper jaw of a large specimen.
(d.) Six inches long. Not a good specimen. Caught in Long.
22° W., Lat. 2° N. Presented by J. B. Jukes, Esq.
I]. HistT1opHorvs.
Herchellii—
(a.) Eleven feet long. Stuffed. Table Bay. Purchased of
Mr. Smuts. Type of the species.
(6.) Head (thirty-seven inches long).
(c.) Anterior portion of a skull of a specimen of the same size.
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Gladius—
(z.) Eight feet long. Stuffed. Indian Ocean. Type of species.
(b.) Seven feet long. Stuffed. Cape of Good Hope.
(ce.) Dorsal fin. New South Wales (?). Presented by Dr. G.
Bennett.
(d.) Snout. Dried.
In quoting the numerous authorities describing the species, Dr. Giinther,
amongst others, includes :—Penn., British Zool., ui, p. 216, pl. 50; Knox,
Edin. Journal ; Nat. and Geo. Society, ii, p. 427.
Thus the material for scientific observation in the British Museum is
- extremely limited, with regard to the Xiphiide. I may here remark, that in
my brother's (the late Professor Robert Knox) description, the comparative
anatomy would, to a certainty, be given ; and if so, I would have thought Dr.
Giinther would have availed himself of it.
INTEGUMENTARY COVERINGS AND DERMAL PRODUCTIONS.
The portion of the integuments, placed in the Museum, occupied the
anterior part of the dorsal line, corresponding to the neck, reaching from the
head, to and past the dorsal fin. I observed no appearance of scales; the
whole resembling coarse leather, and so formed as to require a saw to cut it.
The tissue thus forms a regular coat of mail made of spiculi of bone so inter-
woven with the integumentary tissues, as to be completely concealed. I should
consequently, imagine this fish to be perfectly secure from any enemy, in or out
of the water.
The dorsal fin is, undoubtedly, a striking feature in the Xiphiide, and the
caudal fin, in the specimen to which I have alluded in my brother’s collection,
was also prominent. Ata first view, it was as if formed of two dorsals, and
if included in the length of the fish (which is generally done by naturalists),
would have added a foot or more to the total length.
By the very limited observation I could make on the specimen now under
review, owing to the non-scientific dissection it had been subjected to before
I got it, I found the dorsal fin capable of being moved, to a very considerable
extent, in all directions. The interspinal processes (b, Plate 1) are firmly
united to each other, presenting a free articular surface to the rays of the fin ;
and when acted upon by the powerful muscles of the back, will act as a sail,
and an oar, the brain being the steersman, the tail, no doubt, answering the
cerebral instinct, voluntary or not. The longitudinal fissure seen in the
specimen is not the result of dissection, but m&tural ; and is lined by a delicate
soft membrane, a continuation of the same covering immediately investing the
rays of the fin. The spinous processes of the vertebre, when examined, will
be found bifurcated (c, Plate 1), forming a groove or slide for this unique
action of the dorsal fin in the Xiphiide. In many fishes, however, the spinous
rays can be depressed, and again erected, at the will of the fish.
The following measurements and weights of the specimen now deposited
in the Colonial Museum, were observed before and after their preparation :—
Ibs. 02.
Weight previous to dissection :—Head, in- \
cluding anterior half of the dorsal fin, but 2053
without any portion of the bronchial apparatus j
Lower jaw. . : - : : es janetc)
Total weight 32 0
16
Measurements.
—
bo OD kt eH OD CO DO bo DOF
Snout to gape
» to nostrils
» to centre of eye
», to opercula (free edge of).
» to dorsal fin
Tip of lower jaw to gape :
Projection of upper jaw (the sword)
Circumference at dorsal fin
ss OveGieyesi
Depth from base of dorsal fin to free edge of
opercula . : : : : \
Height of domal fa
> PF FRE ROWWoOS
esol MS peek
(Specimen deposited in the Museum, January 10, 1867.)
Weights.
Head, including lower jaw . : : 8 10.40
Dorsal fin (anterior half of), including in- 012 0
terspinal processes :
Eyes (two) sclerotic tunic ossified . 0.7.20
Lens (two) dry. : : : 5 0 0 80
Total weight of the osseous portions 9 3°80
Diameter of eye, 3 inches 6 lines.
Abstract of Weights.
Ibs. oz :
Total weight of recent specimen. 17320790
4 of osseous portions . : 9 3 80
bs of soft parts : : . 22 12 40
CERVICAL VERTEBR&.
in. lines
Ist vertebra 240
Length of body . ols oe 2 6
SECM ie. 2 6
Breadth of articular surface 16 :
RIBS.
1st rib 7 0
Length . : 2nd ,, 5 30
ard. ,, 2 6
INTEGUMENTS.
Portion belonging to the neck, and consequently connected with the
dorsal fin.
’
Art. II.—On the Tuatara (fHatteria punctata, Gray); or Great Fringed
Lizard of New Zealand. By F. J. Kwox, L.R.C.S.E.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, July 17, 1869. ]
By the kindness of Dr. Hector, I have been enabled to’ peruse a recent
minute description of the Zuatara, or Fringed Lizard. I take the more
interest in this truly scientific memoir of Dr. Albert Giinther, as it brings to
my recollection a circumstance which occurred, now twenty-six yearsago. In
1842, a family of the name of Houghton resided on Somes’ Island, and,
amongst the usual accompaniments of the human family, had a few rabbits.
The family shortly after left the island, and took up their residence in
Wellington. On leaving, a daughter of Mr. Houghton missed a favourite
rabbit, and commencing a thorough search, put her hand into one of the
numerous sand holes, and grasped what she joyfully supposed to be her lost
rabbit, but found it was a live specimen of the Zuatara. The specimen lived
for some time, but recelving—owing to the very primitive condition of the
colony—hy no means the attention it deserved, it died; and I attributed its
death to too sudden an exposure to the noonday sun, I however was énabled
to anatomise it. The skeleton, more especially, was preserved with the
greatest care, and so much of its anatomy as would preserve was sent to the
British Museum.
Until lately, I have never seen another specimen, but many have,
however, been procured since the establishment of this Museum. I am now
able to bring under the notice of the Society, the result of a careful anatomical
examination of two specimens. These observations have been drawn up from
my notes on the original specimen sent to the British Museum, in 1842, and
from the dissection of the two specimens placed at my disposal by Dr. Hector,
the skeletons and soft parts of which I have placed in the Museum. Both
Specimens were females; the ova varying in size from almost microscopic,
to two lines in diameter, and thus indicating a maturity in the individual
specimens.
I shall now state a few of the points in which I differ from Dr. Giinther.
1st. In the description of the head, it appears to me that he has lost sight
of the basis on which all researches in ‘“‘ comparative anatomy ” is founded, ¢@.e.,
that of man, as compared with other animals, and adopts a nomenclature of
such complexity, as would confine the future investigations into the history of
the animal creation, to the mere compiler, the closet naturalist. I take as a
sample the os quadratum, p. 4, which he describes as a distinct elementary
bone, without stating that it is merely a portion of the human temporal
bone. The scientific anatomist, in his researches into the structure of the
animal kingdom, knows that the temporal bone undergoes alinost innumerable
changes during its development from the embryo, and is composed, even at an
advanced period of life, in man, of various separate centres of ossification,
deposited in a cartilaginous basis; in fishes, uniting with other bones of the
cranium ; in birds, remaining separate ; in reptiles, uniting with other bones,
but still readily recognizable as being that centre of ossification in the temporal
bone in man, articulating with the lower jaw.
The vomer (p. 5) is another example in which Dr. Giinther evidently
proposes to give a new nomenclature to every animal.
As a comparative anatomist, I should look for the vomer in all animals as
forming the mesial division between the right and left nostrils ; for instance,
in the Cetacea (adult) I find an extensive union, and even a difficulty in
naming the bones after the universally received type; but it matters not,
provided the bone forms the division of the nostrils, and thus performs the
18
>
function of the human vomer. I have before me, at this moment, the skeleton
of the Gallaxias, in which the bones of the cranium defy any precise
nomenclature.
The Tuatara, and other nearly allied species, show a structure in the
osteogenesis, or growth of the vertebra, which does not appear in any other
class of the vertebrata. TI allude to the supposed power of reproduction of the
caudal vertebree when mutilated. In one of the specimens before the Society,
it will be observed that the 34th vertebra is distinctly divided in the middle
into an anterior and posterior portion ; and I have observed, in the preparation
of the skeleton, that it is at this part that the tail gives way, and not, as might
be supposed at a joint.
Scientific anatomists have, for fifty years and upwards, satisfied them-
selves that the cranium is simply a continuation of the vertebral column ; and
three to seven have been selected as the probable number of vertebra thus
specialized, more or less, in the various formations. If, however, the very
earliest type of a vertebra is to be seen in the caudal vertebree of the lizard,
such difficulties as Dr. Giinther has found in the osteology of the Tuatara, will
be more easily understood.
In a subsequent paper on the Green Lizard, which I hope to have the
honour of reading to the Society, I shall allude more fully to this very interesting
enquiry. I shall be able to demonstrate, that should the tail suffer mutilation,
the injured part will, no doubt, heal over, but will not reproduce distinct
vertebre. I draw this conclusion from the careful examination of the specimen
of the Green Lizard, which I deposited in the Museum, in 1862.
The caudal vertebre, in most animals, become rudimentary, reduced, in
short, to the centrum or body of the bone; and it was at one time the
universal practice to dock the tail and ears in dogs, and even in horses, these
mutilations were permanent deformities, and never reproduced.
As I shall add to this short notice carefully drawn up tables of weights
and measurements, etc., I shall not detain the Society with any further minute
remarks, with the exception of teeth, in which I find so marked a difference,
as to constitute a distinct species from those Dr. Giinther has described. The
Tuatara is an acrodont ; the teeth being, as it were, chiselled out of the bone.
The intermaxillary bones, Dr. Giinther describes, as each supporting -a
single tooth, “notched, or serrated, at the crown in individuals of middle age ;”
and he gives an engraving, not only of the young, but of the middle-aged
specimen, where there appears only a single notch, given with two points. In
one of the two specimens I have prepared, this description corresponds, but in
the other I find each tooth divided by two notches into three pointed cones.
Thus, the superior maxillary supports, what appears to me, six teeth on each
side, including the intermaxillary, of a similar description, each notched into
three points. And as a great difference from Dr. Giinther’s description, I find
three on the posterior part of the palatal plate of the maxillary bone similarly
notched, separated by a deep groove from those on the alveolar edge. The
teeth in the lower jaw admit of easier description: on each side of the symphysis,
I observe, as in the intermaxillary, a tooth notched into three points; the
outer point slightly diverges, and represents a canine tooth, scarcely visible at
first, but increasing in size to a line in length. The system of dentition would
therefore stand thus :—
Upper jaw, alveolar edge 6+ 6= 12
Me palatal plate oy CE on" 20
Complex teeth 18
ug
Lower jaw, complex teeth . heels lig erie
i, alveolar edge, simple teeth 14 +14 = 2
30
No. 1 SKELETON.
OZ.
Weight of animal 4 : ; ‘ : ; 6
Measurement.
in. lines
Snout to cloaca 7 6
Cloaca to tip of tail lee)
Total length j : UL 2 6
VERTEBRA.
Cervical 8
Sternal 3
Abdominal adap
Lumbar 3
" Sacral 2
Coccygeal 23
Total number . 50
No. 2 SKELETON.
OZ. gYs.
Weight of animal : : : : : 6 120
Measurement.
in. lines.
Snout to cloaca . : : : : : 7 64
Cloaca to tip of tail ~, z i : : 8 1s
Total length . : : sala AO
VERTEBRA.
Cervical 9: < : : j 5 F ‘ g 8
Sternal . : 2 4 ; : : 5 5 3
Abdominal : : : : é ‘ : eel!
Lumbar : ; ti : ; p : : 3
Sacral i : 4 ; - : ; 3 eee)
Coccygeal . : : : : : : i 9to0
Total number . : : : 5 63
Weight of skeleton : . . 306 grains.
RemARKS.—The hemapophyses (V-shaped bones) I observe, throughout the
whole spinal column, connected with the inter-articular cartilages ; in neck,
rudimentary (but formed of three points of ossification), disappearing along the
20
thoracic, abdominal, lumbar, and sacral vertebrae, but again appearing between
the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth vertebre, rapidly increasing in size, (forming
a safe canal for the blood vessels), and gradually decreasing, together with the
neural and articular processes, until the centrwm appears like a minute
cylinder, divided in the middle of its length, indicating the part which gives
way when the tail is accidentally injured. This fissure can be observed in the
thirty-eighth vertebra, and a separation may consequently take place in any of
the remaining vertebre. From the peculiar form of the medulla spinalis, I
feel assured, that when injured, the complete vertebra will not be reproduced,
but will present the appearance as seen in the skeleton No. 1, in which the
total number of vertebre is fifty ; and the termination of the tail is composed
of a deposit of earthy matter of about one inch in length. The series of
triangular processes, considered by Dr. Giinther as true ribs,—similar to the
false or floating ribs in the mammalia—appear to me, after a careful removal
of the integuments, to be dermal productions, much resembling those rib-like
processes as seen in the engraving of the Plesiosaurus.
Art. IIT.—On the Anatomy of the Navutinus Greyu, Gray, or Brown
Tree Lizard of New Zealand. By F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S8.E.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 14, 1869.]
Durine the month of January, 1862, a specimen of this reptile was sent to
me by a friend, and I examined it with great care. Many points of great
interest presented themselves to me, more especially the separation of the tail.
In an animal so highly organized, more especially in the skeleton, it appeared
to me to be an impossibility, that the complex mechanism of so important a
part of the animal economy should be suddenly removed, and not only the life
of the animal in no way jeopardized, but that the tail, in its entirety, would be
reproduced. Nay, more, that the animal had been seen, after the violent
separation of the tail, to search for it, and stick iton again! I found, on careful
dissection, that the statement, in so far as the detaching of the tail from the
body, was correct, but that the separation not only occurred at a particular
part of the spine, but presented an obstacle to its regeneration, which appeared
to me, and still appears, impossible. I found the divided or separated surface
finely dovetailed; the one (proximal extremity of the skin) presenting no
dentations, but a perfectly smooth margin; the scales surrounding the part
arranged in symmetrical order, whilst on the separated part or tail, eight
wedge-shaped processes projected beyond the skin of the tail. (See preparation
of the dried skin.) These eight processes were entire, and not caused by a
tearing process, but were arranged in pairs :—
Dorsal margin 1 pair
Abdominal margin . 5 : : : Les
Lateral margin . : ; ; ‘ : seh oeiaaee
Total 8
As I attentively observed the separation of the tail, I found that a
delicate white cord was gradually leaving a canal in the tail portion. This I
recognised to be the medulla spinalis (see preparation in phial), and necessarily
rendered, in my belief, the power of reproduction still less possible. I may add
that the tail in the living animal is in no respect brittle, as stated by some
21
recent authors, but elastic and prehensile. The food of the Vaultinus Greyit
I found to consist of insects of the 0 thoptera order.
I conclude this short notice by drawing the attention of the Society to
the remarkable similarity in the skeletons of the Naultinus Grey, and the
Tuatara.
Lizarp.—1862.—Heternal characters.
Total weight . : : . : : 260 grains.
LENGTH.
in. lines.
Snout to cloaca 3 6
Cloaca to tip of tail Ae
Total length 7 6
Snout to nostrils 0 ]
», to centre of eye O 5%
» to cleft of mouth 0 77%
» to ear : 0 10
Greatest circumference ound the Abdomen 2 0)
Art. 1V.—On the BaLtzntpD= or Whales with Baleen. By F. J. Kwnox,
L.R.C.S.E. With Notes.on the Cetacea, in the Colonial Museum,
Wellington, by Dr. Hector, F.R.8.
(With Illustrations.)
[Read before the Wellington Pilosophical Society, September 18, 1869.]
Observations on the Natural History of the Balenide, or that division of
mammiferous animals called Cetacea, having the remarkable substance
known in commerce as Whalebone (Baleen), as a substitute for teeth.
THE habitat of the Cetacea has necessarily rendered it a difficult task to obtain
reliable descriptions of them. The naturalist and practical whaler know
nothing about the anatomy of the animal, and they accordingly record
measurements of the external surface. In those Cetacea of large size great
imaccuracy occurs even in obtaining this very deficient character in determining
genera or species. or example, in describing Cetaceans, the naturalist and
practical whaler invariably include the tail in their measurements, thus adding
from ten to fifteen feet to the actual length of the skeleton ; and when the sex
and age of the animal are also not given, the result must be the erroneous
increase in the number of species. Hence, a carefully prepared skeleton, the
sex of the specimen, and, if possible, the anatomy of the viscera, are
imperatively required to enable the naturalist to determine with accuracy
either genera or species.
The following observations are the result of the dissection of three
specimens of the Baleenide ; and the author proposes to reduce the number of
Balenide to four, distinguished by the following characters :—
Average length of
adult animal.
Balena Mysticetus, or Right whale . . 455 to 65 feet
Korqualus major (Knox), Hump-back . 80 to 100 ,,
* minor (Knox) PD oy 215) |,
55 Sp., Trigger-fin, Sulphur- bottom 30 to 55 50
22
NUMBER OF VERTEBRA.
Lumbar and NUMBER
Cervical. Dorsal. Caudal. Total. or piss.
Balena Mysticetus. 7 12 33 52 12
Rorqualus major ih 15 43 65 15
a TUUILOT ll 11 30 48 it
5 Sp. Trigger-fin, anatomy not known.
Baleen—Measurement of longest blade.
Balena Mysticetus . : : . from 9 to 17 feet
Rorqualus major. : ‘ ; from 4 to 5 5,
55 minor ‘ A : * 5 inches
3 Sp. Trigger-fin, anatomy not known.
Average length of Baleen offered for sale, from 6 to 12 feet.
1. Bartana Mysticetus, Right Whale.
The Mysticetus, in point of value, not only exceeds that of all others, not
excepting even that of the Cachalot, but is infinitely more valuable, as a
marketable production, than any other animal; and yet only the skin (7.e., the
blubber of the practical whaler) and its appendages, in the shape of baleen, is
brought to market, the entire carcase and skeleton have as yet no marketable
value.*
All attempts to give a drawing of the animal have hitherto failed,
although the skeleton may now be seen in most of the Museums on the
Continent, more especially in Paris, where the Museum, towards the close of
Cuvier’s career, formed the lurgest “Scientific Dictionary, illustrated,” in the
world. (A profile view of the skull is given in Plate 2b, fig. 5.) It has been
stated that Cuvier found specific difference between the Arctic and Antarctic
Mysticete ; but I have not seen the grounds on which he based his opinion.
Practical whalers are of opinion the Mysticete killed in the Southern
Hemisphere, are identical with those of Davis’ Straits and Greenland, only
differing in size, arising from the nature of the food.t
Since arriving in New Zealand, I have come to the conclusion that there
are at least two species of the Mysticetee, from an examination of the baleen ;
that of the Southern Hemisphere being proportionately finer in texture,
narrower, and thinner in the blade. Baleen has been used for a great variety
of purposes, and, at one time, its value was regulated by the length of the,
blade, everything under six feet brought a much less price than that of greater
length. Now, the baleen in the Arctic whale (central blades of the series) has
frequently reached seventeen and eighteen feet in length, whereas the baleen
brought from the Antarctic or South Sea, seldom exceeds nine feet. I, at one
time, from observing transverse ridges on the sides of the baleen plates, thought
that these ridges indicated a periodical interruption in the growth, similar to
those observed on the horn of the ox, but from the examination of the baleen
belonging to the cranium presented to the Museum by Sur George Grey, I
very much doubt the soundness of thistheory. The baleen is strictly analogous
to the hair, nails, hoofs, etc., and being liable to be worn down, continues
throughout the whole life of the animal to grow. A. fine and similar example
of this wonderful provision of nature may be observed in the molar teeth of
the elephant.
* Value of two Whales.—Oil, 20 tons, at £50 aton, £1,000; Baleen, 14 tons, at £700,
£1,050. Total, £2,050.— Voyage of the ‘‘ Diana,” whaler, from Hull, in the year 1866-7.
+ The principal whaler has no idea of size in any animal constituting a generic or
specific character.
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23
2. Rorquatus masor, Hump-back.
In the autumn of 1831, a whale of unusual dimensions was observed
moving about in the Firth of Forth, and was ultimately stranded near North
Berwick, within about twenty-five miles of Edinburgh. I was requested by
my brother, Professor Knox, to visit the locality, and endeavour to purchase
the animal. This I accomplished, after much trouble, and no small cost ; the
comparative anatomy was ascertained ; the most interesting parts, such as
sections of the baleen matrix, the arch of the aorta, plaster casts of the brain,
ete., together with the baleen wm sitd, were exhibited in the Royal Institution
for some time, and were ultimately handed over to the Town Council of
Edinburgh. As the skeleton occupied a space of one hundred and twenty feet
by forty-five, it was expensive even to afford it house room, and therefore it
was put up at the Zoological Gardens.
As an assistance to collectors in New Zealand, I am able to give a careful
drawing of the skeleton of this whale. (Plate 2a, Fig. 1.)
The specimen exhibited the characteristic plice or folds of the integuments
on the abdominal surface. Immediately above the generative organ (male)
there was the hunch or hump, so diminutive in size, as to require to be looked
for. It is worthy of remark that a similar hump is observed on the Cachalot,
and that the Rorqual and Cachalot should equal each other in size, in habits,
and even in the oil, that of the Hunch-back Rorqual being quite equal to
sperm, and indeed containing the spermaceti about the head in considerable
quantities. Theaction of both the Rorqual and Cachalot, upon being attacked,
have also a strong resemblance ; they retaliate, or as the practical whaler
expresses it, “run upon the harpoon or lance,” and consequently endanger
the boat and crew.
The following measurements were made of the fresh specimen :—
Snout to tip of tail é ; : ; . 100 feet
Greatest circumference 2 : ; : HO a
The following measurements were made of the skeleton :—
Snout to occipital foramen. : : : 22 feet
Length of spinal column. : ‘ : Oty.
Total length of skeleton 5 SY)
Length of lower jaw, external surface. : 24
VERTEBRA.
Cervical (all jointed) . : : 5 : : 7
Dorsal. : : : ; : 15
Lumbar and Caudal : ‘ : ‘ : : 43
Total number of vertebre . SOW)
RIBS.
Sternal : ; 5 : : : ; : 3
A. Sternal ‘ : ' : ° : . 12
The sixth, the longest.
Pairs : : 15
Baleen, the longest blade : ‘ : : 5 feet
Total weight of the skeleton. . 28 tons
ascertained by the tollage charged on passing from North Berwick to
Edinburgh.
24
The cranium was of colossal bulk and weight, exceeding in this respect
that of the Mysticetz, at least ten times. To enable me to remove the cranium
from the beach at North Berwick, I had it raised on a frame, and made a
transverse section in front of the nostrils ; and secondly, a longitudinal section
of the cranium, thus allowing me to remove the upper jaw with the baleen iz
siti, and also obtain a cast of the brain.
3. RorguaLus Minor, Knox.
I am enabled to refer to an original drawing of this animal, with which,
to me, an interesting history is connected. (See Plate 2a., Fig. 3.) In the
month of February, 1834 (whilst engaged in the preparation of the Rorqualus
major), ~ notice was placarded and extensively circulated throughout Edin-
burgh, that a monster had been caught in the Firth of Forth, near Queen’s
Ferry, and was exhibited. JI formed one of the number of the visitors—
although naturally a lover of the “ beautiful,” and, consequently, disliking the
sight of monsters. Notwithstanding that great efforts had been made to dis-
figure it, I recognized a specimen of the Baleenide, I made the purchase, and
within a few hours there were grouped around the interesting stranger, such
men as the late Professor Edward Forbes, Professor John Goodsir, Sir W.
Ferguson, and Sir Geo. Ballingall, and it was determined to have a drawing
of the specimen. It was suggested that by suspending it horizontally, as in
swimming, a much more accurate likeness would be obtained. This was
accordingly forthwith accomplished, and Forbes undertook to be draughtsman.
The effort resulted in realizing more than our most sanguine expectations.
The specimen was evidently that of a young animal, but having obtained the
magnificent likeness, it immediately occupied the attention of the practical
anatomist, and nearly every part was preserved. The preparation of the
skeleton was a work of much labour (notwithstanding its comparative small
size) more especially in preserving the baleen in sit? All, however, was
ultimately accomplished, and the entire comparative anatomy was presented to
the Museum of the University of Edinburgh.
The following notes were made of the recent specimen and skeleton :—
Weight . 5 2 : : i : . 500 lbs.
Snout to tip of tail : : : : : 13 feet
Greatest circumference i : : 4 . 8ft. 6in
SKELETON.
ft. in
Snout to occipital foramen : ; : = e2eIG
Length of spinal column : : : ‘ 6
Total length of skeleton E ; . 10 O
VERTEBRA.
Cervical 3 : : : : ; z 4 a
Dorsal 4 f 4 ‘ : : : : 11
Lumbar and Caudal é : : 5 : Rehiicat0)
Total number : : y ; - 48
RIBS.
Sternal ; i : : é ‘ E : 3
A. Sternal . i : 3 i p ‘4 5 8
Pairs : i f ) : : all
25
Rorquatus (Sp.,) Trigger-fin, Razor-back, Sulphur-bottom (to be distinguished
from the Finner, which is properly the 6. Marginata.)
The fin which in this species of the Baleenide is placed in the usual
situation, immediately above the generative organs, is said to average from
thirty to fifty-five feet in length. The baleen is short; and the blubber in
comparatively small quantity. The whales of this species resemble the great
Rorqual in their general habits, and, although numerous, do not form a
tempting object of capture for the practical whaler. They are common in the
neighbourhood of the New Zealand group of islands.
Two young specimens were caught and stranded in Porirua Harbour, in
1867, neither of which I was able to preserve ; only taking the measurements
as detailed in the annexed tables. The dorsal surface was ofa jetty and glossy
black, becoming of a light-grey on the abdomen. The characteristic plice or
folds were well-developed ; the longest baleen blade was two inches, of a pale
yellow or cream colour. The osteology and comparative anatomy of this
whale were not ascertained.
A young female specimen, weighed . 5 . 300 Ibs.
It measured as follows :—
. ft. im. lines.
Snout to tip of tail ; : : : ORO)
Greatest circumference : : : GG
Snout to nostrils
» to centre of eye
», to dorsal fin : ; :
Baleen, pale rose colour, longest blade
bo bo Oo OS
ooonc oe
1
]
5
0
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE BALHNIDS.
The entire form of the animals so nearly resembles a fish, as to lead the
naturalist, and practical whaler, to insist that the Cetacez are fishes ;. nothing
but the researches of the anatomist could have rescued the whale from that
class.
The exhibition of the greac Rorqual, at the Royal Institution, in 1835,
was considered by the great mass of the visitors, as a sheer imposition. They
wished to see the skin stuffed. The baleen (in that case in sit#) was disbelieved
to be a reality by most persons who visited the exhibition. One or two
persons actually demanded a return of the admission fee. Yet to the
anatomist, the contemplation of the spinal column (trunk) composed of sixty-
five vertebre (out of many of which the entire skeleton of the ox could have
been fashioned), and these connected by sixty-five joints, many of them
containing a gallon of joint-oil, presented a lever, or rather a whip-shaft, to
the tail, which left no doubt of the effects of the application of its distal
extremity to a whale-boat.
I remember a whaler of the name of Thoms, residing on the Island of
Kapiti, who was merely touched by the tail of a Mysticete, and nearly every
bone on one side of the body was. broken. Fortunately, there was no “duly
qualified doctor” to be had, and Thoms consequently got quite well, with the
exception of a slight lameness. When brought to the station, he was lifted
out of the boat with considerable difficulty, being literally glued to the boat
by the blood lost.
The sternum, also, is remarkably short, having only two or three pairs of
ribs connected to it. Now, this, instead of indicating a rudimentary con-
dition, rather proved the Divine perfection in all nature’s works. In
consequence of the smallness of the sternum, the great respiratory muscle—
the diaphragm—measured in the great Rorqual, 60 feet in length, by an
26
average breadth of 10 or 12 feet ; thus enormously increasing the capacity of
the chest at the will of the animal, either thereby depressing the locomotive
power, or increasing 1t when determined on a rapid journey.
It has been demonstrated by the comparative anatomist, that the
Mysticetze, and, in all probability, the Rorquals, at an early period of uterine
development, have numerous cone-shaped teeth, unfilled, for their future
existence. These teeth, accordingly, never proceed beyond the first stage of
development, and the young cub at birth, is a sucker. The palate, soon after
birth, becomes covered with numerous transverse ridges, and a white horny
substance begins to spring from them, lengthening with the growth of the
animal, and corresponding to the development of the jaws, longest where the
arch of the upper jaw is greatest, and diminishing towards the throat and
snout, to mere hairs. Thus, the animal destroys myriads of minute mollusca,
and even microscopic marine Insects, which, from their enormous increase,
might become the source of pestilence, had it not been for their wholesale
consumer.
Notes By Dr. Hector.
The following is a list, with dimensions, of those specimens of
Cetacians in the Colonial Museum, Wellington, which possess interest from
their being rarely represented in collections.
1. Barzna Mareornata (Gray).
Cranium presented by Sir George Grey: obtained at the Island of
Kawau—See Plate 2b, Fig. 1, upper surface ; Fig. 2, lower surface; Fig. 3,
side view ; Fig. 4, section showing Baleen in sitd.
Weight of cranium . . ‘ ‘ ; «1 06 libs:
» of lower jaw : ‘ : ; : Ions
Total weight : ‘ : : . fils
Measurements.
ft.. in.
Snout to occipital foramen 4 9
», to fronto-nasal suture i 2 10
5, to centre of orbit 3 10
Breadth at nostrils 2 5
mastoid processes DONTE
Lower jaw—length ; convex surface allt
3 greatest depth . Ons
Baleen, 29 inches long, 34 inches wide.
From the character afforded by the baleen of this specimen, I conclude
that it is the head of the Balena Marginata (Gray), or West Australian
whale.
Dr. Gray says* :—“ This species is only known from three lamine of
baleen. It is much smaller and broader, compared with its width at the
base, than, and is differently coloured from, the baleen of ny of the other
species.
“The baleen very long, slender (nearly eight times as long as wide at the
base), pure white, thin, with a rather broad black edge on the outer
straight side.
“This is, undoubtedly a very distinct species. The baleen is of nearly
the same structure as that of the Greenland whale; but we do not know
* See ‘Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum,” p. 90.
YP yop wonemyomer p
TOW MeL abioor LLG AG SAT 009 02 SALT
punyss nomnoy yo poungdug
AVHD VIVNIOYVN VNA IVE SO 1104S
2d TP FY SSALT YIAUT NOY UBD PUR BO POQU%LT
>.
EG S100 2
agaoargsh yy fo QIRYS fo Men @72f0L 7
MTD
U2 UBAVOY Y2ZIM
fo uonqoay
gras
HE:
SX
ANN
SOA
AN
SNA
=
Og AC IMIOA JLNLILSNI ZN SNVAL
27
what may be the form of the first ribs, or of the bones of the other parts of
the skeleton.”
The plates of baleen, in the Kawau specimen, presented by Sir George
Grey, are slightly longer than the dimensions given above, but the proportion
of width to length is the same ; and the well-marked black margin } to 2 of
an inch in width, clearly identifies the species.
This interesting specimen, must therefore, be considered as unique, and
has been carefully figured in Plate 2b.
2. Berarpius Arnuxu (Duvernoy).
Skull and lower jaw, cervical vertebra, scapule, hyoid, pectoral
extremities right and left, and pelvic bones of one individual ; also, a single
tooth of another individual, weight, 206 grains.
Length of head 3 ; : 3 . 23:5 inches
_ nose : 2 ; R 15 *
Fe dental groove ; ; : BE SOR (, 5
lower jaw : ‘ ; : 19 s
Width, notch i : : f MOEN Uk
» orbits : : Rae
», intermaxillary at blow holes” AS 53
nose : : ‘ : ; 2 5
Height at occiput 5 : : Sis in Ranke ONO ora,
One small tooth imbedded close to tip of lower jaw on left side, one inch high ;
weight, 38°8 grains ; irregular triangular shape. This is the skull of a young
animal. A strong ligament connecting the muscle of the forehead with the
snout is deeply imbedded in the intermaxillary groove. The snout is described
as long and flexible. Atlas and axis anchylosed.
Length of cervical vertebre, 3°7 inches. Scapula, longitudinal diameter,
10 inches ; transverse diameter, 6 inches. Pectoral extremities, length, 14
inches ; width, 3} inches. Hyoid arch, 55 by 4 inches high. Pelvic bones,
24 inches.
The specimen was cast on the beach of the West Coast, near Porirua
Harbour, and was prepared by Dr. Knox.
Only two other specimens have, hitherto, been obtained ; the first at
Akaroa in 1846, now deposited in the Paris Museum ; the second was
captured at the mouth of the Avon, and prepared by Dr. Haast, for the
Canterbury Museum (see Art. 45, p. 190).
A fourth, and very large specimen, has been lately stranded in Wellington
Harbour, nad in part, seamed for the Museum by Dr. Knox, who, from his
examination, has some doubt of the identity of the above species, founded on
the character of the teeth.
3. LAGENORHYNCUS CLANCULUS. Complete Skeleton.
ft. in
Total length : : : 5 : z pe ys
Cervicals (7) anchylosed . : : . . 1:3
Dorsals (14) : : : : : 11:5
Lumbar and Caudal 48, thirty-four of tes ee processes, and may be
considered as lumbars.
SKULL.
inches.
Length—total 5 : ‘ : : : . 14
5 beak ‘ : ‘ 4 : 5 5
28
SKULL, —continued. inches.
Width at notch ; : : : 3 6 . 3d
i) ab orbit : : 3 5 : 6
» of intermaxillary at blow-hole Ana eee f
» at middle of beak A : ; 2°5
Height of occiput. : ‘ 5 ; : tio
Length of flappers : : : ‘ 5 enna,
Scapula, longitudinal é ; : : : PAGED
» transverse : : ‘ 5 : : 45
This specimen was harpooned outside Wellington Harbour, and appears
to be the common Dolphin of the Coast.
Lower jaws of two others.
Three skulls of Delphinus sp. (?).
4, GLoBIocEPHALUS Macroruyncuus. (Gray.)
Black-fish of South Seas. Two skulls, one showing longitudinal section.
One lower jaw, six cervical vertebre.
Four lumbar, thirteen caudal, two scapule.
Two hyoids.
Both skulls are of the same dimensions.
inches
Length . : : : : : . : ene.
oy OL MOse, 2 = 3 ; ; : : ‘ 15
», of tooth series -. ‘ : : : Bea ato)
» of alower jaw of a different individual ‘ 15
Width at notch : : : : A : yee all
4/0 at orbit.) : ; ‘ ‘ ; : 17
», of intermaxillary at blow-hole : : Pe ce)
», at middle of nose ; : ‘ 4 i 9-5
Height at occiput. ‘ 4 : : . sth
Scapula, transverse diameter ; : ‘ : 15
a longitudinal diameter : : : sel
Hyoid arch, 11 inches wide, by 7 inches high: Sternum, 10 x 7 inches,
with three sternal ribs, each 7 inches long.
First rib is 10 inches from head to tip, but is bent, with an arch of
5 inches.
Atlas, axis, and three other cervicals are anchylosed. The combined
cervicals have a conjoined length of four inches. :;
Vertical diameter of Foramen magnum, 24 inches ; conjoined length of
the four Lumbars, 8 inches; height, including spinous processes, 8:5 inches ;
caudal appendage, 16 inches, of thirteen segments, two of which are anchylosed ;
9-9
teeth, 33
This species is only known from two imperfect specimens in the British
Museum and College of Surgeons’ Museum.
Art. V.—On Seals of the genus STENORHYNCUS, captured on the East
Coast of Otago.* By J. S. Wess.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 14, 1869.]
In August, of last year, a very handsome seal was discovered on the Green
Island beach, about a dozen miles to the southward of Otago Heads. It was
* The seals, referred to in this paper, have, since 1t was written, been determined by
Dr. Hector as specimens of S. Leptonyx. The descriptions of S. Leptonyx, accessible to
the writer, were all transcripts of that given by M. F. Cuvier, from the first specimen
29
eaptured without much difficulty, and was purchased, and presented to the
Museum, by Captain Fraser. This specimen proved to be a female. Shortly
afterwards, a male of the same species was caught in our harbour, and was
also secured for the Museum. ‘These seals are of a species by no means
common on any part of the coast of New Zealand. They belong to the genus
Stenorhyncus of M. Frangois Cuvier, a form restricted, so far as we know, to
the Southern World. In the Museum they are labelled as S. Weddellit, the
Phoca Leopardina, of Jameson, or Leopard Seal. The skins have, as I can
vouch, been carefully stuffed by the Curator of the Museum, and I have
secured for that Institution such portions of both skeletons as were not retained
in the stuffed specimens. I am able to forward, for the use of the Society,
good photographs of these seals, which Mr. Alfred Burton was kind enough to
take for me, for this purpose.
The inappropriateness of the name Leopard Seal, cannot but strike any one
on examining these specimens. This has led me to look up such information,
as is procurable here, about the genus to which they belong, and I have been
obliged to conclude that these seals are not the same as Weddellit, and that
they remain up to the present time undescribed in works of Natural History.
Ai the risk, therefore, of repeating what some one may have done before, I
venture to send the following description of them to the Society, since, no
doubt, the majority of naturalists in New Zealand have as little opportunity as
myself of referring to any description that may have been published at home
during the last few years.
The genus Stenorhyncus was first defined by M. Fr. Cuvier, and is most
readily distinguished by the very peculiar character of the teeth. Of these
“the molars are deeply divided into three long points, which are conical, and
somewhat hooked,” the central process in each being considerably longer than
the others. Compared with the typical Phoca, the narrowness, and comparative
length of the snout, is very noticeable, and it is on account of this feature that the
generic name Stenorhyncus (narrow-muzzle) has been given. Only two species
have hitherto been described, both found in the southern hemisphere. S. Leptonya
(the Small-nailed Seal of Cuvier) has been taken in South Georgia, and the
Falkland isles. S. Weddellii (Leopard Seal of Weddell) appears to come from
localities still further to the South, in the same region of the globe. Captain
Weddell, in his “ Voyage towards the South Pole,” speaks of its occurrence at
the South Orkneys, and on the mainland of South Shetland. Of this species,
a specimen in the Hdinburgh Museum is the only one recorded as having
reached Hurope. It has been figured and described in the “ Naturalist’s
Library,” in a monograph on the Amphibious Carnivora, which forms the
twenty-fifth volume of that collection. It is from the comparison of this
drawing, and Captain Weddell’s description of his Leopard Seal, with the seals
captured here, that I have concluded that the latter belong to a new species.
The shape of the head is, I think, conclusive on this point ; our New Zealand
seals being by no means so typically narrow-muzzled as the Leopard Seal. The
following table of measurements (attached) shows very clearly the divided
differences between Weddellit, and the species which I presume to be new to
science. Whilst the length of the HKdinburgh specimen is nearly one-half
greater than that of the largest of ours, and its greatest girth almost double,
brought to Hurope, and did not lead to the idea that the seals, in question, could belong to
that species. There is reason to believe that the measurements of the head of Weddellii,
given by Dr. Hamilton, from the stuffed specimen in the Edinburgh Museum, under-rate
its width. In the seals caught here, the mass of fat, etc., between the skin of the head,
and the skull, was very considerable.—J.5. W.
The skeleton of a specimen of this seal, captured in Wellington Harbour, in 1840,
was sent to England, accompanied by full anatomical notes by Dr. F. Knox.—Catalogue
of Whales and Seals in the British Museum. J. KH. Gray, F.R.S., page 16.—Ep.
3U
the distance between the inner angles of the eyes is one-half greater in the
New Zealand seal, than in Weddellit, and the circumference at the upper part
of the neck about the same. The distance from the angle of the mouth to the
tip of the lower jaw, is also much greater in our specimens, than in the other.
Whatever hesitation we may have in relying on the measurements taken from
a stuffed specimen, those about the head and jaws are not likely to be
inaccurate. In this case, they show that the New Zealand seal is much longer
in the jaw, and generally broader in the muzzle than that from South Shetland.
Tt will be noticed that the fore-paw is proportionately larger. This, and the
posterior extremity, differ much in shape from those of Weddellii, the toes
being connected throughout by membrane. They are, respectively, extremely
like the fin and tail of a fish, whilst those of the Leopard Seal are very similar
to the limbs of a true Phoca. ‘The presence of nails on the posterior extremity,
is also a distinguishing mark. :
The general differences of appearance are also very noticeable, although,
as all seals seem to vary much in colour and markings, at different ages, I
should not have ventured to think them specific, in the absence of more
important ones. Captain Weddell has given but a meagre description of
the Leopard Seal, speaking of it as if it were already known. He gives the
colours as “ pale-greyish above, yellowish beneath, the back spotted with pale
white,” an expression which probably means ‘dull white.” The plate in the
“ Naturalist’s Library” (in which, by the way, the colouring has evidently
been taken by the artist, not from Weddell’s description, but from the highly
discoloured Museum specimen), shows large oval spots, all nearly even in size,
and pretty uniformly distributed. The seals, I am describing, are of a slatey
grey, above, a medium shade, the female being a little lighter coloured than
the male. The spots are both white and black, the latter being most
numerous ; none, strictly speaking, on the back, whilst those on the upper
part of the sides are small, and distributed very differently from those on the
Leopard Seal. The spots and markings will be best understood by a reference
to the photographs. Though the grey on the back has come out very dark in
these, the black spots remain distinguishable. It is proper to mention, also,
that all the whites appear as much too bright in the photographs, as the greys
are too dark. An accurate idea of the colouring cannot be had from them.
The large patches of black on the under parts of the male, are probably only
signs of youth, as in the FurSeal. The black is pure in the male, nearly so in
the female. There was no trace of a yellow tinge on the under portion of the
body when the animals were alive, though there are now some slight signs of
that discolouration to which all stuffed specimens of seals are subject, from the
impossibility of entirely freeing the skin from oily matter. The general colour
beneath, when the seals were newly killed, and wet, may be described as that
of sea ice, a dull white, with faint bluish-grey tinge. I append more particular
descriptions of each specimen, sufficient, I think, when taken in conjunction
with the measurements, to enable any one to identify the species in case of
future capture.
I am informed (at second hand) from several quarters, that, though very
rare on the New Zealand coast, these seals are common at the Auckland
Islands, where they have been seen from sixteen to twenty feet long.
Statements made by the Maoris to M1. Beverly, when he accompanied Dr.
Hector on an expedition to the West Coast of this Province, agree with these
reports as to the large size attained by these seals. The Maoris speak of them
as much larger than the Wigs, as they call the full-grown Brown Seal of our
coasts. One of the latter was killed during the expedition referred to, which
weighed 3 cwt., but I have not been able to ascertain its dimensions. I
hope this notice may lead to further information on the subject being made
31
known. There must be many persons in New Zealand who have had
opportunities of seeing these seals alive.
With regard to the time at which the seals made their appearance here, I
may remark, that Captain Weddell, when describing the habits of the Fur Seal,
says, that herds of small young seals come on shore in August, for about five
or six weeks, and then retire to the water. Of the habits of the Leopard Seal,
he has not given any account. The seals caught here are young ones, if I may
judge by their size, as compared with that of others described by visitors to the
Auckland Islands. Mr. Arthur Beverly, who examined them immediately
after their capture, is of opinion that the female had never been pregnant.
The time of parturition amongst seals of the southern seas appears to vary
considerably. With the Fur Seal, it is in November and December, and the
animal is not adult until nearly two years old. Probably this may be about
the age of the specimens under consideration.
I shall add, that there is a skin of a Stenorhyncus, which appears to be of
the same species as that I am describing, in possession of the Dunedin
Atheneum. It was lying in the Government Offices here, for many years,
before it was handed over to its present custodians. It is imperfect, and very
roughly stuffed, and is now of an almost uniform dingy brown. Markings
may, however, be traced on the belly, similar to those on the female specimen
in the Museum. I have included in the appended table such measurements of
this seal as could be fairly depended upon, as representing something like
the original size. These, it will be seen, correspond, pretty well, with those of
the seals in the Museum. ‘The specimen is smaller, but the teeth are perfect,
and I have no doubt that the skin is that of an adult.
In conclusion, I may express the hope that the partial revival of whaling
enterprise in this part of the world, may enable us to add something to the
scanty store of facts, hitherto published, in regard to the seals, and other living
forms, of the Southern Seas. Except in the case of the Fur Seal, very little
indeed, is known about any of the seals that frequent Antarctic shores.
No doubt there are many new species to be discovered, and with regard to
their habits, and economy, the field is all but untouched.
Should the opinion I have expressed, as to these seals being hitherto
undescribed, prove correct, perhaps I may be allowed to claim the usual
privilege, and suggest a specific name; Crassicollus will recall the feature which
most readily distingushes this seal from others of the genus, and will not
excruciate the ears of a scholar, more than the majority of scientific names
must do.
DESCRIPTION OF SEALS CAUGHT NEAR DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND, AUGUST, 1868.
Stenorhyncus, ————?— Male.
(For measurements of both specimens see table annexed.)
Head proportionately larger than the Weddell, and neck less tapering.
Body largest immediately before the fore-arm, tapering very gradually to the base
of the posterior extremities. Fore paw very fin-like, first finger (or thumb) much
the largest ; fingers united by membrane, which extends from half an inch to an
inch beyond the nails; nails black, not sharp, or much curved, about half an
inch long. Hind paws furnished with membrane to the extremities of the toes,
making the paw, when expanded, look very like the symmetrical tails of the
puchard, and some other Clupeade ; nails well developed on three middle
toes, less so on the others, brownish-black, tipped with yellowish-white. The
external aperture of the ear is easily distinguishable. The ear-tube was found
fine as a medium sized pin (about the No. 19 trade-gauge of wire). Hair soft,
and moderately thick-set, a medium shade of slatey-grey on the upper half of
the body, dull-white below. The dividing line between these colours is rather
26
32
-distinctly marked, passing from the nostrils immediately under the eye, and
dividing the surface of the body into nearly equal parts throughout. (In the
photograph the head of the male shows wholly dark, from some accidental
circumstance). The upper part of the head is slightly darker than the back.
Numerous spots and patches of black, especially on the hinder part of the
belly, where the black becomes predominent; small white spots are also
intermingled with the black ones, especially over the hind ribs. Some of the
smaller spots are grey.
Female.
Considerably larger than the male, but proportionately shorter in the neck,
which is also thicker, giving a marked difference of figure to the fore-part of
the animal. External aperture of the ear distinguishable, but not so readily
as in the male. Colour rather lighter than in the male, with very few traces
of the black patches, so prevalent on the lower part of the body of the latter.
In both male and female the teeth are perfect : and the dentition normal,
se = 32. The description given by Dr. Hamilton of the teeth of the
Weddellii, answers exactly for those of these seals, and I, therefore, copy it:
‘The incisors are conical in their form, and somewhat cur Te inwar ds ; those
“in the upper jaw are by much the longest, and the two middle ones are
“placed further within the mouth than the other two, and are also much
“smaller” (this latter peculiarity is shared by those of the lower jaw) ; “the
“ canines are conical, very much developed at the base, and slightly grooved ;
““ the body of the molars is composed of three parts, the central conical part by
““ much the longest and largest, with a small tubercle on each side.”
TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS.
Specimens ,
3. Weddellii,| Specimens in the in the
tago Museum. Dunedin
Atheneum
Bex Male. | Femal oer
unknown. Bae ema". -) unknown.
1. Total length (over the bene a: from up ft. in. Ins.| ft. in. Ins.] ft. in. Ins.| ft. im, Ins.
of snout to tip of tail : 91008) SVS) 7 A One eanO ken
2. Length of tail... Os Cl Os Gy © 2° O
3. From snout to anterior edge of the
base of the fore paw . 3) 0) 0722525) - OF e 2S) On ole Ones
4, From base of posterior margin ‘of fore
paw to tip of tail... OPA ON eS 26 A Foon ee omnOmnO
5. From base of one fore paw to base of
another, across the back _... a UO ob Sewell Oyo do. e
5. Circumference, greatest round body CHA OR 3 6220) 3) Ge eno mel
0 Ditto at upper part of meck | Ll 0) 1 1010 )2) 3 Tel aes 10
8. Ditto above the tail sp ak OP UO Sl ee Oe Oy 1 &
9. Length of fore paw round anterior
margin Sl Os eo: ele Shee Damaged
10. Length round posterior margin ORSON OTe OE Sr EO aS Ditto
IL. Greatest breadth of forepaw : 0 410) 0 4 6] 0 5 6 Ditto
12. Ditto tength of posterior ex ctremity IS eC al ube Oak Ss} Oy © 1O' -@
13. Ditto breadth, toes being extended | 1 4 0} 1 2 5{ 1 210) notascer--
tainable.
14. Breadth at base of the foot ... Re O46) OFFA 43 1) Oa ai Ditto
15. Distance between inner angles of eyes Ora Ch OS Oy O O ZihO 3B 6
Doubtful
I6. Ditto angle of mouth and ue of
lower jaw a Oe O07 5° S|) Oo OO & 8
Nore.—In Nos. 5 and 12, it is uncertain whether my measurements correspond with
Dr. Hamilton’s as to the points chosen to measure from. I take No. 12 from angle
between tail and flipper.
By)
Art. VI.—On a (probably new) variety of the Small-nailed Seul,—StTENOR-
uynous Lepronyx, of Cuvier, and De Blainville, and allied to the Puoca
LeorarpDina, of Jameson. By the Rev. Cuarites Fraser, M.A., F.G.S.
(Read before the Philosophical Society of Canterbury, December 2, 1868.)
Earzy in the month of August, 1868, a Seal was caught in the harbour of
Lyttelton, and afterwards was exhibited in Christchurch, which seemed to
present some characteristics worthy of notice, and which, mdeed, seems to
differ from any of the varieties hitherto described.
It measured over eleven feet eight inches in entire length, and six feet in
girth at the stoutest part. rom the decayed state of some of the teeth—the
two under-canines being broken off near the gum, and one having a hole
three-fourths of an inch deep—the animal must have been full-grown, and
even aged. The upper canines projected fully an inch and a half from the
6 5 O me: Fo) On
level ofthe gum. ‘Teeth, incisors, = 5 canines, = ; molars, —. The dentition,
and the very marked tricuspid appearance of the molars, proved its identity
with the genus Stenorhyncus.
There was no external ear. Bristles only on the upper lip. No soft,
upstanding, furry hair, as in the Stenorhyncus Weddellii, or Sea Leopard, but
only the thin, sparse, longish hairs, lying close to the skin, and distributed over
the whole body. The swimming paws much resemble those of the
Macrorhinus, or Sea Elephant, having more the shape of a fin, or wing, than
ofapaw. The nails are small upon the fore-paws, and very small, but still
present, upon the hinder extremities. These last were scarcely, if at all,
lobed, and more resembled fish-tails.
In colour, the animal was grey above, with black flakes, and a brownish
tinge, all over the central part of the upper surface. On the sides, the black
spots were replaced by white flakes ; while the under part of the body was
light grey. ‘The fore-paws were white, with light grey flakes. The hinder
extremities were black, with light grey spots.
There was no tail, nor even the rudiment of one. The vertebral column
terminated, in a round compressed manner, under the skin, which extended
about three inches beyond it, so as to form the curve which united the two
hinder extremities.
The anal aperture was quite distinct from the urethro sexual canal, as if
there were no common cloacal sphincter muscle ; this appearance may, however, :
have been partly owing to the relaxed state of the animal’s flesh, it having
been dead for some time, and partly to the great pressure of the body upon
the lower surface.
The weight of the animal was said, by the capturer and exhibitor, to be
about 1,200tbs. ; it was, probably, a little over half that figure.
IT had an opportunity of afterwards examining a Sea Leopard (Stenor-
hyncus Weddellii), and comparing it with the above description. But this
second individual exactly suited the ordinary account of the animal as I have
named it. It possessed a covering of fur on the upper part of the body, and
a tail about three inches long, and was decidedly smaller in size.
In attempting to define the place of the seal, described above, it may be
sufficient to refer to the number and kind of the teeth. Of the eight genera,
into which seals are now distributed, two possess the same number of teeth,—
thirty two,—viz., Stenorhyncus and Pelagius, but the under molar teeth of —
the latter are not tricuspidated, and the upper molars are but slightly notched.
Confining our attention to the two species of the Stenorhyncus, the
Leptonyx, or Smallnailed, and the Sea Leopard, we find the character of the
former, which notes the presence of the small nails both in the hinder and
34
former extremities, decides the place of this animal. But when we take into
account the colours of the flakes which spot its whole body, the very slight
indentation of the lobes of the hinder extremities, and the entire absence of a
tail, 1t seems as if it had claims to be regarded as an entirely new species.
Art. VIT.—On a species of OruisurRvs, found on the Coast of New Zealand.
By James Hecror, M.D., F.R.S. Wath anatomical observations, by F.
J. Knox, L.R.C.S8.E.
(With Illustrations.)
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 14, 1869.]
THE genus Ophiswrus includes a section of the Eel family, which has not been
previously recognized as represented by any fish on the New Zealand coast.
The only eels mentioned in the lists of New Zealand fishes, are two fresh water
species, Anguilla Australis (also found in Australia), and Anguilla Dieffenbachit,
which Richardson considers as only a variety of the former, and a Conger Eel
(Congus habenatus), which is found in Cook’s Strait, and on other parts of the
coast.
In Richardson’s work “On the Antarctic Fishes,” he describes twenty-
five species of Ophisurus, but they all appear to have been obtained from
tropical seas, and none of them present the same characters as the fish which I
have to describe.
The specimen was received, with the following memoranda, from Mr.
Atkinson, R.M.—“ Pumi Horua, caught in a tidal creek, near Makaraka,
Poverty Bay, June 24, 1869.”
The form and colour of the specimen has been considerably altered by the
spirit in which it had been preserved, but it presents the distinctive charac-
teristics of the Ophisurus, or Snake-Hels, having the slender, compressed head,
and slightly expanded snout, and the tail prolonged to a naked point, beyond
the dorsal and anal fins. Its colour is dark chesnut-brown, with a silvery
lustre beneath. The nasal disk is bordered by six acute subulate teeth, and
on the mesial line, two minute teeth, and one stout acute tooth. Behind this,
the vomerine teeth form a single row in the mesial line, commencing with two
stout teeth, and continued by twelve minute, recurved, subulate teeth.
Palatine teeth are uniserial, consisting of thirty-four minute teeth, with
recurved tips, extending from the nasal disk to the angle of the mouth, The
mandibular teeth are uniserial, and correspond, in number and form, to those
on the nasal disk, and palatines. The eyes are placed in the middle of the
gape, about half the diameter of the orbit below the top of the head. The
gill openings are large, and placed in front of the pectoral fin, which is small
and acute. The dorsal commences over the pectorals, and lies in a groove
extending to within half an inch of the tip of the tail; its greatest height being
three lines. The anal extends to within three lines of the tip of the tail, and
is four lines wide, immediately behind the anus. The total length of the fish
is thirty-four inches ; tip of nose to anus, thirteen inches ; to gill openings, two
inches six lines; length of gape, one inch four lines. The nearest species
described by Richardson is O. Hostellatus,* from Senegal, but it presents marked
differences in the dentition, having a different number of teeth, which are
biserial; and in the pectoral fins, which, in O. Roséellatus, are large and oval.
The proportions are also slightly different. I therefore propose to distinguish
this fish as a new species, and call it Ophisurus Nove Zelandic.
* Richardson’s ‘‘ Antarctic Fishes,” p. 105
7
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78. Himantopus Nove Zelandiz, Gould
B. 78. 3 melas, Homb.
87. Ocydromus australis, Sparmm.
91. Porphyrio melanotus, Temm.
92. Casarca variegata, Gunl.
93. Anas superciliosa, Gul.
94. ,, chlorotis, Gray :
96. Fuligula Nove Zelandiz, Gml.
98. Hymenolaimus melacorhynchus, Gml.
99. Podiceps rufipectus, Gray
100. 3 Hectori, Buller
104, Spheniscus minor, Forst. .
126. Larus Dominicanus, Licht.
127. ,, scopulinus, Forst.
129. Sterna caspia, Pall. : j .
130. », longipennis, Nordm.
eile » antarctica, Forst. ,
Aveeno ile », sp. (Sternula nereis), Qy.
139. Graculus brevirostris, Gould
142. Dysporus serrator, Banks .
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Tt may be interesting to persons acquainted with the Oology of Europe,
to institute a brief comparison between the eggs of some of our birds, and
those of kindred European species ; in some few, considerable contrast in size
and shape, may be observed ; whilst amongst others so little difference is to
be discerned, that it would be difficult to decide, from transient inspection, of
which hemisphere they are native.
The eggs of falco Nove Zelandie closely resemble those of 7. peregrinus,
in size, form, and colour ; so also do those of Circus assimilis bear as striking
a likeness to those of O. rufus. The eggs of Halcyon vagans are larger than
those of Alcedo ispida, the same may be said of those of Cotwrnix Nove Zelandia,
when compared with those of C. vulgaris. To select the eggs of Hematopus
longtrostris, from a number of those of H. Ostralegus, would be difficult ; nor
would it be much less so to decide whether the Bittern’s eggs were European
or New Zealand; the eggs of Himantopus melanopterus strongly resemble
those of our Stilts, the same remark will apply to those of Podiceps minor and
rujipectus, respectively. With regard to the eggs of P. cristatus, they are
smaller than those of P. Hectert. 'The eggs of Sterna caspia bear a very close
resemblance in both hemispheres. The similarity between the eggs of Sterna
EF pe eee
et oe ey ee eS eon ae
TRANS: OF NZINSTITUTE VOLT Plate 4.
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Nests of
PETROICA MACROCEPHELA.
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Nest of
BO PAUIRUS IPOKGIEORIMEIRIUS:
Bittern.
Printed at the Ger. Gov. Lith Press
|
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,
OF NZINSTITUTE VOLAE Plate
Teekon out of a Te Pali,
- 16 inches
West of
ACANTHISITTA CHLORIS. PETROICA MACROCEPHELA.
as Wrew
HALCYON VAGANS Built in a small roll of bark hunging tm w cluster of Convolvxlus,
Kany Fisher.
— —WNest of
iti iy
Nest of Nest of
PODICEPS HECTORI. RHIPIDURA FLABELLIFERA. BOTAURUS POICILOPTERUS.
Grebe. Tomd of the silusr tree ferm Cyathea deulhatw. Bittern.
TDAP ts dal) PB teh
51
minuta, and the new species from the Rakaia, has already been pointed out.
The egg of Dz ysporous serrator only differs by 14 lines in length, from that of
Sula alba of Hurope ; whilst similar chalky encrustations may be found on
either specimen.
No. 1.—Fatco Nov ZeLanpdis, Gul.
Ka rewa rewa-tara.
Quai-hawk.
In New Zealand, the courageous family of the Raptores is very feebly
represented, the honourable post, “of head of the family must fairly be assigned
to this bird, which is commonly known by the name of the Quail or Sparrow-
hawk ; “the hardy Sperhauke eke the Quales foe,” as Chaucer has it. This
bold little Falcon, which, a few years since, was so frequently seen, is now of
comparatively rare occurrence. How seldom do we now hear that wild
chattering scream, which gave notice of its approach, and spread alarm amongst
the denizens of the poultry yard. Many instances might be cited of its daring
courage and perseverance in pursuit of its prey, such as dashing into houses,
penetrating to an inner room, striking its quarry, and clinging to it till
ruthlessly knocked over with a stick. Years ago, when Quail shooting, how
we have been troubled by the assiduous attendance of this bird, and have shot
this dauntless fowler almost in the act of swooping off our game. We have
noticed the female, with a Tui trussed in her talons, which she carried a
considerable distance without a res st, when the male soared boldly in company,
and kept watch and ward over his well-laden helpmate.
At present it is in the “back country ” only, that we can hope to find its
breeding-place, which is usually on a ledge of rock commanding a prospect over
some extent of country. Such an out-look gives an advantage of no little value,
of which the Falcon is not slow to avail itself, should such a bird as a Tui or
Pigeon appear in sight. |
everal of the breeding-places, which we have had opportunities of
examining, have presented, in a remarkable degree, very similar conditions as
regards situation. Amongst bold rocks on the mountain side, somewhat
sheltered by a projecting or overhanging mass, appears to be the favourite
site for rearing its young. The eggs very, closely resemble those of alco
peregrinus of Hurope, in colour, size, and shape, usually three in number, are
deposited on any decayed vegetable matter, that wind or rain may have
collected on the rocky ledge, for the efforts of this bird in the way of nest
building are of the fecblest descri ption. The eggs are of a rich reddish-brown,
mottled over with darker shades of brown, sometimes the ground-colour is
pale reddish-white, less suffused mee the darker colour at the smaller end,
broadly oval in shape, they measure 2 inches in length, with a diameter of
1 inch 6 lines. Some eggs taken from a range near the head-waters of the
Rakaia, give measurements somewhat less than the above, with a yellowish, in
place of reddish-brown colour. Young birds are covered with grey down at
first, and assume a plumage of dark brown above, with breast of rufous. white
spotted with brown, thighs slightly rufous. October, November, and
December is the principal breeding season, and the localities we have noted for
the eyries, are rocks near Cass’s Peak, Governor’s Bay, Malvern Hills, River
Potts, Mount Harper, ete.
Norers.—Oct. 10—Young Quail-hawks, near the home paddocks on the
Rangitata River.
Nov. 8—Above the upper gorge of the Ashburton or Haketere River,
found a nesting-place on the bare soil, sheltered by a large isolated rock ; two
young birds, covered with grey down, old birds very bold in defence of their
young.
52
No. 2.—Circus Assimiuis, Jard.
Kahu.
Harrier.
One of the commonest of the larger birds met with on “the plains.” From
its depredations on poultry of all kinds, game, etc., great numbers of this fine
Harrier are annually destroyed by means of the gun, poison, or the trap.
Over a lambing flock it may be frequently noticed soaring with wide circling
flight. On a weakly lamb its attack commences by picking out the eyes.
Birds it carefully plucks before it begins its meal. It is not an unusual
occurrence to find it with a young flapper, almost as neatly plucked as though
the work had been performed by the skilful hand of a poulterer. We found,
on one occasion, a good sized Shag which had been thus operated upon ; this
was in winter time (July), and shows it has sufficient strength and courage to
attack and destroy a bird of considerable size and power. Its favourite
building-place appears to be a low-lying situation amongst swamps, the margins
of lagoons, etc. The nest, built on the ground, is made of coarse grasses, such
as tohe-tohe, raised sometimes about a foot in height, rather flat on the top. We
have found it partly constructed with pieces of the thorny Discaria, and the
dead flower-stems of the large Aciphylla, above which prickly materials grass
has been carefully placed. The eggs, usually four in number, are white ; when
perforated, and held against the light, the interior shows a deep green ; length,
1 inch 11 lines, with a breadth of 1 inch 6 lines.
A pair of these birds made use of the same nesting-place year after year,
amongst some strong tohe-tohe, close to the Ashburton River. We took from
this nest an egg, which had been entirely covered up with the materials which
had been brought to renovate the nest, at a period, subsequent to the breeding
time, at which this egg had been laid.
From our memoranda, the months of November and December appear to
be the height of the breeding season; it is found moulting in February ;
occasionally fine old specimens are met with, in whish the whole plumage has
assumed quite a light tone of colour; this is so conspicuous in some
individuals, that some collectors endeavour to persuade themselves that a new
species has been discovered. Perhaps the noiseless flight of this bird should
be noted. When swooping on its quarry, the clean long tarsi enables the
observer to see the action of the feet, the rapid contraction and expansion of
the toes, when striking at its prey ; should this prove too large, or too heavy,
to be swooped off at once, the Harrier will drag it a considerable distance,
apparently changing its hold frequently, accompanied with much noiseless
fluttering of the wings, each time it strikes out its sharply armed foot to
obtain a fresh grasp. To give some idea of the numbers of this hawk that
are annually destroyed, it may be mentioned, that on the Cheviot Hills
station, ten to twelve per day were frequently killed, and that it would be
within compass to reckon that upwards of 1,000 hawks per annum had been
thus accounted for during the last two or three years ; amongst these were a
few of the Falco N.Z. It will not create surprise to learn, that on this run
rats are most abundant. On a farm on the Halswell, as many as fifteen were
found poisoned in one morning. On another farm in this neighbourhood,
numbers have been trapped by the use of a common rat-gin fixed on the top of
a Ti palm.
No. 7.—Haucyon vAGans, Gray.
Kotare.
Kingfisher.
One of our burrowing species. The tunnel-like hole, which forms the
approach to its nest, is found sometimes in a bank, and, perhaps, quite as often
ele
53
in a tree. On examining one of these holes, in a bank not far from the sea
beach, the floor or bottom was observed to incline slightly upwards from the
entrance, the eggs, deposited on the remains of crustacee, were not more than
one foot back from the outside of the hole. When a tree has been selected for
its home, we have been led sometimes to the discovery, by observing the
quantity of chips lying beneath ; its powerful bill soon excavates a nesting-
place in the partially decayed wood. The situation varies from a few feet to
above thirty feet from the ground (See Plate 4, Fig. 1). The eggs are pure
_glossy-white, delicate, and very beautiful, more fragile, perhaps, than those of
most other species, oval in shape, with a length of 1 inch } line, by a breadth
of 103 lines. After hatching, the nest is carefully cleared of the broken shells.
The young remain in the nest till well-fledged, and, apparently, almost ‘full-
grown. On examining the castings of the Kingfisher, which are often to be
met with in abundance near a nest containing young, we have observed that
the external wing-cases of coleopterz, have formed one of the principal
ingredients of the pellets. We have noted that a nest from which the young
emerged late in November, again contained eggs in January. Our Halcyon
-roust lay a much smaller number of eggs than the English Kingfisher.
Although this bird may be constantly seen occupying some prominent branch,
or stake, when watching for its prey (which, by the way, is of a very miscel-
laneous character), yet, when approaching or leaving its nest, it always, where
possible, seeks the screen of overhanging trees, as it swiftly darts through the
gully, permitting but a glimpse of its bright showy feathers. Should any one
approach too close to the neighbourhood of its breeding-hole, the parent bird
utters a low cry, like cree, cree, cree, frequently repeated. Our bird is much
more sociable than its Huropean relative, which is so remarkable for its
solitary habits, that it has been stated, that the male and female only associate
together at the breeding season: we have counted as many as eight of our
Kingfishers sitting In company ; after a heavy rain we have observed, on our
lawn, several of the croquet hoops occupied at one time by these striking-
looking birds. It is rarely to be seen on the ground; after darting down,
either in the water, or on land, and securing its booty, it immediately flies
with it to some perch, or post of vantage, and prepares it for deglutition, by
administering some smart blows with its bill, the sound of which may often be
distinctly heard. During the breeding season it indulges in a monotonous call
of chimp, chimp, chimp, then a pause, the call and pause alternating for a
considerable time. Fish, crustacez, young birds, mice, coleoptere, bees, and
other insects, furnish some portion of the food-supply of the Kingfisher ; we
have often noticed its rapid dart at a brood of young chickens. This bird is
one of those fortunate species, whose numbers seem rather to increase than
diminish at the approach of civilization.
The name of Halcyon given by ornithologists to this species, carries us
far back into the very early days of Natural History. The history of its
European congener was enveloped in poetic fables for centuries ; probably no
other bird, whose habits could be so easily observed, has been so universally
the subject of groundless tales, or superstitious regard,—perhaps the recital of
some of these notices may be excused. Aristotle, after a fair description of
the bird, gravely states : “ Its nest resembles the marine balls which are called
helosachne, except in colour, for they are red; in form it resembles those
sicyze (cucurbits) which have long necks.” Again, he says: “This bird
hatches its young about the time of the winter solstice. Whereupon fine days
occurring at this season are called Halcyon days.” Omitting the fabulous
accounts of many ancient authors, let us peruse the account of the philosopher
of a more recent date, on the breeding habits of this wonderful bird; thus
quaintly wrote Montaigne :—
1
4
‘Mais ce que experience apprend & ceux qui voyagent par mer et notam-
ment en la mer de Sicile, de la condition des halcyons, surpasse toute humaine
cogitation. De quelle espece d’animaux a jamais Nature tant honoré les
couches, la naissance, et l’enfantement? car les Poétes disent bien qu’une seule
isle de Delos, estant auparavant vagante, fut affermie, pour le service
de Venfantement de Latone: mais Dieu a voulu que toute la mer fut
arrestée, affermie, et applaniec, sans vagues, sans vents, et sans pluye, cependant
que Vhalcyon fait ses petits, qui est justement environ le Solstice, le plus court
jour de lan: et par son privilege nous avons sept jours et sept nuicts, au fin
coeur de ’hyver que nous pouvons naviguer sans danger. Leur femelles ne
recognoissent autre masle que le leur propre : Vassistant toute leur vie sans
jamais l’ébandonner: s'il vient & estre debile et cassé, elles le chargent sur leurs
espaules, le portent partout, et le servent jusques.& la mort.
“Mais aucune suffisance n’a encore peu atteindre 4 la cognoissance de
cette merveillense fabrique, dequoy Vhalcyon compose le nid pour ses petits,
ny en deviner la matiere. Plutarque, qui en a veu et manié plusieurs, pense
que ce soit des arestes de quelque poisson quelle conjcinct et lie en-
semble, les entrelassent les unes de long les autres de travers, et
adjoustant des courbes et des arrondissemens, tellement qu’enfin elle en
forme un vaisseau rond prest & voguer: puis quand elle a parachevé de
le construire, elle le porte au batement du flot marin, 14 oa la mer
le battant tout doucement, luy enseigne a redouber ce qui n’est pas bien
lié, et & mieux fortifier aux endroits ot elle void que sa structure se desment,
et se lasche pour les coups de mer ; et au contraire ce qui est bien joinct, le
batement de la mer le vous estreinct, et vous le serre de sorte, qu’il ne se peut
ny rompre ny CHSC, ou endommager a coups de pierre, ny de fer, si ce
nest a toute peine. % ce qui plus est 4 admirer, c’est la proportion et figure
de la concavité du dedans: car elle est composée et proportionée de maniere
qu elle ne peut recevoir ny admettre autre chose, que l’oiseau qui l’a bastie : car
a toute autre chose, elle est impenetrable, close et fermée, tellement qu’il ny
peut rien entrer, nou pas l’eau de la mer seulement. Voyla une description
bien claire de ce bastiment et empruntée de bon heu: toutesfois il me semble
qwelle ne nous esclaircit pas eneor suffisamment la difficulté de cette architec-
ture. Or de quelle vanité nous peut il partir, de loger au dessous de nous,
et @interpreter desdaigneusement les effects que nous ne pouvons imiter ny
comprendre ?”
Sir Thomas Browne, the exposer of vulgar errors, m his ‘“ Pseudodoxia
Epidemica,” after stating the results of actual experiments, which enabled
him to contradict the common notion, that a Kingfisher, suspended by the
bill, would show from what quarter the wind blew, yet, sropememtlhy, received
the ancient fable of the halcyon days without any distrust, for thus he wrote
concerning the peculiar relations existing g between this bird and the winds :—
“¢ More especially remarkable in the time of their nidulation and bringing
forth their young. For at that time, which happeneth about the brumal
solstice, it hath been observed, even unto a proverb, that the sea is calm, and
the winds do cease, till the young ones are excluded, and forsake their nest,
which floateth wpon the sea, and by the roughness of the winds, might
otherwise be overwhelmed. But how far hereby to magnify their prediction
we have no certain rule; for whether out of any particular pre-notion they
choose to sit at this time, or whether it be thus contrived by concurrence of
causes, and providence of nature, securing every species in their production, is
not yet determined.” It would occupy too much space to mention the names
of naturalists and writers who adopted similar romantic tales, each of whom
was, of course, supposed to be narrating a particular and veracious account of
the extraordinary mode of nidification of the Haleyon. Mr. Gould dissipated,
55
at last, whatever might have remained of these clouds of fable, by depositing
the nest, entire, in the British Museum; a feat, the difficulties attending
which were so well appreciated by all bird-nesters, that there was a report, or
tradition, throughout many parts of England, that the authorities of the
British Museum had offered a reward of £100 for a perfect nest of the
Kinefisher. For a full account of Mr. Gould’s exploit, see “‘ Homes without
Hands.”
Shakespeare, in “‘ King Lear,” and several other writers, allude to the
superstitious idea, that, if suspended by a thread from the ceiling, with
windows and doors closed, the Kingfisher would turn its bill towards the
quarter from whence the wind blew.
Amongst numerous other virtues, it was supposed to be a protection
against thunder, against the ravages of the moth in woollen cloth, to be able
to increase hidden treasure, to bestow grace and beauty on the person who
carried it, and enjoyed the power of renewing its plumage, after death, by
moulting.
No. 10.—ProstHemapERA Nova ZELANDIZ, Gml.
Tui.
Parson-bird.
We have but seldom found the nest of this very common bird, whose
varied notes break upon the stillness of the bush. Wherever we have met
with its nest, it has been rather on the outskirts than in the depth of the bush
itself. The Parson-bird seems thoroughly joyous only in the full glow of
unlight, where it may be seen in numbers, darting upwards far above the
highest trees, and revelling in its free stretch of wing, now and then playfully
pursuing some smaller bird, till it seeks the shelter of a friendly bush.
We have found the nest from twelve to thirty feet from the ground, and
have noticed that whether against a White pine, or Black birch, there has been
a sheltering cluster of Rubus, with its sharp, recurved prickles, ‘beneath which
the structure has been concealed. We have found it more than once near the
non of a Myrsine Urvillei, over which the Rubus has thrown its straggling cords,
forming a prickly canopy most difficult to penetrate. The nest, rather large,
made of slender sprays intermixed with moss, and the wool or down of Tree-
ferns (Cyathea deaibata), lined with fine bents of Poa g grass ; the dimensions we
noted of a nest are as follows: across the top, from outside of wall to outside of
wall, 9 inches, diameter of cavity, 3 inches 6 lines, with a depth of 2 inches.
The eggs, usually three or four in number, are white, or with the slightest
tinge of pink, marbled with rust-red veins, most numerous towards the larger
end, rather pyriform in shape, they measure 1 inch 2 lines m length, by 10 lines :
in breadth. The nest containing young is sometimes stained deep purpie, from
the juice of the Konini berries (#uchsia excorticata). On one occasion, the
young, unable to fly, on being alarmed fiuttered out of the nest to the ground,
a fall of about twelve feet, the next day they were found safely ensconced
within the nest, looking quite happy; this could only have been effected
through the assistance of the parent birds. The Tui is rather combative whilst
the young require feeding, even when they can fly well, it may be observed
driving away the Kingfisher and Bell-bird from the trees in which its young
are lodged. However much the white-tufted Tui may add to the interest
of our forest scenery by the beauty of its glossy plumage, the gaiety which
distinguishes its flight, or the wild outburst of its joyful notes, in the eyes
of the omnivorous settler, it possesses the higher merit of furnishing a
savoury article of food, and no weak sentimental feeling saves it from “the
camp-oven. It is frequently kept in confinement, and at one time many were
sent to the neighbouring colonies. (See Plate 6, Fig. 1). 5
56
No. 11.—ANTHORNIS MELANURA, Sparrm.
Koromako.
Bell-bird.
Everyone who has rambled through the bush, or even strayed amongst
the shrubby thickets that fringe our numerous gullies, must have become
familiar with the clear metallic ring of the Bell-bird’s note. It may be said
to sing matins and vespers for the warblers of the bush, as it is at the grey
break of dawn, and the still hour that closes in the day, that its chime strikes
clearest on the ear. It is comparatively silent during the noontide heat, unless
some few individuals meet on a tree or shrub, that offers a tempting show of
honey-bearing blossoms, a note or two is briefly sounded, the numbers rapidly
increase ; after much noisy fluttering of wings, a gush of clanging melody bursts
forth from a score of quivering throats, forming a concert of inharmonious, yet
most pleasing sounds. Probably Cook indicated the Bell-bird, then in a
comparatively unmolested state, when he wrote, “the ship lay at the distance
of somewhat less than a quarter of a mile from the shore, and in the morning
we were awakened by the singing of the birds; the number was incredible, and
they seemed to strain their throats in emulation of each other. This wild
melody was infinitely superior to any that we had ever heard of the same kind;
it seemed to be like small bells, most exquisitely tuned, and perhaps the
distance and the water between, might be of no small advantage to the sound.”
Nor does this cheerful bird confine itself to the bush, it frequents our gardens
and shrubberies, and especially affects the blossoms of the Fuchsia, Tritoma,
Acacia, etc. The berries of various Coprosmas, and that of the Konini, it
greedily devours ; it may be frequently observed fluttering heavily in pursuit
of a moth. It is very easily snared with a noose at the end of a tohe reed ;
in confinement it feeds on soaked bread, ete. Whilst the Phormium tenax
is in blossom, many Bell-birds may be observed with their head feathers dyed
orange-red, from contact with the pollen and honey, whilst extracting a
delicious repast from the flax blooms. It has been stated that zealous
ornithologists have deemed the bird thus decorated, a new species.
Placed at no great elevation from the ground, the nest may be found in a
variety of positions, but we certainly have noticed it most frequently beneath
a sheltering canopy of “ Bush-lawyer” (Rubus australis.) It is rather flat,
and loosely constructed of sprays, grass, moss, etc., well lmed with feathers.
On examining the foundation of a nest, we found green sprays of Manuka
amongst the interlaced materials, a fact which disclosed the proof of the power of
the bill of this honey-sucker in breaking off such tough twigs. From wall to wall,
across the top, the nest measures about 5 inches, diameter of cavity, 2 inches
9 lines, depth inside, about 2 inches. We fancy that the lining feathers are
selected in such a manner as to afford some evidence of harmony of colour in
their arrangement ; as, for instance, we have noted specimens, with the inner
lining entirely composed of the red feathers of the Kaka, another adorned with
the green feathers of the Parroquet ; near the farm, where many kinds of
poultry are kept, we have had instances of lining, white, black, speckled, buff,
etc., but uniformity of colour has been displayed. The eggs, four in number,
are white with reddish specks, sometimes the ground-colour exhibits a delicate
pinkish tinge ; they measure in length 11 lines, with a breadth of 84 lines.
We must have peered into scores of nests, in various parts of the country, but
we have never yet been fortunate enough to encounter such a prize as one
containing “‘seven eggs, spotted with blue, upon a brown ground,” ascribed to
this bird by the Rev. R. Taylor, in his work ‘Te Ika a Maui.” The breeding-
season extends from the commencement of spring, throughout the summer
57
months. We have discovered the nest in an old flower-branch of the Ti palm
(Cordyline australis). (See Plate 5, Fig. 1.)
Nore.—Feb. 2, 1868—Bell-bird building ; that would give the breeding
season a duration of about six months,
No. 15.—PocGonornis cincta, Dubus.
A nest, assigned to this bird, was found in the bush above the Kaiwara-
wara stream, not far from Wellington ; it contained one egg, rather oval in
form, somewhat pointed at each end, measuring 9 lines in length, with a breadth
of 7 lines ; the whole surface clouded over with pale rufous-brown.
The nest, with thin walls, and of shallow form, was built of sprays, above
which were laid fibres and dry rootlets of 'Tree-fern ; fine grass was used for the
lining, over which cow-hair was laid, and measured, across the top, 4 inches 9
lines, cavity 2 inches 4 lines, depth 1 inch 4 lines. This description is from
the specimen in the Colonial Museum, Wellington.
No. 18.—ACANTHISITTA CHLORIS, Sparrm.
Pi wau wau.
Wren.
This, the smallest of our birds, is usually seen in pairs, flying low, with a
feeble, jerky style of flight ; more frequently it is met with creeping amongst
the lichens and mosses that decorate the stems and branches of our forest trees.
We have found the nest in a small hole in the trunk of a Fagus. Once a nest
was discovered, very cleverly built in a roll of bark, that hung suspended in a
thicket of climbing Convolvulus. (See Plate 4, Fig. 2).
The eggs are said to be very numerous sometimes, although four or five
have been the most we have observed to a nest; like those of nearly all
troglodytal birds, they are white and glossy ; ovoiconically shaped, they measure
74 lines in length, by 6 lines broad. We have a note of the Wren breeding
in August.
No. 19.—Monova ocHROCEPHALA, Gul.
Mohoua.
Canary.
Although we have not observed this bird anywhere on “the plains,” or
on the lower ground of the “bays,” yet as soon as one ascends the bushy gullies
of the hills, the Canary is sure to pay a reconnoitering visit ; with sharp strident
call, it summons its companions, and the trees around will soon disclose the
golden breasts and heads of these active arboreals, as they peer down on the
intruder with noisy clamour. With restless movements, they creep round,
above, and below the leafy branches, in their insect search. We have watched
them on the ground, busily scratching and pecking between the huge moss-clothed
roots of the lofty trees that tower above. The nest measuring across the top,
3 inches 3 lines, with a depth of 1 inch 4 lines, is a beautifully compact
structure, cup-shaped, principally of moss, very closely felted, and neatly inter-
woven with webs of spiders. (See Plate 5, Fig. 2). In the hollow trunk of the
Broad-leaf, it is sometimes found, and occasionally in a decaying Black Birch.
Eggs white, with very small faint specks of red, nearly 11 lines in length, with
a breadth of 84 lines. We have a specimen of the nest and eggs from the
River Wilberforce.
No. 20.—SPHENGACUS PUNCTATUS, Quoy. and Gaim.
Mata.
Grass- bird, Grass-pheasant, Utick.
Some years ago the monotonous note of this little bird might be heard in
almost any place, where tall tohe-tohe reeds, or the waving leaves of the Carex
58
virgata, indicated marshy ground; now it is rapidly disappearing, as the
swamps are becoming drained. As its very feeble power of flight is unable to
save it from the bush fires, we anticipate it must become extinct, on ‘the
plains,” at no very distant date. From its call, it is in some places named the
Utick. The nest, inclining somewhat to an oval shape, and measuring about three
inches across, is made of grass leaves, so frail in its construction, that the walls
may be seen through, consequently it is a difficult specimen to obtain in a
perfect state (See Plate 5, Fig. 4); a few feathers, usually those of the
Pukeko, are added to the grass leaves, and sometimes a small tuft or two of
wool. The situation 1s, most frequently, in a tussock, a few inches above the
level of the ground. The eggs,three.or four in ansrmnlsee are white, speckled with
a beautiful tint of reddish- purple, which at once readily distinguishes them from
those of any other bird ; ovoiconical i in form, they measure, through the axis,
10 lines, with a Uimcter of 73 lines.
Norrs.—Nov. 4—Nest containing three young birds, in a tussock, at the
edge of a wide creek.
Nov. 7—Nest with four eg
ges, ina swamp by the Hororata stream, in the
Malvern Hills.
No. 25.—GERYGONE ASSIMILIS, Buller.
Piripiri.
Warbler, Teetotum.
This cheerful little warbler is a pensile nest-builder, and one of the earliest
breeders ; its neat, domed nest may be often found, in August, suspended in
some bushy Manuka or Olearia. The nest may y be called somewhat pear-shaped,
with a small entrance near the middle, above which is often affixed a kind of
porch (See Plate 6, Fig. 3), it is suspended by its top, and kept steady from
swaying in the breeze, “by slight fastenings to a spray or two, acting as guys.
Moss enters largely into its construction, very frequently wool ; we ‘have
examined one, the greater part of which was composed of wool; cobwebs are
freely made use of, to felt and bind the materials into a compact mass. We
have a nest before us, taken from the fork of a Willow tree, at least twenty-
five feet from the ground ; it is rather larger than usual, and almost wholly
constructed of poultry feathers and cobwebs, and is felted into a compact, firm
structure, the porch and its foundation, beneath the entrance, is strengthened
and kept in shape by fine roots carefully interwoven with green cobwebs ; here
and there may be found pieces of thread, string, coloured worsted, picked up
from the garden or yard ; the interior is thickly lined with feathers (See Plate
6, Fig. 2), this nest is evidently composed of materials, which would not have
been made use of so freely, but for its firm and sheltered position in the fork of
the willow, the most exposed part only being strengthened with stiff material.
Sometimes, yet rarely, the nest is built in a less elaborate manner, without
either dome or porch, the form of the structure being adapted to the
peculiarities of the situation chosen; the principle of suspension is likewise
occasionally abandoned. Five or six eggs are usually found to a nest, they
are white, with red spots, ovoiconical in shape, 8 lines in length, with a
breadth of 6 lines. No bird suffers so frequently from the imposition of the
golden-winged Cuckoo, as the grey Warbler. We have several times observed
a pair of these industrious little insect-eaters, feeding a young parasite larger
than themselves. The Cuckoo only arrives in October, when the warmth of
Spring is well established ; and one reason for the selection of the Warbler’s
home, in addition to its pencile character, appears to us to be, because from its
shape and structure it is the warmest nest, to be found, for rearing so tender a
bird as the Chrysococcyx, our gay visitor, during the spring and summer
months.
TRANS. N.Z. INSTITUTE VOLT Plans
Nest and Egqs of
ee ZOSTEROPS LATERALIS.
Cs Ty w branch of Lepiospermusry SCOP ATLUTY,
j \
To accompany Paper
| by
Te T.H.POTTS.
TH Potts dev. LBwes Privied at the Gen. Gov. Lith Press hy J. Earver.
Nest of
MOHOUA OCHROCEPHALA
Nest and Hags of
ZOSTEROPS LATERALIS.
Ln w branch of Lepiospermiune SCOP ATLUTY,
Nest and Eggs of
bec To aooompany Paper
ANTHORNIS MELANURA. Ty
5 TELE ONCE.
Lr an old flower spike of Cordyline Australis. Nest and Hggs of
SPHENG:ACUS PUNCTATUS.
Prirctea ab the Gen. Oot. LE PPas By BENCH
DELP atts dev. TB uekwiar tw.
og
Note.—We have found eggs of the Warbler quite white, doubtless the
_ produce of young birds. As yet we have failed to observe any such distinctive
features, either in the structure or habits of these Warblers, that they should
be classed as separate species, under the names of flaviventris and assimilis.
We adhere to assimilis, as is adopted in the collection in the Canterbury
Museum.
No. 26.—CrrtHiparus Nova ZELANDI£Z, Gml.
Brown Creeper ; Brown Canary.
Although this Creeper may be seen in almost every bush, from the coast
to the distant Alpine Ranges, we have only once found its nest. This was in
the month of December, far above the Rangitata Gorge. The nest, containing
three young birds, was compactly built of moss, with a few feathers, placed in
a Black-birch, between the trunk and a spur, from whence sprouted out a thick
tuft of dwarfish sprays, about seven feet from the ground.
No. 27.—CERTHIPARUS ALBICILLA, Less.
Mohoua.
This bird appears sufficiently common, about the bush above Wellington,
for its habits to be well studied. There are several specimens of the nest and
eggs in the Colonial Museum, Wellington. The nest is a very compact
structure, having very thick walls, and in its style of architecture bears a
strong resemblance to that of J/. Ochrocephala, although, in some instances,
different materials are used. In the one before us, different kinds of soft
grass and moss form the staple, well-felted and interwoven with webs, lichens,
and the down of tree-ferns ; it measures 4 inches 1 line across the top, cavity
1 inch 10 lines in diameter, 1 inch 4 lines deep. Eggs white, or with very
faint specks of pink, measure 104 lines in length, with a breadth of 7} lines.
No. 29.—PrETROICA MACROCEPHALA, Gunl.
Ngirungiru. Piro piro.
Tomtit.
This familiar little bird is one of the more elaborate nest-builders amongst
the denizens of the bush, or rather its outskirts.
It adapts itself, in a manner, to civilization, frequenting gardens, and
may be seen perched on a bough, ready to pounce on the grubs the gardener’s
spade may bring to light, reminding one very much of the habits of the
Red-breast at home.
The nest varies much in shape according to position ; frequently we have
found it in holes of trees ; a favourite site is immediately under the head of
the ti tree (Cordyline australis). Two nests we presented to the Canterbury
Museum, were of remarkable shape ; one, a firm compact structure, placed in
the forked head of a ti tree, resembled a very neat moss basket, with a handle
across the top ; the second, also from a ti tree, from, perhaps, the foundation
slipping between the leaves, was built up till it reached the great length of
sixteen inches. (See Plate 4, Fig. 4). We have found others placed on a rock,
and one, now in the Colonial Museum, was built between the brace and
shingles in the roof of an empty cottage.
The nest is neatly and firmly built of a variety of materials, carefully and
neatly interwoven ; moss, grass-bents, slender sprays, the down or wool of
the tree-fern, cobwebs, and feathers, warmly line the interior. Four eggs is
the usual number laid, though we have been told of more having been found ;
they are white, with grey speckles, most numerous towards the larger end,
9 lines long and 7 lines broad. A nest built in a ti tree, close to a pathway,
K
60
was almost daily visited by the child who had made the discovery, and the
eges inspected ; when hatched the young were now and then handled, yet the
confidence of the old birds carried them through this trying ordeal, and their
young ones were successfully reared.
This is one of the few birds, of whose extinction we are happy to believe
there is no danger ; it is most useful as an insect eater, it is one of the latest
to retire to rest, and may be often observed perched on the trunk of a tree, in
a posture by which its body is almost at a right angle with the tree. The
nests, described above, were found about Ohinitahi, where birds are as much
encouraged, and as little disturbed as possible. Last summer another specimen
was noticed, which had been built upon an old nest, making a solid mossy
structure, measuring about one foot from top to bottom. The usual dimensions
of the nest are as follows :—Across from outside of wall to outside, 5 inches ;
cavity 2 inches 6 lines, with a depth of | inch 6 lines.
No. 31.—Perroica tortor, Less and Garn.
Tit.
Whatever distinguishing features, scientific research may have discovered,
which allows specific differences between P. Dieffenbachi and P. toitoi, we fear
they are not generally appreciated or understood. Perhaps this may be a fair
opportunity of pointing out that the nomenclature of our birds still requires
attention, and, above all, settlement ; to the enquiring student of ornithology,
scarcely anything can exceed the perplexity and embarrassment which is
caused by a conflicting nomenclature. To give one instance: Anarynchus
Jrontalis appears in Dieffenbach’s list ; since then we have noticed it as
Charadrius, Hematopus, and now Anarynchus once more. Let us hope this
may be the last change. We have often observed a Petroica, whose favourite
haunt appeared to be amongst large areas of flax bushes (Phormium tenax), but
confess we could not undertake to decide to which of the two species, named
above, the Tit, to which we have referred, belonged; nor is there, unfor-
tunately, any complete type collection, either in Wellington or Christchurch,
which could decide any doubt that might be entertained on the subject. We
have a set of eggs in our collection, which we are inclined to assign to the
P. toitoi ; they are slightly more inclined to pyriform, in shape, than those
of P. Macrocephala, white, with marks of purplish-grey towards the larger
end, and measure 9 lines in length, with a breadth of 7 lines.
No. 32.—PerrTroica LoNGIPES, Less. and Garn.
Robin.
In the Colonial Museum, Wellington, there is a specimen of the nest and
eggs of this bird.
The nest, compactly built of moss, fine roots, web, and tree-fern down, is
more neatly finished than that of P. albifrons. The eggs, ovoiconical in form,
are marked, principally at the larger end, with specks of greyish-brown.
No. 33.—PETROICA ALBIFRONS, Gml.
Totoara.
Robin.
Our rather dirty-looking Robin is one of the sweetest warblers of the
bush, bold and confident, its habits may be easily observed, as one rambles near
the rocky sides of a forest stream. Its nest is wider, and larger altogether,
than that of Petroica macrocephala, but not so closely mterwoven ; moss,
sprays, leaves, fine fibres, and grass, enter into its construction. Diameter of
nest 5 to 6 inches, cavity 3 3 inches, with a depth of linch 3 lines. A favourite
61
situation appears to be behind such protuberances as are to be found on the
huge gnarled trunk of Griselinia litoralis, very often not more than three feet
from the ground. Eggs, three or four in number, are dullish-white, with
reddish marks, principally at the larger end.
No. 34.—Antnus Nova# ZeLanpia, Ginl.
Pihoihoi.
Lark.
This well-known bird appears to be common all over the country ; it
builds on the ground, making its nest of grass, usually screened by a tussock.
The eggs, five in number, are greyish-white, speckled over with dark-grey ;
sometimes a set of eggs may be noticed very much mottled over with brown,
ovoiconical in form, measuring 103 lines in length, by a breadth of
8 lines. We have an egg, very much smaller and darker than any others
we have yet observed. In February, 1868, a pair made their nest within six ~
inches of a shrubbery walk, and reared their young successfully, although yo
frequently disturbed,—the old bird invariably quitted the nest on its being
approached. When a Harrier wheels round, and appears about to settle,
Larks may often be observed, in numbers, gathering together with a
chirping note, moving restlessly, sometimes with a short flight, watching and
following the movements of their enemy.
Probably it is attempting to rid itself from the persecution of some
parasitic vermin, when this bird is frequently observed to indulge in a dust-
bath. It has a habit of keeping its insect prey in its beak for a long time,
before it is devoured, or carried off to its nest. At last shearing time, two
Larks, almost albinos, made their appearance, daily, about the yards of a
wool-shed, on the Waikerukini.
Nore.—In August, a nest was brought to the Wellington Museum,
which contained several tufts of moss, but not neatly interwoven, like the
workmanship of a bird that builds its nest principally of moss.
No. 35.—ZosTEROPS LATERALIS, Lath.
Tauhou.
Blight-bird.
We first noticed this bird on some Fagus trees in the Rockwood Valley,
Malvern Hills, July 28th, 1856. Its numbers, since then, have increased with
great rapidity. It very soon obtained the name of the Blight-bird, in recognition
of its services to gardens and orchards, from its habit of feeding on the American
blight, with which apple trees in this colony are so generally infested ; but,
although the gardener noticed with satisfaction its labours in this direction,
during the winter months, yet as summer returned and fruits ripened, its
incessant depredations on cherries and plums were witnessed with anything
but pleasure. From examining scores of nests, we find that out of a
considerable variety of materials made use of, moss and grass predominate ;
the fabric is strong, although frequently slight, in some cases the walls are
extremely thin; it is usually suspended, at the sides, by fastenings bound
securely over slender twigs; some are almost wholly constructed of grass,
amongst which, now and then, may be found a few small tufts of the grey-beard
moss, in others the cottony down of plants is neatly interwoven with moss and
spiders’ webs, lined with fibres, or fine stems of grass, sometimes with hair ;
some nests are quite shallow, others of deep cup-like form (See Plate 5, Fig. 3),
and measure in diameter 3 inches, cavity 1 inch 6 lines to 2 inches, depth
10 limes to 2 inches. In gardens, it has been observed placed in a great
variety of shrubs, occasionally in a rose-bush bordering a well-frequented walk ;
62
never far above the ground, usually from two to six feet. We have found it
suspended to our common fern, Pieris aquilina. It lays three clear-blue eggs,
ovoiconical in shape, measuring 8 lines in length, with a breadth of 64 lines :
incubation lasts about ten days. The nest and eggs form as pleasing an object
as those of the Hedge-sparrow at home. The gift of song does not appear to
be equally shared by these birds; in addition to the quick, sharp note or
chirrup, which all seem to have in common, now and then an individual bird
is heard pouring forth a low, well-sustained, melodious song ; possibly the power
may exist in all adult males, only to be indulged in at pairing time.
One of the pensile nest-builders, which seem to be almost equally rare
in our temperate clime as they are in the old country. The suspension of its
habitation is accomplished in a different manner from that of Gerygone, and
more after the fashion adopted by Regulus cristatus, of Kurope, the Kinglet or
Golden-crested Wren, except that the nest is very often formed without any
protection or shelter from an overhanging leaf. The rim of the ladle-shaped
structure is firmly secured to a forked twig by silky threads of spiders’ nests,
finished on the outside, round the bottom, with braces of green leaves of grass,
crossed and recrossed, which add much to the strength and stiffness of the
fabric.
Now, as pensile nests are peculiarly adapted for ensuring the safety of their
contents against the predatory attacks of various egg-robbers, does not the
suspension of the habitation of the Zosterops,—the instinctive precaution of a
foreign land (See Chrysococcyx lucidus),—attord an indication that it is a recent
colonist, not yet so thoroughly acclimatized as to be fully aware of the
immunity it enjoys from ravages of snakes, etc. ? will that form of nest which
is now sometimes found built iz, rather than suspended from, a bush or thicket,
become a more common object, and thus show a change in the style
of architecture, as this bird, season after season, experiences the comparative
safety of the breeding-places in our cooler latitude? Amongst our indigenous
genera are there any pensile nest-builders? For years we invariably found
three eggs to be the complement to a nest ; now this last season we have met
with several instances where four eggs have been laid, where this has occurred,
the home has been built 7m, rather than fairly suspended from, a bush. If the
reason, before suggested, for a modification in the manner of fixing the habitation
be considered as not altogether too fanciful, may we not likewise be allowed to
advance our opinion that the change of climate is also gradually producing its
effects in the increased fecundity of our little Blight-bird.
Norre.—Dec. 4—Nest in a manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), appeared
to be completely lined and finished. On the 8th it contained three eggs; the
next day a fourth egg was laid; on the 19th one callow nestling was
exhibiting its ugliness, perfectly naked, except two or three small tufts of white
down on the bald cranium, the body deep yellowish-pink, with dark slatey-coloured
marks along the line of the vertebrae, the exterior of wing, and legs. The day
following, his ugliness had a companion, on the 23rd feathers had made their
appearance, where the slatey markings had been noticed ; two unhatched eggs
remained in the nest, which was only visited quietly once a day.
Young birds, for some time after they can fly well, can scarcely be said to
possess any just pretension to the title of Zosterops, as they are without the
circlet of white feathers round the eyes.
From the large number of nests we have observed, December must be the
height of the breeding season.
The Zosterops is so partial to the berries of the trailing Cotoneaster
mycrophylla, that we have known it to be taken by the hand, when it has been
busily engaged on them; in the early spring we have observed it eating
clover.
63
No. 37.—RHIPIDURA FLABELLIFERA, Gm.
Piwakawaka.
Fan-tail.
The pied Flycatcher seems to prefer proximity to water in selecting its
nesting-place, we have noticed it most frequently near a creek, where over-
hanging boughs have afforded considerable shade.
The nest, beautifully made, is very compact, and, from our experience,
varies very slightly in shape. The materials are well felted together, moss, grass-
bents, fibrous roots, with cobwebs, ete. ; the structure is fixed on some bough
or spray, the foundation, very frequently, commences with chips of decayed
wood. ‘The prettiest nest we ever found, was on a leaf of the large silver tree-
fern (C. dealbata.) (See Plate 4, Fig, 6.) The eggs, four in number, generally
are white with brown freckles towards the larger end, 8 lines long, by 6 lines
broad. We never found the nest very early in the spring.
Towards autumn this bird frequents the verandah, enters the house,
clearing the rooms of flies, the snapping of the mandibles is plainly heard, as
it flits circling round the room.
. albiscapa, the fan-tail warbler of Tasmania, builds a nest with a long
tail underneath, giving the whole structure a funnel-like appearance.
Occasionally, &. flabellifera also builds its home with a long tail, but broader
and less artistically finished than that of the R. albiscapa. One nest in our
collection has this peculiar appendage, constructed of skeleton leaves and bents
of grass, etc. What is its use ?
No. 38.—RHIPIDURA FULIGINOSA, Sparrm.
Tiwaikawaka.
Black Fan-tail.
The Black Fan-tail Flycatcher breeds under conditions so very similar to
those of the preceding species, that one description will serve for both. To
our view, the most remarkable feature in the breeding habits of our Flycatchers
is the situation usually selected for rearing their young. Security does not
appear to be the first consideration ; security, by concealment, seems the leading
feature which guides most arboreal birds in choosing the site for their home,
and it is one in which the most admirable displays of instinct may be frequently
observed. The Flycatchers rather appear to be led by the same consideration
which actuate many sea-birds in selecting the position of their breeding-place,
proximity to the food supply. Stroll carefully along the rocky bed of a creek
which rambles through some bushy gully, and you may perchance see the
beautiful nest perched on some slender bough, in so delicate a manner, that it
appears scarcely so much to be fixed, as to rest balanced there. There is no
concealment amongst tangled creepers, guarded with their sharp recurved
prickles ; it is not buried amidst a mass of waving leaves, nor is it hidden
away in the dim twilight of some hollow tree, but there, a few feet above the
water, it sways gently with the subdued breeze, that reaches the quiet ravine
through the leafy canopy that is spread around.
In thus placing its nest so obviously in view, one is reminded of its family
connections, of the Spotted Flycatcher (A/uscicapa grisola) of the old country,
which we used to term the Post bird, from the almost glaring manner in which
its unscreened habitation was displayed. But as ‘“‘there is reason in the
roasting of eggs,” saith the proverb, so there is also instinct in selecting the
place where they shall be laid ; over the shady creek our Flycatcher is in the
midst of sandflies, and the position chosen for its nest affords comparatively as
good a vantage ground for supplying the wants of its young, as the nesting-
oS?
place on the craggy mountain side bestows on the dashing Quail-hawk.
64
The Black and Pied Flycatchers breed together frequently.
Novre.—Dec. 8th—Nest and eggs of R. fuliginosa tixed on a rock abutting
on the creek in Valehead Bush, Malvern Hills ; within a few feet, on the same
rock, were two old nests.
No. 47.—Puatycercus Nov# ZELANDIA£, Sparrm.
Kakariki.
Parroquet.
As far as we are aware, the breeding habits of this variety of Platycercus
differ in no material point from those of P. auriceps. We have been told that
occasionally it breeds on rocks.
Eggs, oval in shape, measure 1 inch 1} lines in length, by 10 lines in
breadth.
This species is frequently to be seen caged ; in confinement it imitates the
human voice, with tolerable distinctness. This bird, as well as the smaller
species, 1s frequently shot for food.
No. 50.—PLAtTycERCUS AURICEPS, Kuhl.
Kakariki.
Parroquet.
The smaller Parroquet is a beautiful object, as with merry note it darts
across the forest glade, with its bright green plumage glinting in the sunshine,
giving at once a foreign impress to the scene, in the mind of the English
settler.
Troglodytal in its breeding habits, it seeks some hollow tree or branch in
which to rear its young ; sometimes its nest is placed between the wood and
the dissevered bark of a decaying tree ; more frequently at the bottom of some
deep hole. ‘The eggs are white, and somewhat oval in shape.
In the gardens situated near bush, the Parroquet becomes a great
purloiner of fruit. Near Arowhenua and Waimate, we have seen it rising in
flocks from the oat-ricks. It is so bold as to be very easily snared with a tohe-
tohe reed, noosed at the tapering point.
Jt commences breeding in August.
Since the great fall of snow, July, August, 1867, all bush-birds about the
Malvern Hills appear to have become scarcer ; for quite a year after that great
storm, the silence in the bushes seemed quite remarkable, as though entirely
deserted by their feathered songsters. This was notably the case in the
Rockwood Bush.
No. 51.—NzsTOR MERIDIONALIS, Gunl.
Kaka.
Bush Parrot.
One of the commonest of our larger birds ; yet in most of our bushes it is not
nearly so numerous as it was a few years since. ?
entertain a different opinion. On a rocky point, in Port Cooper, which is
ii
washed with abundant showers of spray under a strong N.E. breeze, we
observed about 200 birds breeding ; except in three cases only, the eggs were
solitary.
Norr.—Dec. 14—-Found two eggs lying together, differing in size and
colour so much, that there is not much doubt they were the produce of
different birds.
No. 131.—Sterna antarctica, Forst.
Common Tern.
In this paper on our Birds, the nomenclature followed is that which is
given in Dr. Otto Finsch’s Notes, “Trans. New Zealand Institute,” Vol. 1,
pp. 122-5, but in the case of this bird we prefer adhering to the name
assigned to it by Forster. In a note in the volume referred to, page 121,
S. antarctica, Forst., is asserted to be the same species as S. minuta, Linn.
Mr. Buller, in his ‘Notes on Herr Finsch’s Review,” tacitly admits this by his
silence ; we think this must be an error. Yarrell, in his “ History of British
Birds,” Vol. u1., p. 525, writes of S. minuta, “their eggs are of a stone-colour,
spotted and speckled with ash-grey and dark chesnut-brown, the length 1 inch
4 lines, by 11 lines in breadth.” This measurement is exactly the size of the egos
of the next species, which we have numbered A. 131, whereas the eggs of the
yellow-billed S. wntarctica measure in length 1 inch 6 lines, by a breadth of
1 inch 1 lines, and present a very striking contrast in colour ; they differ also
in shape. On referring to our collections of British and New Zealand eggs,
and comparing the eggs of these species of Terns, any hesitation we may have
entertained about the correctness of adhering to Forster, instead of the more
modern authorities, is removed. The Common Tern, very often termed the
Whale-bird, seems even more gregarious than its congener S. longipennis, that
is, taking into consideration its habits throughout the year. It may be
observed ‘hovering over the newly-ploughed fields in great numbers, in search
of larve of various insects ; the small lizard seems a favourite morsel, and may
frequently be noticed dangling from the beak of this Tern.
We have remarked, several times, a curious habit of this bird, which
presents a singular appearance to the gaze of the traveller: a large flock will
rest motionless on the ground, with their delicate bluish-grey wings extended
vertically, and will maintain this singular posture for some time. It deposits
its eggs, two in number, on the bare ground, without any attempt at
nidification ; ovoiconical in form, they measure in length 1 inch 6 lines, with a
breadth of 1 inch 1} lines. In colour very considerable variety is exhibited,
dull grey, greenish-white, pale-green, pale-brown, with small brown markings
distributed over the surface generally. This Tern is remarkably clamorous at
the breeding season ; and should a traveller approach their ground, the intruder
is instantly assailed by them with swift dartings, accompanied by noisy, harsh,
grating screams. The young birds remain about the breeding-ground for some
weeks, till they can fly well.
No. A. 131.—StErRnNa——(?) New Sp.
A very small Tern visits the Rakaia river-bed during the breeding season,
not far below the gorge of that great river. There does not appear to exist
any description of it, either in Mr. Buller’s Essay, Dr. Finsch’s Notes, or in
Mr. Buller’s Paper of August 25, 1868. It lays its eggs, two in number, on
the bare ground, they are stone-colour, blotched over with grey markings, and
measure through the axis | inch 4 lines, with a diameter of 11 lines. It is
not at all a common bird in that locality, and was not observed there last year.
In the Museum at Christchurch, are two specimens of a small Tern, obtained
in the province ; in all probability, the eggs noticed above, belong to indi-
oa)
7é
viduals of this species. They are labelled Sternula nereis, and measure, total
length 10 inches 74 lines, length of wing 9 inches 1} lines, bill from gape
1 inch 9 lines, tarsus 74 lines ; colour, above, silver or French-grey, forehead
white, back of head and nape of neck black, black streak round the eye, bill
and feet yellow : the eggs above noticed were discovered in November.
Since the above was written, through the zeal of a friend residing near the
Rakaia, we have received two eggs of this interesting bird ; they were found
in November, hard set. On comparing them with the eos of S. minuta, of
Europe, in our own collection, we find them of rather a broader oval in shape,
of the same length, with a breadth exceeding that of the European species by
14 lines; but so close is the general resemblance between them, that they
might be easily supposed the produce of individuals of the same species. The
egg of the Lesser Tern, S. minuta, is less eccentric in its colour and marks
than those of many other species of the genus.
No. 139.—GRacuLUS BREVIROSTRIS, Gould.
Black River-shag.
Breeds on the shores of the lakes in the interior, where these birds
congregate in considerable numbers, probably depending on the fresh water
Unio, for some portion of their food supply. Like the Rook, and the Heron,
of Europe, it builds in company, within the space of a few square yards many
nests may be counted; the favourite breeding-place appears to be scrub, on
some of the steep and lofty banks of the lake shore. The nest is large, chiefly
constructed with sticks procured from the dead scrub, amongst which may be
found the dead flower-stalks of Aciphylla squarrosa, grass forming the lining
material. The eggs, four in number, are greenish-white, with the chalky
encrustations characteristic of the Poheumidest elliptically shaped, they vary
considerably in size, especially, in the measurement through the axis, as from
2 inches 6 lines, to 2 inches 24 lines, with a breadth of 1 Saal 6 lines. When
freshly procured from the nest they give out that peculiar odour which
distinguishes those of the Procellaride, in common with the eggs of the
Pelicanidee, truly “a most ancient and fish-like smell.”
No. 142.—Dysporus sERRATOR, Banks.
Gannet.
An egg of this bird, in the Colonial Museum, Wellington, gives the
following measurements, which correspond very nearly with the size of the
English species : length through the axis 3 inches 14 lines, with a breadth of
1 inch 10 lines. White in colour, with the rough chalky surface which
distinguishes the eggs of the Pelicanide.
Art. [X.—Description of two Birds new to the Fauna of New Zealand.
By Captain F. W. Hurrton, F.G.S8.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, September 20, 1869.]
Nyroca AUSTRALIS, Gould.
White-winged Duck.
T first noticed this bird, about two years ago, on the Whangape Lake,
Lower Waikato, and since, on the Waikare Lake, near Rangiriri, and on
Rotomahana Lake, where it was abundant in March, 1868. On the
lakes of the Lower Waikato it is not uncommon, but is so wary that as yet
I have only been able to obtain three specimens, the first of which was kindly’
eg)
procured for me by A. M. Sheppard, Esq., of Ahiruna. This bird is known to
the natives, both of Tarawera and Waikato, by the name of Karakahia. Like
all the Pochards, it frequents the lakes only, and is rarely, if ever, seen in the
rivers and creeks. I have not yet ascertained where it breeds. The specimen
T got from Mr. Sheppard, I sent to W. Buller, Esq., of Whanganui, who
identified it with the Vyroca australis of Gould’s “ Birds of Australia.”
Mae.—Head and neck, dark reddish-brown ; back, brown with the
feathers of the upper part tipped with yellowish-brown ; breast, white ; sides,
light-brown ; abdomen, brown ; wing feathers, white, tipped with brown ; under
wing-coverts, white ; speculum, white ; tail, dark-brown ; bill, black, with a
slate-coloured band near the tip; irides, white ; tarsi, grey, front part very
light-grey ; membranes, black, bordered with light-grey on the side of
each toe.
Length, 1 foot 8 inches ; bill, from gape to point, 2 inches 2 lines. Wing,
from carpal joint to tip 8 inches 3 lines ; tarsi, 1 inch 6 lines.
FrmMAte.—Head, neck, and breast, reddish-brown, speckled with white on
the throat, and black on the breast ; upper abdomen, dirty white ; wings, same
as male; but the white of the primaries is shaded with brown ; rest of
plumage same as male; bill, greenish-grey, tipped with slate-blue ; lower
mandible, greyish-blue ; irides, light-brown.
Length, 1 foot 7 inches ; wing, from carpal joint, 84 inches; bill, 2 inches ;
tarsi, 12 inches. The wind-pipe of the male is much swollen, but not that of
the female.
AMSTRELATA GOULDII, n. Ss.
Procellaria macroptera, Gould, nee A. Smith.
This bird I first noticed in May, 1866, off Tasmania, and thought, at the
time, that it would be an undescribed species ; but I was never able to examine
a specimen until a few months ago, when one was left at the Museum of the
Auckland Institute, the donor’s name not being known. It is very common
on the Tasmanian and New Zealand coasts, and is, undoubtedly, the bird that
Mr. Gould refers to as “the dark Petrel with a grey face,” which he shot off
the coast of Tasmania, and which he suggests might be the Procellaria
macroptera, of Dr. A. Smith. According to that author, however, the bird he
called P. macroptera, has no grey face, but a white circle round the eye, and
reddish-brown legs and feet, in all of which respects it differs from the present
bird, as well, probably, as in its dimensions, although more specimens will have
to be measured before this can be determined.
Considering, therefore, this bird to be a new species, I have named it after
Mr. John Gould, to whose labours we are so largely indebted for our knowledge
of the Petrels of the Southern Seas.
Description.
Upper parts with wings and tail sooty-black, some of the wing coverts
with brownish tips; under parts, dark-brown; forehead, cheeks, and chin
silvery-grey, shading off gradually into the black before reaching the eye.
Tail rather long, cuneate ; wings, when folded, reaching about half-an-inch
beyond the tip.
Legs and bill black.
Length, from tip of bill to end of tail . 2 16:75) imches
Bill, from gape to point . : ; : Olas
Wing, from carpal joint to tip . ; : aby = 55
Tail 0 5 . : c 6 SUE e
Tarsus 16
iv)
0
Note.— Dimensions of P. MacroptTera, Smith.
Length from tip of bill to end of tail . - 17:0 inches.
Bill, from gape to point MOB. “5
Wing, from carpal joint to tip MAELO 5p
Tail OO ees
Tarsus 1-5
Art. X.—On the introduction of the PHEASANT info the Province of Auckland.
By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, June 7, 1869.]
Hxacr information, as to the date of the introduction of plants and animals
into a country, together with the numbers introduced, and the place where
they were first turned out, will be of great value, in future years, to all
naturalists studying the difficult subjects of the diffusion and replacement of
species ; and for this reason I have here placed on record all the information that
I have been able to collect with reference to the first introduction of the
Pheasant into this province ; and I hope that any person who is in possession
of more complete information, or who may know, with tolerable accuracy, the
date of the first appearance of the bird in any part of the province, will kindly
inform me.
In 1851, Mr. Thomas Henderson imported some Chinese Pheasants
(Phasianus torquatus) direct from China, in the barque “Glencoe.” Two
dozen were shipped, but only seven reached Auckland alive, five of which were
cocks. These were turned out near Mr. Henderson’s mill at Waitakerei.
About the same time, or a‘ little before, some English pheasants (Phasianus
colchicus) were liberated at Mongonui by Mr. Walter Brodie.
In 1856, Mx. Thomas Henderson imported some more Chinese Pheasants
in the schooner “ Gazelle,” of which six only arrived alive. They were also
turned out at Waitakerei.
These thirteen birds, most of them cocks, appear to have been the whole
of the Chinese Pheasants imported into the province. For several years they
were never seen, but gradually became more and more abundant in the
neighbourhood of Auckland, and in the year 1865 they were so common as to
be shot in considerable quantities. They seem to have made their first
appearance in the Waikato in 1864 or 1865.
They are now extremely abundant from Auckland southwards, all through
the Waikato and Thames districts, and have been seen near Lake Taupo.
North of Auckland they have not spread so rapidly. They are tolerably
abundant at Mahurangi, but are scarce further north. They have this year
been seen at Whangarei.
The English Pheasants, although they appear to have multiplied freely at
Mongonui, have not spread much, as they have not yet reached the Bay of
Islands. Chinese Pheasants have been turned out at Tauranga, Tolago Bay,
Napier, Raglan, Kawau, and Bay of Islands, within the last three years.
I may also add that, in 1862, Mr. William Hay turned out at Papakura
two brace of Californian Quail (Ortyx Californica), these are now in thousands,
and have spread for many miles. 0. Californica has also been turned out at
Hokianga, Kawau, Auckland, and Waikato.
Nore by Mr. T. Kirx.—P. torquatus, first seen at Owaha in 1866. Not
observed north of the Arapoua (Kaipara) in 1868, although a few birds were
seen on the Oruawharo, possibly liberated from a cattle station on that river.
81
Art. XI.—On the Katiro, a poisonous Spider of New Zealand. By
F. W. Wricut, L.M.B. Toronto, L.M.P. New Zealand.
[Read before the Medical Section of the Auckland Institute, October 20, 1869. ]
-I HAveE presumed to offer for the consideration of the Medical Section of the
Auckland Institute the following memorial on the Katipo, a poisonous spider
of New Zealand, with a case that occurred in my own practice, believing that
the subject deserves a general notice, as it certainly requires colonial investiga-
tion at the hands of the medical profession.
In the month of December, 1868, a person of the name of John Huff,
living near my residence, came into the surgery complaining that he had been
bitten on the shoulder by a spider. He was in the employment of Messrs.
Archard and Brown, of Stanley-street, Mechanics’ Bay. He was occupied,
at the time, in carrying firewood, to supply the furnaces of a brick-kiln ; the
wood was stacked near the kila in sedge or coarse grass; this happened
between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock, a.m. At noon he came home
to dinner, sat down te table, but upon attempting to eat, found he could not
open his mouth, or was scarcely able to articulate, in consequence of stiffness
about the jaws. He was alarmed and came into the surgery, when it was
difficult to understand what he had to say ; all I could learn from him was that
he had been bitten by a spider, on the shoulder, in the Bay. Upon examining
the spot, I found the surface raised, to an extent as large round as a tea-cup ;
this elevated surface was white, and was surrounded by a halo of red, not
unlike an exaggerated wheal of the nettlerash. He complained of considerable
pain in the part, and during the examination became faint, and soon almost pulse-
less. His pulse was unusually slow, scarcely counting more than twelve or four-
teen beats in the minute. His countenance and the general surface of the body
assumed a hue of extreme pallor, which gradually turned toa blue tint. His
extremities were cold and flaccid ; his respiration almost ceased, and indeed I
had fears that he was about to expire. Dr. Pinching being in my house at
the time, I called for his assistance. He was astonished at the feebleness and
prostration of the patient, from such an apparently trifling cause.
From his extreme faintness it was necessary to lay him on the floor, when
I applied spirits of ammonia to the wound, which had the effect of lessening
the swelling and abating the pain. I also administered ammonia and water,
afterwards combined with brandy, in considerable doses ; under this treatment
his pulse gradually improved, his circulation and respiration became more
natural, as was evidenced by his return to a more natural colour. Although a
stout strong man, this state of depression remained for upwards of two hours
before he was able to return home. In the evening I found him considerably
improved, having taken a slight dose of medicine. For several days he could
not return to his work, but complained of great lassitude, and nervous
depression, which he was sensible of for many days after.
It must be evident from the symptoms of this case, that the man was
powerfully affected by a narcotic and irritating poison, which being absorbed
into the circulation, affected the heart, brain, and nervous system, to a very
considerable extent, almost amounting to fatal syncope,—that the stimulants,
by exciting the heart’s action, gradually aroused the excretory functions, so as
ultimately to remove the poison from the system ; for although suffering under
its influence for a considerable time, it does not appear to have left any per-
manent effects behind it, for the man has since been in perfect health.
In corroboration of the nature of this accident, I append the following
very graphic description of the bite of the Katipo, furnished by the Rev. Mr.
Chapman, whose long residence as a missionary to the Maori race, in the
82
interior of New Zealand, renders his observations and opinions of peculiar
importance.
“In the course of my sojourn in New Zealand, I have had three rather
remarkable proofs of the violently poisonous nature of the bite of the Katipo.
“Some twenty years ago a party of natives had taken up a temporary
residence at Waihi, near Maketu ; their resting place being near the sea-beach. ’
During the period of their morning’s meal, a girl was bitten by a Katipo, in
the region of the abdomen. She did not seem at first to suffer much pain, but
towards noon, inflammation set in, and some native remedies were used. As
these had no effect, her friends decided to convey her to my residence, and
they reached my house about one p.m. I discovered, on first seeing her,
indications of severe pain; and on examining the wound, found a swelling of
the size and shape of the obtuse end of a hen’s egg. I immediately rubbed
the part with strong ammonia. This had no other effect than of lessening the
severity of the pain, but failed in decreasing the swelling. I gave the girl also
medicine, which was probably salts and tincture of henbane. After this, I
saw her nearly every day, for a fortnight, using such means as appeared to me
suitable. She seemed at this stage to be gradually recovering, but suddenly
became faint and pallid, lost all desire for food, and though offered whatever
my house afforded, would only take a little bread and tea, and sometimes a
little wine. She lingered in this way for about six weeks and then died.
“The next case was the son of a trader resident at Maketu ; three of his
boys went up the river on a ramble and lingered at the Tumu, resting them-
selves by sitting on the tufts of sedge growing on the sand-hills just above the
reach of the tide. These tufts are the principal haunts of the Katipo. While
so resting, one of them was bitten by this insect, on the fleshy part of the
thigh, it having crawled unperceived up his trowsers. ‘The boys were at this
time about two miles from home. They returned immediately, but not
thinking the bite of any consequence, delayed applying to me until towards
evening, at which time the sufferer became ill, and the place bitten inflamed.
I attended him, using the same remedies as in the other case ; but he suffered
long, wasting, and losing all energy, soon having the appearance of one going
into a decline. If I recollect correctly, he was three months before he rallied,
and probably another three before he fully recovered.
“The next case occurred to that remarkable man Toke, the chief of
Maketu. We were travelling together up the coast from Whakatane, and
halting to dine, he seated himself upon a large tuft of sedge. He had not
been resting many minutes before he sprang upon his feet, saying, ‘I am
badly bitten by a Katipo.’ He was bitten on the upper part of the thigh. I
directed him to lie down ; I then dissolved some carbonate of soda in a very
small quantity of water, and adding to this some brandy from my flask, I
quickly made a crucial incision over the part bitten, and squeezed out forcibly,
the blood, and then rubbed in this antacid solution, keeping up this action
alternately for some ten minutes, when he said he no longer felt the pain. He
remarked on rising, ‘Had you not been with me, I should have had a long
illness.’ Only two or three minutes could have elapsed after the bite, before a
spot about the size of the top of the little finger appeared, and of a peculiar
white colour, in strong contrast with the dusky shade of Toke’s skin. He
was very careful to secure all the blood I had forced out of the wound I had
made, by absorbing it in a piece of rag torn from his shirt ; this relic, now so
doubly sacred, he carried into the middle of a swamp close by, and I saw him
stamping it down into the ground very violently, to preserve it from possible
desecration.
“The natives generally avoid sleeping on the sea-beach, but have no fear
of the Katipo half a stone’s throw inland of the sea-beach line. I never knew
83
them (of themselves) use any other remedy than rubbing and applying hot,
half-scalded leaves to the part, aud as soon as convenient taking the bitten
one to the priest, to receive the benefit of his incantations, as they then
believed in the efficacy of prayers, made to their gods of the hills and valleys.”
Here again are the evidences of a narcotic and irritating poison, whose
absorption into the system produced more permanent effects upon the body ;
the elimination of the poison had not been so perfect and rapid as in Huff's
case. The strength and tone of the constitution in these individuals was, in
all probability, not.so powerful, hence the elimination of the poison was not so
ready, producing a more permanent influence, in all probability causing a
degraded condition of the constitution, a blood-poisoning, that caused subse-
quent disease. Again, in all these cases the effect of the poison may, in some
degree, have been modified by the condition of the insects’ poison-bags, the
locality and character of the bite, under any circumstances, however, it is plain
that the deleterious effects of the bite of the Katipo, and its poisonous
character, has long been recognised and feared by the natives; and in Huft’s
case was plainly demonstrated. In Toke’s case we can but admire the skill
and decision of the missionary, who, all alone in a wild and savage land, could
have treated the case so actively and with such good effect,—he, in all
probability, preventing the absorption of the poison into the system, by the
means he employed.
From all the information that I can collect, the Katipo is a small spider
of about half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, measuring across
the body and legs, according to the authority of Major Heaphy, who having
been Surveyor-General of the Colony, has had abundant opportunity to know
the insect, and is familiar with its resorts.
The Katipo are said to be of two kinds,—one having a dark-glossy body,
with a marked red spot on the back ; the other, of about the same size, having
a similar round black and shining body, but without the spot.
Mr. Taylor, in his book, “A Leaf of the Natural History of New Zealand,”
writes thus: “The Katipo—venomous Spider—one kind red, and one black
with a red spot upon its back. Their bite appears to be very poisonous,
occasioning a violent swelling of the part.” Major Heaphy is inclined to
believe that Mr. Taylor is mistaken in describing a red Katipo ; but agrees
with him that the one with the black body and red-vermilion spot upon
its back, is the most poisonous.
A difference in the habitat of the Katipo would seem to point to a
variety, the one inhabiting the sandy beaches of the sea-shore, taking refuge
among the drift wood and roots of sedge or rushes found there, while the other
one, with the black body without the red spot, may be discovered in the
garden, or among the rafters of any old building.
Major Heaphy says, “I saw one, with the red-vermilion spot upon its
back, at Massacre Bay, near Nelson, in the Middle Island; a native there
obtaining it for me, after a few minutes’ search, for a small reward. It was
found among the roots of the Wiwi, or rush, around some dry drift wood, on
the sandy beach. The natives were very careful not to allow it to touch them,
they said it would kill them ; but on close enquiry they admitted they never
knew of a case of the bite ending fatally, although the bite from them was not
uncommon. Great suffering, however, they said ensued, the part swelling
considerably.”
On the original plan of the North Shore, near Auckland, the sea beach
nearest the north side of the lake, was indicated, in a marginal note, as very
celebrated for the number of Katipo existing there.
The other variety, with the black body without the red spot, is of about
the same size as the other, of a dark glossy brown or black colour. This, as
N
84
well as the preceding, is a very beautifully shaped insect, the abdomen is, as
generally seen from above, perfectly spherical, like a ‘number one” shot, very
glossy. The legs are compact, not straggling. It is found amongst dead wood
in a garden, and, with a sight web, amongst the rafters of an out-building or
loft. The natives have no distinguishing name for either variety, they are
both called Katipo, to distinguish them from the Punga-were-were, or common
Spider.
Ihave never heard of a case of bite from one of this kind, but the
natives say that they are equally venomous with the spotted variety. Iam
convinced that the one with the red spot, indicates a different variety, and is not
the result of age or sex, as among hundreds of the black kind I never saw a
spotted one.
There is no doubt but that several of the Arachnide are of a poisonous
character, that their mandibles are furnished with a curved claw, perforated at
the extremity something like the poison-fang of a venomous snake, and used
for a similar purpose. A gland furnishes a secretion which is forced through
these organs, and is injected into any object that may be wounded by the
sharp claw. The fluid which is secreted for the service of the fangs is nearly
colourless, and is found to possess most of the properties that exist in the
venom of the rattle-snake, or viper.
It is certain that the bite of a moderate-sized Spider will kill a house-fly
in a few seconds. Without believing all the stories that have been told of the
Tarantula, it is certain that its bite is poisonous,—that it is of a character
similar to that of the Katipo. Dr. Graperon states, that he saw two cases
in which the bite of the Tarantula proved fatal in the Crimea,—one in forty-
eight hours, the other in six days. The wound, which was inflicted on the
patient’s neck, was very painful, and had left a brownish-violet mark ; the
head, neck, and shoulders were swollen ; from the clavicle to the false ribs was
of a bluish colour, and respiration became difficult forty-four hours after the
injury. Scarifications, the actual cautery, oil externally and internally, and
ammonia, were all employed in vain. A comparison of the symptoms in this
case with those exhibited by Huff, will surely bear me out in the conclusion,
that the poisons are similar, at least in their effect.
Art. XII.— On jour Fisues commonly found in the River Avon;
with a consideration of the question: “ What is Whitebait?” By
Li. Powe, M.R.C.S.St.A.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, December 2, 1869.]
I ventTuRE to hope that an attempt to settle the vexed question, “ What is
Whitebait ?” will not be unprofitable. The fish, in question, is one of the
most important of our fresh-water fishes, and forms a very agreeable variation
in our somewhat-restricted colonial diet. A similar question has been raised,
from time to time, regarding the English Whitebait, which has been looked
upon as the young of the Sprat, the Shad, and the Herring. Naturalists are
now, however, tolerably well agreed that it is an adult fish of a distinct
species ; and it appears amongst the Clupeide under the name of Clupea alba.
The New Zealand Whitebait has no affinity with the English fish, whose name
it bears, not belonging to the same family, even; and the question at issue is this,
“Ts the Whitebait an adult fish, or the young of some other species ? 1f the latter,
what is its adult form?” ttempts have been made to solve the doubt, by
keeping Whitebait in confinement, so that they might develope under
observation, but these experiments have always been performed without
TRANS.NZ. INSTITUTE VOLIL Plate 16.
\W
Fig. 4.
To illustrate Paper ay Lb.Powell un
WHITEBAIT.
'
1. SILVER FISH.(dryentinwretrospinna haf grown Hid.)
2. SMELT. (Gadexias fasciatus Gray.)
3. WHITEBAIT. 2° Stage.
4. WHITEBAIT. i
TBuchanan ith. Prinkd atthe Gen. Goulithlrass ay Th arte.
at
aM,
us
th
: ‘ a ie |
Woelaks,
aS a
ha
85
sufficient care being taken to exclude sources of error. Mr. Johnson, the
curator of the Acclimatization Society, has introduced Whitebait into the fish-
ponds in the gardens, and is convineed that they grow and develope into what
he designates Smelts. He, yesterday, showed me, in the ponds, a shoal of these
fish ; they were certainly much larger than average Whitebait, and had somewhat
lost their vermiform shape, we could not, however, succeed in catching any of
them,—I am glad to say, however, that he captured some this morning ;
T shall have something to say about them in the sequel. Mr. Bealey also tells
me that he put a number of Whitebait into a reservoir supplied only with
artesian water, and that they developed into Smelts, and such seems to be the
general opinion. Unfortunately, two very distinct fish are confounded together
under the name of Smelts, and the observers are not sufficiently positive as to
which particular fish the Whitebait became. Jf, on comparison, the Whitebait
should not correspond, in general characters, with any larger fish common in
the Avon, we shall be quite justified in rejecting these observations as careless,
and inaccurate; uf, however, the Whitebait agree closely in generic and
specific characters with some larger and common fish, the experiments rise in
importance.
This has led me to lstitute a comparison between the Whitebait and such
other fishes as are found commonly in the Avon, with a view to deciding this
question, and I now proceed to lay the result of these observations before the
Society. I do so, however, with considerable diffidence, partly because I have
not hitherto devoted my attention to fishes, and partly because I am almost
entirely destitute of works of reference in this particular line, and our libraries
are in the same condition ; I shall, therefore, endeavour to confine myself to
plain and prominent characters, and crave indulgence to any possible errors.
The Whitebait averages two, to two and a half, inches in length ; it is
anguilliforous in form ; and, inits transparency, and the size and prominence of
its eyes, has the appearance of an immature fish. It is scaleless, has a
transparent greenish tinge, possesses six fins, excluding the caudal fin, which
is rather large and forked.
A row of distinct black spots runs along the lateral line. The swim-
bladder is large and distinct, its situation being bordered by a band of black
spots. The teeth are microscopic. The fin rays are all soft, and the abdominal
position of the ventral fins refers them to the Malacopterygi abdominales ;
whilst the single dorsal fin, the absence of scales, and of a spine in the dorsal
fin, indicate that it is a Galaxia.
Its specific characters are as follow :—
One dorsal fin ; first ribs of dorsal and anal fin in a line, one-third of the
length of the body from the origin of the caudal fin; ventral fin abdominal,
one-third the length of the body behind the pectorals ; teeth, imperceptible ;
fia Sak) el lor 2x(VE)) fi, D:) 10; CA:) NG, (C:) 16:
There are only three fish in the River Avon, sufficiently common to justify
the supposition that either of them may be the adult form of the Whitebait ;
these ave the Bull-head, the Silver-fish, and the Smelt. The name of Smelt is
applied indiscriminately to the two latter fish, we will, however, retain the
trivial name of Silver-fish as a distinction. We may first dismiss the Bull-head,
there is no possibility of confounding the Whitebait with this fish; it is
thoroughly well-known, both in its adult and young form.
It is an Acanthopterygious fish, with two dorsal fins, the first having
simple, though flexible rays, it belongs to the sub-class Acanthopterygil, family
Gobioide, genus Eleotrine, and is probably the Hleotris basalis, described by
Dieffenbach ; though Dieffenbach’s description is too meagre to decide
positively. Its characters are as follows :—Head, large, one third the length
of the body, which is tapering. in form; colour, dark-brown, mottled of a
86
darker tint, with five blackish bands, transversely covered with a slimy
secretion ; scales, large and pectinated ; gill openings, very wide ; gape, small ;
teeth, microscopic, and densely set; branchiostegal rays, five. No swim-
bladder ; dorsal fins, two in number, large, the first having simple flexible rays;
ventrals, distinct, sub-pectoral ; anal fin opposite to second dorsal ; the fins all
banded with black. Fin rays (lst D.) 7, (2nd D.) 10, (P.) 13, (¥V.) 5,
imperfectly developed, (A.) 10, (C.) 15 or 16.
The Silver-fish again belongs to the Malacopterygit abdominales, or fishes
having soft fin rays, with the ventral fins placed beneath the abdomen. In its
bright silvery colour, it possesses a superficial likeness to the Whitebait, it has,
however, no affinity with it.
Everyone will recognize the likeness to the true English Smelt, Osmerus
Eperlanus, both in appearance, and in its remarkable smell, when freshly
removed from the water, likened, by some to cucumbers, by others to violets ;
but although it belongs to the same family, the Salmonide, it is not a Smelt, as
the position of the first dorsal fin indicates, which in the Smelt is situated over
the ventrals. The second dorsal adipose, the well-marked cycloid scales, refer
the Silver-fish to the Salmonide, but to what genus of this numerous and
difficult family it belongs, [am quite unable to decide ; it has the following
characters :
Two dorsal fins, the second adipose and destitute of rays, colour, grey
with a silvery band down the sides ; belly, white ; teeth, small and numerous ;
branchiostegal rays seven ; anal fin slightly in advance of second dorsal.
Fin rays, (P.) 10, (V.) 6, (1st D.) 11, (A.) 17-18, (C.) 18.
We now come to the last fish on our lst, called, by boys, the Smelt ; but
why a Smelt, I know not. And now, even on a superficial examination,
we perceive an affinity to the Whitebait, in the absence of scales lke the
Whitebait ; the Smelt is a Galaxia, soft fin rays abdominal, ventrals, a single
dorsal, no scales, and the dorsal destitute of a spine. It has a yellowish-brown
colour, dotted with black spots, which are especially numerous in the
neighbourhood of the lateral line ; Ist rib of the anal fin opposite to the third
dorsal, and very near the caudal fin ; ventrals, half way between gill covers
and origin of caudal fin.
Fin rays, (P:) 9 or 10, (V.) 7;.(D.) 9, (A.) 15. or 16, (C.) 16.
We will now institute a comparison between the Whitebait and the Smelt.
The fishes from which these notes were taken, were obtained on different
occasions, and the characters noted down separately. I have arranged the
specific characters in parallel columns, and will give them, seriatim :
WHITEBAIT. SMELT.
Scaleless. Scaleless.
One dorsal fin. One dorsal fin.
Ventrals, one-third length of Ventrals, midway between gill
body behind pectorals. covers and origin of caudal fin.
First ribs of dorsal and anal fins First anal rib about opposite to
on a line, one-third length of body third dorsal and near caudal fin.
from origin of caudal fin.
Fin rays. Fin rays.
Beal PS rorale
Weed Ward
D. 10 1D), ©
A. 16 A. 15 or 16
C. 16 C2716
There is a slight discrepancy in the proportions, but in no respect more
than would be expected between a young and an adult fish: the number of
87
fin rays corresponds almost exactly, and the difficulty of counting the rays in
the Whitebait is considerable, as they are more and more rudimentary at the
commencement and terminations of the fin. I wish to direct your attention to
this drawing of a Whitebait, which has been in the Acclimatization Society’s
ponds a short time. I think anyone would say it was a young Smelt, it has
lost its Hel-like appearance, and is assuming the colour and markings of the
adult Smelt.
In concluding this contribution to the natural history of the fresh-water
fishes of the River Avon, I may say that I am quite satisfied that the Whitebait
is the young of the Galaxia, commonly known as the Smelt, but if any of the
members doubt it, let me urge on them the propriety of setting the question
at rest in one of two ways; either by developing Smelts from their ova, and
observing whether they pass through the Whitebait stage ; or, secondly, by
preserving the Whitebait themselves and watching their development, care
eing taken to exclude all sources of error, such as the access of the ova of
other fish. Such an experiment is easily tried, and would be decisive.
Art. XIITT.—On the New ZeAtanpd Froe (Leiopelma Hochstetteri), with an
account of a remarkable feature in the history of some species of Australian
Frogs. By A. WANDER AITKEN.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, November 15, 1869.]
WHILE engaged in making an examination of the Thames Gold-field, I was
rather suprised to find that frogs existed in situations that no imported animals
can possibly have reached. I have always been led to believe that no animals
of the frog kind existed in New Zealand, and a long experience in the
inhabited and uninhabited portions of the islands, had almost confirmed that
belief. That the frogs, referred to by me, are indigenous to New Zealand, I
have no doubt, as they are quite different from any species I have hitherto
seen or read of. I have much pleasure in forwarding one herewith, which I
took from one of the range-creeks in the neighbourhood of Puriri. The portion
of the creek from which it was taken is about 500 feet above the level of the
Thames river, and below that point the creek is a succession of water-falls, and
very steep. In forwarding this specimen, I should like to bring under the
notice of the Institute a feature in the natural history of the frog, at present
(I believe) unknown to the scientific world, but which must be of the deepest
interest, not only to the student of natural history, but also to the student of
geology.
There are districts, often exceeding 5000 square miles in extent, in the
interior of the Australian continent, in which there is no surface-water for
many months, and, in some instances, for years; yet as soon as rain falls in
sufficient quantities to fill the water-holes, they are swarming with young frogs.
Before the rain fell, one might dig for ten or twelve feet without finding the
slightest moisture, much less water ; the whole of the ground is baked hard and
perfectly dry, and no sign of animal life apparently exists in it, or on it.
Even vegetable life has almost ceased to exist, and the only remnant left
is a withered and half-dead Salt-bush, here and there. Yet rain on such
country had the effect of changing, as if by magic, the whole aspect of affairs,
—comparatively speaking, a desert, was, in a day, transformed into an Eden.
Plants sprung up everywhere, ducks and water-hens appeared in vast numbers,
and swarms of tadpoles peopled the water-holes. I could easily account for the
vegetable life, and for the wild-fowl ; but the tadpoles puzzled me, till a native
boy, not more than ten years old, opened my eyes, and satisfactorily solved a
88
problem in geology, which had never been, to my mind, satisfactorily solved
by the greatest geologists who have written on the subject. Mr. A. W.
Howitt, and I, with a black boy of the age above-mentioned, had made a two days’
journey on horseback, from the last known water, without finding any more,
and had we gone on further our horses would probably have been unable to
‘eturn. We were much in want of water, and had camped for the night in
the midst of a great many dried-up water-holes, with a few Salt-bushes growing
on their margins, intending to turn next morning.
I noticed the boy examining the dry surface of the water-holes, and went
to see what he was doing. He pointed out an indistinct and crooked mark,
on what had once been the mud, and following it to where it apparently ceased,
in the shade of a small Salt-bush, he began to dig with a sharp stick, andin a
short time turned out a ball of clay about eight Inches in diameter, and quite
dry outside, which, when broken, disclosed a frog shut up in a beautifully
puddied cell, with more than half-a-pint of fine, clear, cold water. We
afterwards dug out many others, drinking the water, and eating the frogs. A
sudden or gradual deposition of matter over such ground, would have shut up
those frogs for ever, and if they live through months and even years, in such a
situation, within range of the effects of a scorching sun, we can understand how
they have lived for ages in the cool and moist recesses of the rocks in which
they are sometimes found. The theory of living frogs getting accidentally
buried in accumulating mud or sand, if examined, will not stand good, for the
compression to which such rocks are sometimes afterwards subjected, would
certainly kill them ; while the cells, in which I have seen them, would stand
compression to half their original bulk, without materially affecting the
animal,
JI.—BOTANY.
Art. XTV.—On some new species of New Zeatanpd Puants. By JouHn
Bucuanan, of the Geological Survey Department.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869.]
Ozothamnus lanceolatus, Buchanan. n. sp.
A small shrub, 2-4 feet high; branches slender, tomentose at the tips,
grooved. Leaves, 1} inches long, narrow, alternate, lanceolate, slightly waved
on the margins, entire or obscurely crenate, white and cottony beneath, finely
reticulated on the upper surface, spathulate or contracted into a winged petiole
} inch long. Heads in small, lateral, peduncled corymbs, involucral scales,
scarious, woolly at the base, pappus hairs thickened at the tip. Achene
glabrous.
Allied to Ozothamnus glomeratus, but easily distinguished by the lanceolate
leaves and glabrous achene. Habitat, mountains of Hokianga 2000-3000 feet
alt. Collected by Mr. J. Buchanan.
Geum uniflorum, Buchanan. un. sp.
A small herb, 6—8 inches high ; rhizome, prostrate, stout, woody. Leaves
13-2 inches long, pinnate ; leaflets, one pair, very small, crenate; terminal
leaflet, reniform, 1 inch broad, obtusely crenate, nearly glabrous on both
surfaces, but with a marginal row of pencils of stiff orange hairs on the edges
of the crenatures. Flower, large, 1-1} inches dia., white, terminal on a
89
slender villous stem. Calyx lobes, oblong, obtuse, villous. Styles, subulate,
tips hooked, villous at bottom, with long hairs.
Allied to Geum parviflorum, and distinguished by the large single flower,
orange pencils of hairs on the crenatures, and minute single pair of leaflets.
Habitat, mountains of Nelson, 3000-4000 feet alt. Collected by Mr. H. H.
Travers.
Senecio laxifolia, Buchanan. on. sp.
A woody shrub. Branches, petioles, leaves below, and inflorescence,
covered with buffish-white tomentum. Leaves with slender petioles,
4-14 inches long, blade, 1-23 inches long, narrow, oblong, tapering, acute at
both ends, flat, crenate or obscurely crenate, finely reticulated above, and with
flocculent tomentum on the midrib, slightly coriaceous. Corymbs, very open,
on long slender peduncles, 3-7 inches long, with a few narrow, linear leaves,
4? inch long. Heads, broad cylindric, $—? inch dia., rays, $ inch long, revolute,
pappus hair, white, scabrid ; achene, grooved, glabrous.
Allied to Senecio Monrot, but easily distinguished from it by its habit,
larger flat acute leaves, which are never wrinkled on the margins, long
peduncled corymbs, larger flowers, and absence of glandular pubescence on the
involucre and pedicels. Habitat, mountains of Nelson, 3000-5000 feet alt.
Collected by Mr. H. H. Travers.
Art. XV.—On the Botany of the Thames Gold-fields. By T. Kirk.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869.]
THE country between the Waikawa and Kawaeranga creeks consists, for the
most part, of steep hills and narrow gullies, and presents but few variations in
those features which influence the character of its vegetation. From the
Kawaeranga northward to Kurunui, a gradually-narrowing strip of alluvial
land, much of which is now occupied by Shortland and Grahamstown, still
exhibits dense thickets of Olearia Solandri, Hook. f., Plagianthus divaricatus,
Forst., Muhlenbeckia adpressa, Lab., M. compressa, Mein., Coprosma sps.,
Dodonea viscosa, Forst., with a close undergrowth of sedges and other uliginal
plants, the most conspicuous of which is Cladiwm junceum, Br., often found
covering large spaces, to the exclusion of other plants. The mud-flats and
margins of the creeks are occupied by the Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis, L.,
which is here abundant and attains a large size, Chenopodium ambiguum, Br.,
Leptocarpus simplex, A. Rich, Selliera radicans, Cav., Samolus repens, Pers.,
Scirpus maritimus, L., and rarely S. triqueter. L.
At various points along the coast, small patches of sand admit of a sparse
growth of arenarian plants, the most common being Convolvulus Soldanella, L.,
and Carex pumila, Thumb. ; the Pingao (Desmochenus spiralis, Hook.), a plant
which, in the north, at least, is common on shifting sand, usually within the
influence of the sea-spray, is here found only in small quantity and apparently
confined to a single locality. Occasionally, as in the neighbourhood of the
Tararu, the Waionau, and other creeks, alluvial flats of sufficient extent to
have been used as cultivations by the Maoris, are now more or less clothed
with a dense growth of Tauhinu (Pomaderris phylicifolia, Lodd.), Manuka
(Leptospermum scoparium, Forst.), Koromiko (Veronica salicifolia, Forst.),
and fern (Péeris esculenta, Forst.), with an abundance of naturalized plants,
waifs of cultivation, grasses, and other stragglers, which are again mixed with
a few coarse-growing native plants of herbaceous habit.
90
In the neighbourhood of Shortland and Grahamstown, the hills are
usually much broken and precipitous, and attain their greatest height, 2300 feet,
near the head of the Kawaeranga creek: the beds of the different creeks are
frequently mere ravines, the sides of which are thickly clothed with mosses,
various species of Gottschea and Plagiochila: ?. Stephensoniana, Mitten, attaining
unusual luxuriance ; in less moist places a rare moss, Melichoferia fenwisete,
Mitten, covers the surface and forms a suitable medium for the growth of
various species of Corysanthes, especially C. rivularis, Hook. f., and rocks and
trees alike are clothed with a rich covering of various ferns, more especially
Hymenophyllum dilatatum, Swartz, L7/. eibe OED. A. Riche H. eruginosum,
Carm., and Zrichomanes reniforme, Menz. The slopes of the hills are usually
covered with a dense forest of timber trees, and undergrowth, the forms being
chiefly the Hinau (Elwocarpus dentatus, Hook.), Toro (Persoonia Toro, A.Cunn.),
Tawa (Vesodaphne Tawa, Hook. f.), Beech, or Black Birch (Fagus fusca,
Hook. f.), Kauri (Demmara australis, Lamb.), Miro (Podocarpus Jerruginea,
Don.), Totara (Podocarpus Totara, A. Cunn.), Rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum,
Soland.), ete., with Alsewosmia macrophylla, A. Cunn., Schefflera digitata,
Forst., Coprosma grandifolia, Hook. f., Senecio glastifolius, Hook. f., and
immense tussocks of an undescribed Astelia, and cutting grasses (Gahnia lacera,
Stend., G. arenaria, Hook. f.): the Supplejack (Rhipogonum scandens, Forst.),
and Mange-mange (Lygodium articulatum, Swartz.), are so mixed with the
undergrowth as to render all progress tedious and laborious in the extreme.
A remarkable feature, in some parts of the district, is the social character
of the arborescent ferns, more especially of the Mamaku (Cyathea medullaris,
Swartz.), and the Weki (Dicksonia squarrosa, Swartz.), which occasionally
form groves of small extent ; the Ponga Flat, a comparatively level piece
of land at an altitude of about 1650 feet, owes its name to the large grove of
Black Tree-ferns with which it was formerly covered. A few specimens have
been spared and are carefully protected by the miners.
North of the Tararu creek, the hills next the sea are of lower elevation,
and more rounded in outline, their slopes being chiefly covered with a varying
growth of Pteris esculenta, Korst., Leptospermum scopariun, Forst., Pomaderris
phylicrfolia, Lodd., Dracophyllum squarrosum, Hook., f., Coriaria ruscifolia, L.,
Epacris paucijlora, A. Rich., and a few straggling grasses, varied by occasional
patches of forest. The tributary streams are choked with a close growth of
Typha, Scheenus, Cladium, Carex, and other marsh-loving plants. But a few
miles inland these ericetal and uliginal plants disappear, the streams become
narrowed and impetuous, the hills steeper and higher, clothed everywhere with
a dense bush, often nearly impassable from the abundance of Mange-mange,
which binds trees and undergrowth together in an almost impenetrable mass.
The highest peaks of Mount Wynyard, 2690 feet, are approached by
connecting wall-like ridges, often not sufficiently wide to admit of two persons
walking abreast, and covered with tussocks of Astelia, Gahnia, and various
shrubs. *
About the height of 1800 feet a change is usually observable in the
character of the vegetation ; in broken rocky places there is a profusion of
mosses and lichens, chiefly belonging to genera Racomitrium, Dicranum, and
Cladonia, with a varying shrubby growth of Weinmannia, Leptospermum,
Pittosporum, Coprosma, Phebalium, Quintinia, and many ferns. On more
even ground Weinmannia silvicola, Banks and Sol.,and Metrosideros lucida, attain
* One of these ridges is completely blocked by an immense Rata, MWetrosideros robusta,
A. Cunn., the trunk of which overhangs both edges of the mural precipice, and can only
be passed by the aid of the friendly climber s, and the tussocks of Astelia which partially
cover its base.
91
a large size, associated with Jxerba brewioides, A. Cunn., and Phyllocladus
glauca, both of which attain their maximum of growth at about 2000 feet,
although found in abundance at a greater elevation ; in fact they occur on the
highest peaks, together with Dracophyllum Traversu, Hook. f., Archeria
racemosa, Hook. f., Griselinia littoralis, Raoul., Dacrydiwm Colensot, Hook. f.,
Panax Colensoi, Hook. f., and many others of greater vertical range.
Although from the steep character and ridge-like form of these ranges, water
cannot, in some places, be obtained at an altitude of more than 1200 feet, yet
the abundance and luxuriance of the mosses and hepatice, which clothe the
summits, attest an atmosphere continually charged with moisture.
The trees and shrubs that have been utilized either as timber for house or
ship-building, or for fencing, are the Kauri, Rimu, Totara, Miro, Beech or
Black-birch, Manuka, Rawiri, Puriri, Pohutukawa, Rata (Metrosideros robusta,
A. Cunn.), Tawa, and more rarely, the Tanekaha, Tawari (Jxerba brexioides,
A. Cunn.), and Toro. The utilization of the Beech, affords a marked extension
of the economical range of the genus to which it belongs, as, although largely
used in the South, its timber is usually neglected in this part of the colony,
although its bark is occasionally sent to the tan yards. It is now being
largely used in the construction of the Moanataiari tramway, which will afford
a good opportunity of testing its durability.
While on this subject, I may remark, the waste of timber on some parts
of the field has been excessive, and will be severely felt by the miners at no
distant period. The Kauri has been preserved to a great extent, as the sum
of twenty-five shillings is required for each tree cut down. The Pohutukawa,
which from its value to the ship-builder, has contributed largely to the progress
of this part of the colony, is without the benefit of protection, and has been in
some cases recklessly cut down for firewood, a proceeding which is said to have
been commented upon by the Maoris. Although confessedly difficult, it would
seem not impracticable to prevent this wanton destruction of valuable timber,
by legislative enactment ; it is certainly desirable, in the interest of the miners
themselves, no less than in that of the colony at large.
Naturalized plants are to be found in great abundance in all situations,
except on the highest ranges. The most common forms are identical with
those found to the north of the Waitemata, and occur in nearly the same
proportion, as will be seen from the following list, which is arranged in the
order of their relative abundance over the entire district :—
Hrigeron canadensis, L.
Hypocharis radicata, L.
Anagallis arvensis, L.
Medicago denticulata, Willd.
Lolium perenne, L.
Euphorbia Peplus, L.
Rumex obtusifolius, L.
Plantago major, 1.
Helminthia echioides, Gaert.
Briza minor, 1.
~The most notable exception in the above list is the Milk-weed (Luphorbia
Peplus, L.), which in many northern districts, would rank second or third on
the list, instead of sixth ; the position of one or two species in the list, might
possibly be altered by an examination of the district in December, instead of
April. The former extent of native cultivations is attested by the common
occurrence of the Tara (Colocasia esculenta, Scholl.), and several of the culti-
vated fruits of Europe, the peach, cherry, fig, vine, raspberry, strawberry, all
of which are propagating themselves without the assistance of man, and are
Oo
92
probably deteriorating in quality even more rapidly than they are increasing in
number. A close analysis of the indigenous species found in the district,
shows that fully four-fifths of the entire number are common to both the North
and South Islands ; the remaining fifth being peculiar to the North.
New or Critical SPECIES ; VARIATIONS, ETC.
Drimys colorata, Raoul. A small shrub with membranous leaves, green
on both surfaces, is doubtfully referred to this form, in the absence of flowers.
The ordinary forms of D. axillaris vary widely in the texture of the leaf, the
hairiness of the midrib, and the length of the peduncle.
Viola filicaulis, Hook. f. Identified in the absence of flowers. Extremely
local, and probably attains here its northern limit.
Pittosporum Huttonianum, nu. sp. A somewhat-irregularly branched
shrub or small tree, 12--25 feet high, with black or dark-brown bark, young
branches slender, and with the leaves and petioles clothed with white floccose
tomentum ; leaves alternate, oblong or ovate, obtuse or acute, rarely acuminate,
3--5 inches long, slightly coriaceous when old ; petioles slender, 4--? inches long ;
flowers axillary, solitary, or rarely in twos on a common pedicel, peduncles
downy, }--}? inch long ; sepals lanceolate, acute, somewhat bullate at the base,
downy ; petals ligulate, sharply recurved at about half their length; the
corolla never presenting the rotate appearance seen in P. tenuifolium ; ovary
pubescent, peduncles twice or thrice the length of the sepals ; bracts at the
base of the peduncle, deciduous, capsules erect, 2--3-valved, downy, larger than
in P. tenuifolium. In the flowering season the tomentum at the back of the
leaves presents a cobwebby appearance, and falls off in large quantities.
I have named this handsome shrub after my valued friend Captain
Hutton, F.G.8., who was my associate at its original discovery, on the Great
Barrier Island.
Pittosporum Kirkii, Hook. f., n.sp. A handsome laxly-branched shrub
when growing freely, 3--15 feet high, branchlets stout, rigid, ascending ; bark
reddish-purple, leaves alternate, crowded or whorled, linear-obovate, acute or
obtuse, 2--5 inches long, gradually narrowed into rather broad purple petioles,
excessively coriaceous, glabrous, pale-green above, lighter below, midrib stout,
prominent and curiously flattened beneath ; flowers terminal in 3--7 flowered
umbels, peduncles rather stout, decurved; sepals broadly lanceolate with
membranous margins ; petals ligulate, bright yellow, recurved ; capsules erect,
clustered, glabrous, elliptic, 1-1} inches long, obtuse, 2-valved, remarkably
compressed, but the valves contract in a curious manner when the capsule
bursts.
Usually in rocky woods, often epiphytic, observed only between 1600 feet
and 2700 feet. Originally discovered on the Great Barrier. One of the most
strongly marked species of the genus.
Hleocarpus Hookerianus, Raoul. A few small specimens of this plant
were seen on high peaks, with a// the leaves orbicular or narrow-linear, and
curiously toothed and lobed ; the branches shortened and curiously aggregated,
forming an impervious mass of close growth. This was not simply the result
of exposure, as notwithstanding the altitude at which they grew, they were
sheltered by larger trees. In the Waikato, trees with leaves similar to the
above, are to be seen, amongst those of the ordinary mature form, on every
large tree ; in other localities in this province, the smaller leaves are not to be
met with. There appears to be some reason for supposing that two forms are
included under the name.
Pomaderris Edgerleyi, Hook. f. Apparently confined to the sea-cliffs in
this district ; in one locality occurring in immense abundance, and attaining a
stature of 6--9 feet ; the most southern locality known for this remarkably
93
local plant. There are good grounds for supposing the existence of an
undescribed species, attaining the height of 20 feet.
Metrosideros robusta, A. Cunn. A dwarf form, 3--5 feet high, usually
laden with old capsules, occurs at an altitude of 1800 feet, and upwards, and in
the absence of flowers and perfect fruit is referred to this species.
Metrosideros tomentosa, A. Cunn. There appear to be three principal
forms of this tree, chiefly dependent upon habitat. (1). On rocky cliffs, and
in open places by the sea, it attains a large size, and is marked by its spreading,
gnarled, and distorted branches. (2). In woods near the sea it attains its
greatest height, and is of comparatively close and erect growth; known to
bushmen as “inland Pohutukawa.” The flowers of this form are smaller and
less brilliant than the others. (3). A coppice form, rarely more than 12 feet high
sparingly branched, and of erect, compact growth, flowering freely, the petals
being usually more acute than in either of the other forms. In large patches
on sandy soil not far removed from high-water mark ; makes capital firewood.
A specimen of the first-named form occurs on the beach at Tapu, the trunk of
which has a girth of upwards of 17 feet, and the two principal arms of 11. feet
and 8 feet respectively. It is of remarkably symmetrical proportions. Chiefly
through the public spirit of Wiliam Buckland, Esq., it has escaped the
destruction which has befallen other noble specimens at Tapu, and has been
enclosed by a protecting fence.
Panax, n. sp. A shrub or small tree 6--20 feet high, diccious, bark and
leaves, especially on the under surface, having a peculiar bronzed appearance,
when fresh. Leaves on rather slender petioles 1--2 inches long, 3-foliolate,
leaflets 2-3 inches long, obovate lanceolate, cuneate at the base, coarsely
and sharply toothed, never sinuate-pinnatifid, glossy ; rarely a few unifoliolate
leaves are found intermixed with the ordinary form. Panicles invariably
terminal, male of few rays 2--3 inches long, flowers in slender pedicels }-2
inch long ; ; female much shorter, rays and “pedicels stouter, fruit nearly as
large asin P. Lessonw, styles 5-cuneate at the base, tips recurved, flowers
greenish-yellow.
Somewhat resembling P. Simplex, but the leaves are trifoliolate in all
stages, the panicles dicecious and terminal, and styles 5. Found also on the
Great and Little Barrier Islands, from the sea-level to the highest peaks; and
I have long known a solitary clump of small barren trees in the forest at
Omaha, which I wrongly referred to P. Stnclairti, when first observed.
Panax arborewn, Forst. This plant assumes two marked forms, which
present wide external differences, although difficult to distinguish on paper.
(1). A shrub or small tree, in the former state with stout, rather long,
branches, and large leaves, the branches ultimately becoming shorter, and the
leaves shorter, as the tree grows old, when it presents an unattractive
appearance. (2). A shrub with many short and stout branches, leaves more
glossy and of a deeper green, much larger and bolder than in the last ; petioles
stouter with wider bases, umbels much larger, and rays more deeply channelled.
The first is the common form at the Thames, and is often clothed with
Tupeia antarctica ; the last, which would form a handsome plant for the
shrubbery, I have only seen at the Thames, and in the Waikato. Both forms
may be seen growing together.
Panax Colensoi, D. C., appears to find here its northern ibn and is
extremely local, occurring at an altitude of 1600 to 2800 feet. All the young
plants observed had pinnatifid leaflets, closely resembling those represented in
“Flora Nove Zelandiz,” Vol. i, pl. 21, but of a purplish hue, certainly not
P. Hdgerleyi. P. Sinclairii was not observed.
Scheflera digitata, Forst. The young leaves of this plant, in some of the
higher and deeper gullies more especially, are lobulate and pinnatifid to a
94
much greater extent than is usually the case, often retaining the peculiarity
when 3--4 feet high. In some localities, young plants with leaves of the
ordinary form are the exception.
Loranthus, n. sp.(?) Widely differing in appearance from any other
N. Z. species ; branches slender, ascending ; leaves erect, decussate, somewhat
deltoid, fleshy, yellowish, turning red when dry; flowers not seen, but
apparently axillary and solitary ; parasitic on Quintinia serrata, at an altitude
of 1800 to 2700 feet. Occasionally branches of the parasite are adherent to
its support for a length of several feet.
Griselina lucida, Forst., var. macrophylla. This is correctly supposed by
Dr. Hooker to be merely a state of the species to which it is referred. It is
usually found growing on Pohutukawa, and other littoral trees. The normal
form is indifferently epiphytic or terrestrial.
Griselinia littoralis, Raoul. Not observed below 1700 feet.
Coprosma, sp. A small shrub 2 feet high, with crimson fruit, apparently
allied to C. linaritfolia, Hook. f., 1800 to 2500 feet.
Raoulia tenuicaulis, Hook. f. Local, but abundant; apparently attains
here its northern limit, and that of the genus.
Gaultheria rupestris, Br. Local; from 1700 to 2700 feet; apparently
reaches its northern limit here.
Archeria racemosa, Hook. f. Local, but abundant from 1900 to 2800
feet, previously known only on the Great Barrier Island, where it descends
below 1000 feet ; finds here an extension of its ‘southern range. Leaves
distinctly veined, old racemes fully one inch in length.
Dracophyilum Traversii, Took. f. (?). A remarkable and handsome
shrub, of doubtful identification in the absence of flowers ; stem erect, stout,
simple or sparingly branched ; leaves densely aggregated, recurved, 14 feet
long, or more, 14--2 inches wide at the base ; panicle shorter and stouter than
in D. longifolium, flowers small, crowded. A striking plant although long
past flowering. On the highest peaks 2300 to 2700 feet, rare.
Veronica macrocarpa, Vahl. From the sea level to 1800 feet, at the
latter altitude having a stature of some 15 feet, or more, with a stem 6 inches
in diameter. Mere varieties of V. salicifolia, with larger leaves and capsules
than usual, are sometimes referred to this handsome species. It is worthy of
remark that V. macrocarpa flowers from April to July, V. salicifolia some
months earlier.
Veronica wrrigans, Kirk, n. sp. Herbaceous, but branches suffruticose at
base, finely puberulous in all its parts, 6-12 inches high, slender ; leaves
opposite, narrow, linear-lanceolate, distantly sharply serrate, 1-2 inches long,
sessile or very shortly petioled ; racemes axillary, near the ends of the branches,
elongating, 2—5 inches long, very slender, many flowered; peduncles capillary,
4-4 inch long ; sepals ovate, obtuse ; flowers, large for the size of the plant,
2 inch diameter ; petals, whitish with rose-coloured spots at the base ; capsules,
large, rounded, didymous.
Fagus fusca, Hook.f. The identification of the fine timber tree here
referred to this species, rests solely upon a comparison of the foliage. It is
certainly identical with the Beech found at the Kawau and at Omaha, and
probably with that at Whangarei; but I am not aware that specimens of the
inflorescence and fruit have been obtained for comparison with the southern
form. At the Thames it is found in rather sheltered places, and has not been
found at a greater altitude than 1500 feet. The dense under-growth usually
found in the New Zealand forest is entirely wanting in the patches of Beech in
the north, and the tree itself is rarely clothed with climbers.
t Dactylanthus, sp. A singular plant, provisionally referred to this genus
until better specimens can be obtained. Plant, globose, in large specimens,
95
the size of a man’s fist, usually smaller, densely studded with scaly bud-like
processes, swollen at the apex, and in a few cases developed to the length of
2 inches. On being laid open, one or two specimens exhibited numerous
almost sessile anthers (?), which crumbled under the knife. Most of the
specimens collected were in the last stage of decay. Parasitic on the roots of
Schefflera digitata, 1000 to 1600 feet ; rare.
Dacrydium laxifolium, Hook. f., var. An erect branching tree, 30 feet
high, of which the inflorescence appears to be quite unknown. Notwithstanding
the wide difference in habit, it is referred here chiefly on account of the wide
basal attachment of the mature leaves. The leaves of the young state, at first,
closely resemble those of Podocarpus ducrydioides, subsequently these are
replaced by others resembling those of the young state of Dacrydium
cupressinum, but stouter ; these again become gradually smaller, and modified
in shape, until the broadly-imbricating appressed state of the mature leaves is
_ finally developed. Alt. 1500 to 2700 feet.
Phyllocladus glauca, Carr. This fine pine attains here an extension of its
southern range, and is abundant from 1800 to 2700 feet.
Callixene parviflora, Hook. f. Attaims here most probably its northern
limit, at an altitude of 2400 to 2700 feet ; rare, epiphytic, flowers not seen.
Schenus Brownit, Hook. f. Local, 700 to 1200 feet, the most northern
locality known.
Scirpus triquetur, L. Local, the most northern locality known to me.
Uncinia, sp.t Apparently intermediate between U. australis, Pers., and
U. cespitosa, Bool., of which last it is possibly a broad-leaved form, allied to
the former by the foliaceous bracts.
Hymenophyllum dilatatum, Swartz, and H. scabrum, A. Rich. These
ferns are most abundant, and attain an unusual luxuriance ; fronds over
30 inches in length, were collected at an altitude of 2000 feet.
Trichomanes reniforme, Forst. Also of unusual luxuriance. Ascends from
the sea-level to 2700 feet.
Trichomanes strictwm, Menzies. From 800 to 2700 feet, but local,
although it doubtless occurs in isolated habitats, along the entire peninsula.
A careful examination of several hundred specimens of this species, from
varicus localities, as well as of 7. elongatum, has entirely failed to confirm Mr.
Baker’s view, of the latter being a variety of the former.
Loxsoma Cunninghamii, Br. Local, but exhibiting a slight extension of
its range southward. The most southern locality previously known being at
Mercury Bay.
Lomaria elongata, Blume. Descends to about 800 feet, and probably
attains here its northern limit ; very rare.
Polypodium sylvaticum, Col. This also appears to find its northern limit
here ; descends to 800 feet.
A few decaying scraps of a plant with narrow-linear leaves, apparently a
Clovewort, were picked amongst moss on the peaks of Mount Wynyard, but
being without the slightest trace of flower or fruit, identification was
impossible. It can scarcely be referred to any described New Zealand species.
CATALOGUE OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS, ETC., COLLECTED ON THE
THAMES GOLD-FIELDS, MarcH AND ApRIL, 1869.
It is attempted in the following catalogue, to arrange the Phznogamic
plants and higher Acrogens of the Cape Colville Peninsula, so as to afford as
definite an idea of the distribution of each species, as the space at command
will admit of. The method adopted requires a few words of explanation.
The plants are arranged in groups, according to the nature of their
habitats, viewed chiefly with regard to dryness, moisture, shade, exposure, ete.
96
Tn this district they may be roughly divided into, Ericetal, or plants of the
open Jand, and Sylvestral, or woodland plants, which would almost equally
divide the total number of plants between them. ‘The first of these divisions
readily admits of sub-division, and the following terms have been adopted for
the different groups.
* 1. Littoral. Plants of the sea-shore, whether growing on sandy or
muddy beaches, as Convolvulus Soldanella, Salicornia indica: on sea-cliffs, as
Metrosideros tomentosa ; or in salt-marshes, as Juncus maritimus.
2. Hricetal. Plants of open dry land, as Leptospermum scoparium, Pteris
esculenta.
3. Pascual. Plants of open grassy land, as Ranunculus plebeius,
Cardamine hirsuta.
4. Rupestral. Plants growing on or amongst rocks, as Cheilanthes
Siebert, Pellea rotundifolia.
5. Viatical. Plants growing in waste places, or by road sides, etc., as
Polygonum aviculare, Agrostis emula.
6. Inundatal. Plants growing on the banks of streams, or in other places
hable to frequent inundation, as Oxalis magellanica, Pratia angulata, Lomaria
lanceolata.
7. Paludal. Plants growing in constantly wet soil, or in water, as
Lpilobium pallidifiorum, Typha latifolia.
8. Lacustral. Aquatic plants, whether floating or submerged, as
Ranunculus rivularis, Zostera marina.
9. Sylvestral. Forest or woodland plants, as Dammara australis,
Nesodaphne Tawa, Microlena avenacea.
There are a few plants whose habitats are so varied, or possibly so complex,
that they cannot be fully expressed by a single term ; thus Cardamine hirsuta
might with almost equal propricty be classed as Pascual or Sylvestral.
Nasturtium palustre as Inundatal or Viatical. Podocarpus dacrydioides as
Sylvestral or Paludal. Muhlenbeckia complexa as Ericetal or Sylvestral.
In these and a few other other cases, some allowance must of necessity
be made on the score of conciseness.
The term “ Sylvestral” is perhaps the most open to objection, on account
of its comprehensiveness, as no distinction is drawn between plants found only
in deep forests, as the Kauri, and those found in light scrub, or on the
outskirts of forest, as the various species of Clematis; but the degrees of
difference are generally so near that it is extremely difficult to define them,
and to adopt terms that can be applied with any approach to precision. The
attempt has therefore been abandoned for the present.
To a certain extent, the above arrangement gives a definite idea of the
distribution of each species ; but by the aid of a short series of numbers,
greater precision may be gained. The series adopted is1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15,
20. A plant with the highest number affixed, is one of the most generally
distributed throughout the district, limited only by the nature of its habitat,
and (possibly) by altitude. Thus Geniostoma is found in, or on, the margin
of almost every patch of bush, however small, as is Leptospermum scoparium
on every open hill-side. The lower numbers exhibit comparative rarity. But
it must be borne in mind that this notation has reference to the extent of
distribution only, and not to relative abundance. The same number is applied
to each of the two plants last mentioned, yet if the relative number of
individuals could be compared, it would be found less than a single plant of
the Geniostoma to ten thousand of the Leptospermum. At the advanced
* These terms are similar to those introduced by Mr. Watson, in his various works
on Phytogeography, but are employed with different limitations.
97
period of the season at which the survey was made, it was only possible to
apply this test of frequency to a portion of the plants observed.
The estimate of altitude affixed to many species, is chiefly based upon
single observations with a pocket aneroid, and can therefore be regarded as
approximative only.
It may well be, that from the late period of the season at which this
exploration was made, some plants will be found to be omitted from the list,
and the distribution of others but imperfectly laid down from the same cause.
The application of the terms and figures descriptive of habitat, frequency, and
vertical range, must be regarded as for this district only.
1,—LitTorat.
Lepidium oleraceum. Pittosporum crassifolium, (1). P. umbellatum, (3).
Plagianthus divaricatus, (3). Linum monogynum, (5). Oxalis cornicu-
lata, (20).* Pomaderris Edgerleyi, (2) —200. Metrosideros tomentosa,
(15) —2000. Mesembryanthemum australe, (10). Apium australe. A.
filiforme. Panax Lessoni, (5)f —800.? Coprosma Baueriana, (1). Olearia
furfuracea, (2). O. albida, (5) —200. Senecio lautus, —1000. Selliera
radicans. Samolus repens. Convolvulus Soldanella. Avicennia officinalis, (4).
Chenopodium ambiguum. Salicornia indica. Euphorbia glauca. Astelia
Banksu, —800. Juncus maritimus. Leptocarpus simplex. Scirpus maritimus.
S. triquetur. Desmochcenus spiralis. Carex pumila. Spinifex hirsutus.
Paspalum distichum. JDichelachne stipoides. Triticum multiflorum. T.
scabrum. Asplenium obtusatum.
IJ.— ERIcETAL.
Geranium microphyllum. Pomaderris phylicifolia, —1000. Coriaria
ruscifolia, (20) —2000. Drosera auriculata, —2000. Haloragis tetragyna.
Leptospermum scoparium, (20) —2000. Lagenophora Forsteri, (20). Wahlen-
bergia gracilis. Gaultheria antipoda, (15) —2000. Epacris pauciflora,
(4) —300. Leucopogon Frazeri, (5). Dracophyllum squarrosum, (4) —2300.
Geniostoma ligustrifolium, (20). Muhlenbeckia complexa, (10). Pimelia
prostrata. Acianthus Sinclair, —2000. Mlicrotis porrifola. Thelymitra
longifolia. Orthoceras Solandri. Cordyline Banksii, (10). C. Pumilio, (10).
Dianella intermedia, (10). Schcenus tenax. 8. tendo. Gahnia setifolia. G.
arenaria. Carex breviculmis. Lindsea linearis, (4). Pteris esculenta,
(20) —2520. Doodia media, (10). Schizea bifida, (5) —2000. Botrychium
cicutarium, (3). Lycopodium densum, (15) —2000. LL. volubile, (20) —2000.
IIT.— Pascuat.
Ranunculus plebeius, (20). Cardamine hirsuta. Linum marginata.
Haloragis micrantha. Epilobium Billardierianum. Dichondra repens.
Plantago Raoulii. Libertia ixioides. Arthropodium candidum. Luzula
campestris. Microleena stipoides. Dichelachne sciurea. D. crinita. Agrostis
quadriseta. Danthonia semi-annularis, —2000. Poa anceps.
IV. RupeEstRAt.
Epilobium nummularifolium, (20). E. pubens. Celmisia, sp. (1),
2200-2700. Ozothamnus glomeratus, (3) —1600. Erechtites scaberula, E.
quadridentata. Gaultheria rupestris, (1) 1700-2700. Convolvulus
* The typical form is a truly Littoral plant : the varieties are Ericetal and Viatical.
+ Also Sylvestral.
Note.— Range in altitude given in feet: a dash only, prefixed, signifies ‘‘from sea-
level to.” Figures in parentheses refer to the comparative distribution of species in the
district: see p. 96.—Ep.
98
Tuguriorum. Parietaria debilis. Peperomia Urvilleana. Earina autumnalis.
Arthropodium cirrhatum (5). Microlena polynoda. Hchinopogon ovatus.
Cheilanthes Sieberi, (3). Pelleea rotundifolia (10). Lomaria vuleanica, (2)
1200-1800. Asplenium lucidum, (20). A. flabellifolium, (3). A.
Hookerianum (3) —1600. Aspidium Richardi, (20). Schizeea fistulosa,
(3) —2000. Lycopodium scariosum, (3) —2000.
V. VIATICAL.
Geranium dissectum, vars. carolinianum, pilosum, patulum, glabratum.
G. molle. Pelargonium australe, var. clandestinum. Acena Sanguisorbe.
Haloragis alata. Epilobium junceum, (20). Sicyos angulatus. Daucus
brachiatus. Bidens pilosa. Cotula australis. Gnaphalium luteo-album. G.
involucratum. G. collinum. Sonchus oleraceus, var. asper. Convolvulus
sepium. C. marginata. Solanum aviculare. §S. nigrum. Polygonum
aviculare. Rumex flexuosus. Agrostis emula. A. Billardieri.
VI.—InunpatTat.
Nasturtium palustre. ‘Viola filicaulis, (1) —700. Stellaria parvifiora.
Oxalis magellanica. Gunnera monoica. Callitriche Muellerii. Eugenia
Maire, (5). Epilobium alsinioides. Hydrocotyle elongata. H. moschata.
Coprosma propinqua (?), (5). C. linariifolia, (5). Olearia Solandri. Lageno-
phora petiolata. Cotula perpusilla, CC. minuta. MRaoulia tenuicaulis.
Gnaphalium Keriense. Lobelia anceps. Pratia-angulata. Veronica irrigans
L f=) to} ?
Kirk, n. sp., —300. Corysanthes rivularis. C. macrantha. Triglochin
triandrum. Cordyline australis. Astelia grandis. Phormium tenax, —2300.
P. tenax, var. variegata. P. Colensoi. Juncus vaginatus. J. bufonius. Schcenus
Brown, 700-1200. Isolepis nodosa. I. riparia. Cladium Gunn. C.
Sinclairii, Carex lucida. CC. Lambertiana. OC. vacillans. Sporobolus
elongatus, Gleichenia circinata, (5). G. circinata, v. hecistophylla. Dicksonia
squarrosa, —2000. Loxsoma Cunninghamii. Lindsea trichomanoides, (2).
Lomaria membranacea, (10), L. lanceolata, (15). Lycopodium cernuum, (5).
VII.—PALuDAL.
Hypericum japonicum. Epilobium tetragonum. E. _ pallidiflorum.
Hydrocotyle asiatica. Nertera Cunninghamii, (3). Cotula coronopifolia.
Polygonum minus, var. decipiens. Typha latifolia. Juncus planifolius.
Scheenus axillaris. Eleocharis acuta, var. platylepis. E. gracillima, Isolepis
prolifer. Cladium glomeratum. OC. teretifolium. C. junceum. Carex
virgata. OC. virgata, var. secta. C. Gaudichaudiana. C. ternaria. C. Forsteri.
Isachne australis. | Arundo conspicua. Lomaria procera, (20) —2600.
L. fluviatilis, (5) 500-1600. L. elongata, (1) -—800. Lycopodium
laterale, (3).
VILL —LacustrRat.
Ranunculus rivularis. (Fluviatile.) Zostera marina. (Marine.)
TX.—SYLVESTRAL.
Clematis indivisa, (10). C. parviflora, (3). C. feetida, (3). C. Colensoi, (2).
Drimys axillaris, (5) —2000. D. colorata, (2). Cardamine stylosa. Meli-
cytus ramiflorus, (20) —2000. M. micranthus, (5). Pittosporum tenui-
folium, (20). P. Huttonianum, Kirk., n.sp., (5), under 500. P. Eugenioides, (10).
P. cornifolium, (15) —2000. P. Kirku, Hook. f., n. sp., (3) 1600-2700.
Hoheria populnea, (5). Entelea arborescens, (10). Aristotelia racemosa, (15).
Eleeocarpus dentatus, (20). E. Hookerianus, (1) 2000-2700. Phebalium
nudum, (5) —2000. Melicope ternata, (10). M. simplex, (5). Dysoxylum
spectabile, (15). Dodoneea viscosa, (15). Alectryon excelsum, (10). Cory-
99
nocarpus levigata, (20). Carmicheelia australis, (10). Sophora tetiaptera, (15).
Rubus australis, vars. glaber, schmidelioides, cissoides, (20). Quintinia
serrata, (15) —2700. Ixerba brexioides, (10) 800-2700. Carpodetus
serratus, (10) —1800. Weinmannia silvicola, (20) —2500. W. racemosa, (3).
Leptospermum ericoides, (10). Metrosideros florida, (15) —2400. M. lucida,
(10) 1700-2700. M. albifiora, (5) 900-2700. M. hypericifolia, (15).
M. robusta, (15) —2500. M. robusta, var. M. scandens, (20). M. diffusa.
Myrtus bullata, (10). Fuchsia excorticata, (20). Passiflora tetrandra, (10).
Panax Edgerleyi, (10) 1000-1800. PP. crassifolia, (20) —2500. PP. Colensoi,
(2) 1800-2700. PP. arborea, (20) —2500. PP. arborea, var. P. n. sp. (5)
1800--2700. Schefilera digitata, (15) 2500. Griselinia lucida, (20) —2000.
G. lucida, v. macrophylla. G. littoralis, (4) 1700-2700. Corokia buddleoides,
(4) —2300. Loranthus, n. sp., (3) 1700-2700. LL. micranthus, (4). Tupeia
antarctica, (5). Alseuosmia macrophylla, (20) —2700. A. macrophylla, var.
variegata. A. quercifolia, (3). Coprosma lucida, (15) —2300. C. lucida,
var., 1800--2700. OC. grandifolia, (15) 2500. ©. robusta, (15). C. spathu-
lata, (5). C. rotundifolia. C. sp., (2) 2000-2500. Nertera dichondreefolia,
— 2000. Olearia Cunninghami, (20). Senecio glastifolius, (15) —2700.
Brachyglottis repanda, (20) -—-2500. Cyathodes acerosa, (10) —2300.
Leucopogon fasciculatus, (20) —2500. Archeria racemosa, (2) 1800--2700,
Dracophyllum Traversii, (2) 2300-2700. D. latifolium, (5) —2000. Myrsine
salicina, (3). M. Urvillei (15) —2000. M. divaricata, (1). Olea Cunning-
hamii, (2). O. lanceolata, (5). Parsonsia albiflora, (20) —2500. Veronica
salicifolia, (20). V. macrocarpa, (4) —1800. Rhabdothamnus Solandri,
(15) —2000. Vitex littoralis, (10). Myoporum letum, (5). Muhlenbeckia
adpressa, (10). ‘Tetranthera calicaris, (10). Nesodaphne Tarairi, (2) —800.
Nesodaphne Tawa, (15) —2000. Atherosperma Nove Zelandiz, (5).
Hedycarya dentata, (10). Knightia excelsa, (15) —2000. Persoonia Toro,
(10), —2700. Pimelea longifolia, (2) 1200-1800. PP. virgata, (4).
Santalum Cunninghamii, (10) —2000. Fagus fusca, (5) —1500. Epicarpurus
microphyllus, (3). Piper excelsum, (15). 4% Dactylanthus, sp. Dammara
australis, (20) —2700. Podocarpus ferruginea, (10). P. Totara, (15) —2700.
P. spicata, (5). P. dacrydioides, (5). Dacrydium cupressinum, (10) —2000.
D. laxifolium, (3) (tree form) 1800-2700. Phyllocladus trichomanoides, (15)
—2000. P. Glauca, (3) 1800-2700. Harina mucronata. Bolbophyllum pygmeum,
—2500. Sarcochilus adversus. Adenochilus gracilis. Corysanthus triloba,—1600,
C. rivularis. Pterostylis Banksii. P. trullifolia, —1200. Libertia micrantha,
1000-2700. Freycinetia Banksu, (20) —2500. SRhipogonum scandens,
(15) —2500. Callixene parviflora, 2400-2700. Astelia Cunninghamii,
(10) —2500. A. Solandri, (20) —2700. Astelia, n. sp., (15) —2700. Areca
sapida, (15). Gahnia, n. sp. G. ebenocarpa. G. lacera, —2700. Uncinia
australis. U. sp. U. Banksii. Mlicrolena avenacea. Panicum imbecille.
Gleichenia Cunningbamii, (5). Cyathea dealbata, (15) —2000. C. medullaris,
(20) —2000. C. Smithu, (10) —2700. Dicksonia lanata, (2) 1200--1800.
Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, (10) —2500. H. bivalve, (1), 1500--1900.
H. multifidum, (10) —2700. 4H. rarum, (10) —25v0. 4H. dilatatum,
(20) —2500. H. Javanicum, (10) —1500. H. sanguinolentum, (20)—2700,
H. demissum, (20) —2000. HH. scabrum, (15) —2000. H. flabellatum.
(20) —2500. H. eruginosum, (10) —2000. H. Lyallu, (19) —2700,
Trichomanes reniforme, (20) -—2700. T. strictum, (4) 800--2700.
T. elongatum, (15) —1800. TT. humile, (10) —1800. TT. venosum,
(10) —1800. Davallia Nove Zelandiz, (2) 800-1500. Lindszea Lessonii,
(5) —2000. Adiantum hispidulum, (5). A. affine, (5). A. Cunninghamii,
(20). A. fulvum, (15). Hypolepis tenuifolia, (10). Pteris tremula.
(20) —2700. PP. scaberula, (5). PP. incisa, (5). P. macilenta, (15). P.
P
100
Endlicheriana, (5). Lomaria filiformis, (10) —2000. IL. discolor, (10).
L. nigra, (3) 1800--2500. L. Fraseri, (10). Asplenium falcatum,
(20) —2000. A. bulbiferum, (20). A. flaccidum, (20) —2000. Aspidium
coriaceum, (15). Nephrodium velutinum, (20). N. decompositum, (10).
N. de., var. pubescens. N. hispidum, (15). Polypodium australe, (10) —2700.
P. Grammitidis, (15) —2500. P. tenellum, (2). P. sylvaticum, (3) 800-1700.
P. rugulosum, (5). P. pennigerum, (20). BP. rupestre, (15) —2500.
P. Cunninghamii, (20) —2500. P. pustulatum, (20) —2000. PP. Billardieri,
(20) —2500. Leptopteris hymenophylloides, (20). Lygodium articulatum,
(15) —2500. Lycopodium Billardieri, (15)—2500. Tmesipteris Forsteri,
(15) —2700.
NATURALIZED PLANTS.
Nasturtium officinale. Erysimum officinale. Senebiera pinnatifida.
Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Sinapis arvensis. Brassica rapa. B. napus.
B. oleracea. Raphanus sativus. Vitis vinifera. Silene quinquevulnera.
Stellaria media. Cerastium vulgatum. C. viscosum. Malva rotundifolia.
M. Caroliniana. EHrodium circutariam. Trifolium repens. TT. pratense.
T. medium. TT. procumbens. T. minus. Melilotus arvensis. Medicago lupulina.
M. maculata. M. denticulata. Acacia lophantha. Amygdalus persica.
Prunus cerasus. -Fragaria elatior. Rubus Ideus. Rosa micrantha.
R. rubiginosa. R. multiflora. C£nothera stricta. Cucurbita, sp. Erigeron
canadensis. Bellis perennis. Senecio vulgaris. | Carduus _ lanceolatus.
Hypocheris radicata. Taraxacum Dens-Leonis. Helminthia Lchioides.
Anagallis arvensis. Solanum tuberosum. Physalis peruviana. Verbascum, sp.
Veronica arvensis. V. serpyllifolia. Mentha viridis. Prunella vulgaris.
Plantago major. P. lanceolata. Rumex viridis. R. obtusifolius. R. crispus.
R. Acetosella. Chenopodium murale. Euxolus viridis. Euphorbia Peplus.
Riccinus Palma-Christi. Ficus Carica. Colocasia antiquorum. Iris
Germanica. Allium, sp. Alopecurus pratensis. Phalaris canariensis.
Holeus mollis. H. lanatus. Anthoxanthum odoratum. Digitaria sanguinalis.
Poa annua. PP. pratensis. Briza minor. Dactylis glomeratus. Bambusa
arundinacea, Lolium perenne.
Art. XVI.—
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L27nIII0 pus appung » toctida
Pee. IS:
Rubus australis
Metrosideros scandens
j
Native or
Settlers’ Name.
Konini
Broad leaf
Kakaramu
Karamu
Akepirau
Mingi
Ngaio
Ongonga
Kava-kava
Antetaranga
Traveller’s
JOY
Tataramoa
Season of
Flowering.
Oct.
Nov.
Nov.
Oct.
Sept.
Nov.
Dee.
Dee.
Dee.
Nov.
Nov.
Nov.
Akakura
Dec.
Nov.- Dee.
Novy. -Jan.
Nov.- Dee.
Sept. - Oct.
Sept-Noy.
Sept. - Oct.
Oct. - Nov.
Oct. - Jan.
Oct. - Jan.
Nov.- Jan.
Nov.- Dec.
Nov.- Dee.
Dec.- Feb.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Oct. - Nov.
Nov.- Feb.
Dee. - Jan.
Dee. - Jan.
Nov.- Dec.
Nov.- Dec.
Nov.- Feb.
Nov.-Jan.
Noyvy.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Noy.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Oct. - Nov.
\Nov.- Dee.
Riccarton Bush.
SPSS aici |
ft
fe el feel fel
— pe
Dry Bush.
Mount Pleasant Bush.
Port hills, and Sumner:
north side of range.
a
Swamps.
Sand-hills,
CREEPERS.
Passiflora tetrandra
Parsonsia albiflora
i rosea :
Convolvulus Tuguriorum .
re Sepium
Muhlenbeckia adpressa
i complexa
Rhipogonum scandens
HeErBaceous PLANTS.
Ranunculus pinguis
- macropus
lappaceus
- plebeius
, multiscapus
Cardamine hirsuta
Viola Cunninghamii
Stellaria media
Colobanthus, sp.
Hypericum gramineum
a japonicum
Linum monogynum
Geranium dissectum
‘5 microphyllum .
Pelargonium australe
Oxalis corniculata
Acena Sanguisorbee
Geum urbanum
Potentilla ansorina, var.
Drosera spathulata
Nee bumata ie. ;
Myriophyllum varizfolium
Gunnera monoica .
Epilobium macropus
nummularifolium
; rotundifolium .
o pallidiflorum
‘ Billardierianum
i purpuratum
. crassum
“ elabellum
Aciphylla squarrosa
Eryngium vesiculosum
Ligusticum, sp.
Angelica Gingidium
124
Native or
Settlers’ Name.
Kohea
Kaika
Supple-jack
Kori kori
Butter cup
Panapana
Violet
Chickweed
St. John’s
wort
Flax
Pinaki tere
Kopata
Burr
Hutiwai
Kopato
Sun dew
Hinatoti
Spear grass
Sea holly
\Nov.- Dec. |
Season of
Flowering.
Dee.
Dee.
Dee.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov- Mar.
Nov.- Feb.
Noy.-Jan.
Nov.
Nov.-Jan.
Oct. - Feb.
Noy.-Jan.
Dee. - Feb.
Nov.- Feb.
Sept.-Jan.
Sept- Mar.
Aug.-Ap.
Nov.
Noy.-Jan.
Dec. - Jan.
Nov- Mar.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.- Feb.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.- Feb.
Nov.-Jan.
Oct.-Jan.
Nov.- Dee.
Jan.
Jan.
Feb.
Nov.- Feb.
Oct.-Dee.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.- Feb.
Oct.-Feb.
Nov- Mar.
Oct.-Dee.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.- Feb.
Dee.
Riccarton Bush.
a
3
|e
P| ay
fl | 45
E
ya
Hoy i
Ih J
pel
1
Wey il
esa
ey
Ira
1
1
il
1
1
i
1
1
1
Teale
Wea
1
Ih
Port hills, and Sumner:
north side of range.
|
a pt tt
Swamps.
po
Ss
Sand-hills.
—
—a as
HERBACEOUS PLANTS.
Angelica geniculata
Galium tenuicaule
Celmisia longifolia
Vittadinia australis
Daucus brachiatus
Lagenophora Forsteri
A petiolata
Cotula coronopifolia
» australis
Brachycome Sinclairii
Craspedia fimbriata
* alpina .
Raouha australis .
» Monroi
Pe SD: : 6
Gnaphalium luteo-album .
53 bellidioides
os filicaule
| involucratum
Erechtites arguta .
96 quadridentata .
Senecio bellidioides
» Ssaxifragoides
PENA bUS
» lagopus
Microseris Forsteri
Crepis Nove Zelandiz
Taraxacum dens-leonis
Sonchus oleraceus
Wahlenbergia gracilis
Pratia angulata
| ED:
Lobelia, sp.
Selliera radicans
Leucopogon, sp.
Samolus repens
Gentiana montana
Sebzea ovata ;
Myosotis Forsteri .
53 australis
” Sp.
~ Convolvulus sepium
i, tuguriorem
ay erubescens
Dichondra repens .
Solanum nigrum .
Native or
Settlers’ Name.
Wild carrot
Daisy
Pekapeka
Sow thistle
Blue bell
Forget me not
Bind-weed
Nightshade
Season of
Flowering.
Dee.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.-Jan,
Nov.- Dee.
Dec.
Oct.-Jan.
Oct.-Jan.
Nov- Mar.
Sept- Mar.
Nov.-Jan.
Sept.- Feb.
Oct.-Jan.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.
Nov.
Noy.- Dee.
Novy.- Dee.
Nov.- Dec.
Dee.
Dec.-Ap.
Oct.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Novy.- Feb.
Nov,-Jan,
Dec.- Jan.
Oct. - Jan.
Sept.- Feb.
Oct.- A pil.
Nov.-Mar.
Oct. - Jan.
Dec.
Nov.-Mar.
Dec. - Feb.
Oct. - Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Dec. - Feb.
Dec. - Feb.
Nov.-Jan.
Dee.
Nov. -Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.- Feb.
Oct. - Jan.
Nov.- Dee.
Sept.-Jan.
Dee. - Jan.
Riccarton Bush.
eq pan en
Dry Bush.
Mount Pleasant Bush.
Port hills, and Sumner :
north side of range.
— _ a foeen foe pel pee ae ee a a a a a ee ee a - |
— pt
fmt ped pet eet
Swamps.
eee
— et
Sand-hills.
et ek hee
HERBACEOUS PLANTS
Solanum aviculare
Mentha Cunninghami
Plantago major
a Raoulii .
Chenopodium triandrum
iM urbicum
3 glaucum
Atriplex cinerea
Scleranthus biflorus
Polygonum aviculare
Rumex flexuosus .
Euphorbia glauca .
Urtica incisa
Karina mucronata.
Corysanthes macrantha
5 triloba
i oblonga
Thelymitra longifolia
Phrasophyllum Colensoi
Four other orchids
One re
Libertia ixioides
» grandiflora
Hypoxis pusilla ;
Anquilaria Novee Zelandiz
Typha angustifolia
» Jatifolia
Lemna minor
Potamogeton natans
Cordyline Pumilio
Astelia nervosa :
Arthropodium candidum .
Anthericum Hookeri
Phormium tenax .
Colensoi
Juncus vaginatus .
», australis
» maritimus
» communis
Holoscheenus
| So ‘
Luzula campestris .
» Oldfieldii .
» crinita
a So :
Leptocarpus simple
Native or
| Settlers’ Name.
Koho koho
Mint
Plantain
Spinach
Kohu kohu
Pigweed
Dock
Spurgewort
Nettle
Turutu
Raupo
Tirauriki
N. Z. flax
Wiwi
Commonrush
Oi o1
Season of
Flowering.
Nov.- Dee.
Novy. -Jan.
Oct. - Feb.
Nov.-Jan.
Noy.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.- Dee.
Oct.- Mar.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.-Mar.
Dec. - Feb.
Nov.
Nov.
Nov.
Dee.
Dee.
Nov.
Nov.
Oct.
Oct.
Nov.
Oct.
Oct.
Oct.
Nov.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.-Jan.
Nov.-Apl.
Nov.-Apl.
Dec.- Mar.
Sep. - Oct.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.- Dee.
Nov.- Dee.
Dec. - Jan.
Oct. - Nov.
Oct. - Nov.
Oct. - Dec.
Riccarton Bush.
=
Dry Bush.
Mount Pleasant Bush.
Port hills, and Sumner :
north side of range.
— —
—e——
femeek Ot fpomeed feed
a
Swamps,
See ee i —
ae ee ee ee
et ee
=
Sand-hills.
te le
HERBACEOUS PLANTS.
Eleocharis gracilis
Desmocheenus spiralis
Gahnia xanthocarpa
Lepidosperma tetragona
Carex ternaria
» breviculmis.
» virgata, var. secta .
Peevaouli
55 06 :
Microlzena polynoda
Alopecurus geniculatus.
=a (Phleum) pratense
Hierochloe redolens
Deschampsia ceespitosa
Agrostis quadriseta
Apera arundinacea
Arundo conspicua
Poa foliosa
Festuca duriuscula
FERNS.
Cyathea dealbata
Dicksonia lanata
= squarrosa
Hypolepis tenuifolia
3 distans
Adiantum Cunninghamii .
Cheilanthes Sieberi
Pellzea rotundifolia
Pteris aquilina, var. escu-
lenta
Pteris scaberula
aye ance
Lomaria procera .
» fluviatilis
» vulcanica
» lanceolata
yi cuscolor ~
» alpina
Asplenium obtusatum
3 lucidum
. bulbiferum
. flaccidum ‘
ss flabellifolium .
3 Hookerianum .
Aspidium aculeatum
Native or
Settlers’ Name.
Pingao
Rautahi
Koretu
Hoomanga-
moka
Toi toi
Season of
Flowering.
Nov.
Nov.
Cutting grass Nov.- Dec.
Novy.
Oct.
Oct.
Nov.
Nov.
Oct.
Nov.
Nov.
Oct.
Nov.- Dec.
Oct. - Dec,
Oct. - Jan.
Oct. - Nov.
Oct. - Nov.
Oct. - Dec.
Qld] e|2el z
E/E \ = | gel &
2 5 |e
S|Es
a
ais |
1
I pal nea
Wid ey ak
il
1
1
1 1
1
I
1 1
il
1
te eel
1 Na
il
eo a
1
1
1 1
] 1
1
1
el
Lye (eal oles eal
I een peatees Ee il
1
1
Weebl VB Aiea
Mele ae i
i
1
1 1
Uap ies La al
1
1
ME a ae emt
ie | lee ene
Woy i
1a he
Tee We gh des a
Sand-hills.
Ferns.
Aspidium oculatum
Nephrodium velutinum
2 decompositum
Polypodium Grammitidis .
% rupestre
pennigerum
Ps Billardieri
Leptopteris hymenophyl-
loides
Gymnogramme leptophylla
Ophioglossum vulgatum
Botrychium virginicum
MARSILEACES.
Azolla rubra :
Mosses, Licuens, Funat,
ETC.
Leucobryum candidum
Dicranum dicarpon
Campylopus introflexus
Ceratodon purpureus
Macromitrium erosulum
Bryum truncorum
Hookeria pulchella
Funaria hygrometrica
Tsothecium ramulosum
Hypnum relaxum
me aSD:
Sticta aurata
» crocata
» latifrons
Pe tulnerne,
Polytrichum sp.
Chara sp.
Agaricus campestr is
i Sp. .
Geaster fimbriatus
Tleodictyon cibarium
gracile
Lycoper don Nove Zelandix
5 pyriforme
- Sp.
Polyporus sp.
Native or
Settlers’ Namd.
Heru heru
Common
mushroom
Season of
Flowering.
Riccarton Bush.
Ce Ne ee ee ee ee ell oe! i
ee — ee |
Dry Bush,
feet fel pe fe ee et et et et
Mount Pleasant Bush.
pel ep
—— es re ee a
=—s—
Port hills, and Sumner:
north side of range.
|
Swamps.
eee
Sand-hills.
129
Art. XX V.—On Jrrigation as applied to the growth of New ZEALAND FLAX.
By J. C. Crawrorp, F.G.S8.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 14, 1869.]
THERE is no country in the world which rejoices in more numerous sparkling
streams than New Zealand, and in this respect it contrasts remarkably with
the neighbouring territory of Australia ; but the rivers are seldom navigable
to any distance from the coast, and their waters generally reach the sea
without proving of more utility to mankind, than for the common supply of
liquid for daily consumption.
There are two modes by which the streams may be made useful to
mankind.
1. By forming reservoirs of power.
2. By fertilizing the soil by irrigation.
It is my intention at present to consider the latter point only.
In Europe two systems of irrigation are adopted. In the warm climates
of the Mediterranean basin, water is conveyed to the fields under crop, for the
simple purpose of providing the necessary moisture.
In the colder latitudes of England, France, and Germany, water-meadows
are put under irrigation during the winter season, at a time when, prima facie,
one might suppose that the soil was sufficiently moist. These meadows are laid
out on two plans: on level ground they are formed into ridges and furrows—
the water running on to the ground along conduits on the top of the ridges ;
then flowing gently over both sides, is carried away by the drain in the
furrow. To lay off land carefully in this manner is expensive, but the returns
are very great. On uneven ground the catch meadow system is adopted.
Advantage is taken of the inequalities of the ground to run the water as
evenly as possible over the surface, and with proper skill and judgment this
object is often attained at slight outlay.
Tt is a remarkable fact, that although the fertility of water meadows is
vastly increased by an admixture of manure with the water, yet that water,
containing apparently no foreign element of fertility, is capable, when applied
to the soil, of enabling it to return, year after year, heavy crops of hay and
grass. This is a point which science has not, as yet, thoroughly explained.
As examples of irrigation I will mention the water meadows near
Edinburgh, which are irrigated by strong town sewage. These meadows
produce frequent heavy crops of grass, and are said to make a return of from
£20 to £60 per annum, according to distance from the fertilizing sources, and
the nature of the soil. In Wiltshire, Berkshire, and many other counties in
the south of England, the return from water meadows, irrigated without
sewage, is very large, and I think that, at a moderate estimate, a return of
from £5 to £7 per acre may be considered the average.
The meadows provide early grass for the ewes and lambs in spring, a
heavy cut of hay in summer, and an aftermath in autumn.
From my own experience, in a cold district in Scotland, I may state, that
after throwing the drainage water from the upper part of my property, so as to
irrigate some fields on the lower part, I have obtained, ever since, an increased
return, of some 75 per cent. from the irrigated portion, over the previous rental.
In New Zealand, and in no part of the country more than in the
Province of Wellington, there are facilities for irrigation possessed by few
other countries. It would be absurd to advise expensive modes of laying off
land for irrigation, in the present sparse state of the population of the colony ;
but if it should appear that large tracts of country may be irrigated at
moderate expense, for the purpose of developing a staple export, the subject is
at least worth enquiry. The export of the fibre of the Phormiwm tenax has
130
almost now become a settled industry, and although we may expect this year
to hear of many samples being sold below cost price, on account of bad
preparation, yet there is reason to suppose that all well-got-up samples will
fetch remunerative prices.
Should this industry prove successful, it will clearly be necessary that the
cultivation of the plant shall be proceeded with on a large scale, and no one
who has observed the growth of the plant, but will have perceived the
enormous advantage which irrigation may produce in the returns to be derived
from it. Ifa drain be cut through a flax swamp, and the stagnant water
thereby set in motion, the stunted flax, of 18 inches or 2 feet high, immediately
springs up to a height of 8 to 10 feet. Itis said that in the old days of
Maori flax cultivation, the plants were irrigated, although always planted on a
hill side.
There is, I should think, no disputing the point that irrigation would add
immensely to the returns to be derived from flax cultivation.
It remains, therefore, to be considered what districts in this province are
most favourable for irrigation.
Excluding, at present, any small valleys in this immediate vicinity, and
proceeding to more extensive districts, we find a low-lying country of sand-
hills, swamps, and alluvial flats, extending from the coast at Paikakariki to
the Rangitikei river. This country is intersected by streams and rivers, and a
great quantity of, at present, comparatively valueless land, might, by irrigation,
be made to yield a large annual return. Among the rivers on this. coast, the
Manawatu might be used for what is called warping—that is, it might be made
to deposit its sediment over unfertile tracts of sand.
On the Wairarapa side, extensive stony plains, which, without irrigation,
can neyer produce much beyond a scanty herbage, might, by the fertilizing
power of water, be made some of the most valuable lands of the colony.
To produce the results proposed will require both capital and skill; but,
if the fibre of the Phormium tenax is to become a great staple export of this
country, both of these must be found. If they are not procurable in the
colony they must be imported. At the same time, laying off the land for flax
irrigation would, probably, not be expensive.
Irrigation, once introduced, would be found to assist materiallyin the growth
of numerous productions, and would, by no means, be confined to the growth of
flax alone. Probably few persons in this province are aware that irrigation is
at present carried on with marked success in the interior of the Province of
Otago. Water-races, which have been brought into auriferous localities for
the extraction of gold, are partially used for the promotion of the production
of herbs and corn, and the enormous turnips, and other vegetables, which L
have seen produced by this means, are enough to astonish a beholder.
I have pointed out the districts in this part of the island to which I
consider irrigation might be most advantageously applied. They are low-lying
compared with the levels of the streams. In other parts of the country, with
the exception of the immediate banks of the rivers, the land rises too rapidly
towards the interior to admit of the requisite facilities for the watering of its
surface, unless at an expense which is not, in this generation, likely to be incurred.
Let us, however, remember the Spanish proverb :
“* En Andalusia la carne es yerba,
La yerba es agua,
Los hombres son mujeres,
Y las mujeres nada.”
In Andalusia flesh is herb,
Herb is water,
Men are women,
And women are nothing.
131
Andalusia is a province in which irrigation is largely carried on,
Lest this proverb should produce any damaging effect upon our proposed
scheme of irrigation, I may mention that I breakfasted one morning in Cadiz,
and, that, so far as I could judge from such a cursory glance, the men were
sturdy, and the women beautiful ; besides which, I have had opportunities at
Gibraltar, of observing the race with a satisfactory result.
Art. XX VI.—On the Naturauizep Piants of New Zealand, especially with
regard to those occurring in the Province of Auckland.* By T. Kirk.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, November 15, 1869.]
PART I.
In the present imperfect knowledge of the laws which regulate the distribution
of species, any authenticated records of the introduction of exotic species into
new countries, and their subsequent diffusion, must of necessity possess high
value, and be alike calculated to throw light on the obscure past, and to
prevent the adoption of error in the future. The opportunities afforded by
modern colonization, of watching the introduction of foreign species, and noting
their diffusion in new countries, by agencies uncontrolled by man, have been,
to a great extent, neglected. In truth, it is far easier to recognize results,
than to watch the processes by which the results are brought about; a few
years sometimes suffice to show us the displacement of the greater portion of
the vegetation of certain localities, although the process itself has been so
gradual as almost to have escaped notice ; yet when, as in these islands where
settlement is in its infancy, we find much of the original vegetation displaced
by non-indigenous plants, established about the early mission stations, and
seats of commerce, about mines, timber stations, and cattle runs, in short,
wherever the immigrant has fixed his temporary or permanent home ; we are
insensibly led to entertain wider views of the changes which the floras of
countries of ancient civilization must have undergone by successive immigra-
tions of plants from other countries. In this light we may glance for a
moment at the flora of the British Islands, the flowering section of which is
supposed by botanists to consist of naturalized plants to the extent of from
one-seventh to one-fourth, or even a higher proportion. If we look back to the
time of Phceenician commerce and settlement in the western part of the island,
we can readily conceive of plants, from the countries on the Huxine and the
Mediterranean, having been accidentally introduced and amalgamated with the
indigenous flora. In later times we have no difficulty in extending the idea to
those countries which sent to Britain successive hordes of invaders ; and in the
present day we can point to plants and animals, alike of accidental introduction
in the footsteps of commerce, which have become widely naturalized ; take for
examples, [inpatiens fulva, Hlodeaw alsinastrum, and the fluviatile mollusk
Dreissena polymorpha.
Now although the robust growth of the modern civilization has buried
many traces of the less vigorous ancient forms, it would seem not utterly
impossible that a more careful and comparative examination than has yet been
made of the floras of the countries, from which Britain received her ancient
settlers and invaders, might lead to the removal of much of the uncertainty
and doubt that exist as to the indigenous or exotic origin of so large a
proportion of her flora; and might also show, to some extent, what those
countries had received from Britain, and from each other. To apply this in
* On the subject of Introduced Plants in New Zealand, see Paper by Dr. Hooker,
F.R.S., and W. Locke Travers, F.L.S., in ‘‘ Natural History Review,” Vol. iv., pp. 123
and 617, 1864.—Ep.
m™
4.
132
the case of New Zealand : it is but a century since the islands were discovered
by Cook; less than sixty years since the early visits of whalers, and the
establishment of the first mission stations ; and not half that period has elapsed
since settlement was commenced in a systematic manner, yet already the
number of naturalized plants,—that is to say, of non- indigenous plants
propagating their species, and becoming diffused without the intentional agency
of man, or even in opposition thereto, in the Province of Auckland alone,—is
equivalent to fully thirty per cent. of the entire number of flowering plants
found within the limits of the Colony ; a proportion equalling, as we have
already seen, that which exists in the British Islands, with a commerce dating
from a period anterior to the Christian era. Some of these introductions have
largely displaced the original vegetation in many localities, from the North
Cape to the Bluff; from the sea level to the highest spots on the hills trodden
by the miner or shepherd ; while others are confined to a limited area, and
apparently exercise no direct influence on the original flora.
A reliable account of the present state of even a few species is a
contribution of no small value, tending to prevent the uncertainty and confusion
with regard to the geographic origin of a large portion of the flora, which we
have seen to prevail so largely in countries of old commerce and civilization,
affording a starting point for measuring the rate of diffusion, and noting the
power of displacement of, or amalgamation with, the original flora ; and in
this and other points preparing important material for unlocking the histories
of past immigrations in other countries.
The object of this paper is simply to place upon record the present state
of the diffusion of naturalized plants in this province, as fully as the available
material will allow, with a due regard to conciseness. In those cases where
the species under notice is known to occur in other parts of the colony, the
facts will be mentioned, but, unhappily, these are far too few to admit of this
sketch being considered anything more than a sketch of the naturalized plants
of the Province of Auckland.
For the facts recorded in this paper, the writer is personally responsible,
except when otherwise stated; the only published accounts available, are a
list of about sixty species given in “ Flora Nove Zelandie,” Vol. ii. ; a list of
about one hundred and seventy species in the “ Handbook of the New Zealand
Flora,”—the additions comprised in which, were largely contributed by the
present writer ; and lists of the naturalized plants of the Great Barrier Island,
and other localities, prepared by him, and published in the “Transactions of
the New Zealand Institute,” Vol. i.
Many important bearings of this subject will, it is hoped, afford material
for future study. The increased diffusion of certain of the indigenous species
by external agencies, only called into operation since the settlement of the
colony ; the possible introduction of a few additions to the original flora, by
the Maori race ; the displacement of a portion of the original species; the
spontaneous amalgamation of introduced and native species for the benefit of
man ; the relative statistical importance of the naturalized species to each
other, and to the indigenous flora; the influence of climatal and geognostic
conditions in facilitating or retarding distribution, and in developing aberrations
from the original type, are attractive subjects of vast importance to the phyto-
geographical student, and at the present time could probably be worked out
more clearly and with greater precision for this colony than for any other
country whose flora is equally well determined, owing to the small admixture
of error with tke facts upon which the student must base his conclusions.
The following plan has been adopted for expressing the known facts for
each species, in a concise manner, and admits of ready adaptation for other
districts.
174: TRANS.OFN.Z.INSTITUTE VOLT Platelé.
Doubtless Bay
q Stephensons [2
Wangaroa “arbour. 35
Ae of Lslands.
~ NORTH eee
ee
Hokianga. ;
Wyungure,
{
ml
-. Whangarer Hars*
Hen & Cachens.
56
36 Na ISLANDS
V Mangaw ar
TV ) Creat Barrier
Cape O Little Island
ge 7 jodney Barrier I2
Kawpara Harbour
37 Monukau Harbour
Warkato River. M \ \
47 * ‘
\et
{ \
Whamgeron Harb
38|— 7 58
SKETCH MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND NORTH
To accompany a Lager by T Kirk. on the Luff svon Va
Naturalised tants.
|
J Buchanan lei, j Printed atthe Gen. Goulrth Press by TEarte.
173 174A: 175 176
J.— EXTENT OF DIFFUSION.
With the view of indicating, as precisely as practicable, the present
diffusion of each species, the Province of Auckland, as far south as Ngarua-
wahia, has been divided (somewhat arbitrarily) into districts, as under :—
1. North Cape :—from Cape Maria Van Dieman and the North Cape, to
Hokianga and the Bay of Islands.
2. Whangarei :—from Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, to Cape Rodney
and the north head of the Kaipara harbour.
3. Waitemata :—from the south head of the Kaipara, and Cape Redney,
to the head of the Manukau harbour at Penrose, and the Tamaki at Panmure.
A, The Islands :—including the Cavalhos and Taranga groups, the Great
and Little Barriers, etc., the Kawau, and those in the Firth of Thames.
5. Cape Colville:—the Cape Colville peninsula as far south as Kawae-
ranga and Wangamata Bay.
6. Warkato:—from Penrose and Panmure to Whaingaroa and Nga-
ruawahia.
The district in which each species is known to occur will be indicated by
the use of the numbers prefixed above ; thus practically affording a separate
list of the naturalized plants of each district ; but it must not be supposed that
these lists are complete, even for any one district. The naturalized plants of
the western side of the North Cape district are quite unknown to the writer,
and to a great extent those of the western side of the Whangarei district.
The districts for which the lists are most complete, are Auckland, the Islands,
and Cape Colville. Very little is known of the naturalized plants of the
western and extreme southern divisions of the Waikato district, or of the
East Coast, south of Wangamata Bay.
I.—INTRODUCTION OF PLANTS.
This has evidently been effected by two chief causes ; the direct agency of
man, for the purposes of cultivation ; and the indirect agency of man and the
lower animals, etc.
The first head may be sub-divided into :—
1. Horticulturai (Hor.),* remains of, or escapes from garden cultivation,
as Pelargonium quercijolium, Iris germanica.
2. Agricultural (Agri.), remains of, or escapes from, field cultivation, as
Lolium perenne, Trifolium repens.
3. Accidental. (Acc.) Under this head are included those plants
unintentionally introduced by man, whether mixed amongst seeds of ordinary
cultivated plants, as in the case of buck-wheat, corn cockle, etc. ; or from the
seeds being able to attach themselves to clothing, or to the skins of animals, as
the various docks, mallows, etc. ; or from less prominent causes: in this way
Hrigeron canadensis has been carried all over the world.
4. Uncertain. (Unc.) Plants introduced by causes not directly referable.
to either of the above.
Ii..—Deerezt or ESTABLISHMENT.
As has already been stated, there is a wide difference in the degree to.
which naturalized plants have adapted themselves to the new conditions under
which they are placed. It is attempted to estimate the extent of this.
adaptiveness by the application of the following terms :—
1, Denizen. (Den.) Plants thoroughly established, and spreading widely-
without assistance from man; often displacing indigenous forms to a great
extent, or readily amalgamating with native species, as Zrifolium minus,
Hrigeron canadensis, Poa annua.
* The abbreviations in parentheses are employed in the list.—ED.
134
2. Colonist. (Col.) Plants which maintain their ground where introduced,
increase with more or less rapidity, but do not displace native Species to any
great extent, as @nothera stricta, Tragopogon porrifolius.
3. Alien. (Ali.) Plants which maintain their ground where introduced,
but are obviously incapable of wide diffusion, except by the direct agency of
man, as the fig, potato, tomato, ete.
TV.—HAaApIrat.
In order to afford a concise description of the usual habitat of each species,
the following series of terms has been adopted, as they are for the most part:
identical with those employed for the same purpose in another paper, a brief
explanation only is requisite.*
1. Lnttoral. (Lit.) Plants of the sea-shore, whether growing on sand
or mud.
Fricetal. (Eri.) Plants of dry open land.
Pascual. (Pas.) Plants of grassy land, paddocks, ete.
Agrestal. (Agre.) Plants of cultivated land.
Liupestral. (Rup.) Plants growing on or amongst rocks.
Viatical. (Via.) Plants growing on waste places, or by road sides, ete.
. Inundatal. Inu.) Plants growing by the sides of streams and other
places liable to inundation.
8. Paludal. (Pal.) Plants usually growing in wet soil, or in water.
9. Lacustral. (Lac.) Aquatic plants, submerged or floating.
10. Septal. (Sep.) Plants of thickets and hedge-rows.
11. Sylvestral. (Syl.) Forest plants.
V. DuRATION.
A. Annual. B. Biennial. P. Perennial.
BAER EN hr CO RS)
Tt will occasionally occur that a variety of information which cannot
properly be placed under either of the preceding divisions is available, in which
case it will be appended as a paragraph.
LIST OF NATURALIZED PLANTS
REPORTED TO OCCUR IN NEW ZEALAND,
WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF THOSE FOUND IN THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND SHOWN
IN DETAIL.
RANUNCULACE.
Ranunculus acris, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4-6,F Acc. Den. Pas.
repens, L., Europe, P., 3-4, Acc. Den. Pas. Inu.
i parviflorus, L., v. australis. Possibly introduced, according to
Dr. Hooker. It has, however, the appearance of a truly indigenous
plant, and as such it seems best to regard it.
oP)
PAPAVERACES.
Papaver Rheas, ., Europe, A., 1, Une. Col. Via. Local. I have observed
this plant in a solitary locality at the north-western extremity of the
island ; it may, however, be expected to occur commonly as an agrestal
plant.
* See ante, p. 96, On the Botany of the Thames Goldfield.
+ The figures refer to districts.—See p. 133.
135
FUMARIACE.
Fumaria parviflora, Lam. Mentioned in Flora N. Z. ii. TIT have not seen
specimens.
Fumaria officinalis, L., Europe, A. 3, Acc. Col. Agre.
CRUCIFER.
Nasturtium amphibiwm, 1, Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Inu. Pal.
Has spread throughout the islands. JI am informed that it impedes
drainage in some parts of the Province of Canterbury. In this province
it is often found in localities which are dry during the greater part of the
year.
Barbarea precox, Br., Europe, A., 1-3-4. Hor. Den. Pas. Via. This has
probably been mistaken for B. vulgaris, L., in some northern localities.
Tt is usually biennial in Europe.
Sisymbrium officinale, 1. , Hurope, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via.
pannonicum, Jacq., Europe, AG, 4; Ace.) Ali, Avoxe: “local:
(Inte oduced with Kuropean flax ?)
Senebiera coronopus, Poir., Hurope, A., 1-3-4. Ace. Col. Via.
» prnnatifida, D.C, South emertan. A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via.
Lit.
Capsella Bursa-pastoris, L., EKurope, A., 1-3-4-5-6. Ace. Col. Pas. Via.
Lepidium ruderale, L., Wurope, A., 1-2-3-4. Ace. Col. Lit. Via., ete.
7 satwwum, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4. Hor. Col. Via.
Alyssum maritimum, Willd., Europe, P. Mentioned in 770. NV. Z. ii. I have
not seen recent wild specimens.
Cochlearia Armoracia, L., Hurope, P., 3. Hor. Ali. Via., ete.
Sinapis nigra, L., Europe, A., 3-5. Ace. Col. Via. Local.
, arvensis, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Col. Agre. Via.
Brassica Rapa, L., Kurope, B., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Col. Agre. Via.
» Napus, L., Europe, B., 2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Col. Agre. Via. Said to
have been introduced by Cook.
Brassica oleracea, Li, Europe, B., 3-4.5. Hor. Col. Lit. Via. This appears
to be permanent in littoral situations only. Said to have been introduced
by Cook.
Brassica campestris, L., Europe, B., 2-3-4-5. Agri. Col. Agre. Via.
Raphanus sativus, ., HKurope, A. 1-2-3-4-5. Hor. Col. Lit. Probably
introduced by Cook.
POLYGALACEA.
Polygala myrtifolia, L.., Cape of Good Hope, P., 3. Hor. Ali. Sep., ete.
VITACES.
Vitis vinifera, L., Caspian, P., 2-3-4-5. Hor. Ali. Syl., ete.
CARYOPHYLLEA.
Gypsophila tubulosa, Briss., Levant. I have not seen N. Z. specimens. Dr.
Hooker considers it introduced, chiefly, I presume, on the ground of its
restricted range in the northern hemisphere, and on the rapidity with
which it is becoming diffused in Australia and New Zealand.
Silene quinquevulnera, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. (?) Ace. (?) Den. Pas.
Agre., etc. I believe this is also found in the Province of Canterbury,
but am unable to state my authority. Said to have been introduced with
grass seed from Chile ; it is, however, commonly cultivated in gardens.
Lychnis Githago, Lam., Kurope, A., 38., Ace. Col. Agre. Local.
Stellaria media, With., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Agre. Syl.,
136
-ete, One of the very few naturalized plants found on the Little Barrier
Island. .
Arenaria serpyllifolia, L., Hurope, A., 3. Une. Col. Lit. Local. Confined to a
solitary locality on the sandy beach at Koheroa, near Omaha, possibly a
waif brought by the sea.
Sagina apetala, L., Europe, A., 3. Une. Ali. Via. Only observed in a single
locality, into which it has been latterly destroyed by traffic.
Cerastium vulgatwm, L., Hurope, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. (?) Col. (@) Pas.
Via. This and a few other species require a term somewhat intermediate
between “ Denizen” and “ Colonist,” being sufficiently abundant and
general to belong to the former, while their small size prevents their
interference with the original vegetation, to any marked extent.
Cerastium viscosum, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. (1) Col. (?) Pas.
Via. Rup. Observed at an altitude of 2000 feet.
Polycarpon tetraphyllum, L., Europe, A., 1-3-4-6. Acc. Den. (?) Col. (2)
Lit. Via.
Spergula arvensis, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4. Acc. Col. Agre.
PoRTULACES.
Portulaca oleracea, L., Europe, 1-2-3-4. Hor. (1) Acc. Den. Lit. Agre.
Often forming 2 compact sward in the immediate vicinity of the sea. A
troublesome weed in rich cultivated land.
HYPERICINER.
Hypericum Androsemum, L., Europe, P., 6. Hor. Col. Via. Local.
perforatum, L., Hurope, P., 4-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Local but
abundant.
Hypericum humifusum, L., Europe, P., 3. Acc. Col. Pas. Local.
MALVACEA.
Malva sylvestris, L., Europe, A., 6. Acc. Col. Pas. Local. This and the
next species appear to be annual in N. Z., although biennial or perennial
in the northern hemisphere.
Malva rotundifolia, L., Hurope, A., 2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Agre. Via.
» caroliniana, W., N. America, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via.
Lavatera arborea, L., Europe, P., 3-4-6. Hor. Col. Lit. Via.
LINES.
Linum usitatissimum, L., Europe, A., 2-3-4. Agri. Acc. Col. Agre. Via.
GERANIACES.
Geranium molle, L. Included in the list of naturalized plants given in the
“FWandbook,” but should, I think, be considered indigenous, although its
area may have been widened by introduction.
Pelargonium quercifolium, Ait., Cape of Good Hope. P., 2-3-6. Hor.
Col. Via., ete.
Erodium cicutariwm, L., Europe, A. (1), b. charophyllum, v. “littorale,”
1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via. Found also in Marlborough, (Buchanan.)
A remarkably variable plant ; the leaflets in the typical are sometimes
scarcely toothed and very broad, and in var. b. narrow-linear, closely
resembling the garden Chervil, var. v. has almost entire leaves, more
resembling #. maritimuwm, Sen., than the present species. It is confined
to the Bay of Islands.
Lrodium moschatum, Sm. Europe, A., 2. Acc. Col. Via. Local. Perhaps a
form of the preceding species.
Sg
By
LEGUMINOS#.
Podalyria sericea, W., Cape of Good Hope, P., 3. Hor. Ali. Via. Local.
Eutaxia Strangeana, Ture, Australia. Not found in New Zealand, see
“ Handbook,” p. 53.
Olea Huropeus, l., Hurope, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Via., ete.
Lotus corniculatus, L., Europe, P., 3-6. Acc. Col. Pas.
» major, Scop., Europe, P., 3. Acc. Col. Pas. Uli.
Trifolium pratense, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Agre. Pas., ete.
ca medium, L., Hurope, P., 3-6. Agri. Col. Agre., ete.
glomeratum, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Via., ete.
Me repens, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas. Via.
» procumbens, L., Kurope, A., 2-3-4-5-6. Ace. (?) Agri. (1) Col. Pas.,
etc.
Trifolium minus, Sm., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Via., ete.
Melilotus officinalis, Willd., Europe, B. or P., 3-4-5. Acc. Col. Pas., ete.
» arvensis, Willd., Europe, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via., ete.
Medicago lupulina, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas. Via., ete.
» maculata, L., Europe, A., 2-3-4-5. Acc. Den. Pas., ete.
Bs denticulata, Willd., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas.
Via., etc.
Psoralea pinnata, Willd., Cape of Good Hope, P., 3-6. Hor. Col. (?) Ali. (2)
A plant frequently cultivated ; as it seeds freely, small specimens are not
uncommon in the neighbourhood of gardens, deserted homesteads, etc.,
where it can scarcely be expected to become fully naturalized.
Robinia Pseudacacia, Willd., North America, P., 3. Hor. Col. Via., ete.
Would speedily become common, if not interfered with, as it increases by
suckers, as well as by seeds. A striking instance may be seen on the
Auckland and Drury railway, where it has established itself on an
embankment, about four years since, and bids fair to form a grove.
Vicia sativa, L., Europe, A., 2-3-6. Acc. Col. Pas., ete.
», wrsuta, Koch., Kurope, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre., etc
» tetrasperma, Meench., Kurope, A., 3-6. Acc. Den. Pas.
» graciis, Lais.. Hurope, A. fl. N. Z., u. I have not seen N. Z.
Specimens.
Lathyrus odoratus, Willd., Europe, A., 3. Hor. Col. Syl. ete. Local.
Guilandina Bonduc, L., India, P., #7. NV. Z., ii. EHrroneously stated by Forster,
to have been collected in New Zealand.
Acacia lophantha, Willd., Australia, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Col. Syl. ete.
» decurrens, Willd., var. dealbata, Australia, P., 2-3-6. Den. Syl., ete.
Rosacez.
Amygdalus persica, L., Persia, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Syl, ete.
Prunus Cerasus, L., Kurope, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. (?) Col. (2) Syl. ete.
Spirea salicifolia, Willd., Europe, P., 3-6. Hor. Ali. Via., ete.
Rubus discolor, W. and N., Europe, P., 3-6. Hor. Den. Via., ete.
» Tudis, Weihe., Hurope, P., 3. Hor. Col. Sep., ete. Local.
5, deus, L., Kurope, P., 2-3-5-6. Hor. Den. Syl. Via., ete.
FPragaria vesca, L., Kurope, B., 2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Syl. Via., ete.
» élatior, Khrd., Europe, P. 5. Hor. Col. Syl., etc. Local.
Alchemilla arvensis, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre., ete. Local.
(Tarndale, Nelson, 4000 ft., Travers.)
Rosa micrantha, Sm., Europe, P., 3-5. Hor. Den. Via., ete.
5, rubiginosa, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Via., etc.
» canna, L., Europe, P., 3-6. Acc. (2) Col. Via., ete.
138
Rosa indica, L., China, P., 3-6. Hor. Ali. Sep. Via., etc. Local.
,, multiflora, Thunb., China, P., 2-3-5-6. Hor. Den. Via. Sep., ete.
LYTHRARIEA.
Lythrum hyssopifolium, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Inu. Via.
In the northern hemisphere this plant is generally rare and sporadic ;
here it is notably a social plant, and most abundant. I have not observed
that it has any tendency to become trimorphic, under altered conditions
of existence.
Lythrum Grafferi, Cust., Europe, P., 2-3. Une. Den. Syl. Pas. I have
not seen this pretty plant in cultivation in the Colony.
ONAGRARIEA.
Gnoshera stricta, L., 8. America, P., 2-3-5-6. Hor. Den. (?) Col. (?) Via.
Lit.
CACcTEA.
Opuntia vulgaris, Mill., S. America, P., #7. WV. Z., ii. I have not seen this
plant in a wild state.
CUCURBITACES.
Cucurbita citrullus, L., A., 3-5. Hor. Ali. Via., ete. Can scarcely be said
to hold its ground.
Cucurbita, sp., Pacific Islands, (1) A., 2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Ali. Via. ete. Intro-
duced by the Maoris, as was probably the case with the preceding.
UMBELLIFERZ.
A pium graveolens, L., Kurope, B., 3. Hor. Col. Via. Local.
Petroselinum satiwum, L., Hurope, B., 2-3-4-6. Hor. Den., or Col. Pas.
Via.
Pimpinella Saxifraga, L., Europe, P., 3. Ace. Col. Pas. Local.
Feniculum vulgare, L., Hurope, P., 2-3-4-6. Hor. Den. Via.
Daucus Carota, L., Europe, B., 2-3-6. Hor. Col. Pas., ete.
Pastinaca sativa, L., Europe, B., 2-3-4. Hor. Col. Pas., ete.
Torilis nodosa, Geert., Europe, A., (?) 3-4. Acc. Col. Pas. Via.
Scandix Pecten-Veneris, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre.
Cherophyllum cerefolium, Crantz., Europe, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 759.
I have not seen wild specimens.
CAPRIFOLIACES.
Sambucus nigra, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4. Hor. Col. Syl. Via.
RUBIACES.
Galium Aparine, L., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Col. Via., ete.
Sherardia arvensis, L., Hurope, A., (?) 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. Pas. Via.
V ATERIANES.
Fedia olitoria, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Pas.
DiIpPsacEa”.
Scabiosa atropurpurea, L., India, (?) P., 1. Hor. Den. Sep. Via., ete.
CoMPOSIT®.
Erigeron canadensis, L., N. America, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Via.
Rup., ete.
Bellis perennis, L., Hurope, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. Pas.
139
Conyza ambigua, D.C., Europe, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 760. I have not
seen wild specimens.
Eclipta erecta, L., India, A., Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 760. Ihave not seen
wild specimens.
Siegesbeckia orientalis, L., India, A., 4. Une. Col. Via. Iam indebted to
Mr. Lawson for specimens from the Great Barrier.
Woolastonia biflora, D.C., (?) India, A. Handbook Fil. N. Z. p. 760. I have
not seen wild specimens.
Bidens pilosa, L., N. America, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via. Agre.
Anthenis arvensis, L., Hurope, A., 3. Ace. Col. Via.
$s nobilis, L., Kurope, P., 3-6. Hor. Col. Via., ete.
Achillea millefolium, L., Europe, P., 3-6. Acc. Agri. Den. Pas.
Matricaria inodora, L., Europe, A., 2-3-4-6. Acc. Den. Via. Agre.
55 Chamomilla, L., Hurope, A., 2-3-4. Acc. Den. Via., etc.
Chrysanthemum Leucanthenum, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4-6. Acc. Den. Pas.
oe segetum, L., Hurope, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre. Local.
Senecio vulgaris, 1, Europe, A., 2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Col. Agre. Via.
65 scandens, L., Cape of Good Hope, P., 1-2-3-4-6. Hor. Den. Sep.
Via.
Osteospermum moniliferum, Willd., Cape of Good Hope, P., 3. Hor. Col.
Via., etc. Local.
Cryptostemma calendulacea, Br., Cape of Good Hope, A., 3-6. Acc. Den.
Pas. Via. First observed in 1863.
Centaurea nigra, L., Europe, P., 3-6. Acc. Col. Pas.
3 solstitialis, L., Hurope, A., 3. Acc. Ali. Agre.
, Calcitrapa, L., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Den. Via.
Carduus lanceolatus, Gert., Europe, A., (B. in Europe) 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace,
Den. Agre. Via. Commonly called ‘Scotch Thistle,” but erroneously :
that species is the C. arvensis, Curt., which happily has not yet been
introduced.
Silybum Marianum, Gert., Europe, A., 2-3-4. Hor. Col. Pas. Via.
Lapsana communis, L., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Col. Via. Agre.
Arnoseris pusilla, Gert., Europe, A., Fl. NV. Z. ii. Ihave not seen N. Z.
specimens: can Lapsana communis be the plant intended ?
Cichorium Intybus, L., Europe, P., 2-5-4. Hor. (?) Ace. (1) Col. Pas.
Hypocheris glabra, 1., Europe, A., 3-4. Acc. Col. Rup. Pas.
55 radicata, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Via.
Major Heaphy informs me that this plant was extremely rare in the
neighbourhood of Auckland in 1856--7. It is now found over the entire
province, a most troublesome and abundant weed, especially on clay soils.
Sometimes shown on sheep runs.
Thrincia hirta, Roth., Europe, P., 3. Ace. Den. Pas.
Apargia autumnalis, Willd., Europe, P., 3-4. Acc. Col. Pas.
Tragopogon minor, Fries., Europe, B., 3. Ace. Col. Pas.
7) porrifolius, L., Europe, B., 3. Une. Col. Pas.
Helminthia echioides, Geert., Europe, A. P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. Pas.
Via., ete. Not unfrequently the withered stems retain sufficient vitality ~
to produce flowers and seed two seasons.
Sonchus oleraceus, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas., ete. S. asper,
Hoff., the S. oleraceus of the Handbook, is certainly indigenous.
Sonchus arvensis, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4. Acc. Col. Agre.
Taraxacum Dens-Leonis, Desf., Europe, P., 2-3-4-6. Acc. Den. Pas., ete.
The var. palustris is the only form indigenous to this province, and is
extremely rare.
Barkhausia taraxacifolia, Thi., Europe, B., 6. Acc. Col. Agre.
140
Barkhausia foetida, Mcench., Hurope, B. (P. in N. Z.2), 6. Ace. Col. Agre.
Crepis virens, L., Europe, A. (P. in N. Z.%), 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas.
Via.
Xanthium spinosum, L., Hurope, A., 2-3-6. Acc. Col. Via. etc. First
observed in 1863, on Mount Eden.
STYLIDIE.
Stylidium graminifolium, Swartz., Australia, P., 3. A solitary specimen was
picked on clay hills near Auckland, by Col. Bolton in 1851, but the plant
has not been collected since. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 168.
Stylidium spathulatum, Br., Australia, P., Fl. NV. Z., ii. Stated erroneously
to have been collected at Tasman’s Bay.
ERICER.
Epacris purpurascens, Br. Fl. N. Z., ii. Considered by Dr. Hooker to have
been introduced, but on imperfect information. The plant is certainly —
indigenous. *
PRIMULACES.
Anagallis arvensis, L., Europe, A., b. cerulea, 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. Agre.
Pas., etc. Var. b. near Auckland only.
A POCYNES.
Vinca major, L., Europe, P., 2-3-6. Hor. Den. Sep. Via.
GENTIANES.
Lrythrea centaurium, Pers., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Eri. Pas.
Archdeacon Williams informs me this occurs in abundance at Poverty
Bay.
BoRAGINES.
Cynoglossum micranthum (?), India, B. #7. N. Z., ii. Ihave not seen specimens
of any plant in N. Z. belonging to this genus.
Echium vulgare, L., Europe, B., 6. Acc. Col. Via. I am indebted to Mr.
Gillies for specimens collected on the west side of the Firth of Thames.
Lnthospermum arvense, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre. Via.
CONVOLVULACE.
Ipomea chrysorrhiza, Forst., Tropics, P. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 760. I
have not seen this plant in a wild state.
Ipomea Batatus, Lam., Tropics, P., 2-3. Hor. Ali. Via., etc. Occasionally
met with on abandoned native cultivations, but rarely proves permanent.
ASCLEPIADE.
Asclepias nivea, L., North America, P., 3. Hor. Ali. Via.
SoLANE&.
Solanum nigrum, L., Europe, P. (A. in Europe), 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. (2) Ace. (#)
Den. Agre. Via. Probably introduced by the Maoris who use the leaves
and young tops as food.
Solanum tuberosum, L., South America, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Ali. Via., ete.
Ripens seed but rarely in an uncultivated condition.
Solanum virginianum, L., N. America, P., 1-2-3-6. Hor. Ali. Via.
* See ante, page 107, ‘‘On Hpacris purpurascens, as a New Zealand plant.”
141
Solanum indicum, 1., India, P., 3-6. Hor. Ali. Via.
Physalis Alkekengii, L., Europe, P., 3. Hor. Ali. Via.
» peruviana, L., South America, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Via.
Agre. Syl.
Capsicum annuum, L., America, A., 3. Hor. Ali. Via., ete.
Lycopersicum esculentum, Mill., 8S. America, A., 2-3-4. Hor. Ali. Via., ete.
Datura stramonium, L., Europe, A., 2-3-6. Hor. Ali. Agre. Via.
Nicotiana tabacum, L., America, A., 2-3-6. Hor. Ali. Agre. Via.
Lycium Barbareum, L., Barbary, P., 1-2-3-6. Hor. Col. Via.
ScROPHULARINEA,
Verbascum Thapsus, L., Europe, B., 3-4-6. Hor. Col. Eri. Via.
pheniceum, t Included, on the authority of the writer, in the
list of naturalized plants published in the Handbook Fl. N. Z., ‘but has
not proved permanent.
Verbascum glabrum, L., Europe, B., 2-3-4-5. Hor. Den. Eri. Via.
Herpestes cuneifolia, Spr. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 203. Included in Raoul’s
list of New Zealand plants, probably in error.
Veronica arvensis, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Agre., etc.
» serpyllifolia, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas., ete.
» agrestis, ., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Den. Agre.
» Buxbaumu, Ten., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Den. Agre.
» Oficinalis, L., Kurope, P., 7. NV. Z. ui. I have not seen N. Z.
specimens. Can V. serpyllifolia have been mistaken for it.
Veronica Anagallis, L., Europe, P. Handbook of N. Z. Fl., p. 761. Ihave not
seen N. Z. specimens either indigenous or naturalized; and in the absence
of positive information am not aware of any reason for considering it
introduced, except its being a common Huropean plant.
Digitalis purpurea, L., Hurope, P., 3. Hor. Den. Via. Syl. I have seen
this plant in other districts, but am unable to refer to any notes
respecting it.
Linaria elatine, Mill., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Col. Agre. Via.
VERBENACES.
Verbena officinalis, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-6. Acc. Den. Eri. Via.
LABIATE.
Plectranthus australis, Br., Pacific Islands. #7. N. Z. ii. Erroneously intro-
duced into Raoul’s Catalogue of N. Z. Plants.
Mentha aquatica, L., Europe, P., 2. Hor. Den. Pal. Local.
» prperita, Sm., Europe, P., 3-6. Hor. Den. Pal.
» viridis, L., Europe, P., 3-4-5-6. Hor. Den. Via. Pas.
» dentata, L., Europe, P., 3-6. Hor. (?) Den. Inu. Via.
Stachys arvensis, its , Europe, a 1-2-3-4-6. Ace. Den. Agre. Pas.
Nepetata Cataria, it, , Kurope, P, 4, Une. Col. Sep. Local.
Marrubium vulgare, 1, , Europe, 1B, 2-3-6. Hor. Den. Via., etc.
Calamintha A cinos, Cltee. Europe, P3245 Umet Col. “Pas\ Wocall:
Prunella vulgaris, L., Europe, P., 1-2-38-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Via.
PHYTOLACCES.
Phytolacea decandra, L., America. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 761. Tneluded in
the list, by a clerical error, instead of the next species.
Phytolacea octandra, L., Mexico, P., 3-6. Unc. Den. Via. Sep. Frequently
decandrous and decagynous.
142
PLANTAGINES.
Plantago major, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via. Pas.
media, L., Hurope, P., 3. Acc. Col. Pas. Via.
= lanceolata, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas. Via.
POLYGONES.
Polygonum aviculare, L., Europe, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 761, where it
is included in the list of naturalized plants, chiefly, I presume, from its
rapid diffusion in the south, coupled with the fact of its bemg a common
European plant. In this province it is not spreading more than might be
expected from the increase of cultivated land. I prefer to regard it as
indigenous.
Polygonwm minus, Herd., Europe, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 761. Except
the var. decipiens be intended, I have not seen this plant in the colony.
That form must surely be considered indigenous.
Fagopyrum esculentum, Meench., Europe, A., 3-6. Agri. (?) Ace. (1) Ali.
Agre., etc. May possibly become a weed of cultivated land, but at present
can scarcely be considered naturalized.
Rumesx conglomeratus, Murr., Europe, P., 3. Acc. Col. Inu.
» viridis, Sibth., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Ace. Den. Syl. Sep.
» obtusifolius, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via.
» erispus, L., Europe, P., 2-3-5-6. Acc. Den. Agre., etc.
» Acetosa, L., Europe, P., 2-3-6. Acc. Col. Pas.
» Acetosella, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Hri. Agre.
CHENOPODIACEZ.
Chenopodium album, L., Europe, A., 3-6. Ace. Col. Agre.
Sp viride, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre.
oF murale, L., Hurope, A., 2-3-5-6. Acc. Den. Via. Agre.
- urbicum, L., Europe, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 762. I have
not seen N. Z. specimens.
Chenopodium ambrosioides, L., Kurope, A. (P.?). Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 762.
It seems preferable to regard this as indigenous. As in Europe, so here,
soils turned over from considerable depths frequently produce this plant
in abundance, which could not be the case, at present, had it been intro-
duced by Europeans.
AMARANTHACER.
EHusxolus viridis, Moq., Brazil, A., 2-6. Une. Col. (?) Ali. (2) Via. The
occurrence of this plant in the Bay of Islands or Whangarei districts,
rests upon Cunningham’s authority (see “‘ Handbook,” p. 233), no other
botanist appears to have met with it. Observed by the writer in a
solitary locality at the Thames, but on ground set apart for building
purposes.
Amaranthus lividus, L., N. America, A., 3. Une. Col. (?) Ali (?) Via.
oleraceus, L., East Indies, A., 2-3-4. Une. Den. Via.
Blitum, L., Europe, A., 2-3. Acc. Col. Via. Agre.
retroflecus, L., N. America, A., 2-3-4. Acc. Col. Via.
, ‘caudatus, L., East India, A., 1-3. Hor. Col. Via., ete.
EUPHORBIACEA.
Euphorbia Lathyris, L., Europe, P., 6. Hor. Col. Syl.
BS Peplus, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Agre., ete.
i Helioscopia, L., Europe, A., 1-2. Acc. Den. Agre. Via.
Jatropha Curcas, L., 8. America, P. Fl. V. Z., ui. I have not seen N. Z.
specimens.
99
9?
99
145
Ricinus Palma-Christi, ., Kast Indies, P., 2-3-6. Hor. Col. Agre. Via.
Poranthera ericifolia, Ruge., Australia, P. 0. NV. Z., ii., Dr. Sinclair. I have
not seen wild specimens.
URTICER.
Urtica wrens, L., Europe, A., 2-3. Acc. Col. Via. Local.
5 atotca, L., Europe, P., 3. Acc. Col. Via. Local.
Ficus Carica, L., South Europe, P., 2-3-5-6. Hor. Ali. Syl, ete.
DIOscOREX.
Dioscorea alata, L., India, P.. Handbook Fl. N. Z., ii. I have not seen wild
specimens.
MARANTE.
Canna Indica, Rose, India, P., 3. Hor. Col. (?) Ali (?) Via.
TRIDER.
Sisyrinchium anceps, L., N. America, P., 6. Une. Col. Via. Iam indebted
to Mr. Gillies for specimens collected near Mata-Mata.
Tris Germanica, L., Hurope, P., 2-3-5-6. Hor. Den. Pas. Via.
Gladiolus byzantinus, L., Turkey, P., 6. Hor. Col. Pas. Via.
Antholyza cethiopica, Ker., Cape of Good Hope, P., 2-3-6. Hor. Col. Via.
AMARYLLIDES.
Agave Americana, L., America, P., 2-3-6. Hor. Col. Via.
AROIDE.
Colocasia antiquorum, Scholl., Asia, P., 2-3-4-5. Hor. Col. (?) Den. (2) Pal.
Via.
Alocasia Indica, Scholl., India, P., Handbook Fl. N.Z., p. 762. I have not
seen N. Z. specimens.
Richardia Africana, Kuuth., Egypt. ete., P., 2-3-6. Hor. Col. Pal. Via.
J UNCAGINACEA.
Aponogeton distachyon, L., Cape of Good Hope, P., 1-(2%). Hor. Den. Lace.
I am indebted to Captain F. W. Hutton for my knowledge of the
existence of this plant at Waimate, where it is said to have been planted
by the missionaries, and is now abundant in streams, etc. Dr. Stratford
showed me a plant in his garden which he believed had been sent to him
from Whangarei, with the information that it was frequent in streams.
I should be glad to receive more precise information respecting these
localities.
LILIACEz.
Allium vineale, L. (?) Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5. Hor. Den. Pas. Probably intro-
duced by Marion, at the Bay of Islands, in 1772. (Vide “'Thompson’s
Story of New Zealand,” Vol. i., p. 236). In some localities it covers
acres of ground, but quickly dies down. As I have not seen flowers the
identification must be regarded as doubtful.
Asphodelus fistulosus, L., Europe, P., 1-3. Hor. Col. Pas. Agre, ete.
Asparagus officinalis, L., Kurope, P., 2-3. Hor. Ali. Sep., ete. Occasionally
solitary plants are seen, probably originating from seeds conveyed by
birds: although growing vigorously they do not spread, and can only be
expected to do so in strictly littoral localities, As a naturalized plant it
occupies exactly the same position in which it is seen in the midland
counties of England.
144
CYPERACER,
Cyperus tenellus, L., South Africa, A., 3. Ace. (?) Den. Inu. Pas., ete. In vast
abundance from Auckland to the Kaipara: one of the first spring plants
collected by the writer after his arrival in the province in 1863, when it
had, as now, all the appearance of a true native.
GRAMINE.
Alopecurus pratensis, L., Europe, P., 2-3-5. Agri. Col. Pas.
agrestis, L., Europe, A., 3. Col. Agre. Found also in
‘Wellington. Handbook FI. N. Z., p. 32
Phleum pr atense, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas.
Phalaris Bere L., Europe, ae 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via. Agre.
Holcus lanatus, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via., ete.
», mollis, L., Europe, P., 1.2 3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Via.
Panicum colonum, L., Australia, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 324. I have
not seen N. Z. specimens.
Panicum gibbosum, Br., Australia, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 324. Probably
included in Raoul’s list of N. Z. plants, by mistake.
Panicum glaucum, L., Tropics, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 324. [have not
seen wild specimens.
Setaria viridis, P. de Beauv., Europe, A., 2-3. Ace. Col. Inu. Pas.
» ttalica, P. de Beauv., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Den. Via. Pas. Mr.
W. T. Bassett informed me that he first observed this grass at Papatoitoi,
about 1863: it is now to be found for several miles by the road-sides, ete.
Aristida calycina, By., Australia, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 330. Doubtful
if ever found in New Zealand.
Agrostis vulgaris, With., Europe, P., 2-3-4-6. Agri. Den. Pas. Via.
Gastridium lendigerum, Gaud., Europe, A., 2-4-6. Agri. Col. Pas. Via.
Cynodon Dactylon, L. , Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-6. Agri. Den. Pas. Via.
Di guaria sanguinalis, "Scop., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via. Agre.
sh humifusa, Pers., Europe, A., a6 Ace: Col” Vias Pas!
Hleusine indica, Gert., India, A. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 331. “Has been
gathered near Auckland.” I have not seen N. Z. specimens.
Anthoxanthum odoratum, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas. Via.
Aira caryophyllea, L., Europe, A., 3-6. Acc. Den. Eri.
Avena sativa, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-6. Agri. Col. Agre., etc. In great
abundance on sea cliffs in the Kaipara.
Poa annua, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Pas. Via., etc.
» pratensis, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas., ete. The var.
angustifolia is the more common form.
Poa trivialis, L., Europe, P., 3. Agri. Col. Pas. Inu. Too closely cropped
by cattle to allow of its rapid diffusion.
Eragrostis Brownit, Kunth., Australia, P. 1-3. Acc. Den.. Eri, ete.
Abundant over a large district at Keri Keri, Bay of Islands, growing
amongst the low Tea-tree, and giving an abundant supply of nutritious
grass, much liked by cattle and horses. Mr. H. T. Kemp informed me
he first observed it in 1865, and that it was spreading with great rapidity :
less common in the Auckland district.
Eragrostis eximia, Stend., Australia. Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 344. Erroneously
reported to have been found in N. Z.
Briza minor, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Agre., ete.
» maxima, L., Kurope, A., 3-6. Hor. Col. Pas. Via.
Dactylis glomerata, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas., ete.
Cynosurus cristatus, L., Europe, P., 2-3-4-6. Agri. Col. Pas.
145
Festuca bromoides, L., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Eri. Via.
Bromus erectus, Heids., Europe, P., 3. Acc. Col. Pas.
» sterilis, L., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Acc. Den. Via., ete.
» tectorum, L., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Ali. Via,
» commutatus, Schreed., Europe, P., 3-6. Acc. Col. Pas., ete.
», mollis, Parl., Europe, A., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Agre. Via., ete.
Found also in Marlborough, Buchanan ; Nelson, ascending to 4000 feet,
Travers. Handbook N. Z. Fl., p. 342.
Bromus racemous, Parl., Europe, A., 3-4-6. Acc. Col. Agre. Pas. Also
found in Otago. Handbook N. Z. F1., p. 342.
Bromus arvensis, Godr., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Agre.
» patulus. Parl., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Ali. Agre.
Ceratochloa unioloides, Pal. de Beauv., P. in N. Z., N. America, 2-3-6. Agri.
Den. Pas., ete.
Arundinaria macrosperma, Mich., N. America, P., 5. Hor. Ali. Agre., ete.
Confined to abandoned Maori cultivations ; probably introduced by the
missionaries.
Lolium perenne, L., Europe, P., 1-2-3-4-5-6. Agri. Den. Pas., ete.
» ttalicum, Braun., Europe, B., 2-3-4-6. Agri. Col. Agre. Puas., ete.
» temulentum, L., Europe, A. var. b. arvense, 1-2-3-6. Acc. Col. Agre.
Lit. A widely variable plant. A depauperated state, with solitary
spikelets, has been collected near Auckland.
Triticum sativum, L., A., 2, etc. Agri. Ali, Agre., etc. Frequently renewed
from accidental causes, but can scarcely be said to maintain its ground.
Hordeum sativum, L., A., 3, etc. Agri. Ali. Via. This is even more fugitive
than the preceding.
Hordeum murinum, L., Europe, A., 2-3-4. Acc. Col. Via. Rup.
Lepturus incurvatus, 'Trin., Europe, A., 3. Acc. Col. Lit. Inu.
Anthistiria australis, Br., Australia, P., Auckland, Dr. Sinclair, Handbook
fl. N.Z., p. 325. I have not seen N. Z. specimens.
Apluda unitica, Br., India, P., Handbook Fl. N. Z., p. 325. I have not seen
N. Z. specimens.
Andrapogon refractus, Br., Australia, P., Handboak Fl. N. Z., p. 325.
Doubtful if ever seen in New Zealand.
It has been difficult to decide whether some of the plants in the fore-
going list should be assigned to the “ Denizen” or “ Colonist” class ; and the
same difficulty has been experienced, although in a smaller degree, with a few
plants at present classed as ‘‘ Alien.” Without doubt a few years will show
the necessity of removing many “Colonists” to the ‘“ Denizen” class, and
possibly a small number of “ Aliens” to the “ Colonist ” class ; and the entire
grouping in this paper may possibly be revised with advantage, whenever the
naturalized plants of the southern provinces are worked up. As has already
been indicated, I hope to return to the subject at an early opportunity, and
therefore forbear from further extending a paper which has already exceeded
the limits originally proposed.
I would, however, take this opportunity of earnestly pressing upon the
attention of botanists in other parts of the colony, the importance of paying
immediate attention to this branch of botanical study :—Dr. Hooker well
remarks, “that now is the time for certifying the dates of the introduction of
many plants, which, though unknown to the islands a quarter of a century
ago, are already actually driving the native plants out of the country, and will
before long take their places, and be regarded as the commonest native weeds in
New Zealand.” A few, very few years will accumulate difficulties to an extent
which can only be appreciated by students of European floras, and make that
146
which might now be done with facility, a work which will task the critical
skill of the most experienced observers.
Perhaps I may be permitted to add a word of caution :—there is some
danger of attaching too great importance to the rapid spread of plants in
certain localities, as evidence of their exotic origin: for example, Gypsophila
tubulosa, and Polygonum aviculare, are regarded as introduced chiefly on this
ground. But truly native plants as Microlena stipoides, and Danthonia semi-
annularis, have increased in an equally remarkable degree in the northern part
of this province during the last four or five years, and have evinced a
surprising power of adaptation to altered and altering circumstances, beyond
having become plentiful in undisturbed localities where they were formerly
scarce. Facts of this kind, however startling in their nature, and obscure in
their origin, are of high significance and importance in their relations, and
show most forcibly the impolicy of adopting sweeping conclusions, and the
necessity for patient and continuous observation.
Comparative statement of the position of the species enumerated in
the foregoing catalogue :
Denizens . : : 5 . 109
Colonists : 5 ¢ ' WAL
Aliens ; ; ; 5 Ol
Extinct and Erroneous . ‘ 12
Probably Indigenous . 6 ge)
Position not known : 5 20
Total : , 5
II.—CHEMISTERY.
Art. XX VIL—On the production of certain CRYSTALLINE PHOSPHATES and
ARSENIATES. By W. Sxey, Analyst to the Geological Survey of New
Zealand,
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, February 9, 1869.]
A GREAT many minerals occur in a natural state, which, in their chemical
constitution, their crystalline form, or both combined, have not yet been
artificially produced.
Tt seems very desirable to know, both upon chemical and geological
grounds, the conditions necessary for their production, and especially in
those forms which they assume in nature.
The metallic phosphates and arseniates--a group of salts which, almost
without exception, are only known in the laboratory as gelatinous or pul-
verulent precipitates,—stand conspicuous among those native minerals, which
we have hitherto been unable to obtain by artificial means in their crystalline
forms.
I have recently attempted the crystallization of some of these compounds,
with a certain degree of success ; and further, in the course of my experiments,
I have succeeded in crystallizing some phosphates, which, hitherto, have not
assumed such a crystalline form, either naturally or artificially.
147
The process I employ is to add a soluble phosphate, or arseniate, to the
solution of a salt of the metal, the phosphate or arseniate of which, is
required, in the manner hitherto adopted, but only in such limited quantity,
that the mixed solution remains acid in its reaction, instead of alkaline, as occurs
in the usual method of procedure. Ifthe precipitate is long in appearing, it may
occasionally be crystalline ; if it comes at once it will be gelatinous, as usual,
but in the course of a few hours, sometimes, however, a few days, it will be
found crystallized throughout.
The essential features of this process are :—
lst. The maintenance of the precipitated metallic salt in its integrity,
which is effected by having the surrounding solution feebly acid.
2nd. Allowing motion to the particles of these gelatinous precipitates,
whereby they are amenable to the action of crystallizing force; this is ac-
complished by keeping a little of the same phosphate in a soluble state in
contact with them.
In this manner | have succeeded in crystallizing the following phosphates
and arseniates, which occur in this form in the natural state :—
Phosphate of Zinc,—Hopeite, (Zn. O)3 + Be + HO;
Phosphate of Cadmium.
Arseniate of Zinc,—Kottigite.
Arseniate of Lime,—Pharmacolite.
The following crystallized phosphates and arseniates, produced, do not
occur as such in a natural state.
Phosphate of Lime (—(CaO)z + HO) + PO; +3HO. This has the same
composition as the amorphous precipitate, produced by adding a triphosphate
to chloride of calcium, and then a little ammonia, (the precipitate being air-
dried) ; and it is isomorphous with the natural arseniate of lime above,
Pharmacolite. It crystallizes in the form of rhombs, and is acid to test paper.
Phosphate of Chromium contains 24 eqs. of water, and has probably the
same constitution as Delvauxine, or hydrous phosphate of sesquioxide of iron,
the iron being replaced by chromium, its colour is the same as that of chrome-
alum, the substance used as the source of the chromium.
Phosphate of Silver. Only crystallized from its solution in acetic acid.
Phosphate of Baryta and Strontia are also easily crystallized. Those salts
having formule attached, have been analyzed.
On reviewing these salts, it will be noticed that the copper, nickel, cobalt,
and iron, phosphates and arseniates, are absent. Indeed, I have not been able
to erystallize any of them in this manner ; although I am aware that it has
been affirmed, that phosphate of nickel has been artificially crystallized. But
I find that all these metallic phosphates, ete., are capable of forming double
phosphates, etc., with phosphates of magnesia and ammonia. The metal may,
I think, be looked upon as substituting one equivalent of magnesia in the
common ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia, thus (Met + Mg O+NHO)
—PO; 12 HO in place of 2 (Mg O) + NH, O+ PO; + 12H.
T also find that phosphate of zinc forms a crystallizable compound with
either phosphate of cobalt or nickel. It may be remarked here that the
crystalline mineral, Kottigite, an impure arseniate of zinc, always contains a
little of both these phosphates..
Lastly, it appears that crystalline precipitates are readily produced by
contact of soluble phosphates with solutions of the metals cobalt and nickel, if a
salt of ammonia is also present. These precipitates contain ammonia, in small
quantity, but it appears to be as an essential element in their composition, and
not a mere accidental impurity ; its quantity has not yet been determined.
The inferences T would draw from these results are -—
Ist. That several of the crystalline, simple, natural phosphates and
x
148
arseniates, have not been produced as such, directly ; but that in the first
instance compound phosphates or arseniates have formed. Magnesia and
ammonia, singly or collectively, being the other members of the term. The
magnesia and ammonia being afterwards gradually substituted by the metallic
oxide. A continued supply of such metallic oxide to the compound phosphate
or arseniate, would almost certainly effect this, the metallic phosphates and
arseniates being more insoluble than the alkaline ones.
2nd. This property of some of the metallic phosphates, etc., of combining
with phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, to form insoluble compounds, makes
it very probable that several of these natural phosphates and arseniates may
contain very appreciable quantities of ammonia or magnesia. At any rate, I
think, with this property manifested, it would be well to examine rigorously
this class of compounds, for either of these substances.
These notes are, of course, merely preliminary, there being several points
of interest left undiscussed, which can only be properly represented along with
the results of future investigations.
Art. XXVIII.— On the effects of the Application of the Hor Buast to Blow-
pipe purposes: and the proposed substitution of Heated Air for Oxygen in
the production of certain thermal and illuminating effects. Preliminary
notice. By W. Sxkery, Analyst to the Geological Survey of New
Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, June 19, 1869.]
THE useful and well-known effects of the hot blast, in the process of iron
smelting, has induced me to try and extend it profitably to other purposes,
beyond that which prompted its application in the present instance.
My experiments, as yet, have been confined to testing the effects of
substituting a hot blast, for a cold one, as hitherto used, for the production of
the well-known blowpipe flame ; a flame so produced will be expected to have
its thermal and illuminating effects augmented, but scarcely, perhaps, to that
degree which experiment has demonstrated.
IT had better state, at the outset, those particulars which it is necessary
to know, before relating the results.
The temperature of the blast was, approximately, 500° F., the diameter of
the jet, regulating its issue, was one-thirtieth of an inch, the combustible for
receiving the blast was stearine.
This flame manifested a very marked superiority over the common
blowpipe flame,—substances difficult to fuse in the latter, magnitite, potash-
felspar, mica, readily yielded under these circumstances; while thick glass
tubes half an inch in diameter, and hard German glass tubes, were tractable to
an eminent degree.
Carrying my test experiments still further, I found several substances,
for the fusion of which the oxy-hydrogen flame, or some equivalent of it in
heating power, is said to be indispensable, also yielded before the blowpipe
flame thus urged: for instance, platinum, pipe clay, fire clay, agate, opal,
flint.
Several samples of each were tried and always with the same results, it
could not well be, therefore, that the fusibility of any of these substances was
due to the accidental presence of foreign matter, in more than usual quantity.
The platinum was the common platinum foil, also a sample prepared
especially for the purpose ; the only impurity found in it was iron, as traces,
communicated te it in the act of forging: possibly minute quantities of some
“149
of the other metals, of the platinum series, might be present, but they would
rather tend to increase its infusibility than otherwise.
Alumina only appeared to vitrify; while, after numerous trials with
crystallized quartz, I could not succeed in fusing it to a globule ; thin splinters
however curled round upon themselves, like scolezite, and ultimately assumed
a glazed appearance, clearly showing that the melting point was all but
reached.
It appears from this that a very small amount of some foreign substances
exercises a marked effect upon the fusibility of silica, agate, opal, etc., being
only a little less pure than rock crystal, though so readily fusible in this
flame.
Regarding the illuminating power of the flame so produced: when
allowed to impinge upon a solid substance such as lime or magnesia, it was not
only more intense (as would be expected), but the volume of incandescent
matter was largely increased.
Before I proceed to urge the further use of hot air for combustions where
high temperatures are necessary, I wish to call attention to the fact, that the
temperature of the flame, which I have hitherto worked with, can be largely
and economically increased, by increasing that of the blast ; this can easily be
done to a threefold extent.
By substituting heated hydrogen (or burnt coal gas), I have also realized
all the effects just instanced, with greater rapidity and decision; but the
great diffusiveness of this gas, especially when heated, has prevented me as yet
carrying the experiments further.
While on the subject of heating both combustibles (at least both the
substances which take part in these combustions), I cannot refrain from
remarking how easily the temperature of the oxy-hydrogen flame even, could
be increased in this manner—the gases would of course have to be heated
prior to contact. Upon their more vigorous diffusiveness, when rarified, I
should rely for that solidity of flame, so necessary where the communication
of very high temperature is desired. The jets regulating the issue of the
gases would have to be very fine.
Proceeding now to the next part of this subject: the result of these
experiments, instanced, urge me to recommend, for trial, the substitution of
heated air for oxygen, in most of those cases where this gas is now employed
in conjunction with hydrogen, or other combustible matter, as a generator of
heat or light : for instance,—
1. In the metallurgy of platinum, that part of it where the metal has to
be fused ; also in soldering platinum stills for sulphuric acid works.
2. The fusion of alumina in the manufacture of certain gems.
3. In the production of the Drummond and Bude lights.
The fusion of platinum and alumina is now effected by the oxy-hydrogen
flame.
Relative to the competency of heated air to perform the part of cold
oxygen in the production of such intense lights as these (the Drummond and
the Bude), I think this can be demonstrated, almost to a certainty, in the
following way :
Thus—the flame employed in these investigations has certainly a
minimum temperature of 4596° F., since this is the fusing point of platinum,
the substance most easily fused of all those I have tried, that are infusible in
the common flame; doubtless the temperature is considerably higher, but I
will take these figures. On the other hand, the actual temperature of the lime,
when the Drummond light is in operation, is (on the authority of Tyndal)
only 2000° Cent. = 5632° F. ; hence this flame has an excess of temperature
over that of the incandescent lime, equal to 964° F., a pretty good margin for
150
loss, surely sufficient if properly economised ; but as I have already shown,
this excess of temperature can be largely increased.
In view of the greater controllability of the proposed substitute,—the
absence of all danger in its use—its not requiring chemical preparation,—and
its cheapness, compared with oxygen ; upon these several points, respectively, the
question should be properly tested.
Besides the substitution of oxygen urged above, the possible fusion of the
purer clays, and certain silicas, etc., in a ready and economical manner, may
induce the further utilization of these substances, while in experimental
chemistry the facility with which such high temperatures can be attained and
kept up, may lead among other things, to some cheaper way of extracting
certain metals from their oxides, aluminium, for instance, from alumina or clay.
On reviewing these results, it does seem not a little singular that a
difference of not more than 500° F., in the temperature of the blast, should
make the difference between the fusibility and infusibility, of such substances
as platina, agate, fire clay, etc., in the blowpipe flame. It will be recollected,
however, that the blast has, in this case, not only taken up the heat required
to raise a single volume of it to this temperature, but another portion of heat
has been taken up in a latent form, as the air expanded,—consumed as it were
in lifting against the atmospheric pressure ; this may be represented suffi-
ciently well for us, by assuming the temperature of the blast, kept to its
normal volume, at 700° F.
This is as yet, however, but a very slight addition to produce results,
which so nearly approximate to those obtainable by the oxy-hydrogen flame,
seeing the latter has an estimated temperature of 14,000° to 15,000° F., while
that of the present method does not much exceed 5,000° F. The gap, as far
as effects is concerned, is narrowed so much, and in a manner so unexpected,
by the results here given, that one is naturally prompted to enquire whether
the assigned temperature of the oxy-hydrogen flame has been obtained by
direct experiment, or by calculations, based upon the ascertained temperature
of other flames. The temperature as calculated, incirectly, in this last way,
certainly furnishes us with figures remarkably close to those just quoted.
In reference to this important point I beg to call attention to a notice,
which appeared in the ‘‘ Chemical News,” relative to the imperfect combustion
of certain gases at high temperatures.
There we learn that at moderately high temperatures (much below
10,000° F.) oxygen and hydrogen only very partially combine,—from memory,
I believe, not more than to the extent of half their weight,—the remainder of
the gases of course combine, as the centre of heat is left behind. Thus,
although the quantity of heat evolved by their combustion is the same, being
divided over a larger volume, its intensity is proportionately diminished.
This being so, it would seem to follow, that the temperature of the oxy-
hydrogen flame must be very considerably lower than that hitherto ascribed to
it ; and therefore the possibility of substituting it in this, or in some other
manner equally economical, for the several purposes here specified, appears so
much the greater.
Art. XXIX.—On the alkalinity of CARBONATE oF Liug. By W. SKEY,
Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, July 17, 1869.]
CARBONATE OF Lime is described, in chemical works, as neutral to test paper,
but this scarcely agreeing with the results of observations I have had to make
upon this point, in the course of other investigations, I beg to give these
results, which are as follows :—
151
¢
lst. Carbonate of lime, prepared by igniting pure oxalate of lime in a
close crucible, at a dull-red heat, gives an intense alkaline reaction with
reddened litmus paper, after moistening with distilled water, or after reignition
with pure carbonate of ammonia.
2nd. Carbonate of lime prepared directly from chloride of calcium and
bi-carbonate of soda, by admixture of their aqueous solutions, and washing the
ensuing precipitate till all the soda was removed, gave the same reaction with
test paper.
3rd. Limestone, shells (calcareous), calc-spar crystals, and arragonite, are
all strongly alkaline to test paper (at least, the samples I have tried were), the
powder of any of these substances, washed with distilled water for many days,
does not seem to lose any of this alkalinity.
Lastly (and I think, conclusively), precipitated carbonate of lime,
prepared by either of the above processes, when agitated with weak hydro-
chloric acid, in successive quantities, until gradually reduced to a minute
proportion of its original bulk, still manifests this reaction to an eminent
degree ; indeed, the solution could not be rendered permanently acid till the
whole of the carbonate was dissolved.
It seems impossible, under these circumstances, to attribute this reaction
to the accidental presence of free magnesia or lime, sub-carbonate of lime, or
alkaline carbonates, in the precipitate ; this reaction may therefore, I think,
fairly be attributed to the carbonate of lime.
Art. XXX.—On the absorptive properties of Stuica ; and its direct hydration
by contact with water. By W. Sxkry, Analyst to the Geological Survey
of New Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, July 17, 1869.]
In No. 157 of the “ London Chemical News,” I communicated the fact that
silica is hydrated and dissolved by aqueous solution of ammonia. Evidence
in favour of this being given in a recent number of the same Journal, together
with particulars as to the amount of this solubility, I thought it desirable to
ascertain whether ammonia is absolutely necessary to ensure this, the first of
these reactions, the hydration of the silica, it occurred to me that water might
effect it of itself;—the action of ammonia, in this instance, being confined
to bringing the silica, thus hydrated, into solution.
The following experiments tend to show this assumption to be correct.
Rock-crystal, finely pulverized in an agate mortar, then agitated with
water, did not completely subside, even after the lapse of some days ; the water
remained turbid like clay-water, and like it, is soon clarified by the addition of
an acid or a neutral salt.
The effects of such additions would, I conceive, rather retard the precipi-
tation of the silica, by increasing the gravity of the fluid, were it not that
combination between the silica and the water had commenced—were it not
also for an affinity of this substance for water under these conditions, —feeble,
no doubt, as to intensity, but insatiable as to quantity.
There appears to be one weak point in the evidence here tendered, namely,
that agate (the substance of the mortar used), is not pure silica ; still, it is so
nearly pure, that upon the whole it is, I think, quite safe to leave this matter
out of further consideration.
In reference to other absorptive properties of silica, I find that massive
quartz, rock-crystal, and silica, prepared for estimation in the usual way, take
sesqui-oxide of iron from solution of its acetate, but not from the chloride.
152
Prepared silica, especially, manifests this property, if ignited at a low
temperature ; and, besides, takes oxides of chromium and copper from their
acetates, and removes certain organic matters from their aqueous solutions.
These reactions are more apparent in this case, because the silica is in a finely
divided state, chemically pulverized in fact.
These reactions show silica to be a feeble mordant, and I think they have
an intimate relation to what is termed the physico-mechanical absorption of
soils, ete., since we thus see that one of the main constituents of rocks and
soils, supposed to be at once the most inert and the most insoluble in an
ordinary way, are capable of chemically absorbing certain substances to an
extent proportionate to that of the surfaces exposed ; such surfaces, even those
of rock-crystal itself, are certain to be in a hydrous, in fact in a pulpy state,
whenever water has had prolonged contact with them. It follows, therefore,
if a substance, which has hitherto been held to be so inert and so unassailable,
in these respects, as quartz, is thus actually affected in this manner, we may
be certain that the great bulk of our soils, and our more porous rocks,
have been affected by water and saline substances in a similar manner ;—we
may be quite certain, that the surfaces of every siliceous stone, and of every
grain of siliceous sand in our soils, is hydrated, and, by so far, advanced to the
possession of what is termed the physico-mechanical absorptive power for
plant-food.
It only remains for me to state that the reactions here described tend to
resolve the so called ‘“ physico-mechanical absorption of soils for plant-food,”
into a simply chemical one, or, at least, as much a chemical one as are any of
those undisputably recognized as such.
Art. XX XI.—On the examination of the Bark of CopROSMA GRANDIFOLIA, for
Alkaloids. By W. Sey, Analyst to the Geological Survey of New
Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, July 17, 1869.]
THE sample I tested was named by Mr. Buchanan, at the time of collecting; it
has a bright yellow colour on its inner surface, is very bitter, with a slightly
hot pungent flavour. It is decidedly the bitterest of any of the barks of this
family, which were pointed out to me, and for this reason I made choice of it
for experiment.
The following is a brief summary of the results obtained :—it shows by
an easy, simple, and [ think a reliable process, that alkaloids, generally, and
those of the Quina group in particular, are either entirely absent, or present
only in so minute a quantity, that the bark is quite worthless as a drug, on
this account at least.
A decoction of 200 grammes of the pulverized bark, in weak hydrochloric
acid, was slowly evaporated to a bulk of half-an-ounce, then filtered ; the
filtrate did not give any precipitate with the following re-agents :
Sulphocyanide of mercury.
Sulphocyanide of zine.
Tannic acid.
These substances are capital tests for the alkaloids generally, giving dense
precipitate in a very weak decoction, even, of the common Gray bark.
153
Art, XX XII.—On the Extraction of the poisonous principle of the Tutu PLANT
(Coriaria ruscifolia.) By W. Skry, Analyst to the Geological Survey
of New Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 14, 1869. ]}
A GREAT many experiments have, from time to time, been made upon the Tutu
plant, with the object of extracting the formidable poison known by sad ex-
perience to exist therein ; but, as is well known, these attempts have been always
unsuccessful, and have, besides, completely failed to discover anything at all
definite as to the chemical or physical character of the poison.
Among these experiments is a series I made while connected with the
Geological Survey Department of Otago, a notice of which appeared in the
« Juror’s Report for the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865,” the only result,
however, being to prepare the way for future enquiry, which was promised at
the time.
The Tutu plant does not grow in the neighbourhood of Wellington in any
quantity, hence I have been greatly delayed in fulfilling my promise, much
against my will; but recently a large quantity of the seed of this plant
has been kindly presented to the Survey, for this particular purpose by
Mr. H. H. Travers, and upon this I at once commenced operations.
The plan I adopted, was to separate, as well as I could, all the more
immediate proximate constituents of the seed (in which the poison is known
to exist), and to test each likely one by itself, in its effects upon the animal
economy.
First, I extracted a portion of the finely-ground seed with cold water, and
another portion with weakly acidified water, and treated them separately by a
new process, now much in vogue, for the separation of alkaloids (Rogers and
Girwood), all the evaporations being conducted at a temperature not exceeding
90° Fah.
The residuum from these processes was very small, and gave no indications
of the presence of alkaloids to the proper tests ; it consisted almost wholly of
gummy. matters.
The result seemed to dispose of all that was soluble in water or weak acids,
and, to a certain extent, impugned the correctness of the general idea that this
poison is of the nature of an alkaloid.
The part of the seed insoluble in these re-agents was next examined.
Alcohol was passed through this, repeatedly, and the extract evaporated,
when a large quantity ofa greenish-red coloured substance discovered itself ;
this treated with Ether separated into two parts, one a green-coloured oil,
soluble therein; the other a resinous substance quite insoluble in this
menstruum.
The resinoid substance was reserved for after-examination, and the oil at
once tested in regard to its effects on the animal economy.
For this purpose, I administered about five minims of it to a full-grown
cat, after a twelve-hours’ fast; the oil acted as an emetic in a short
time, and the greater portion of it was vomited. In half-an-hour, however,
the animal showed signs of uneasiness and convulsive twitches of the ears and
eyes, together with a forward jerking of the head, took place ; also much
frothing of the mouth, culminating in a convulsive fit, in about one hour after
the dose was administered. After a little while this fit passed off, only the
twitches and forward jerkings continuing ; but a second very severe fit, of
short duration, occurred in about one hour afterwards, after which the cat
gradually rallied. These symptoms agreed generally with those exhibited by
cattle and sheep, when poisoned by this plant.
Although I have made but one experiment, I think it will be allowed
154
that the result of this has fairly proved that the poison of the seed, and so, by
a very proper inference, the poison of the plant generally, since I find an oily
substance throughout it, exists in this oil, if it is not the oil itself. It therefore
now only remains to be ascertained whether this oil is a single proximate
substance, or a mixture or compound of such, and if the latter, which is, or
which are, the active ones concerned in the production of these phenomena
T have described. Unfortunately I had not sufficient of the oil to allow me
to test this properly, but I am in hopes of having it by next autumn,
as I have been promised a large quantity of these seeds from Taranaki.
The following are the characteristics of this oil, as ascertained up to the
present time.
Somewhat viscid at common temperature, but flowing freely at a little
above this; colour, pale-green; reaction, acid; taste, bland; burns away
readily with much flame ; scarcely volatile without decomposition ; soluble in
ether, alcohol, chloroform, and strong acetic acid ; insoluble in hydrochloric
or nitric acid ; also insoluble in water ; does not dry when long exposed to
the air.
When boiled with solutions of the caustic alkalies there is much frothing,
but only a portion of the oil dissolves, even when the boiling is continued
for many hours ; the portion dissolved was found to be saponified. The whole
of the oil is, however, soluble in a cold alcoholic solution of potash,
without yielding a precipitate when admixed with water ; hence it is probable
that all the acid portion of the oil is really saponifiable, that which was
unsaponifiable, in the first instance, being a product of the metamorphosis of a
portion of the normal oil by the process employed.
When the oil is heated to the decomposing point, a substance is given
off having the pungent odour of acrolein, a substance characteristic of the
the presence of glycerine, or oxide of lipyle the base of common fatty
bodies.
Heated with caustic alkalies, either in the wet or the dry way, there are no
alkaline vapours evolved, but in the latter case an odorous oil forms, pre
cenanthylic acid.
From the reaction of this oil, here described, it evidently belsee to the
series of non-drying fixed oils; in its solubility in alcohol or acetic acid, it
bears a remarkable resemblance to castor oil, the only other fixed oil, which
I find to be wholly soluble in acetic acid. Now castor oil, it will be
remembered, is a very peculiar oil: it does not contain any of the acids of
the common oils or fats, but in place of them, two very singular acids, quite
pecuhar, I believe, to this variety of oil; hence I conceive that the acid part
of this oil of Tutu to be also quite distinct from the ordinary fatty acids ;
to be in all probability, peculiar to it; and to one or more of these acids I
should ascribe the poisonous effects of the oil.
If further experiments should confirm the correctness of the views here
stated, this case will, I conceive, become invested with an interest beyond
that immediately under our notice ; since it will offer another instance in
which a non-nitrogenous oily principle, is proved to affect the system like a
neurotic poison; this class of poisons being almost always alkaloids, or at
least nitrogenous substances.
Now it will be remembered there are several poisonous plants in Kurope,
which have, hitherto, refused to yield any pure poisonous principle to chemical
processes, but then these processes have been, as a general rule, I believe,
especially for the detection of alkaloids. With this case to point, therefore, it
does seem in the highest degree probable, that in some of these cases, at least,
the poisonous effects may be due to a non-nitrogenous oil, not yet isolated or
examined. In view of this I have recommended the subject for examination
155
to a friend of mine residing in England, so that I expect in a few months to
hear something more of this, or else to have selections of seeds, etc., from the
plants I have named in my letter, so that I can enquire into this subject
myself.*
With regard to antidotes for administration to animals, etec., poisoned
with the Tutu plant, I should be inclined to think that in addition to emetics
and purgatives, very dilute acids would be beneficial, since by preventing
saponification of the oil, they would tend to keep it insoluble, and therefore
inert.
As being somewhat related to the subject, I may state that the seed of
the Karaka tree ( Corynocarpus levigata), which is also of a poisonous nature,
has refused, in a similar manner, to yield any alkaloid to my processes, but it
gives up an oil to alcohol, which resembles the above in some of its reactions. It
seems to exercise a speciiic effect upon the animal economy, when administered
in small doses, inducing at first, great uneasiness, and afterwards, restless,
unwilling sleep, with sudden starting ; unfortunately I had not sufficient of
it to get any decisive results.
This oil is also soluble in alcohol, acetic acid, ether, and in hydrochloric
acid.
Tt is very bitter, and feebly soluble in water.
In one important respect it differs from the oil of Tutu; it evolves
ammonia when boiled with potash, thus, in regard to its composition, allying
itself to the alkaloids, though in its reactions apparently distinct.
Art. XXXIII.—On the Fusibility of Puatinum in the Blowpipe Flame.
By W. Skey, Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869. ]
THE metal platinum has hitherto been supposed to be infusible, except at a
temperature that is so high, as to be incapable of being produced by the
common blowpipe ; at least I have carefully searched for any statements to the
contrary without success.
When I was lately engaged in studying the effects of the hot-blast blow-
pipe flame, the results of which investigation have already been communicated
to the society (See p. 148), I found it necessary to test, with accuracy, the
degree of fusibility of platina ; and discovered that if the loss of heat from the
flame, by conduction, was guarded against, platinum can be fused with an
ordinary blowpipe blast through a candle flame. The method adopted was to
substitute, for the metallic nozzle generally employed, a tube of clay or glass,
either of which is a feeble conductor of heat, as compared with metals.
By this means fine platinum points were fused in an unmistakable
manner, to beads. The blast was that ordinarily used in the laboratory by
the use of the hydrostatic blowpipe, the flame being that of a stearine candle,
As it might be urged that, perhaps, the platina I treated, might contain
an admixture of more fusible metal, and that its melting point might thus be
reduced, I prepared some of the platina for special trial, which was absolutely
free from such fusible metals.
As the fusing point of platinum has been ascertained to be 4593° Fah.,
we must, from the above experiment, conclude, that if proper precautions
* Since this paper was read, I learn from the ‘‘ London Chemical News” for August 6,
1869, that M. Van Ankum has discovered the poisonous principle of the Cicuta virosa to
be an essential oil, of formula, Cio. Hs. but ‘‘could not find any alkaloid in this plant at
all.” This was one of the plants especially selected for examination in the communication
alluded to.
YG
156
are taken to prevent loss of heat by conduction, this high temperature
can be produced by the ordinary blowpipe operating upon flames of this
description.
Art. XX XIV.—On the Application of lopine and Bromine, for the detection
of Gold when in minute quantities. By W. Sxry, Analyst to the
Geological Survey of New Zealand.
Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869.
P y
Tue large number of non-auriferous, or but slightly auriferous, specimens of
quartz and pyritous rocks, which have lately been submitted here for examina-
tion for gold, has rendered it very desirable that some quicker, less laborious,
and, if possible, more exhaustive, method of analysis, than the current one
(that by amalgamation), should be employed.
In recognition of this I have frequently been urged by the Director of this
Department to attempt some other process, and after several preliminary
experiments I turned my attention, especially, to the use of iodine or bromine
for this object.
Both of these substances differ from chlorine especially in their relatively
feebler affinities for hydrogen, so there would be the less to fear, that from the
generation of hydra-acids, any great preponderance of other matters would be
dissolved along with the gold we wish to separate from the sample under
examination.
Todine, indeed, has already been used with advantage in the analysis of
certain meteorites, for the separation of the iron and nickel existing therein in
a metallic state; these it combines with, leaving the associated silicates, tron-
oxides and sulphides intact.
it was this comportment of iodine with other substances, that determined
me to the trial of both it and bromine for the purpose named.
The results of my experiments certainly show that either of these agents
may be safely and advantageously employed for the separation of gold from
its matrices.
The following are the particulars of a few of these experiments, which
besides their present use, will, I think, be useful in showing what is,
approximately, the smallest quantity of gold that can be positively separated
and identified, by a certain course of analysis operating upon a limited quantity.
The first time, I believe, anything of this kind has been attempted.
Ist. 2 grammes of roasted ‘“ buddle headings” from a quartz mine at the
Thames, known from previous analysis to contain gold at the rate of one ounce, or
so, to the ton, was well shaken for a little while with its volume of alcoholic solu-
tion of iodine (tincture of iodine, of chemists), then allowed to subside. A piece of
Swedish filter-paper was then saturated with the clear supernatant liquid, and
afterwards burned to an ash ; the ash, in the place of being white, as it would
be if pure, was coloured purple ; the colouring matter was quickly removed by
bromine—a clear indication of the presence of gold. The time occupied by the
whole process was twenty minutes.
2nd. 1 gramme of the same “buddle headings,” mixed with such a quantity
of soil as to reduce the proportion of gold present to 2 dwts. per ton, was allowed
contact with its volume of the tincture for two hours, with occasional stirring ;
a piece of filter-paper was then saturated with the tincture, and dried, five
times consecutively, and finally burnt off as before; in this case, also, the
colour of the residual ash was purple, and it gave the reaction of gold.
3rd. 32 grammes of siliceous hematite, finely-pounded, was thoroughly mixed
with precipitated gold to the amount of 2 dwts. per ton; then ignited, and _
a ie ae
157
treated with bromine water. After two hours the solution was filtered, and
evaporated to a bulk of 20 minims ; this gave a good reaction of gold to the
“ chloride of tin” test.
4th. 100 grammes of the hematite, with precipitated gold at the rate of
4 dwt. per ton, treated as before, but this time well washed, at the expiration
of the two hours, and the w: ashings evaporated along with the first filtrate,
gave a fainter, but still decided, re eaction of gold to the same test.
5th. Iodine, as tincture, substituted for bromine in experiments 3 and 4,
gave similar results ; the only variation made was, that as a precautionary
measure allowing for its feebler, or rather slower, action, I gave contact for
twelve hours.
To compare the results of the common amalgamating process with the
foregoing, I have made some careful experiments ; and I find that it is not
certain, with the same expenditure of labour, to get reliable indications of gold,
when present in less quantity than 2 dwts. per ton, operating upon about
100 grammes of material, which is about the quantity I usually take.
In summing up the results of these experiments, it appears then, that for
qualitative examinations for gold, or for quantitative determinations in certain
cases, iodine and bromine are each superior to mercury. It also appears that
a proportion of gold equal to } dwt. per ton, upon a bulk of 100 grammes
(about 4 ozs) of ferruginous matters, can be easily and rapidly detected.
Of course, by operating upon larger quantities, gold could be discovered
by this process, were it present in far less quantities, but this is sufficiently
near for the majority of cases.
These processes are especially adapted for the separation of gold from
sulphides, as the preliminary roasting is extremely favourable to them, not so
much chemically as mechanically, I think; the loss in the substitution of
oxygen for sulphur, amounting to 25 per cent., by weight, while the volume
remains constant (or nearly so) ; hence there is a corresponding porosity in the
product, by which it is certain every atom of it is thrown open to contact
with the solution of these agents.
This mechanical acces sibility obviously cannot be taken advantage of by
mercury.
With sulphides these processes are practically exhaustive, while, at
the same time, “ihe simultaneous extraction of other matters is avoided, or, at
any rate, 1s so trifling, that the proper tests for gold can be safely applied
directly to the concentrated solution.
Regarding the chcice between iodine and bromine, I would prefer the
former, when mere traces of gold are supposed to be present ; or if the ore is in
a finely divided state, as 1s generally the case when the matrix is iron pyrites.
In the roasting of such pyrites it is necessary to raise the temperature
towards the end to a full-red heat, in order to decompose the ferruginous
sulphates, since if these remained much iron would get into the solution.
In the case of much carbonate of lime being present, it is proper to gently
reignite the roasted mineral, etc., with carbonate of ammonia, or much lime
might get into the iodine or bromine solution.
On the other hand a very high temperature is to be avoided, for, from my
own experience, | find a considerable quantity of fine gold can escape detec-
tion in this way, by the partial vitrification of the more fusible of the
silicates.
The identification of gold by the combustion of its salts with filter-paper,
as suggested in this paper, seems to promise a vapid method of estimating it,
comparatively, by the aid of a series of prepared test-papers, representing gold
in different degrees of dilution.
158
IV.—_GEOLOGY.
Art. XXX V.—Remarks on the Coast Line between Kai [wi and Waitotara,
on the West Coast of the Province of Wellington. By R. PHarazyn,
F.R.G.S.
(With Illustrations. )
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, June 19, 1869.]
ANY ONE accustomed to the scenery of the East Coast, must be at once
struck with the contrast presented to it by that of the West. The former
is rugged in the extreme, and, except in a few places, the flats, adjoining
the sea beach, appear to have been formed from the slips which take place
so frequently from the neighbouring hills, having, as it were, reclaimed
the land faster than the waves could wash it away. The scenery on
the West Coast is comparatively soft and undulating, this latter character
being more marked as we approach Mount Egmont, whose volcanic rocks give
anew feature to the landscape. The general impression produced, is, that
this country has been formed by the gradual and quiet upheaval of a vast
mass of marine deposits, and that there is no such incessant struggle between
land and sea going on, on the West Coast, as there is on the East. But such
considerations, though sufficient for the purposes of art, either pictorial or
descriptive, which deal rather with effects than causes, require to be
supplemented by more exact observation to meet the requirements of science.
In nature, the forces which are quietest in their operation, are often the most
powerful, and in geology, the question is not so much how great is the force,
as how long has it operated.
I think I shall be able to adduce some facts, which go to prove that the
northern portion of the West Coast has been encroached upon by the ocean,
to a very considerable extent, and at a rate which is remarkably rapid,
geologically speaking.
Immediately to the north of Wanganui, the margin of the coast consists
of ranges of sand-hills, which are remarkable from the fact, that instead of
falling away gradually to the sea beach, they terminate in cliffs which present a
bold face to the sea. Between the sand-hills and the tertiary rocks, of which
these cliffs consist, are the well-defined remains of an ancient forest. These
remains are particularly conspicuous along the line of cliffs between the Kai
Iwi and Waitotara rivers. In places they appear on the exact line of junction
between the sand and the older rocks, but in general they seem to be about
four feet below this level. Probably a careful investigation would show that
more than one forest has grown upon the same spot, and that each has been buried
at a different epoch, apparently owing to changes of level in the land, as, in
places, there appear to be beds of marine shells above the lignite, into which
much of the wood has been converted. In addition to this is the curious fact,
that the bed of the Waitotara river itself is thickly studded with the stumps
of trees, at a level of about 150 feet lower than those above mentioned. We
have then the following facts before us.
1. Drift sand extending inland, to a distance of from one to four miles
from the edge of the cliffs, and thus lying at an elevation of from 120 to 200
feet above the present sea beach.
2. The remains of one or more forests buried beneath the sand-hills, and
“
TRANS. N.Z.INSTITUTE VOLT.
Plate 9.
Fe a ereerg Te
Present_sand hills.
Sew level.
Present Sand 3.
Sea
Tree stumps.
5 A Beach
Wattotara River -
Sede Forest.
Sand hills.
Sketch Map of Coast line.
IDEAL SECTIONS
between
Kat-iwi and Wartotara Rivers
To accompany Paper by B.Pharwzyn.
REjarazyn del, TB. lith. Printed at the Ger GouLizh. Press
Rn
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159
in the strata in which these rest, and the remains of the same or other forests
ac a much lower level, namely, in the bed of the Waitotara river itself,
Clearly then, here is evidence either of a very remarkable rise in the
land, or of the considerable and rapid action of the waves upon it.
On first looking at the sand-hills, in question, it seems as if the whole
mass had been lifted bodily upwards from the bed of the ocean. So fresh is
the appearance of the sand, that it is difficult to believe that it has not been
lately covered by the tide. However, this supposition is a highly improbable
one, when the generally horizontal and unbroken nature of the stratification of
the underlying rocks is considered, dipping, as they do, at a very small angle
towards the sea, and presenting no appearance of having been disturbed since
the accumulation of sand upon them.
The probability is, then, that the present cliffs have been formed since the
great Tertiary system, which underlies all the more recent formations in this
province, and in that of Hawke’s Bay (being apparently identical, as to fossil
contents, on both sides of the island), attained its present elevation.
Eyidently, then, at one time, the surface of the rocks, in question, sloped
gradually to the beach, and became covered with sand-hills (similar, in all
respects to those between Paikakariki and Rangitikei), and presented no
abrupt termination towards the sea.
Rocks at some depth below the surface of the water are protected from
the action of the waves, but no sooner do they approach the surface, than they
are exposed to the incessant cutting and grinding action of moving water.
Hence it is easy to imagine that the ordinary action of the tide, apart from
that of ocean currents, (though I believe these have a considerable effect on
our coasts), was sufficient to wash away so much of the newly-formed land, as
to give rise to the rather singular phenomenon of sand-hills terminating in high
cliffs. The present coast line is, in short, a section of that which formerly
existed, and apparently at no remote period.
That this period was not very remote is, I think, proved by the fact, that,
at any rate, some of the trees, of which the stumps, and in some places the
trunks, are visible, have not lost the appearance of wood, and though others
have become changed into lignite, [ have seen none which could be classed as
Brown coal. I may mention, incidentally, that the lignite in question is so
plentiful that I was informed, when lately in the Waitotara district, that it
had been used as fuel at Mr. O’Hanlon’s hotel, near the Kai Iwi. It is
evident that the trees, I refer to, must have been growing before the sand
covered the soil, and the probability is that the sand was drifted by the
wind over and amongst the more recent ones. Indeed the remains of an old
pa were visible till lately upon a place called Popoia, near the Okehu
stream. This, though half a mile from the sea, is now nothing but a
vast sand-hill, Hence, it follows, that the sea must have made such inroads
upon the part of the coast in question, as not only to have washed away a
considerable belt of sand-hills, but to have cut into the fertile land where a
forest formerly grew, and it is not improbable, that this formed part of that
forest, which middle-aged Maoris say they have heard their fathers speak of,
as having covered the present fern and grass lands within their own recollection.
For the comfort of land owners, I may mention that the further drifting of the
sand has been prevented by the growth of vegetation, and by the formation of
a high fern-covered ridge, which forms, as it were, a rampart between the
sand-hills and the arable land ; though while the sea will still gradually eat
into the land, it will do so at a continually decreasing rate, the lower rocks
beg much harder than the upper, and consisting of an indurated blue clay.
The part of the coast which I have attempted to describe is well worthy
the attention of a skilled geologist, and a careful examination of it, noting the
160
dip of the strata, and carefully examining the buried trees, would, I think,
put us in possession of some very valuable data for determining the era and
the rate of important geological changes. I lay on the table some rough
diagrams, In explanation of such parts of my paper as may appear obscure to
those who have not seen the part of the country it relates to. (See Pl. TX.)
Art. XXXVI.—On AxttuviaL GoLp in the Province of Wellington.
By J. ©. Crawrorp, F.G.S.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, July 17, 1869.]
Fiavine visited the operations at present going on in the upper part of the
valley of the Kaiwarra stream, I find in that narrow valley, a greater quantity
of gold washed out than could have been reasonably expected from the limited
area from which it must have been derived.
Taking the actual fact of the presence of gold, in appreciable quantities,
in this small valley, into consideration, I am inclined to revert to an opinion,
which I long ago expressed, and which is as follows: that considering the very
high angle cf inclination of the main chain of the island, consisting, in this
part, of the ranges of Tararua and Rimutaka, with all the subsidiary ranges,
that the tendency of the denudation of the valleys, would be to wash out gold,
or other minerals, which might be thereby released, beyond the boundaries of
the hills, and deposit them in the valleys to the east and west of the chain.
Tf, on the east side, we consider the wearing away which has scooped out the
valleys of the Tauherenikau, the Waiohine, the Waingawa, the Waipoua, and
the Ruamahunga, we may reasonably expect, supposing the rocks are to
any extent auriferous, and the fall and force of water are sufficient, that gold
must have been carried out and deposited somewhere in the Wairarapa
valley.
On the West Coast, in a similar way, from the valleys of the Wainui, the
Waikanae, the Otaki, the Manawatu, the Rangitikei, gold may have been
deposited in the trough between the main ranges and the line of Kapiti and
Mana.
I put this statement theoretically : how to prove the. theory to be fact,
is the point to be decided. If we attempt to sink to any depth, on either
side of the range, we shall probably soon require powerful pumping apparatus,
and of necessity considerable capital would be required. It is possible that
tentative explorations may be made, at the least diticult points, which, without
going to much expense, may either lead to further trial, or to the abandonment
of the idea.
Supposing the land to have formerly stood at a higher level (at a
comparatively recent period), there is a possibility that the Lower Hutt Valley,
and even the bottom of this harbour, may have undergone the conditions
necessary for the concentration of alluvial gold. :
Ly reasons for advancing the above theory are, the extremely steep
incline of the chain on both see and the rapid fall of the rivers, the great
general force of their currents, and the frequency of heavy floods, combined
with the proved fact that gold As found, more or less, distributed within these
ranges.
It is possible that the above remarks may be found applicable to the
valleys of the Wakamarina and the Pelorus, in the Province of Marlborough.
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161
Art. XXX VII.—On the Geology of the North Head of Manukau Harbour.
By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S.
(With Illustrations. )
[Read before the Auckland Institute, August 16, 1869. ]
Tue cliffs, north of Manukau Harbour, are composed of a coarse volcanic
agglomerate of various kinds of dolerite, trachyte, and rhyolite, the trachytic
rocks, however, being much the most numerous. This agglomerate is gener-
ally horizontal, but at Paratutai—the rock that forms the north head of the
harbour—it is seen to dip strongly to the north, and on its upturned edge rests
a thin bed of vescicular doleritic lava, covered, conformably, with beds of
agglomerate, to which succeeds another lava stre eam, also covered by
agglomerate. The conformability of these doleritic rocks with the rest of the
formation, together with their vescicular character, makes me class them as
lava streams, instead of dykes. Proceeding northwards along the coast,
several dykes of doleritic-trachyte, very similar to the lava streams already
mentioned, but more compact, are seen, cutting through the agglomerate. The
second of these, or the one first seen after passing the valley “that divides the
hill, on which the old pilot station was placed, from the rest of the cliffs, is
about six feet thick at the base, and dips 80°8.E., but rapidly thins out
upwards, and comes to an end less than two-thirds of the way up the cliff,
showing that it has been injected from below, but had never reached the
surface. Besides these true dykes there are also other reefs of rock which at first
sight look like dykes, but, on a closer examination, are seen to be fissures
filled up with fine-grained tufa, of the same composition as the matrix of the
surrounding agglomerate. These fissures were perhaps caused by earthquakes
at the time when the volcanic forces were in activity, and may help us to
understand the original formation of some of the lodes at the Thames.
Proceeding further northwards, at a distance of about a mile and a half
from Paratutai, we find that the lower part of the formation has been thrown
up by a fault, and is seen to rest upon beds of fine-grained tufa, tufaceous
sandstone, and sandstone, which, no doubt, belong to “the upper part of the
Waitemata series ; ; for similar rocks occur at Puponga, as described by Dr.
Hochstetter.
In the hill, under the old pilot station, a large angular mass of fine-
grained tufaceous sandstone, interstratified with beds of shale, is seen, enclosed
in the agglomerate. (Pl. 1Xa. Fig. I.) This mass is about twenty-five by fifty feet,
and probably weighs not less than 2000 tons ; it belongs to the underlying
Waitemata beds, and must have been thrown up by a volcano. That this
volcano must have existed in the close neighbourhood, is proved by the large
size of the block, as well as by the lava streams at Paratutai, although no
trace of it can be now recognised ; and the fact that the block, although
composed of fragile materials, was not shattered in pieces, proves that it was
ejected under water. On the eastern, or inner, side of Paratutai the cliff is
being undermined and worn away at low-water mark (Fig. IT.), while at high-
water mark, or a little above it, another, and older, undermining of the sea
can be observed, forming a terrace, the difference of height between the two
being about ten feet, showing that the land has here risen that distance since
the higher one was formed. This closely corresponds to the height of the
raised beach at the Thames, on which Shortland and Grahamstown are built.
On the outer, or west, side of Paratutai, a similar terracing exists, as can be
seen in the Rev. J. Kinder’s photograph ; but I was not able to measure it,
and so am unable to say whether the two are at equal heights.
162
Art. XXX VIIL.—Description of Lava Caves at the “ Three Kings,” near
Auckland. By James Stewart, C.E., Assoc. Inst. C.E.
(With Illustrations. )
[Read before the Auckland Institute, September 20, 1869.]
Iv is well known that the various lava beds, near Auckland, are cavernous ;
caves are found of various dimensions, both in the older, and more recent lava
streams, although in the former, the surface soil, washed in by floods, has
partly, or wholly, filled many of them up.
Many of these known caves are of considerable size, but by far the most
extensive in the district, are those, the subject of this paper, situated in the
great scoria bed lying to the north-west of the hills called the “Three Kings.”
Some months ago, when a number of the members of this Institute met
at these caves, for their exploration, it was seen that they presented some points
of interest, and in their relative situation, a little intricacy. As these could not
be investigated by a cursory examination, and as it was possible that the
result might prove of some value, otherwise than by satisfying mere curiosity,
I was induced, in conjunction with Mr. Kirk, to undertake a survey as much
in detail as circumstances would permit. The result has shown the relative
positions of the caves in this group to be not a little curious, as they branch
off from, and underlie each other, to some extent. The survey occupied parts
of two days, in all about ten hours. Bearings were taken underground, and
marked out on the surface, and regular courses of levels were then run above
and below ground, the sectional dimensions of the caves being roughly noted at
numerous places. The accompanying plans and sections delineate the positions
and levels; I have endeavoured to make the plan as distinct as possible, without
the use of colour. (See Pl. X.)
The number of distinct caves in this group, at present explored, is four.
They form two sets, of two each. The two pairs have a remarkable resemblance
to each other, in some distinctive features. The main pair is marked as the
north-western, and the other as the south caves. In both cases, the branches
return backwards, at low levels, and they just escape communication with each
other. The main cave is generally straight, but of very irregular section, the
roof has fallen in many places, and encumbered the floor with large blocks ;
at one place, near the mouth, it has broken through to the surface ; it is clear
that at this part the original thickness was not much over a foot. The main
branch-cave is, for a great part of its length, in its original state, very little
stone having fallen from the roof. At the extreme end, however, some has
fallen, and much soil has been washed in.
In section this cave is extremely irregular, but in most places very
interesting, from the original form having been preserved, and affording, to my
mind, convincing evidence as to the cause of formation. This branch underlies
the main cave in a singular manner, having a thickness of rock, between, of
eight or nine feet. Both caves have several small branches or chambers. The
length of the main cave of this pair is 351 feet, and of the branch, from its
entrance, 209 feet. The widths vary from thirty feet to six feet, and the
height from seventeen feet to less than four feet. The south cave is much
fallen in, and was not minutely measured. It may have been about 200 feet
long, originally, but only about ninety feet (in three divisions) are still
complete. At its present most northerly entrance, the branch returns at a
low level, and is 112 feet long. This branch is by far the most perfect of the
caves, having, excepting near its entrance, a regular and natural floor, and
terminating in a fine chamber with a domed roof.
The caves seem to be all well ventilated, the air, though extremely
ee
RANS.N.Z. INSTITUTE. VOL.IL Plate 10
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TRANS.N.Z. INSTITUTE, VOL. IL Plate 10
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165
Kawau Istanp Beps.
The Kawau Island deposits contain only extinct species, and have been
erroneously grouped with the newer-tertiary formation, by Hochstetter, from
the species having been mixed with more modern forms from a littoral deposit
at Cape Rodney.
A list of the Cape Rodney shells is given separately ; all of them being
extinct species.
AWATERE AND Moranau Beps (Upper Tertiary).
The Awatere and Motanau clays are undoubtedly of the same age, and it
is very probable, when further examined over the whole area, will be naturally
grouped in three subdivisions. At Motanau three beds can be distinctly
recognized ; first, an upper sandy bed, containing the most common shells of
the adjacent coasts ; second, a middle blue clay bed, containing probably fifty
species, nine-tenths of which are identical with those of the blue clay at
Wanganui ; these upper and middle beds lie conformable, and have, evidently,
hke those at Wanganui, been accumulated on their breeding grounds, on quiet
sea bottums. Not so the third, or lower, blue clay bed, found inland near its
outcrop. It exhibits masses of concreted broken shells, the result of wave
action on an ancient sea beach. The proportion of extinct species in this
series 1s very smull, and those chiefly miocene fossils, of the lower bed, such as
Cuculla.
SUMMARY.
By a comparision of the fossils collected in the different districts, with
those of Wanganui-taken as a standard—as being the most complete—the
evidence is conclusive of the sameness of the whole, with the exception of the
Kawau beds, as a reference to the columns will show.
The formation must be divided into three groups: an upper, a middle,
and a lower ; nearly every genus of the upper and middle beds still existing
on the adjacent coasts.
NAPIER.
Ostrea—2 sp., Mytilus, Pecten—3 sp., Crepidula, Calyptrea, Venus,
Pectunculus. Total, 10 sp.: recent 7, extinct 3.
Carr Ropney.
Haliotis, Cardium, Scalaria, Fusus —2 sp., Turritella, Teredo, Pectunculus,
Pecten—2 sp., Rhynchonella, Turbo, Ostrea. Total, 14 sp.: recent 13,
extinct 1.
KAWAU.
Ostrea, Turritella, Turbo, Crassitella, Natica, Pectunculus. Total, 6 sp.,
all extinct.
HOKITIKA.
Fusus—2 sp., Dentalium, Voluta—2 sp., Natica, Limopsis, Trophon,
Turritella, Leda, Pecten, Ancillaria, Cassis, Venus, Pectunculus. Total, 15 sp. :
recent 13, extinct 2.
W AIPARA.
Fusus—2 sp., Natica, Turritella—2 sp., Scalaria—2 sp., Struthiolaria—
2 sp., Crepidula—2 sp., Calyptrea, Voluta, Cucullea—4 sp. Dentalium,
Echinite—3 sp., Trochus, Shark’s tooth, Crania, Pectunculus—2 sp.,
Waldheimia—4 sp., Ostrea, Venericardia, Myodora, Pecten—5 sp., Venus—
2 sp., Mactra, Mytilus, Modiola, Lucina, Panopea, Cytherea, Artemis, Lima.
Total, 48 sp.: recent 27, extinct 21.
166
AWATERE.
Fusus—3 sp., Voluta—2 sp., Natica, Turritella—3 sp., Struthiolaria—
6 sp., Crepidula—3 sp., Calyptreea, Trochita, Ancillaria, Balanus, Pectunculus,
Ostrea—2 sp., Pinna, Mactra, Lutraria, Artemis, Tapes, Tellina, Cuculleea,
Dentalium, Purpura. Total, 34 sp.: recent 26, extinct 8.
MorTanau.
Fusus, Voluta—2 sp., Natica—2 sp., Struthiolaria—3 sp., Turritella,
Crepidula, Venericardia, Pecten, Ostrea, Terebratula, Cardium, Pectunculus,
Mactra, Dosinia, Artemis, Tapes, Venus—4 sp., Sanguinolaria, Lutraria,
Cuculleea—2 sp., Dentalium—2 sp., Tellina, Mytilus, Trochus, Nerita, Balanus,
Rotella, Imperator, Pholas, Saxicava, Pinna, Modiola, Struthiolaria. Total,
42 sp. : recent 34, extinct, 8.
WANGANUI.
Murex—3 sp., Fusus—6 sp., Trichotropis, Trophon, Mangelia, Triton,
Buccinum—4 sp., Purpura, Lymnea, Ancillaria, Cassis, Trochus—2_ sp.,
Imperator, Rotella, Pleurotoma, Auricula, Cerithium, Turritella—3_ sp.,
Scalaria, Mytilus—2 sp., Ostrea—3 sp., Pinna, Modiola—2 sp., Venus—S sp.,
Dosinia, Terebratula, Terebratella, Waldheimia—3 sp., Rhynchonella, Cardita,
Tapes, Artemis, Lucina—2 sp., Cardium—3 sp., Venericardia, Natica—3 sp.,
Voluta—2 sp., Struthiolaria—3 sp., Pileopsis, Crepidula—3 sp., Calyptrea,
Trochita, Emarginula, Hemitoma, Lima—2 sp., Balanus, Echinus, Hchin-
arachnius, Turbinolia, Vermetus, Teredo, Coral—2 sp., Bryozoa (?), Pecten—
7 sp., Mactra—3 sp., Arca, Chamostrea, Nucula, Corbula, Tellina—2 sp.,
Lutraria, Panopea, Mya, Pectunculus—4 sp., Mesodesma—3 sp., Donax,
Psammobia, Sanguinolaria, Myodora. Total, 121 sp.: recent 109, extinct 12.
Grand Total, 290 sp. : recent 229, extinct 61.
Art. XL.—On the Tertiary Series of Oamaru and Moeraki.* By
CHARLES TRAILL.
[Extract from a letter to Dr. Hector, May 25, 1869 ;—read before the Wellington
Philosophical Society, September 18, 1869, ]
I Bee to communicate some observations concerning a formation which, in
this district, rather puzzles me. I call it the “‘ Blue clay” formation for want
of a better name, that being the usual term for the principal deposit of it that
I have seen. Very near Hampden, a well, sunk by Mr. Gleeson, for, I believe,
300 feet, did not penetrate through it ; but itis often yellow or yellowish-brown,
and not unfrequently forms hard rock, as you are doubtless aware. I myself
have not noticed it north of the lower Waitaki, south of the Moeraki boulders,
or west of Mr. Feren’s station on the Kakanui, but have seen specimens of it
from other parts of Otago and Canterbury. You probably know whether the
Awatere blue clay contains similar fossil remains or not.
Some time since I was endeavouring to work up the fossil shells of this
formation, with the view of determining approximately the proportion that
has become extinct.
Of course, in a collection of fossils, we must expect a number on which
we cannot pronounce with certainty, by reason of their imperfect condition, as
I need hardly say ; but I have been at pains to procure and lay bare, at. least
one good specimen of each species, so as to reduce the doubtful cases to a com-
paratively small number. Striking these off until further light is thrown on
them, and reckoning, on the one hand, those between which and the recent I
am unable to distinguish any difference ; and on the other hand, those which
* See Mantell, ‘‘ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,” Vol. vi., p. 333.—Ep.
167
are clearly distinct ; I feel now pretty confident that we must consider more
than one-half of the species to have become extinct in our seas. This alone,
if confirmed by further and more extended observations, would, I presume,
prevent this formation being referred to any period later than the Miocene ;
though, as far as [ can make out, by the works I have by me, it has always
been considered as Pliocene or Pleistocene, (see Hochstetter’s ““New Zealand,”
p. 61—“ Younger Tertiary Strata,” etc.)
Doubtless some of the species may be extinct here, and alive elsewhere,
but I fancy this is improbable. The presence of several of the genera, as
Cassidaria, Conus, etc., seems to indicate, if anything, a somewhat warmer
climate, but I see no approach to the shells of Port Jackson, in the latitude of
the North Cape.
Of the Chilian shells (I did pick up shells there ages ago), I have little
recollection.
It appears to me, however, that the proportion of extinct species is much
less striking than the number of extinct genera. Woodward writes, p. 421,
“The shells of the newer tertiaries, are always identical, at least generically,
with those of the nearest coasts.” But here we have the following genera, none
of which, as far as I know, have been found recent.
Typhis (the Rev. Mr. Taylor’s Typhis, was, I think, a Murex), Pyrula,
Cassidaria, Conus, Sigaretus, Turritella, Avicula, Perna, Cuculleea, Limopsis,
Crassatella, Mya, with one of the sub-genera of Natica.
I shall append a list of all the genera I have determined, and when you
come this way I can show you these and other specimens.
LIST REFERRED TO.
(The extinct species are marked in italics.)
Muricide (14)—WMurex, Murex sp. (2), Typhis, Triton 2 sp., Fusus 7 sp.,
Trophon, Pyrula.
Buccinide (6)—Buccinum, Buccinum 2 sp., Cassidaria, Nassa, Ancillaria.
Conidee (3)—Conus, Plewrotoma, Mangelia.
Volutidee (5)—Voluta 2 sp., Marginella, Warginella 2 sp. (?)
Cypreeidee (1)—Cyprea.
Naticidee (4)—Watica 2 sp., Polinices, Globulus, Sigaretus.
Pyramidellide (1)—Chemnitzia.
Cerithiadee (2)—Cerithium, Struthiolaria 2 sp.
Turritellide (2)—Turritella 2 sp.
Litorinidee (1)—Solariwm.
Turbinide (1)—T'rochus.
Calyptreeide (1)—Calyptreea, Crepidula.
Dentaliade (3)—Dentaliwm, Dentalium 2 sp.
Tornatellide (1)—TZornatella.
Bullidee (2)—Cylichna 2 sp.
Rhynchonellide (1)—Rhynchonella.
Ostreidze (5)—Placunomia, Lima, Limatula, Pecten 2 sp.
Aviculide (3) Pinna, Avicula, Perna.
Mytilide (1)—Modiola.
Arcade (5)—Arca, Cucullea, Pectunculus, Solenella, Zimopsis 2 sp.
Cardiadze (1)—Cardium.
Lucinidee (1)—Lucina.
Cyprinide (2)—Crassatella, Venericardia.
Veneride (3)—Venus 2 sp., Artemis.
Mactride (1)—Lutraria.
Tellinidee (1)—Tellina.
Myacidee (2)—Mya, Corbula.
168
i presume this formation has been generally considered to overlie
immediately the Oamaru building stone.
At one point near the south side of the Oamaru Cape Cliffs, Just below
where the hill slopes away southwardly, may be seen the ‘“ Blue clay ” with its
underlying rocks. At first sight it seems to be a horizontal bed, capped by a
seam of yellow clay ; but a closer inspection shows that there are hard seams,
several inches thick, running through it, dipping to the south ; and that these:
show the original planes of stratification, is evident, because the imbedded
fragments of flat shells, and thin seams of shells, lie in parallel planes. Also,
the same rocks form, at this place, outlying reefs, dipping in the same direction,
having the soft parts eaten away by the action of the waves, so that the upper
part of the clay and adjoining rocks (on which hes a single layer of hard
water-worn limestone, say six inches to a foot in thickness), must have been
worn to a level, and the upper portion of the clay altered in colour, after
being tilted by the force of the volcanic outbursts which formed the Cape
hilis.
Interposed between the ‘“ Blue clay” and Oamaru stone, is a layer of sand
like that in Huitchinson’s lime kiln, containing nun nee of Terebratule,
Pecten, Hutchinsonia, etc., and irregular masses of dislocated rock, altered, I
suppose, by heat.
On looking over the foregoing I think you may add to the previous list of
fossils, one new species of. Limopsis, and one new Struthiolaria. (List
amended.) The Struthiolaria (of a genus you Ha member peculiar to our
shell province) is interesting, as showing a marked approach to the genus
Aporrhais. Comparing it with S. straminea, the body is more slender, the
mouth more expanded, and the outer lip, instead of having two slight rounded
projections, has one claw-like expansion. A fine Turritella, of which you have
at least one specimen from the Waitaki, attaming a circumference of about
four and a half inches, is not uncommon, and [ have one Scalaria (which
seems common to this and the Oamaru stone) about four inches in cireum-
ference. It is singular that the only shell retaining any colour is a large
Lima, of which genus I believe all the recent species are destitute of colour.
Possibly, however, the colour has been induced by chemical action, during its
long sojourn in the clay ; and this shell was, perhaps, in its day and genera-
tion, of as pure a white as its descendants of our times, I have one valve of
this ‘Lima, measuring five inches in length. The list I sent you contained
seventy-five genera, with the two now mentioned, seventy-seven, of which I
believe fifty-one to be extinct, and twenty-six perhaps alive ; but I have more
confidence in the dissimilarity of the fifty-one, than in the similarity of the
twenty-six ; and I have a number of imperfect shells and fragments, evidently
different from any we have found recent, but of which I have not yet been
able to determine even the family ; so I think it not unreasonable to suppose,
that the proportion of extinct is understated above.
Without presuming, of course, to speak positively, I cannot help a strong
impression that these results indicate a much higher antiquity to this
formation than has been hitherto assigned to it. As far as I have seen it
noticed, it is put down as Pliocene, or Pleistocene*—a time I suppose when
nearly the present disposition of land and water obtained ; ; while if it has to
be referred back to the Miocene, or possibly the Eocene, we must imagine a
period when these islands bore only a rude general resemblance to our New
Zealand of to-day. (?) Even on this spot, I think it can be shown, that when these
* A series of fossils from this formation, now in the Dunedin Museum, was exhibited
in the Geological Survey Collection, in the N. Z. Exhibition, 1865, as Hocene. See
“Catalogue of N.Z. Exhibition,” p. 58 ; and ‘‘Juror’s Reports,” p. 263.—Ep.
169
shells flourished, there was no “Oamaru Cape,” which now gives a friendly
shelter to our coasting fleet; as it is also tolerably plain that a spacious
harbour or inlet then existed, where the waters of the Waitangi now traverse
an extensive agricultural district.
The following, I think, to a common mind—perhaps not to a trained
geological one—seems to bear further testimony to the age of these shells :—
In various parts of this coast the face of an old sea-beach is seen, often
elevated considerably above the present one, and supplying the shingle from
which the present coast is formed. This is covered by many feet of silt. The
inference surely is, that since this old beach was formed, we have had at least
one considerable depression (to allow of the uniform deposition of such a depth
of clay over many miles of surface) and one subsequent elevation.
If, in our day, there is little or no sensible movement going on in this
part of New Zealand, we may surely conclude that the two movements,
referred to, represent a very lengthened period. Yet the fossil shells in this
old beach seem precisely similar to those now living; then, how immensely
old, by comparison, must this group of shells be, in which only a few bear any
close resemblance to those we now find. As bearing on this, and because we
often hear it assumed that the coast is rising, the following may be worthy of
note :—
Alt the mouth of the Awamoa, and, I believe, at various creeks on the
coast, we find evidence of old Maori repasts, where moa bones (many of them
broken, and the fractures still sharp, not waterworn) are associated with those
of the seal, marine shells, such as Maoris still collect for food, chert flakes, etc.,
in a black soil, apparently a mixture of sand and charcoal. I believe those
who have studied the matter consider that it is a long time since Maoris
feasted on moa flesh, and that these particular deposits are amongst the earliest
records of human life in these islands. Yet while exploring at this place with
spade and pick, I was on two occasions ‘‘ washed out of my diggings” by the
sea at spring tide, showing that the deposit is now only slightly above high-
water mark, while we may safely assume, that, if lower by only a foot or two,
such a friable soil could not long withstand the violence of the sea on an
exposed coast. While taking out some egg shells (moa) at this place, I found,
at about twelve inches below the surface, a small bit of ivory resembling one
half of a long squarish bead, split down the centre longitudinally. Iam not
aware of any hollow ivory tusk it could be made of, and it is difficult to
conceive how the hole could be bored without the use of an iron tool. I shall
enclose wax impressions, which may interest Mr. Mantell,—like showing hima
nugget from his old diggings.*
Art. XLI.— Account of a visit to a Hot Spring called “Tr Puta,” near
Wangape lake, Central Waikato, Auckland; in August, 1868. By
R. GILLIES.
Read before the Otago Institute, November 2, 1869.
g
Most of you are aware that in the North Island of New Zealand a series of
natural wonders exists, such as are unequalled in any other part of the known
world, in the shape of thousands of hot springs, fumaroles, mad-voleanoes and
solfataras. Some of them are of the grandest and most beautiful character,
and will yet, when the Maori difficulty is effectually disposed of, draw to our
shores crowds of scientific and delighted observers. The district in which
these principally occur extends from the active volcano of Tongariro, in the
* See Mantell, loc. cit. sup. Also ‘Trans. N. Z. Inst.,” Vol. i., p. 18.—Ep.
170
Province of Wellington, in a north-easterly direction, along the Upper Waikato,
through Lakes Taupo, Rotorua, Rotoiti and Rotomahana, to the White or
Sulphur Island, a solitary, but active volcano situated in the Bay of Plenty,
many miles at sea. But the spring which I ask you to visit with me to-night
is not situated in this zone or belt of active volcanic agency, nor does it possess
any of the grand or even beautiful characteristics which belong to the world-
renowned “ Orakeikorako,” ‘“ Rotomahana,” or “ Rotorua” springs. Still it
has an interest of its own, especially to Olagonians, to whom a hot spring of
any sort is a natural wonder not discovered as yet within their borders, so far
s I know.
“Te Puia,” as the Maoris call it, is situated about forty-five miles, as the
crow flies, south of Auckland city, on the banks of the “ Mira,” a stream
flowing from the west into the Wangape lake, in the Central Waikato basin.
A drive in the coach of about thirty-two miles along the main south road,
brings us to Point Russell, an incipient township on the banks of the noble
Waikato, just past Koheroa, the scene of the fight of 17th July, 1863. Taking
steamer here, and proceeding about thirteen miles up the beautiful river, often
with the branches of peach trees, which grow luxuriantly on its banks,
brushing the paddle-boxes of the steamer as she follows the windings of the
deeper channels, we pass ‘‘ Meremere,” another spot memorable in the 1863
war, alike for the strength of its position, and the ludicrous incident which
accompanied its evacuation by the Maoris, and disembark at the mouth of the
Wangape creek, just below Rangiriri, the bloodiest of all the battle-fields in
the Waikato campaign. With the assistance of a Pakeha-Maori friend who
accompanied us (I say “us,” for my wife accompanied me, and was the first
white woman who ever visited ‘‘'Te Puia”), we here engaged a Maori canoe
and crew to take us up the Wangape creek and lake, to within about five or
six miles of the spring. This part of the journey was something enchanting,
the smooth easy motion of the canoe, the beautiful scenery of the lake (whose
name I was told denotes ‘a large sheet of water”), and the measured cadence
of the paddles, as they dipped simultaneously to the musical “ Tupari,
Tupari” of the Maoris, interrupted occasionally, as we passed native settle-
ments, by the peculiarly shrill Maori cry of welcome, “haere mai,” or of
enquiry as to who we were: all gave an interest and pleasure not often met
with in New Zealand travelling, just in the least degree marred, in our case,
when we remembered that we were going into a part of the country which,
though perfectly safe, had not been often visited by Europeans. At sunset
we landed at the head of the lake, and were accommodated in a nice raupo
whare, for the three days during which we made this our head-quarters— our
Maori hostess dispensing her hospitality with a kind and liberal hand. From
this place, a journey of two hours, on foot, the last half mile through a low-
lying swampy Kahikatea forest, brought us to “Te Puia.”
This name “Te Puia,” though given by the Maoris living in the vicinity
specially to the spring now under consideration, appears to have a more general
application as well, and to be the generic term for a certain description or class
of hot springs, as will appear from the few following remarks of Dr.
Hochstetter, which I take the liberty of reading, as I am aware there are not
many copies of his work on New Zealand, in Otago. (Page 391.)
‘The phenomena are similar to those upon Iceland, and as the Icelanders
distinguish their hot springs as Hverjar, Namur and Laugar, so also the
Maoris make a similar distinction, although not quite so marked, between
Puia, Ngawha, and Waiariki. The Hverjar upon Iceland are either permanent
fountains, whose boiling water is continually in a state of ebullition ; or
intermittent ones, whose water shows a vehement ebullition only at certain
periods, when it reaches the boiling point, while during the intervals it is in a
eee
171
state of calm repose, its temperature often falling considerably. To the
Hverjar belong, for example; the celebrated springs of Haukadal, the great
Geyser and Strokkur, and with these the Puias of New Zealand correspond.
The word Puia is especially used in the Taupo country, to designate the
intermittent, geyser-like fountains of Tokanu, of Orakeikorako on the Waikato,
and of Whakarewarewa on Lake Rotorua. Puia has, moreover, the more
general meaning of crater or volcano, and is applied to active as well as extinct
voleanoes. Namur, upon Iceland, are the non-intermittent springs, such as
the solfataras of Krisuvik and Reykjahlid, having no periodical eruptions ; and
the same are in New Zealand the Ngawhas, a term specially used for non-
intermittent springs, for the solfataras and sulphurous hot-springs on the
Rotomahana, Rotorua, and Rotoiti. Finally, the springs suited to bathing
purposes, the water of which never reaches the boiling point, and all naturally
warm baths are called ‘ Waiariki,’ corresponding to the Laugar of Iceland.”
From this it will be seen that “Te Puias” are intermittent springs, whose
temperature varies considerably at different times ; a phenomenon which seems
to be characteristic of this individual spring, as will appear from certain
considerations to be mentioned further on. This is an incident worthy of note,
as corroborative of the correctness of Hochstetter’s general observations and
deductions, and illustrative of the general prevalence, amongst the Maoris, of
certain terms for certain classes of phenomena. Hochstetter never visited this
spring, was never any nearer to it than the Waikato, and yet, here we find the
same term applied amongst one tribe, which he found prevailing amongst other
and totally different tribes, at least one hundred miles from this.
For some distance before reaching the spring, the heavy air of the swampy
forest is impregnated with a sulphurous odour, occasionally to the extent of
being very offensive, and about ten chains from our journey’s end, the bush
track, which we followed, brought us to the stream which flows from the
spring. Speaking from memory, this stream was from two to three feet wide,
of a similar depth, and running with a considerable current. It was clear,
with a bright but dark-green deposit, or, as I at first thought, with fungus
plants growing in the bottom. Steam was rising all along its course, and it
was so hot that you could not hold your hand in the water. The creek was
about four feet below the general level of the flat, and the bank sloped easily
down to the edge of the water. On this bank no herbage of any sort was
growing, but whether the red unclothed soil was the result of anything peculiar
in the water, or of recent floodings of the creek itself, I cannot pretend to say ;
T rather think of the latter, however, as evidences were not wanting of recent
inundations. Following up the creek, and scrambling through some thick
undergrowth in the otherwise open Kahikatea bush, all of a sudden we come
upon “Te Puia.”
I confess I felt disappointed on seeing it. From what I had read of hot
springs, I expected to have seen a nice circular basin, with its sides encircled
by silica or lime ; a clean and graceful punch bowl on a gigantic scale, with a
funnel or tube descending from the centre, from whence proceeded all the
“hubble-bubble, boil and bubble,” with which our ideas of subterranean igneous
action are generally associated. I might then have let my imagination
loose for a time, and pictured to you fairy nymphs with angelic forms laving
their graceful limbs in the enchanted bath, whilst sylvan satyrs kept watch
and ward in the dark recesses of the forest around. But alas, nothing could
be more prosaic than this ugly dub of water, more like a duck or horse-pond
than anything else. Along one side and one end, the bush came close to the
pond’s edge. On the other side and end, the bush was cleared for a space
of about ten feet, on the average, as shown in the sketch. There was no
hollow, or head of a gully, or anything of that sort, to indicate that water might
AA
172
be expected there ; and any one approaching the spring from the side on which
the bush grows thick, and close to the water, might, just as likely as not,
plump headlong into the hottest of the water before being aware of its
existence.
“Te Puia” is simply a sudden pool in the flat forest land, with the
water about two feet below the general level around, and with a perpen-
dicular clay bank forming its margin all round. The pool is somewhat
the shape of a kidney potatoe, and measures along its greatest length,
between perpendiculars from each end, sixty-eight feet, and in the same
manner across, twenty-one feet. The depth of the pool I could not
measure, as the Maoris have wisely filled it in, to within about three feet of
the surface of the water with branches of trees, so as to afford any poor beggar,
who might accidentally tumble in, a chance of getting out again before being
parboiled. A log is placed across the pool, just above the surface of the water,
to enable the natives visiting it to take advantage of the hottest part for cooking
their potatoes, eggs, or “kai” generally. At the only part where it is at all pos-
sible to bear the heat of the water logs are also placed, coincident with the surface
of the water, for the convenience of bathers. Nor let it be supposed that these
rude appliances were at all unnecessary. I can assure you that it would take more
nerve than I am possessed of, to have induced me to walk out on the log at the
hottest part. Jam not much afraid of water, but to run the risk of being boiled
alive is quite another thing, and would make most men pause before risking it
uselessly. In order to get the temperature of this part of the spring, I adopted
another plan than that provided by the Maoris. I cut a long pole in the bush,
and tied my thermometer by a string to the end of it, and thus dipped it into
the hottest part. However, I] found the logs at the other part of the spring
of the greatest service, when I had prepared myself for a bath, and when, of
course, the lady portion of the party had satisfied their curiosity and retired.
At first I could only stand on the log, and dip the tips of my toes in the
water, and gradually, inch by inch, descended deeper, till I was able to intro-
duce my whole body up tothe chin. Whilst thus immersed, my sensations were
too hot to be pleasant. Every moment I felt as if the crown of my head was
coming off, I was however determined to do the hot spring thoroughly, and
knew that assistance was at hand to take me out at once had I fainted.
To move much in the water, or bathe, in the ordinary acceptation of the term,
was too painful to be endured.
Before disturbing the pool, the water was clear, and of a faint-blue tint ;
the branches, etc., forming the artificial bottom, being covered with the same
bright malachite-green deposit, I have mentioned before as characterising the
stream which flows from it. What this beautiful green deposit is I cannot say.
On disturbing the water, however, it disappeared immediately, and the whole
pool became of a white milky colour.
At the hottest part the water was noé boiling, but effervescing like
ginger beer, and vapour occasionally rose from it. Here I found the
temperature, by an ordinary tin thermometer, to be 168° Fah., a foot below
the surface. At the place where I bathed the temperature was 113° Fah.
The temperature of the air at the same time being 68°. The Maoris said that
the spring was not so hot at that time as it sometimes is, and that they often
cook their potatoes and other kai, quite easily init. At the above temperature
(168°) they could not do this, and I was inclined then to view this and other
stories which I heard of scalding pigs, boiling eggs, etc., to be myths rather than
actual facts, till Dr. Hector suggested to me the likelihood of its being an inter-
mittent spring ; and since perusing the remarks of Hochstetter, which I have read
to you, upon the name ‘Te Puia” being applied, in general, to all intermittent
. Springs whose temperature varies ; and also some remarks of Captain Hutton
1735
upon this same spring, recorded in the ‘Transactions of the New Zealand
Institute,” Vol. i. p. 71. I think it is very likely that my unbelief was
more at fault than the Maoris’ facts.
Before disturbing the water, I filled two square gin bottles, which I had
brought with me for the purpose, from the hottest part of the spring, and
sealed them up at once to prevent the escape of gases. One of these bottles of
water was afterwards forwarded, through my brother, to Dr. Hector, and is
the bottle of water the analysis of which is given on page 71 ‘“ Transactions
N. Z. Institute,” Vol.i. The other bottle had a more inglorious, and some-
what ludicrous, end. The excess of my care of both bottles caused me to place
them on a shelf in the raupo hut where we were entertained during our stay,
and one day some “old hands” (surveyors’ men) were having dinner in the
hut, I was outside, making a sketch of the beautiful Whangape lake, when one
of the Maoris came rushing out in a very excited state, gesticulating for me to
come at once. I saw something was wrong, and on going in, found one of my
bottles, which I had strictly charged the Maoris to take great care of, in the
hands of one of these civilized white men, with the top part of the bottle
broken off, and only a very little water left in the bottom. ‘Oh Sir,” says the
fellow, “ please Sir, it busted.” I suspected at once that it was not any
peculiarity of the water that had caused the “ busting,” as in that case the
whole of the water would have been gone, and the shelf, on which the bottles
were lying on their sides, would have been wet. I said nothing, however, and
after they were gone I found my conjectures correct, and that these men, in
their insatiable love of drink, had jumped to the conclusion that the bottles
contained gin, took one of them down and gave it a friendly tap on the head.
The Maoris interfered too late to save it from their lawless greed, but the
explanation that it was water from ‘Te Puia,” suggested at once the excuse
that it “busted.” I drank some of this water and found it tasteless.
With reference to the medicinal properties of the spring, I may state, that a
surveyor in the district informed me that on one occasion he was very ill with
rheumatism, and that he camped close to “Te Puia,” and by repeated bathings in
the water for a fortnight, taking care to cover himself well with blankets after each
immersion, he was thoroughly cured, and has had no return of the malady since.
“Te Puia” also forms a very good barometer for those living within sight
of the valley, as, before the advent of rain a column of vapour is invariably
seen rising from the spring. 5
There are several other hot springs in the same valley in which “Te
Puia” is situated, but I was told they were all smaller.
The valley of the Mira is a deep precipitous glen, but from its being
densely wooded, I can say nothing about its geological character, except that a
bold white cliff which I observed on the opposite face of the glen, from where
I descended into it, was said to be limestone.
As to the origin of these hot springs I should have liked to have read
another extract from Hochstetter’s “New Zealand,” but I have detained you
too long already, and must just conclude by referring you to page 432 of that
able and deeply interesting work, which I regret to find is not so well known
in Otago, as it deserves to be.
174
Art. XLIT.—On Improvements in the Processes for Extracting and Saving
Gold. By T. Heats, C.E.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, November 15, 1869.]
THE quartz crushing machinery at the Thames is very excellent, and the
appliances used for saving the gold ore are, I have no doubt, on the whole, as
effective as is possible, consistently with the rapidity and economy required.
Nevertheless one occasionally hears instances of exceedingly conflicting
and unexpected results—thus I find in a paper published a few days ago :
‘“‘Clarkson’s machine.—One parcel of calcined stuff from the ‘John
O’Groat,’ weighing only 11 tons, yielded 11 0z. 4dwt. retorted gold. Another
parcel of 11 tons uncalcined yielded 22 oz. 14 dwt., and 2 tons uncalcined stuff,
crushed in the single stamper, yielded 80z. of gold. The battery is now
crushing a 30 ton lot for the ‘ Pukehinau.’”
I am informed that care was taken that these several parcels should, as
far as possible, be of uniform quality. And, in this Institution, on the dth
October, last year, a discussion arose in which it was stated that the use of
the water from one source, as compared with another not apparently purer,
caused a difference of one-third in the quantity of gold obtained.* Nor is it at
all wonderful that occasional failures to save the gold by amalgamation should
take place, when it is considered that for the amalgamation to be complete,
every particle of gold must be brought into actual contact with mercury, the
minutest film on the surface of either metal being sufficient to prevent their
union, a circumstance which may arise either from the sickening of the
mercury, as it is called, or from the gold having become coated with some
repelling film derived from the liquids—as in the case named by Mr. Whitaker
—or from the gases evolved in calcination, as in the case referred to from the
“ John o’ Groat.”
What then, in my opinion, is wanting is, not any improvement in the
machinery and appliances now in use, so much as a ready and certain means of
ascertaining by assay—which shall be trustworthy and at the same time not too
expensive—whether or not the process is going on rightly, and all, or the great
majority, of the gold present in the material is being saved ; since if it should
be found that appreciable portions of the gold are passing away with the
tailings, it will generally not be difficult to ascertain the cause of the evil, and
to apply an appropriate remedy, such as cyanide of potassium, or Mr. Crook’s
sodium amalgam, if the failure appeared to arise from the sickening of the
mercury ; or to a different treatment of the quartz, or the use of other waters,
if the fault appeared to lie in their conditions.
The subject to which I wish to draw attention, and on which I would
invite discussion, is the practical methods of assaying quartzoze and earthy
matters supposed to contain small portions of gold. Now since the commonest
observation shows that gold is never equally distributed through the mass, and
since it is probable that after every care in pulverization the gold may still
remain in particles of appreciable size, it follows that a very small sample can
never be depended upon as representing the mass, and therefore that the
delicate’ analytical processes of the chemist, which can only be used on very
smal] quantities, are not adapted to the practical uses of the gold-miner. Now
1 oz. of gold to the ton is equivalent to 1 part in 32,666, or 1 grain in 42 lbs.
avoirdupois, therefore it is convenient to take this quantity, or an aliquot part
of it, for the assay, and in practice I think one-fourth of it, or 1}1b. will be
found the smallest from which satisfactory results may be obtained, since in
that quantity one-eightieth of a grain of gold will represent 1 dwt. to the
ton.
* See ‘‘Trans. New Zealand Institute,” Vol. i., p. 72.
175
Assuming then that 14 1b. is the smallest quantity upon which any assay
can be satisfactorily made, it remains to be considered how such a quantity can
be acted upon so as to separate any gold it may contain, with such precision
as to attain certainty that the result shall be true to at least one-eightieth part
of a grain.
Now the methods of assaying may be divided into three classes :—1st.
Separating out the gold from the mass by a menstruum which will dissolve the
precious metal, without acting on the earthy matter. 2nd. By resolving it
into a form by which the earthy matter may be dissolved out, leaving the
metallic matters free and in moderate compass. 3rd. Fusion of the whole
with such a flux as would cause any gold or silver present to separate from the
slag, either alone or in combination with lead.
This last practice, which is the dry assay proper, yields very certain and
accurate results, but since the matters would require to be mixed with five or
six times their weight of litharge, the quantities which I have stated as the
minimum which could be used with advantage, would require the use of
crucibles so large as to be exceedingly inconvenient and expensive ; since a
crucible could never be used twice.
The second method, as ordinarily practised by the chemist, of fluxing with
carbonate of soda, would be still more inconvenient from the same causes, but
a modification of the process, which I shall presently explain, appears to me
the most likely one for easily obtaining reliable results.
In the use of the first method the menstrua which will dissolve the gold
from the earthy matters are confined to two, viz. metallic mercury, and
chlorine. Now the principal use for which assays of tailings are required, is
to ascertain whether the mercury used on the ripple-tables and in the stamp-
box has succeeded or not in dissolving the whole of the gold out of the
material. If it has failed in doing so, the most probable cause of failure is
that the particles of gold may have been coated with a film of some matter
which prevented the contact of mercury with them. But if this is so, it is
obvious that the same cause will be in operation to prevent combination when
an assay is made by the same means, and that nothing could be more futile
than to attempt to test the fact, whether the whole of the gold had been
amalgamated by the mercury on the ripple beds, by repeating the very same
operation on a sample, therefore I think it is demonstrable that any assay of
tailings by amalgamation, is absolutely delusive and worthless.
The other method of solution, by chlorine, would be nearly perfect if the
gold were in a state approaching to purity, or were it alloyed only with
copper ; but gold mixed with from one-third to one-half its weight of silver, as
is the case generally with Thames gold, is precisely that modification which is
insoluble in chlorine, the coating of chloride of silver formed, being sufficient
entirely to protect the gold beneath it, from the solvent action of chlorine,
unless the mechanical subdivision of the particles is absolutely infinitesimal.
We are thus left to the second method of dissolving off the earthy matter,
and this must be done without the use of crucibles.
Now quartz is soluble in solution of caustic potash, at all temperatures,
and at a temperature of about 300°, and upwards, the solution takes place
readily and rapidly, if then the sample of earthy matters, mixed with about
three times its weight of caustic potash dissolved in three or four parts of
water, were placed in a clean iron vessel, in a steam chest, in which it could
be subjected for two or three hours to the action of steam at a pressure of
about 60 lbs. to the square inch—which corresponds to the temperature of 307°
—the whole of the quartz, or at least with the exception of a few of the larger
grains, would be resolved into a silicate of soda which would then readily
dissolve out with hot water, leaving the gold and silver with oxide of iron and
176
alumina, or any other basis present, which would remain on the filter. A
little dilute hydrochloric acid would readily dissolve out all except the precious
metals, and these could then be either operated on analytically, or wrapped in
a little lead foil and collected into. a button on the cupel. The same thin
might be done by placing the material in an ordinary mercury bottle, and
subjecting it to heat in an oil bath ; unless, however, good means were adopted
for regulating the heat so as not to “exceed 350°, or a pressure of 120 lbs. on
the square inch, a danger of explosion might be i incurred.
The solution of quartzose matters in this manner has been frequently
employed, and I do not apprehend the smallest difficulty in its use; if iron
pyrites were present in larger quantities, the sulphuret of sodium produced
might possibly dissolve a little gold, unless a little nitre were added.
Art. XLIUTI.—Wotes on the Geology of the Outlying Islands of New Zealand ;
with Eutracts from Oficial Reports. Communicated by JAMES HECTOR,
M.D., F.R.S., Director Geological Survey of New Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869.]
THe Official Reports from which the following extracts have been made, were
forwarded to the Museum, along with specimens of the rock formations, and I
have thought the information they afford worth communicating to the Society,
along with my own notes on the collections submitted.
1.—THE SNARES.
These small islands were visited by Mr. Henry Armstrong, in the course
of the cruise of the brig ‘‘ Amherst,” which was undertaken in 1868, on behalf
of the Provincial Government of Southland, for the purpose of landing supplies
for the relief of cast-aways. Mr. Armstrong made the following remarks on
them in his report.*
“The Snares are in lat. 48 deg. 03 min. S., long. 166 deg. 45 min. E., and
under this name comprise two islands, a large reef to the N.W. of the main,
three and a-half miles distant, and several outlying rocks. The small island
(half a mile long), is separated from the main on its east side by a very narrow
passage. The larger island I take to be about four miles in circumference.
Greatest elevation, 600 feet. Coast line, very bold. It is almost entirely
covered with scrub and trees of stunted growth, the Tupari, Akeake, and
Kokomuka. Of M‘Quarrie cabbage there is abundance, and of fine growth,
some of the leaves measuring two feet in diameter. Patches clear of scrub
are clothed with the Lutaki tussock. The soil is peaty, and well mingled with
guano, and very moist. We found no water at all palatable, some I drank
being quite brackish ; but then, the birds would render the best undrinkable.
Those who trade in mutton-birds, would find a visit to these islands, in March
or April, prove remunerative.”
“We pulled away for the N.E. side of the island, where is a small gulch
or cove, the only boat harbour on it I believe. Thousands of mutton-birds, nellies,
penguins, etc., heralded our approach, and to some extent prepared us for what
we saw on landing. Once on shore our party was divided, and we commenced
our search. I and two others made for the west side, where we climbed a high
bluff, some 500 feet high, commanding a good view of the whole island. Our
progress was painfully slow, the entire surface being literally honey-combed
* « New Zealand Government Gazette, Province of Southland,” April 11, 1868, p. 51.—
‘Cruise of the brig ‘Ambherst.’” By H. Armstrong, J.P., M.P.C., acting on behalf of
the Government.
177
with mutton-bird holes, into which the foot sank deeply at every step, the
inmates thereof betokening their dissatisfaction at our presence by giving vent to
a half-choked querulous cry. The penguins—ludicrous birds—in hundreds,
drawn up in rank and file, stood to oppose us on our march, and it required
not a little vigorous kicking to force our way through them.”
Thirty-five specimens of rocks were obtained on the Snares, and in
general appearance the collections resemble the rocks of the Dunedin penin-
sula. They consist of
1. Varieties of Basalt, both compact and granular, containing Augite and
Sanidine crystals. 2. Claystone Porphyry, and tufaceous clay. 3. Chert and
Jasper.
We may conclude therefore that the islands have been formed by one of
the volcanic outbursts that took place towards the close of the Miocene period,
along the south-eastern border of New Zealand. :
2.—CAMPBELL ISLAND.
This island was also visited by Mr. Armstrong, and respecting it his
report gives the following information :—
“Campbell Island (Erebus Point, lat. 50 deg. 32 min. §., long. 169 deg.
12 min. E.), is about eight miles from north to south, and the same from east
to west. It is traversed by ranges of hills of considerable height—Honey hill,
to the south, being close upon 1600 feet. The geological formation does not
differ materially from that of the Aucklands. In West Bay, however, the
cliffs are composed of chalk and beds of flints, resting on limestone. I had
heard a rumour that copper was to be found here, but I saw no indications
whatever of its presence. Iron pyrites may probably be present, and have
given rise to the report. In Perseverance Harbour the geologist will be
interested by the appearance of the basaltic dykes, of columnar structure, the
pillars vertical, horizontal, and in one place radiating from a common centre,
as though the basalt, forced up through a small orifice, had spread out in the
shape of a fan. The ground is very uneven, which made our travelling toil-
some, the foot constantly going into holes two feet deep. The soil is very wet
and peaty, the surface between the tussocks (Patiti) carpeted with beautiful
mosses and lichens of most varied hues ; even the branches of the scrub are so
clothed —an unerring indication of the humidity of the climate. The
M‘Quarrie cabbage, cotton plant (I have an idea that good serviceable paper
might be made from the latter), and wild carrot grow abundantly forming most
excellent feed for the pigs which we put ashore. The inevitable Piri-piri
appears everywhere. Of timber proper, there is none on the island. It would
take a boat’s crew a considerable time to collect a supply of firewood, the
scrub being of the very smallest growth. There is no Rata, and the Enaki is of
a smaller and finer species than that of the Aucklands, and bears a small white
bell-shaped flower, with a strong perfume, as of hawthorn. There are, of
course, copious supplies of water of an excellent kind. This island seems to be
the favourite haunt of the larger sea birds, the molly-mawks frequenting the
north-east side ; the albatross affecting the ranges between the north and south
harbours ; mutton birds par-touwt. I think Nature has contented herself with
fitting up this island for the reception of such birds—and pigs. The (so called)
highland albatross (the noblest of all sea birds) lays but one egg in a nest
raised about ten inches from the ground. The young birds were just breaking
the shell at the time of our visit. The grey duck is found here. Of land
birds I only saw the common ground lark and a small bird like the wren.
Rats are numerous, and of a large size. No traces were seen of the pigs, game
cock, hens, and geese, landed by Capt. Norman, of the ‘ Victoria.’ The
barometer, during our stay, stood at 29-20 ; average temperature of the air, 51°.”
178
The collection from this island contains twenty-five specimens, and,
besides volcanic rocks belonging to the Doleritic series, is highly interesting
from indicating the occurrence of sandstones of the same mineral character as
we find in New Zealand among the Lower Mesozoic formation, and also true
chalk with large flints but without fossils unfortunately that can be seen by
the naked eye, though probably a microscopic examination of the chalk might
reveal some characteristic forms.
There are also fragments of reef quartz with Phyllite or blue slate
attached, so that there must be a considerable variety in the geology of the
island, which is a true rocky island, and not a mere volcanic mass, built up by
submarine eruptions.
3.—ANTIPODES ISLANDS.
On referring to the description of this group in the “ Flora Antarctica,”
and to the sailing directions published as late as 1868,* I find it stated that
landing is impracticable on these islands, so that Mr. Armstrong’s party appear
to have accomplished the feat probably for the first time on record.
His report states, that—
“On Friday, 29th Feb., 1868, after having made more than one attempt to
leave our anchorage in Campbell Island, we succeeded in getting out of the
harbour, and with a steady breeze from the S.W., we soon ran the distance to
the Antipodes Islands, making the land before daybreak on the 2nd March,
and verifying their position as fixed by Capt. Norman. But for his observa-
tions we might possibly have ascertained their true position for ourselves, in a
manner far from pleasant, the chart placing them some fifty miles to the east-
ward, and ten miles to the north. When close to the island, we fired our gun,
and lowering a boat, I went ashore with an officer, effecting a landing very
easily under the lee (east side), although a considerable sea was running
outside. Firing the grass as we went, we made for a hill in the centre of the
island, which we climbed, and from its summit carefully scanned the whole
surface around. We saw nothing but the tussock waving in the wind, the
albatross sitting quietly on their nests, and a few parroquets flitting about.
We remained four hours here ; the men spread ont in different directions, and
then returned to the boat with the conviction that no human beings (with the
exception of ourselves) were present on the island. Before leaving, we placed
a board on a high rock, securing it with stones, on which 1s carved, ‘ Brig
Amherst, in search of castaways, March, 68; by order of the Government of
Southland.’ With it, two bottles, one containing some matches, a flint and
steel, fish-hooks, and a parcel of dressed flax ; the other, a letter, in which I
mentioned what had been done on the Auckland and Campbell Islands, ete.
“The Antipodes Islands (two, a small one lying about half-a-mile off the
S.E. end of the main), are situated in lat. 49 deg. 42 min. 8., long. 178 deg.
43 min. E., the coast line bold and rugged, the cliffs having a weather-beaten
bleached appearance. The main island is about three miles from east to west,
and two and a-half miles from north to south. Greatest elevation, 700 feet, the
hills dotted with high tussock (pa-ti-ti), and patches of M‘Quarrie cabbage and
cotton plant. The soil is peaty, but drier and firmer than that of Campbell
Island ; of scrub, there is none worthy of the name, scarcely enough to make
a good fire with. The albatross here is the ‘lowland,’ and lays two eggs.
To walk across country required a little cireumspection, progress being made
by hopping from tussock to tussock, a false step causing the unwary one to
subside up to his chin amongst the grass and piripiri. It reminded me forcibly
of crossing swamps in our own province, on top of the Maori-heads. The
“Description of the Outlying Islands, South and East of New Zealand,” p. 16:
printed for the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, 1868.
179
rocks on the island are purely volcanic. Close to where we landed are large
beds of ashes, and ferruginous scoria. From this and other indications, the
conical shape of all the hills, and their rounded tops, I am of opinion that the
island has been the site of an active volcano.”
The rock specimens obtained, twelve in number, support Mr, Armstrong’s
view of the geology of these islands, which appear to have been formed by
volcanic eruptions, at first submarine, as shown by the specimens of Dolerite
with large crystals of Augite, and true Phonolite or Clinkstone, but latterly
the eruptions must have been subaerial, as the other specimens are scoriaceous
lavas, and fragments of volcanic bombs, exactly resembling the volcanic rocks
of the northern parts of New Zealand, especially near Auckland, No speci-
mens of older rocks are represented in the collection,
4.—Bounty IsLAnp.
Respecting Bounty Island, Mr. Armstrong states, that—
“They are a group of naked detached rocks, extending from N.W. toS.E,.
about two miles. The sea rose in spray to the tops of the highest (some
100 feet), and breached clean over the lower ones. There are several outlying
rocks awash, at some distance from the main body. Of course no attempt
could be made to land, but we saw every rock distinctly with the naked eye,
and had there been anything as large as a goat moving on them we must have
verceived it. Neither man nor beast could exist on the Bountys, and had I
known their nature, I would not have deemed it necessary to visit them.”
5.—AUCKLAND ISLANDS.
This group is better known than any of the others, and collections have
been received from Mr. Armstrong, and also from Mr. J. H. Baker, Chief
Surveyor of Southland, from whose careful report I make the following
extracts :*—
“The Auckland Islands were discovered by Captain Bristow, in the year
1806, and formally taken possession of by him in the name of the King, when
he visited them a year later. They were next visited by Admiral D’Urville’s,
and Commodore Wilkes’ expeditions, in 1839. The vessels of the Antarctic
Eixpedition also called at them in 1840, and during their stay Drs. Lyall and
Hooker made a large collection of the different plants and shrubs indigenous
to the islands, of which they published a full account in the first volume of the
‘ Antarctic Flora.’
-“ About this time the Auckland Isles seem to have been the favourite
resort of the South Sea whalers, and in 1850 a large whaling establishment
was started at Port Ross, in Rendezvous Harbour. The number of houses,
now fallen into decay, and the large amount of work that has been done in
clearing the scrub, would indicate that, at some time, at least two hundred
people must have been located at this spot ; and at that time the settlement.
must have been in a prosperous condition, as a surgeon of one of the whalers,
in giving an account of a cruise in the South Seas, mentions the settlement,
and remarks that in the course of time it would probably become a settlement
of considerable importance ; but in 1852 the whaling establishment was broken
up, and the islands were totally deserted.
“The Auckland group consists of two large and several smaller islands—
Enderby, Rose, and Ocean Islands—forming the north-western, and Green
Island, the south-eastern, entrance to Rendezvous Harbour, situated at the ex-
treme northern part of the island, in lat. 50 deg. 32 min. 8., and long. 166 deg.
13min. EK. This harbour is of considerable size, and would afford shelter and secure
* «N.Z, Government Gazette, Province of Southland,” 1865, p. 117, et seq.
BB
180
anchorage to vessels of the largest description. It is nine miles in length, from
the entrance between Hnderby and Green Islands, to the head of Laurie Cove,
which is only separated from the west coast by a short valley, ending in a
saddle of considerable height. The site of the old settlement is situated on a
low peninsula, at the entrance to Laurie Cove. It is the most level spot in
the whole island, and even this can hardly be called level, as it consists of
irregular mounds of peat, from which the dense scrub, with which it was
originally covered, has been cleared away. The last vestiges of the old settle-
ment have nearly disappeared, and in a few years it will be difficult for a
stranger to find the site of Port Ross. Shoe Island is a remarkable feature in
this port, as it lies in the centre of the harbour, half-way between the Heads
and Laurie Cove, and is formed of basaltic rock, which takes the form of a
shoe. It rises perpendicularly out of the water, which is of a considerable
depth all round it.
‘‘Basaltic Hump, which I see is called ‘ Deas Head’ by Sir James Ross,
in the ‘Antarctic Hxpedition,’ is another curious feature in this harbour. It is
formed of a large mass of dasaltic rock in perfect columns, which rise to the
height of one hundred feet.
“The main island is nearly twenty-five miles in length, and the whole
group from Enderby Island to South Cape on Adams’ Island, in lat. 50 deg.
56 min., and long. 166 deg. 7 min., is about thirty-two miles.
“The main island is extremely narrow at the northern end, and gradually
increases in width towards the south end, where it is fifteen miles across.
“ Adams’ Island is at the south end of the main island. It forms the
south side of the entrance to Carnley’s Harbour and its western arm.
“The east coast of the main island greatly resembles the west coast of
Otago, on a miniature scale ; being a succession of rocky headlands, which
form the entrance to the remarkable inlets, which penetrate in most cases to
within a few miles of the west coast of the island. The character and de-
scription of these inlets so much resemble each other, that it is impossible to give
a detailed account of them ; from the eastward there is so much sameness in
their appearance, that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other, some of
them having more the appearance of ravines between the mountains, than the
entrances to harbours. Between Rendezvous and Carnley’s Harbour there are
six large bays, some of them being nearly landlocked, and five sounds or inlets.
Most of these have two arms which are rarely more than half a mile in width
and often not so much ; in some of them we had only just room to swing the
steamer. A small river, or rather a mountain torrent, runs into the sea at the
head of each of them, but so steep and precipitous are the mountains, that
some of these form waterfails and cascades half a mile from the sea. One of
these sounds I named Cascade Inlet, and I have seldom seen a more grand or
magnificent sight than we saw here. One of the largest mountains on the
island forms a semi-circular cone round the head of Cascade Inlet, and down
the side of this mountain fell innumerable waterfalls and cascades of ail shapes
and sizes, and of considerable volume. All of them apparently spring out of
the ground, and the white spray rising in clouds, when it reaches the rocks
below, glistens in the sun, and gives-them at a distance the appearance of
masses of pure white marble. There had been a heavy fall of snow the night
before, and at this time of the year it melts very quickly, which would account
for the large amount of water that was pouring down when we were there.
“Basin Bay was another striking and interesting feature on the east
coast. So evenly do the mountains rise up all round it, that one might almost
fancy it had been scooped out of a tremendous hill, and that the bay was a
little water at the bottom. Here, as at Cascade Inlet, the drainage of the
hills falls in numerous little waterfalls, which have not as yet, as far as we
181
could see, made any impression on the side of the hill which might be called a
water-course or gully.
“The entrance to Carnley Harbour, in lat. 50 deg. 50 min., is extremely
narrow, being little more than a mile in width, the cliffs on each side being
nearly perpendicular. The harbour is divided into three main arms, the
northern. middle, and western. The northern arm is most exposed. It is
here the ‘ Grafton’ was wrecked. Itruns in a north-westerly direction to within
a few miles of the coast, being only separated by a low saddle which I over-
looked from a high hill on the north side of the harbour. The middle arm is
separated from the northern by a peninsula, the hill on it rising up in the
shape of a beautiful cone. It is covered with scrub at the base, and grass at
the top ; the neck of this peninsula being only a few chains wide.
“The Middle arm has two round bays at its western extremity, and the
large quantity of debris that has been brought down, by the mountain torrents,
at the head of them, has formed two large flats extending across the bays
nearly a mile from the shore, which are uncovered at low water. They are
composed of angular fragments of rock and mud. Between the south head of
this arm and Masked Island there is a deep bay, which, from the peculiar
appearance of the mountain above it, we called ‘Amphitheatre Cove.’ The
view of this bay from the harbour is strikingly beautiful. From about half
way up the hill, which is nearly 2000 feet in altitude,- basaltic columns rise in
regular order (with a small intervening space) one over the other, to the top of
the hill, which is one colossal mass of basaltic rock. These columns extend
with few breaks entirely round the bay, in regular order, and the lowest
columns are at least one hundred feet in height. They decrease in size towards
the top of the mountain, or the elevation gives them the appearance of doing so.
“Camp Cove and Masked Island form the north head of the western
arm. The former is perfectly landlocked, and forms a miniature harbour in
Carnley’s Harbour. It affords safe anchorage for vessels of any size, the depth
of water ranging from twenty to four fathoms. It was here the ‘Southland”
was moored whilst we remained in Carnley’s Harbour.
“ Masked Island is just off the head of Camp Cove. It is very small, and
seems to have been a favourite resort of seals, before they were disturbed by
Captain Musgrave’s party. .
“The Western arm is extremely narrow, not exceeding two and a half
miles in its broadest part. 1 1s connected with the west coast of the island
by a very narrow passage which has a small island in the centre, named by
Captain Musgrave ‘Monumental Island.’ The tide rushes through this
passage with great velocity, rendering it unsafe for any vessel to pass through ;
and with a strong westerly wind the breakers rushing through such a narrow
gap, make the whole passage one sheet of foam, which in a strong gale must
be a really magniticent sight.
“The south coast of Adams’ Island presents an almost unbroken line of
perpendicular cliffs, which extend in a south-westerly direction to the South
-Cape. On the west side of this cape a narrow inlet running in a northerly
direction ends in an abrupt ravine. The entrance to this: inlet is between two
immense cliffs, which tower like wails to a height of several hundred feet.
From the South Cape, the coast line runs in a north-westerly direction to
West Cape. A little to the east of this cape the entrance to the narrow
passage running into the Western arm commences; on the east side of the
entrance are two curious rocks, jet black in colour. They rise like two
immense pillars, and mark the entrance of this dangerous passage.
“Krom the West Cape the coast trends to the north-east, almost in a
straight line, to the north point of the main island, a distance of about twenty-
six miles. This coast may weil be called precipitous and iron-bound, as the
182
elifts form a continuous wall, almost without a break, some of them overhanging
one another, and attaining an elevation of at least six or seven hundred feet.
“The whole of the Auckland group is mountainous in the extreme.
Nowhere did I see a flat of any considerable size, and ‘ the level plains covered
with beautiful grass and refreshing verdure’ (as quoted by F. F. Shillinglaw,
F.R.G.S., the editor of Captain Musgrave’s journal) is alla myth. I ascended
to the top of the range on the west side of Rendezvous Harbour, and obtained
a good view of the whole of the backbone range of the main island as far as
Giant’s Tomb (so named by Captain Musgrave), the most elevated hill on the
island, situated on the north side of Carnley’s Harbour.
“The main range commences at Mount Eden (1325 feet). This is the
most remarkable feature at the north end of the island. The top of the hill is
composed of an immense rock, which can be seen all the way up the east coast,
It was ascended by Mr. Richardson, who describes it as being sixty feet in
height, and of a considerable circumference at the base. From here the main
range runs down the west coast, forming on the one side the immense clitfs
and precipices observed there, and on the other throwing out spurs which
form the dividing ridges, and headlands between the numerous inlets on the
east coast. I only observed two breaks in the whole range; one about half
way down the east coast, at a place we named Saddle Hill Inlet, because a
saddle at the head of the inlet led directly across to the west coast. The other
is nearly at the end of the range, being the saddle at the head of the northern
arm of Carnley’s Harbour.
“The range on Adam’s Island runs nearly at right angles to the main
range, and probably at an early period formed part of it.
“The shores of the whole of the Auckland Isles, with the exception
of the west and part of the south coast, are covered with scrub for a
considerable distance up the sides of the hills. In some places it is rather
thick and difficult to penetrate; but in others it is very open, and not at
all bad travelling, for such hilly country. The largest scrub is found round
Carnley’s Harbour. It consists chiefly of iron wood, and a tree called the
black oak. Neither of these grow to any height. The iron wood grows to
a considerable thickness, but is very knotty and irregular. It might be
used for the knees of ships, but I did not see any fit for sawing purposes,
the open land on the tops’ of the hills is all peat of a very spongy and wet
description ; in fact the whole surface of the island, with the exception of
the rocks, is pure peat, and I can safely say that during the time I was
there, I never saw an acre of ground that was not perfectly saturated with
water ; it can only be in very dry seasons that the surface gets thoroughly
dry.
‘i “The open country is chiefly covered with large tussocks of snow grass,
cotton plant, moss and other plants indigenous to the island. 'The average
temperature whilst we were at the islands was about 50deg. I see that Sir
James Ross, in the Antarctic expedition, gives the average temperature for the
same month at 45°27.
“The whole surface of the islands, even to the top of the highest hills
(Mr. Richardson and myself having ascended five of the highest), is covered
with a deposit to a considerable depth of genuine peat (not lignite), similar
in appearance and physical character to the peat of the Irish bogs. This
when cut (as we found in one place at the old settlement in Rendezvous
Harbour), from some distance from the surface and dried, becomes quite hard
and firm, like the Irish turf, and produces the same cheerful and pleasant fire,
altogether free from the usual suffocating smell of lignite. This deposit, as it
rests directly on all the different rocks alike, might also form some clue as to
the age of the formation of these islands.”
183
The geology of these islands is exceedingly meagre, but not uninteresting.
The rocks of which they are formed, judging from “the specimens submitted,
thirty in number, being as follows :-—
. Dolerites, claystones and basaltic porphyries.
Chert and pitch opal.
Tertiary sandstone and conglomerate with streaks of coal.
Bituminous peat, like that which is found on the Chatham Islands.
Fine-grained granite.
. Granite porphyry, syenite and hornblende rock.
o> GU 02 bo
It thus appears to be a granite island, with patches of tertiary strata
resting in hollows on its surface, and the whole overlaid, more or less, by
volcanic rocks of post-miocene age.
6.—CHATHAM ISLANDS.
The geology of this group has been made known to us by Dr. Haast’s
notes on the collections of Mr. Henry H. Travers,* but since then two
important series of specimens of rocks and fossils, from the Chatham
Islands, have been deposited in the Museum, accompanied by copious notes.
The first consists of 200 specimens, forwarded in February, 1868, by Mr. Charles
Traill; and the second, comprising 102 specimens, was received from Mr.
Percy ‘Smith, in March, 1869.
N otwithstanding the completeness of these collections, there is little to be
added, from their study, to the information we already possessed,
The tertiary series, as In New Zealand, appears, however, to belong to
two distinct epochs, the upper of which is alone associated with igneous rocks,
chiefly dolerites. There also appear to be two distinct carbonaceous formations,
the older occurring in Pitt’s Island, representing the brown coal series of New
Zealand, and a newer formation which may be considered as a modified peat,
which is quite superficial in the district south of the salt-water lagoon. In
this formation are large masses converted into a highly bituminous mineral,
probably by the action of the fires described by Mr. Travers,ft which might prove
of considerable value, either as fuel, or for the manufacture of oil, and for the
composition of which I may refer to the Laboratory Reports for 1868.
Among Mr. Traill’s specimens are also fragments of flints, and of a
calcareous rock resembling the chalk from Campbell Island.
The older tertiary limestones are much changed by contact with volcanic
rocks, so that in part they are converted into true lithographic limestone, in
the same manner as occurs in the vicinity of Oamaru in Otago.
The area of schistose rocks, exactly similar to the auriferous formation of
Otago is, in the Chatham Islands, very considerable ; and reef-quartz of several
varieties is represented in both collections, but no discovery of gold has yet
been reported.
7.—STEWART ISLAND.
This island should not properly be classed with the small islands previously
alluded to as outlying islands of New Zealand, but, as an extensive series of rock
specimens from it was forwarded at the same time with the other collections,
I will include the notice of them in this communication. The collection was
made by Mr. Walter H. Pearson, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Southland,
in the course of an official visit round the island for the purpose of ascertaining
where settlements could be advantageously placed. With reference to this
point, Mr. Pearson states in his report :—
* See ‘‘ Trans. N. Z. Institute,” Vol. i., p. 180.
+ See “‘ Trans. N. Z. Institute,” Vol. i., p. 177.
184
“On the whole, I cannot but conclude that Stewart Island will prove,
and that shortly, a very valuable and important portion of the Province of
Southland, There are many industries which, dormant at present, will, when
quickened into life, prove remunerative. Irrespective of any mineral wealth
which may exist, of which I can only form a conjectural opinion from the singular
appearance of the different strata of rocks on the south and west coasts of the
island, Iam of opinion that it will be well adapted for the small class of
settlers—say fifty-acre men. From the peculiar configuration of the land, a
large extent of it is rendered available by its frontage to the water. Its being
covered with timber and scrub cannot form a very serious impediment to its
settlement, inasmuch as in many parts of the North Island, heavily timbered
land meets with ready sale, though in the interior ; while the densely-wooded
shores of Blueskin, Port Chalmers, and the harbour up to Dunedin, in the
Province of Otago, were bought and cleared long before the fictitious stimulus
to the price of land consequent on the discovery of gold.
“Qne of the most serious difficulties a young settler has to contend
with in a new and _ sparsely-populated country, is the carriage of his
provisions from the town to his land, pending his being able to raise
sufficient produce to support himself and family off the ground he has
purchased. He must either buy a team of his own or pay the heavy
rates for carriage consequent on bad roads. ‘These expenses, to a man of small
means, are very heavy, and not unfrequently so crushing as to seriously
retard his advancement. The means which would have enabled him
to cultivate and improve his land with rapidity, are dissipated in the
expenses of carrying his food. On Stewart Island much of this will be
obviated. His fishing line and gun will supply him with one of the necessaries
of life ; and if he has a whaleboat, he can obtain the rest at no expense, so far
as carriage is concerned, from the main land, or, if he has none, at a trifling
cost, both in money and time, in comparison with land carriage. He will thus
be in a better position to devote his energies and means to the clearing and
cultivation of his land than his compeer, settling fifteen miles inland from
Invercargill. I believe the sale of the timber would more than pay for the
clearing in most of the bays. The admirable water communication would
enable the logs to be floated or shipped to where a saw-mill might be established,
and if it will pay to saw timber anywhere, it will at Stewart Island. At
Port Pegasus, the splendid spars, and the knees, ribs, etc., of the rata, will
always command a good price for shipment to the Mauritius—a trade with
which is already established in Dunedin ; vessels from the former place would
only too gladly load with such on their return. Thus the cost of clearing
the land will be less than on- the main, while produce once obtained, the
facilities for exporting it are greater. The local consumption of agricultural
produce in all young settlements is not great, and the demand easily satisfied,
the majority of the population being occupied in producing the same staple.
To pay the agriculturist he must export, and on the main he is met with the
usual difliculty—defective internal communication. The settler at Stewart
Island will be in a very advantageous position in this respect ; he has Nature’s
highway—the sea. He can boat his produce across to the Bluff, and ship it
on board a steamer for Australia or the West Coast; or sell it to a merchant,
delivering it as above. He will thus be enabled to sell it at a moderate price,
and will consequently find a ready market.
“Shipbuilding is an industry which could be conducted with great success
on the island, some of the bays in which are peculiarly adapted for the purpose.
The numerous sheltered coves in Paterson Inlet and Port Pegasus, furnish a
hundred dock-yards from which vessels of size could easily be launched, while
the raw material abounds, and is of the best quality. I saw a vessel of 180
185
tons being built, every rib of which was formed out of the natural curve of the
rata tree, the strongest and toughest wood for the purpose. I was also given
to understand that there were one or two natural dry docks.
“The scenery is magnificent. At the south and west coasts of the Island,
the weird appearance of the jagged mountains—the fantastic fissures in the
bare rocky islands and coast, worn by the turbulent seas to which they are
exposed—the lofty cones of bare granite—the singular colour of the rocks
abutting on the ocean, unite in conferring a degree of grandeur to the tableau,
such as I have not seen equalled in any part of New Zealand,—while the
natural beauty of the landscape in- Paterson Inlet and Port Pegasus is equal to
that of the Sydney Harbour, setting on one side, of course, the artificial adjuncts
of cultivated shores and ornamental villas.
“ From all I could gather, and from my own observation, | would imagine
that all along the east coast of the island, from Port Pegasus northward, the
climate is fully equal, if not superior, to that of Invercargill. I had a good
opportunity of testing it in every part of the coast during the five weeks I
spent in exploring the island. Judging from the accounts I heard on my
return to Invercargill, the weather on the main land must have been less fine
than that I had experienced ; nor do I imagine that a larger quantity of rain
falls there than on the main. That drizzling rain is frequent is not surprising,
seeing that the high range of hills running down the centre of the island
naturally attracts and holds the cloudy vapours floating about, which are in
some measure again discharged before being dissipated on the rising of the
sun; but it is generally only an early shower, light and not lasting, which
more assists than retards vegetation. I have no doubt that as the forests get
cleared away in the progress of settlement, the climate will improve in this
particular. From my experience, I would imagine the thermometer rises
higher in the hays and bights on this island, than it does at Invercargill.
“The bays on the east coast are sheltered from the westerly gales by the
high ranges already alluded to. The slopes of the hills have, as a rule, a
north-easterly aspect, and the rays of the sun being concentrated by the
contracted space into which they are poured, the heat obtained is greater. On
more than one occasion I noticed how well sheltered the land in these bays
is, when it was blowing half a gale outside.
“The distances of the various ports from each other, I have taken from
the ‘New Zealand Pilot.’ I found the Admiralty survey wonderfully correct,
so much so that the enlarged charts of the various bays would answer as
selection maps under the present system of free selection, pending the ordinary
survey of the island.”
The rock specimens, sixty-three in number, are carefully distinguished as
from the different localities, visited by Mr. Pearson, round the coast ; but they
only prove that there is a remarkable similarity in the geological formation
throughout the whole of the island, consisting of granite, gneiss, mica-slate,
felstone-slate, and other crystalline metamorphic rocks, associaced with granite-
porphyry, diorite, and syenite. No metallic ores are represented in the
collection, but traces of copper and silver have been obtained from specimens
sent from the western side of the island by prospecting parties.
Gold is obtained also in that quarter, as fine alluvial gold, on the surface
of elevated terraces excavated in the decomposed granite. The gold is
associated with large garnets, oxide of titanium, iron sand, and, occasionally,
scales of platina, but this valuable metal is not so common, I am informed,
along with the Stewart Island gold, as with that obtained on the opposite shore
of Foveaux Straits, and in the Waiau river.
In 1863 I visited Port William and Preservation Inlet, which are both
situated on the north-east side of Stewart Island. At the former I found the
186
rock to be a coarse-grained red or grey granite, which is traversed by veins of
granite of more recent date and a lighter colour, and afterwards pierced and
shattered by dykes and injected veins of hornblendic trap or greenstone.
Most interesting sections abound, clearly displaying the facility with which the
trap rock has penetrated the granite in all directions, most probably, however,
only following and expanding previously-existing lines of fissure.
No minerals of interest or value were observed, although several might
reasonably be expected to occur in this formation under the above conditions.
On the beach of one small cove that is surrounded by lofty cliffs, and
situated in the north bay of the harbour, the sand is almost wholly of magnetic
oxide of iron, in a very minute state of division, but neither gold nor tin was
associated with it. The hollows between the ridges and bosses of granite are
filled up with an unstratified deposit of stiff yellow clay, containing sub-angular
boulders of large size.
In Paterson Inlet no other rock was observed but coarse-grained granite,
which decomposes with great facility to a coarse sandy clay. This granite is
irregular, from its containing nodules of compact fine-grained granite, so that it
is probably only an extreme form of metamorphic rock.
In Ruapuke Island, at the eastern entrance of Foveaux Straits, it is
worthy of note, that the granite and hornblende rock is traversed by quartz
veins containing large masses of iron pyrites, that yield minute traces of gold.
Art. XLIV.— Notes on a Collection of Saurnian Remains from the Waipara
River, Canterbury, in the possession of J. H. Cockburn Hood, Esq. By
Juuius Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, June 2, 1869. ]
THROUGH the courtesy of Mr. J. Hood, I have been allowed to inspect, and
study, the numerous Saurian remains obtained by him in the Waipara, and
now on their way to Europe ; and our member, my friend, Mr. T. D. Triphook,
at my request, has kindly made a drawing, im natural size, of the principal
pieces in that collection, which includes the greater part of a large Saurian
head, a truly unique specimen. LIalso made drawings, and tock measurements,
of all the more important specimens, so that in case the collection should not reach
its destination, the information at least, will not be altogether lost to the scientific
world. These remains are generaily inclosed in large concretions of arenaceous
limestone, having the appearance of boulders. Some of these are nearly
perfect spheres; they are very hard, and split generally only with great
difficulty, and quite in a different direction from what one would expect.
The collection made by Mr. Hood in the Waipara and its tributaries
contains bones of all parts of the skeleton, belonging not only to many
different specimens, but also to many species, or even genera and orders.
The principal specimen in Mr. Hood’s collection, referred to above, consisted
of the portions of a large block which had been split in two. On the one side,
the upper jaw and portions of the skull are preserved ; on the other, portion
of the lower jaw, of which a fragment is exposed on the larger slab. Judging
from the size of these remarkable remains, the skull of the animal, to which
they belonged, must have been 3 to 34 feet long g, and, consequently, part of an
animal which had a total length of 18 to 20 feet.
The teeth, of an oblong form, are from ? to 14 inches long, the dentine
being intensely black, and marked by numer "ous fine longitudinal erooves.
“Professor Owen’s description (p. 301) of the dentition of the Crocodilians,
is as follows :—‘ The teeth of both the existing and extinct Crocodilian reptiles
187
consist of a body of compact dentine, forming a crown covered by a coat of
enamel, and a root invested by a moderately-thick layer of cement. One root
slightly enlarges, or maintains the same breadth to its base, which is deeply
excavated by a conical pulp cavity, extending into the crown, and is commonly
either perforated or notched at its concave or inner side.”
You will observe that the same characteristic features occur also in the
teeth of the skull under review :—
The crown covered with dentine, ceases about a quarter of an inch from
the jaws, the lower part of the cement forming a well defined line running
parallel with the jaw bone. *
Mr. Triphook has given to the root of the teeth a darker tint, in his
drawing, than exists in the original, where it has almost the same colour
as the stone in which ‘it is embedded. Only a slight rise on the surface
of the stone indicates where the more perishable lower parts of the teeth were
situated.
It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that I am labouring under great
difficulties, in having no library of scientific books at my Eo mnianal to nen to,
so as to be able to ascertain if similar Saurian remains have been discovered
anywhere else, and I may add, that, generally, books of that nature are too
costly for individuals to purchase. However, from the data at my command,
I may state that the skull under review belongs to an animal of the sub-order
Crocodilia, called Amphicelia by Professor Owen, and which includes,
among others, the genera Teleosaurus and Mystriosaurus.
This sub-order is called Amphicceha (capped on both ends) from the
peculiar character of the vertebra, the vertebral body being concave on both
sides ; they, therefore, differ greatly from the existing Crocodilians, which have
a much more perfect arrangement of the vertebral column, and of which I
shall speak in the sequel. The Amphicclia, in respect to the vertebral
body, have therefore a more fish-like character than the existing crocodiles.
The same eminent comparative anatomist states, that the vertebral
surfaces of these Crocodilians were slightly concave, in order to enable them
to make greater progress through -the water ; and that the hind limbs were
therefere relatively stronger than the fore limbs.
From the nature of the deposits in which the remains of the Amphiccelia
are found, we must conclude that they were marine animals.
The numerous vertebre in the collection of Mr. Hood are,—with the
exception of one, of which I shall afterwards speak,—all slightly bi-concave,
and therefore agree with the Teleosaurian character. Amongst them are
fourteen larger ones, still connected, which, in the average, are 24 inches long,
by 4 inches high; over them, and in a reversed position, lie five caudal
vertebre, very long and slender ; also a great many other bi-concave vertebree
were found, which are very remarkable, as being nearly twice as broad as high,
some of them are 3 inches broad, and 1# inches high.
As far as I know from all the Saurians which have been described, only
Plesiosaurus, and Pliosaurus in a minor degree, have this characteristic
feature.
Mr. Hood, some ten years ago, took, from the same locality, a collection
of Saurian bones to England, which were described by Professor Owen as
Plesiosaurus australis.* Unfortunately, I have never had an opportunity of
* The specimens referred to ‘‘ consisted of two vertebral bodies or centrums, ribs, and
portions of the two coracoids of the same individual, all in the usual petrified condition of
Oolitic fossils. Their matrix was a bluish-grey clay-stone, effervescing with acid ; the
largest mass contained impressions of parts of the arch and of the transverse processes of
nine dorsal vertebre, and of ten ribs of the right side. Portions of five of the right
diapophyses and of six of the ribs remained in this matrix. The bones had a ferruginous
cc
188
seeing his description, so that I do not know how far it agrees with the bones
in the present collection.
One of the characteristic features of the vertebral body of Plesiosaurus,
is, according to the best Paleontological authorities, that it is either slightly
concave, or “almost flat, with the middle of such cavity slightly convex.
Amongst the numerous vertebre collected this autumn by Mr. Hood,
none could be identified by me which possessed these peculiar characteristics
on their terminal articular surfaces.
We possess, however, in our own collection, and now lying before you,
one dorsal vertebra which answers the above description.
As before observed, the Amphiccelia had well-developed limbs, and I was
therefore anxious to find bones belonging to the species of which the skull
had been discovered. There were several good-sized bones which answer perfectly
the description given by various authors, and I was therefore enabled to identify
all the principal bones, such as the femur, tibia, and fibula, of the hind limbs, ©
as well as humerus, ulna, and radius, of the fore limbs ; some toe phe
were also amongst them, of which the largest is 14 inches broad, by 24 inches
long, and which, consequently, must have belonged to a large sytitinl I
have just observed that no vertebre of Plesiosaurus have apparently been
found by Mr. Hood; as you are aware, a true Enaliosaurian, or Sea-lizard,
possesses four fins, or paddles, instead of four, more or less developed legs.
The principal bones of the hind and fore limbs of these Enaliosaurians were,
the humerus and femur, both of which had a convex head, sub-cylindrical
at its proximal end, and gradually becoming flattened and expanded at its
distal end.
Several fine specimens, some of them 10 inches long, 34 inches in
diameter at their proximal or upper end, and 64 inches at their lower or distal
end, are in Mr. Hood’s collection, also several other bones of the lower
portions of the four extremities ; the metacarpal phalange bones are well
represented. However, I must here add, that some of these bones might
have belonged to an Ichthyosaurus, or the huge Enaliosaurus, which resembled,
more than any other, a whale or fish.
There are also several fine specimens of the sternal and pelvic apparatus,
and ribs; amongst them, I show you here a portion of a humerus of,
probably, Plesiosaurus, found some time ago by Mr. E. Sealey, and presented
by him to the Museum. Also the lower or distal end of a femur, from
the same locality. I also offer to your inspection, portion of a metacarpal,
and some phalangeal bones, of which the paddle of Plesiosaurus was
composed.
Consequently, it seems, that in the beds, under review, Saurians of
different ages, and belonging to different genera and orders, existed in our
seas, in times gone by, and in what may be considered of at least cretaceous
age, although I say so with some diffidence, and wish to observe that a
great deal more work has to be done before the question of the age of our
middle and younger sedimentary rocks can be determined. Here are the
different geological sections of the Waipara beds, on them, you will observe,
that the beds in which those Saurians are found, underlie, uncomformably, the
tint, contrasting with the matrix, as is commonly the case with specimens imbedded in
the Oxfordian or Liassic clays.”
‘« The shape and mode of articulation of the cervical and dorsal ribs, the shape and
proportions of the coracoids concur with the more decisive evidence of the vertebre in
attesting the Plesiosauroid character of these New Zealand fossils, and, pending the
discovery of the teeth, the author provisionally referred them to a species for which he
proposed the name of Plesiosaurus australis, The specimens had been presented by
Mr. Hood to the British Museum.” Owen. ‘‘ Report of British Association,’ Manchester,
1861. Transactions, p.p. 122-3.—Ep.
189
so-called Weka Pass beds. When, some years ago (in 1864), I paid a flying
visit to the Waipara, I concluded, from a hurried examination, that the beds,
under review, were lying between the Weka Pass beds and the Red crag
beds, which form the Deans, but Dr Hector, who visited the locality some time
afterwards, pointed out to me, that according to his views, the beds in
question, were underlying unconformably. Since then, I have examined,
carefully, this and some other localities, in which similar formations occur,
and have found that Dr. Hector’s views are correct, and that to him,
therefore, belongs the credit ofshaving first pointed out the true position of these
beds, a fact which is of theshighest importance in New Zealand geology.*
The large Ostrea beds are thus very important as showing us the exact
position of the upper and lower beds.
To show only one instance of the importance of this fact, I may point out
that the quartzose trachytes of the Malvern Hills, which, hitherto, we con-
sidered to be old tertiary, must now be classified as of secondary age, and
the name quartzose porphyries will be more appropriate to them. The
importance of the subject under review is, I trust, sufficient excuse for my
transgression. In the small seams of brown coal and shale, which occur in the
same region, has been found the only vertebra of a proccelian character.
The term proceelian (hollow in front) has been selected by Professor
Owen for vertebrae, of which the front surface is concave, and the hind one
convex.
The centre of the vertebra, in question, is 3 inches high, and 34 inches
broad, of course without reckoning the neural arch and the pleurapophyses,
and consequently belongs to an animal of considerable age, having, doubtless,
the same habits as the crocodiles of the present day. There was also, what I
consider to be, the distal or lower portion of the femur, which, judging from the
articulation, evidently had some affinities with terrestrial remains, such as the
Iguanodon a herbivorous terrestrial reptile, of enormous size, and living in the
Northern Hemisphere, in the wealden and greensand (cretaceous) period. The
proceelian remains were first found in the Northern Hemisphere, both in
America and Europe, in Hocene tertiary strata, and principally in fresh-water
beds ; and I may here add that the proceelian vertebre of the Waipara have
also been discovered in lignite beds, which are either of fresh-water or littoral
origin.
I am well aware that these notes are very imperfect, owing to the short
time allowed to me to study the interesting remains under review, and as I
had not the necessary works for comparison and reference, I have, therefore,
to crave your indulgence.
I may, finally, be allowed to express my sincere regret, that such a
valuable collection has left the Province and New Zealand ; however, the fact
that they will come, doubtless, into the hands of Professor Owen, is some slight
satisfaction to me, because we can, with certainty, expect that that illustrious
comparative anatomist, will afford us a classical description of them, which
will form the basis of reference and work for all future New Zealand
Paleontologists.
* See ‘‘ Geological Report,” 1868-9, p. xi.—EDb.
190
V.—MISCELLANEOUS.
Art. XLV.—Preliminary notice of a ZiepHip WHALE, probably Berardius
Arnuxii, stranded on the 16th of December, 1868, on the sea beach, near
New Brighton, Canterbury.* By Juurus Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, May 5, 1869.]
Towarps the latter part of December, last year, it was stated that a whale had
been stranded on the sea beach, near the mouth of the Avon. Unfortunately,
the notice reached me too late to enable me to see the body in its fresh state,
and when i went to the sea beach the blubber had been cut off nearly a week,
and the animal was already in such an advanced state of putrefaction, that the
external appearance was greatly destroyed. Before entering into a description
of its affinities and peculiarities, I may be allowed to offer a few observations
on its capture.
Mr. William Walker, a fisherman, living near the mouth of the Avon,
one mile and a half below New Brighton, observed, on the 16th of December,
early in the morning, that a huge animal was in the surf, making the most
strenuous efforts to return to deeper water. The fisherman had only a large
sheath knife with him, with which he stabbed it several times, making it bleed
very freely. Hach time when the surf reached it, it threw out a large quantity of
water and sand from its blowers, like a fountain ; at the same time it moved
its tail with such vehemence, that it threw its captor several times, when
he came too near it. Seeing that he could not manage the large animal by
himself, he returned home to fetch a rope, a larger knife, and assistance.
After having, with some trouble, placed the rope round the tail, and fastened it
securely to the stump of a tree on the beach, he inflicted with the large knife some
deep wounds, from which the blood ran copiously ; but the animal, notwith-
standing this great loss of blood, still lived for fourteen hours. The fisherman
also put a large stick several times into its mouth, which, to use his own
words, made the whale ‘bellow like a bull.”
A very interesting fact may be deduced from the observations of Mrs.
Walker, who accompanied her husband on the second trip. She told her
husband that each time he put the stick into the whale’s mouth, she could see
several large teeth in front of its lower jaw, which, however, were not observed
by anybody else, and the existence of which was only revealed when the skull
was cleaned, when, in front of the lower jaw, two large triangular and move-
able teeth on each side became exposed. It thus seems that the Ziphid
Whales, when defending themselves from their enemies, or attacking their
prey, have the power to protrude these four teeth at will. Such a hypothesis
gains still more in probability, when we consider the nature of the principal
food of the animal, which, judging from the contents of its stomach, seems to
consist almost exclusively of the common sea-spider, or Octopus—a cephalopod
which, as in the Northern hemisphere, does not seem to be very numerous
along the coast. In the stomach of the whale in question there was about
half a bushel of the horny beaks of this cephalopod, which were nearly all of
the same size. It would be rather difficult for any whale to obtain possession
* This paper was received too late for insertion in its proper place, in Section L.,
Natural History.—Ep.
Lol
of such an agile animal as the Octopus, had not nature furnished the former
with the means of taking good hold of it. It is interesting that the allied
genera Ziphius and Hyperoodon, of the Northern hemisphere, feed also on
similar species of cuttle-fish, as I learn from a paper of Dr. J. E. Gray, of the
British Museum (‘‘ Proceedings Zoological Society, 1868,” p. 422). Also, the
Sperm Whales are said to feed almost exclusively upon the same voracious
animal, which, by its agility and organization, is so well adapted to make great
havoc amongst the smaller inhabitants of the sea. And, as Dr. Gray justly
observes, it proves, at the same time, that these cephalopods, although
apparently of rare occurrence, must in many localities be very numerous, as it
would otherwise be impossible to understand how they could furnish those
huge whales with sufficient food.
When I proceeded to the beach, the animal was still lying in the surf,
partly covered by sand, but still intact. I measured its length exactly, and
found it to be 30 feet 6 inches, from the tip of the nose to the end of the lobes
of the tail. The colour of the whole animal was of a deep velvety black, with
the exception of the lower portion of the belly, which had a greyish colour.
The tail was 6 feet 6 inches broad, and had the usual two falcate lobes. The
dorsal fins were situated near the neck, a little above the middle of the body,
and were 17 inches broad, and 19 inches long. They had a triangular form,
and one of them was buried in the sand when I saw the animal first. The
dorsal fin was unfortunately destroyed when I first inspected the whale, so
that I cannot describe its form and position from my own observations ; but
Mr. Walker told me that it was small, had the usual faleate form, and was
situated not far from the tail.
I may here observe, that from the form of the skull and some other
characteristics, it appears evident that this whale is the Berardius Arnuaw of
Duvernoy, of which a specimen was caught in 1846, in Akaroa harbour, the
skull of which, of a length of four feet, is at present in the Imperial Museum,
in Paris. The animal to which it belonged is described as having been thirty-
two feet long, and possessing a large dorsal fin, with a large boss or hump in
front of it. As putrefaction and the cutting off of the blubber had greatly
changed the outlines of the animal, I could not observe whether it possessed the
larger boss in front. Mr. Walker did not speak of it when he gave me a
description of the animal as it appeared when captured. However, as the -
figure of the ‘skull, as given by Duvernoy in the “Annales des Sciences
Naturelles,” and copied into Dr. Gray’s “ British Museum Catalogue of Seals
and Whales,” is identical with that of our own specimen, I do not hesitate to
state that both belong to the same species. It also seems to me that this whale
is very local, probably inhabiting only the coast of New Zealand, and perhaps
the regions south of it, because, as far as I can find, it has never been observed
elsewhere. I[t has without doubt not been met with on the coasts of Australia,
or it would not have passed unnoticed, as, amongst others, the energetic
director of the Australian Museum, Gerh. Krefft, F.L.8., has not observed it.
I may here state that the form of the skull is very peculiar, reminding one
strongly of that of a dolphin.
There seems to be nothing known of this peculiar whale, except its
external appearance and its skull, and it is, therefore, a matter of congratula-
tion to us, that we shall be able to supply all the details of its osteological
characteristics, which are peculiar in many respects.
The specimen in our possession was evidently a young animal, because all
the disc-like epiphyses of the vertebre are still detached. The same is the
ease with the epiphyses of the limb-bones, which are not yet united with them;
also, the sutures of the cranium are not yet obliterated. The beginning of
coalescence is, however, to be observed in the seven cervical vertebre, of which
192 :
the three first are already anchylosed, the two first completely, and the second
and third only partially, as the neural arches and transverse processes are not
yet united in one bone. In the allied Hyperoodon all the cervical vertebrae
are coalesced, and it is therefore possible that when Berardius is in an adult
state, the same will take place. The Ziphius has six cervical vertebre
separate, and it will therefore be necessary to examine very carefully into the
character of the uncoalesced vertebre of our skeleton before giving a decided
opinion upon the subject. It possesses ten dorsal vertebree, in common with
Ziphius Sowerbiensis ; the hyperoodont whales have nine, and the dolphins
thirteen to fifteen. T have not yet been able to count and examine the lumbar
and caudal vertebra, as the animal was in such a state of putrefaction, that
after cleaning the bones as well as possible, and leaving often a great portion
of the vertebral column together, we put them at once to macerate. We
obtained only one of the small pelvic bones, the other having probably been
washed away by the surf; it might, however, owing to its diminutive size and
sticking loosely in the flesh, easily have been overlooked. As soon as the
bones are clean, so that I can examine them, I shall offer a few more observa-
tions upon the osteology of this remarkable animal, for the complete skeleton
of which, the Canterbury Museum is indebted to the members of the Philoso-
phical Institute, without whose pecuniary assistance I should have been
unable to secure it for the Provincial collections.
Art XLVI.—On University Epucation, as adapted to the circumstances
and prospects of the Colony of New Zealand. By CHarues FRASER,
M.A., F.GS.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, June 2, 1869.]
Mucu useless discussion may be avoided, and our progress greatly facilitated, if
from the very outset, we come to a distinct understanding upon the following
three points:—1. What is a University? 2. What should be its distinctive
objects in the colony? 3. How far may we expect to carry out any good
system within the next few years?
(1.) In regard to the first questionn—What is a University? the two
oldest Universities in Europe furnish us with somewhat opposite definitions.
The University of Bologna was a Corporation of Students ; the University of
Paris was a Corporation of Teachers. It would probably be nearer our mark
to combine the two, and to contemplate the establishment of a Corporation of
Teachers, Graduates, and Students, under the presidency of certain officers
appointed by the Government. Of course the privileges and powers of the
three classes named would be different ; but it seems to me that all ought to
have their share of influence in the conduct of business.
(2.) The distinctive objects of a Colonial University cannot be better
described than in the words of the charter, granted by Her Majesty to the
University of London :—‘ the advancement of religion and morality, and the
promotion of useful knowledge, by holding forth to all classes of Her Majesty’s
subjects, without any distinction whatsoever, an encouragement for pursuing a
regular and liberal course of education, by offering to persons who desire to
prosecute or complete their studies such facilities, and conferring on them such
distinctions and rewards as may incline them to persevere in their laudable
pursuits ; and for the purpose of ascertaining by means of examination, the
persons who have acquired proficiency in literature, science, and art, by the
pursuit of such course of education, and of rewarding them by academical
degrees, as evidence of their respective attainments and marks of honor pro-
portioned thereunto.” In other words, University Education in the colony
193
ought to contemplate not the instruction of the members of a particular class
of society in the higher branches ; but the providing of the means of the best
and highest possible education for as many as possible of all classes of society.
This was the original object of the older Universities of Hurope, and we cannot
do better than return to it.
(3.) The third question concerns the immediately practical nature of any
proposed scheme. Now, it will not be expected that the colony should send
forth, at once, a completely equipped professoriate, prepared, Minerva-like, for
all requisite undertakings. But it is possible to inaugurate a good system, to
establish a certain portion of it, and to make provision for the whole. Our
circumstances are peculiarly favourable to such a gradual method of procedure.
The youth of the colony is not prepared to avail itself of a full course, but it
may be greatly benefitted by provision being made for establishing certain
branches of instruction without delay. And this is further peculiarly the time
when reserves can be made from the public lands of the various Provinces as
permanent endowments. These two points seem of themselves a sufficient
vindication of any attempt, such as the present, to draw public attention to
the subject.
We will first of all address ourselves to a brief sketch of the University
system.
Many of the difficulties which have often beset public questions in New
Zealand, might be avoided in this case, by distributing the various colleges
constituting the University, instead of congregating them all in one place.
Let us imagine for a moment the effect which would be produced, if the several
colleges of Oxford were distributed among so many counties of England, say
in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Devonshire, Hampshire ; and if their
principal men were assembled at some central point such as Oxford, or occa-
sionally moved from place to place, for conducting examinations, granting
degrees, and for other University purposes. Such is the scheme which seems
best fitted for this colony. Let each province be left to establish and endow
its own college, appoint its own professors, and fix its own course of instruction,
subject to certain general instructions and regulations as prescribed by the
General (Colonial) Government. Let there be a general council of the
University, elected for the most part by the graduates of the colleges, but
with one or two members elected by the undergraduates, or students, of each
college, and with a permanent president and vice-president. To this council
would belong the power of initiating such changes as from time to time might
require to be effected in the laws and government of the University, and also
of deciding upon such questions of dispute as might arise from time to time in
any of the colleges, between the professors, or between professors, graduates,
and students.
Let there further be a senate, composed of a chancellor, vice-chancellor,
a certain proportion of the professors from each college, and a certain number
appointed by the votes of the council. To this body let there be entrusted the
necessary powers for making examinations, granting degrees, and similar
purposes.
A quinquennial visitation of the colleges and the senate, conducted by a
board specially appointed for that purpose, and named by the council, would
tend greatly to preserve and promote healthy and vigorous life throughout the
whole establishment.
Into the question of the appointment of professors it is unnecessary to
enter ; especially, as there is no reason why the same exact method should
be observed in every college. But as a general rule it might be well ultimately
to place a considerable, if not the chief, part of the power in the hands of the
graduates.
194
It remains for us to consider the subjects and the method of
instruction.
I. In discussing the subjects to be taught, the first and most important
topic that meets us is the place to be accorded to languages, and especially to
the languages of ancient Greece and Rome. No one who has a desire to -
promote the highest culture in himself or others, will seek to exclude these
languages from a full system of education. Besides the arguments which are
usually adduced in their favour, there are two which appear to be of pre-
eminent authority. One of these is, that the civilization of these two countries
is the only one which we can definitely trace from its early dawn, throughout
a splendid though varied career, right onward to its final disappearance amid
the clouds of luxury, depravity, and barbarian invasion. The history of no
other nations presents us with an account so full in all its details, so complete
as a whole, of the growth and decay of the principles of art, philosophy, law,
and political action) diffused throughout whole generations of a social system,
and expiring with it: and the world, it is to be hoped, will never see the like
again. The other main argument in favour of the classic tongues is found in
the important use which is made of them, as forming together a sort of common
language for scientific men, and affording the basis of one common scientific
nomenclature. From the countless names of the ever-increasing lists of botany,
upwards, to the words which describe the newest and most important dis-
coveries, such as the electric telegraph, paleontology, seismology and the
wonders of the solar spectrum, we are indebted to Greek and Latin for terms
which are universally intelligible among scientific men of different countries,
and which interfere with the genius and tendencies of no living language.
The admission of the classic languages, then, into every system of
education, which aims at either completeness or high culture, may be regarded
as placed beyond all question. But the grounds on which they are admitted,
and the kind of study of which they will form the objects, may be said to have
undergone a complete revolution. Languages may be acquired and mastered,
either on account of their usefulness as instruments of thought, and of the
literary and philosophic treasures which are found in them, or as objects of
interest in themselves, means of disciplining the mind, and permanent,
erystallized records (I know not how otherwise I can express the idea) of a
certain cast of national life and thought. For the sake of this second class of
objects, it may be most desirable and. necessary that the minutie of a language
be completely mastered, and the power of composing both prose and verse in
it be fully acquired. But Greek and Latin have no longer the exclusive
claims to be so studied, which they once possessed.
The science of language in general, and of universal grammar, as illus-
trated in the works of Bopp and Max Miiller, at once supplants them, and
includes them as a part of a more comprehensive scheme; while the Sanscrit
of India, and the Anglo-Saxon from which our own language is derived, have
as certain, though not as great, a claim upon our attention.
What knowledge may be required of the minutize of idiomatic Greek and
Latin, ought therefore to be relegated to the preparatory schools ; while the
University ought in its several colleges to assume this knowledge as acquired,
and instead of professorships for instruction in Latin phrases, Greek dialects,
and metrical niceties, should establish professorships of the combined study of
the history and languages of ancient Greece and Rome. The works of Grote,
Stuart Mill, and Rawlinson, indicate sufliciently what the course of study
might be in this department.
This short explanation may perhaps have paved the way for the account
of such a course of study as ought to be pursued.
But here two principles require to be steadily kept in view, and used to
195
guide us in regard to the order in which the differe ent branches of study ought
to be taken up -—
1, Those studies which are most difficult, either from their nature or by
reason of the complexity of their objects, ought to be reserved to the last.
2. The natural progress of development observed by the mental faculties
themselves, ought to be followed as far as possible.
As a general rule, then, languages would come first in order, then sciences
of observation (or natural history in its various branches) ; next the material
sciences of induction and deduction, or those sciences which examine the
changes which take place in material bodies, and the forces by which those are
produced, such as the departments of natural philosophy and chemistry. At
the same time, mathematics, or the science of abstract number and quantity,
ought to be pursued.
Thereafter would come mental and moral science, and lastly social science
in its two great departments of history and political economy.
According to these views the staff of professors in each college, which
attempted to give a complete scheme of education, would take up the following
subjects in their order :—
I. The history and languages of Greece and Rome.
II. Languages and universal grammar.
Under these two heads it is almost needless to say that a very great
variety would be afforded both as to subjects and mode of treatment. Along
with a general and rapid view of the whole field, special authors would be
selected in the first case, and special languages or families of languages in the
second.
III. Natural history, in its various branches of mineralogy, geology,
hydrology, meteorology, botany, and zoology.
IV. Mathematics.
VY. Natural philosophy and chemistry, including under the first term
_ somatology, or the doctrine of the general properties of bodies ; mechanical
philosophy, or the dynamics and statics of solid, liquid, and gaseous bodies ;
electricity and magnetism, optics, astronomy.
VI. Mental and moral philosophy, or psychology and ethies.
VII. English language and literature.
VIII. Logic and rhetoric.
IX. Sociology, in the historic and dogmatic form, that is, as modern
history and political economy, and jurisprudence. (Hallam, Mill, Austin).
It will be observed that according to this arrangement we have the
various branches of study set in distinct groups, and according to a definite,
and, it would seem, a natural plan.
We take first of all languages, the great instruments of thought. Then
we turn to physical science and mathematics, in their several divisions, when
the mind is exercised and assisted by the sensible forms or representations of
things.
Thereafter the mind is directed to a much higher, but much more difficult
study, the study of its own faculties and laws.
Following these come what may be termed the practical application and
realization of the principles hitherto acquired, in a consideration of the English
language and literature, the methods of reasoning and persuasion, and the
historical and formal discussion of the great problems of life.
The question which naturally suggests itself on review of these depart-
ments of study is, ‘ How far, and to “what extent, may we contemplate the
establishment of such a number of professorships, as might, even in a few
years, afford to the youth of this province the advantages of, at least, a portion
of this course?” It is very evident that, in time, the number of these
DD
196
professorships would require to be greatly increased, but meanwhile very con-
siderable benefit would result from the establishment of even a few of them.
At present the study of languages is so far provided for, that we might
rather look to the physical sciences, as claiming first attention ; and it so
happens that this accords well with the necessities aud the demands of colonial
life.
Natural history is the first department which ought to be provided for, and
then mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry. English language and
literature might be taught in alternate years with logic and rhetoric, by the
same professor. Modern history and political economy would form a Grin
department. And to these would be added, from time to time, the remaining
branches, as necessity for them arose, and the means were provided.
The suggestion which was thrown out during the last session of the
General Assembly, that lectureships might, in the meanwhile, be established,
at a moderate cost and with very great advantage, seems still to be worthy of
consideration, and within our immediate reach. By these means our own
Museum would form the nucleus of an important institution, which might
gradually develope into a complete college, and constitute no mean branch of a
Colonial University.
I have purposely avoided any reference, at present, to the question of
professional education, in law, medicine, and civil engineering: but it is
apparent that the course now sketched out would be of very material, direct
benefit to the students of these departments.
The method of instruction is a wide and quite distinct subject, requiring to
be considered with regard to the peculiarities of each branch of knowledge. This
may form the subject of a second paper, if leisure and the other engagements
of the Institute permit.
Art. XLVII.—On the GeneraL PRINCIPLES OF AN EpucaTion SCHEME for
New Zealand. By W.S. Hamitron, Mathematical Master, Wellington
College and Grammar School.
[Author's Abstract of Paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society,
November 13, 1869.]
Tuts paper first reviews the position of the question by examining existing
circumstances, and enumerates the difficulties surrounding the subject as
follows: “The mixed nature of society,—people of different countries and
creeds ; of different ideas of the object and character of education, and of dif-
ferent degrees of education and refinement ;—the population being scattered ;—
the difficulty of obtaining trained teachers ;—the high price of labour tempting
parents to withdraw their children from school at an early age, and the
teachers to abandon their professions for more lucrative pursuits ;—the absence
of a standard for teachers to work up to;—the little interest taken in the
teacher’s labours, by a heterogeneous and restless population ;—the absence of
inducements to study on the part of the pupils, and the difficulty of procuring
funds in the absence of foundations and endowments.”
“These complications deter statesmen from considering the subject till
necessity compels ; when the educational system of some larger or differently
circumstanced community is hastily adopted, without the necessary material
on the ground for the construction of the fabric. Disappointment follows, and
the result often is, the entire neglect of education for a time.” The provinces
of Auckland, Wellington, and Southland are cited as examples of this neglect;
while on the other hand Nelson is referred to as an example of attempting to
impart a higher education than is possible or profitable for a young colony.
197
The proposed Otago University scheme is referred to the same error. The
kind of education, as well as the amownt suitable to the colony, is thus
remarked on :—
“The circumstances of a colony of men of many different creeds forbid
the introduction of religious teaching in national schools, however advan-
tageous such an element in education might be, while the requirements of a
new country demand that its education should be of a thoroughly practical
character. When superior schools become necessary, science and modern
language will, no doubt, form a far more profitable field of exercise than
ancient literature. The few literary and professional men required will, for a
considerable time to come, be more advantageously imported from older
countries ; in point of fact there is always an over-supply of these ready to
hand, while intelligent farmers and miners, and enterprising tradesmen and
mechanics, trained to the make-shift necessities of a new country, are more
wanted, and must be trained on the spot amidst these conditions. To place
these classes in the most favourable position to become thus valuable to the
country, should be the aim of the kind of education afforded by Government.”
On the working of any proposed system, the point of primary importance
is stated to be the personel of the teacher. To obtain trained teachers of
character and ability, should be the end aimed at in every provision. The
system of licensing teachers, as practised in France, Holland, and other
countries, is recommended, in order to prevent inexperienced and incompetent
men from entering the profession. On the other hand, in order to obtain a
sufficient supply, permanency of appointment, and sufficient inducement, are
necessary provisions. To this end grants of land, or school reserves of suffi-
cient size, are recommended, along with a moderate fixed salary from
Government. Under the head of affording a standard for schools to work up
to, and inducements for young men to study, the following occurs, regarding
civil service examinations :—
“In Victoria these examinations do excellent service in stimulating
education ; the certificates of the board are received by business houses, as
evidence of a certain amount of education, as also of habits of industry and
application at school; and young men take a pride in showing that they are
not behind others in these qualities. It is thus not the actual appointments
into the civil service which give these certificates a value, but the recognition
of them by other interests. A little management on the part of our Govern-
ment, and a little public spirit on the part ‘of our leading interests, could make
our Civil Service Act sub-serve the same useful purpose. - This
would be a simple means of supplying a standard of comparison for schools,
and of exciting their emulation. ‘The Government would also by this means
have it in its power, by determining the subjects of examination, to prescribe
to schools the subjects of study, and to a great extent the amount.”
It is further suggested that the General Government should initiate a
scheme, simple at first, by the appointment of a Secretary of Education, whose
duty it would be to make provision for education in those provinces, which
neglect this duty, and that, at the expense of such provinces; while the
provinces which are doing well in this respect, should be left alone, should
they wish it. The General Government would thus make sure that no part
of the colony was left uncared for in the matter of education ; and having thus
planted a system, it would be growing and perfecting itself, by natural
adaptation, to the necessities of the case.
198
Art. XLVITI.—On the River Systems of the south portion of the Province of
Wellington. By J. T. Srewart.
(With Map.)
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 14, 1869.]
THE accompanying map is of a part of the Province of Wellington, and shows
the main rivers, with some of the principal lines of watershed, and the ranges
of hills. This paper is explanatory of it, and refers particularly to some of the
river systems.
The portion shewn on the map is from the area drained by the Manawatu
on the north, and extending southward to the extremity of the province.
Of the other portion of the province lying to the north of this, I have not
sufficient data to represent its rivers on the map, and consequently do not
attempt to describe them ; although they present many important and interest-
ing features, coming as they do, at least two of them, the Whanganui and the
Wangaehu, from the centre of the island, near Tongariro and Ruapehu.
The approximate areas of the portion of the island represented on the map
may be stated thus :—
Area of part of the province shown, 5100 square miles, or 3,264,000 acres,
—nearly half the area of the province. Area of part of Hawke’s Bay
province included, as drained by the Manawatu, 320 square miles, or 204,800
acres. Thus making the whole area treated of, 5420 square miles, or 3,468,800
acres, or nearly three and a half millions of acres.
Subdividing this we have :—
SQUARE MILES. ACRES.
In the Manawatu drainage area : ‘ 1830 1,171,200
In the Ruamahanga, or Wairarapa drainage
area 1300 832,000
On the West Coast, from the Manawatu to
Paikakariki, drained by the Horo-
whenua, the Ohau, the Waikawa, the
Otaki, the Waikanae, and numerous
small streams running directly into
the sea. : : : : : 550 352,000
Between Paikakariki and Palliser Bay,
including Porirua, and Wellington,
by the Hutt, the Wainuiomata, the
Orongorongo, and many smaller
streams . : : : : : 500 320,000
By rivers on the East Coast, from
Palliser Bay to the Whareama ‘ 570 364,800
By the River Whareama and its tribu-
taries . 250 160,000
By rivers on the Hast Coast, from the
Whareama to the boundary of the
Province, at Waimata, by the Waka-
taki, the Mataikuna, the Aohanga,
the Akitio, and numerous small
streams running to the sea directly . 420 268,800
Totals. 3 5 : : 5420 3,468,800
Of this total area, about 2500 square miles, or 1,600,000 acres are covered
with bush or forest, so that little apprehension need be felt at the prospect of
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drought being induced in most of our main rivers by the destruction of the
bush.
There is more liability to such a contingency occurring in the smaller
streams, and perhaps in the Hast Coast rivers, and in some of the Wairarapa
rivers, where the country is more scantily furnished with forest.
T recollect in the dry summer of 1863-4, observing both the Whareama
and the Taueru rivers to have nearly ceased running, consisting of a chain of
pools connected by a very small run of water between them.
Also the Aohanga river, at a place well inland where it falls perpen-
dicularly over a ledge of overhanging rock for a height of about sixty feet,
seemed at that time a mere thread of water, which the gusts of wind at times
dissipated into spray before it reached the river bed below.
On such rivers the preservation of the bush about their wpper courses, and
on their feeders, becomes an object of importance.
It will thus be seen, from the table of areas, that the Manawatu and
the Ruamahanga are the most extensive and important river systems in the
part of the province under consideration, yet the areas drained by them differ
much in character, and the rainfall over them is afiected by different
meteorological influences.
The Ruamahanga, or Wairarapa area, has much more open country in it
than the other, and its supply is derived from the rain falling to the eastward,
only, of the main dividing range of the Tararua.
Tt gets most of its water directly from the eastern side of this range, by
the head of the Ruamahanga itself, by the Waipoua, the Waingawa, the
Waiohine, and the Tauherenikau, which latter falls into the lake.
It also gets the drainage from the eastern side of the Rimutaka range, by
many streams chiefly discharging into the lake.
By the Tauheru and its tributaries it drains a large extent of elevated hilly
land, more or less open, lying to the N.E. of the Wairarapa valley.
By the Huangarua, the Dry river, the Rahohuru, the Turanganui, and
many small streams, it drains the more open country lying on the west side of
the watershed between the lower part of the Wairarapa valley and the East
Coast. The melting of the snow in summer affects it by the rivers running from
the Tararua mountains, and this probably to a greater extent than occurs in
the Manawatu area.
One noticeable feature in the Ruamahanga is, that it discharges itself, in
the first place, into the Wairarapa lake, and flows out of it again not far from
where it enters, with the addition of the waters collected in the lake by streams
falling into it directly. The river, after a course of a few miles, flows into the
lower or smaller lake, which is divided from Palliser Bay by a narrow belt of
beach, through which the river flows into the sea by a channel which sometimes
is closed entirely by the action of the heavy surf in Palliser Bay, and then the
water being dammed back fills the lakes, and floods a large area of low marshy
land about their margins, until the accumulated water again forces a passage Into
the sea, when the lakes subside and relieve the adjoining low levels of the
surplus water. :
The nature of the passage into the sea of this river has withheld from the
Wairarapa the advantages of a navigable river, notwithstanding the large area
drained, and the numerous and large tributaries of the Ruamahanga.
The state of this area has been much modified by its long occupation by
European settlers ; and the substitution of grasses for the growth of bush, fern,
and scrub, to a large extent, must affect the rapidity with which the rainfall
finds its way to the streams and rivers.
The area drained by the Manawatu system of rivers, on the other hand,
is still nearly in a state of nature, except what change the native occupants
200
have affected, which would not seem to be much, in regard to any effect
produced on the subject now under consideration.
This river and its tributaries present several interesting features.
The main river itself penetrates, by a narrow rocky gorge of picturesque
scenery, the main dividing range of this part of the island, and separates it
into the Ruahine and the Tararua mountains.
In this gorge there occur several reaches of still, deep water, and as the
view is shut in at both ends by the winding course, the traveller seems to
float in his canoe in a rock-bound mountain lake, with grey lichened cliffs,
overhung with ferns and shrubs, and steep wooded slopes, rising above them.
These quiet reaches are separated by dangerous rapids, full of boulders and
rocks.
Both above and below the gorge the country is lower, and the character
of the river is a rapid course over wide shingle beds, and this makes the change
into the gorge more striking.
This river takes the rainfall of both sides of the southern end of the
Ruahine range ; for twenty-five miles on the east side, by the portion of the
Manawatu proper, which runs in the Province of Hawke’s Bay ; and for thirty
miles on the west side by the River Puhangina, which has a course almost
parallel with the range, and joins the Manawatu only some one and a half miles
to the west side of the gorge ; and also by the sources of the Oroua to the north
of the head of the Puhangina.
The Manawatu also takes the rainfall of both sides of the northern end of
the Tararua range ; for thirty miles on the east side by the Mongahao river,
which runs almost parallel to the range, and joins the Manawatu only a mile
or two to the east of the gorge, and also by streams falling into the Forty-mile
bush rivers from the hills south of the head of the Mongahao; and for
twenty miles of the west side of the range, by the Tokomaru river, and the
Kahuterawa, and other large streams falling into the Manawatu on its southern
bank. It also gets the drainage of the table-land of the Forty-mile bush, by the
Makakahi, Mangatainoko, and other streams falling into the Teraumea,—
which joins the Manawatu to the east of the gorge ;—and by the Teraumea
river, which rises on the east side of the Puketoi range, it gets the rain falling
on both sides of the southern end of the Puketoi range; and by the Waitawhiti,
the [huraua, and other streams it drains a part of the high lands adjoining the
heads of the Whareama and the Taueru rivers, which both flow to the eastward
part of the province.
By the numerous rivers and streams flowing into the Oroua from both
sides, into the Puhangina from the west, and into the north side of the
Manawatu itself to the west of the gorge, the rainfall over an extensive
flat and table country between the Ruahine range and the sea coast also finds
its way to the sea by the Manawatu.
Drawing its supply from such an extensive area, exposed to so much
variety of climatic influences, it would seem that we need not expect all its
tributaries to be flooded at one time ; as the north-west rains will affect the
Oroua, Puhangina, and streams to the west of the dividing range, while the south-
east rains will flood the rivers on the eastern side.
The south-east or south-west rains, however, produce the heaviest floods,
as the rain-drift flies along the line of the main range, and supplies both slopes
at once, as well as probably falling more copiously on the area to the east of
the range, and on the southern end of the Puketoi mountains, while the north-
west rains striking more transversely to the line of the main range, probably
fall more heavily on the western slopes than on the eastern.
The northern end of the Tararua, falling in height as it approaches the
gorge, does not contribute much water from summer melting of snow, but
Bers
201
some supply of this nature is probably derived from the Ruahine at the sources
of the Oroua river.
The whole area drained by the Manawatu being 1,171,200 acres, we find
the very large proportion of over 1,000,000 acres to be bush-covered, also there
is much flat country, so floods neither rise nor run off so quickly as in an open
country. The dense vegetation of the bush retains a large quantity of the rainfall,
and the ranges themselves are chiefly bush, and not very precipitous in general
character.
For instance, on the Tirohanga hill-track, from the Manawatu to the
Forty-mile bush, passing over the Tararua range, after attaining on elevation of
about 1200 feet, we find nearly three miles flat before the ascent to the summit
is made ; several streams flow through this flat, and the ground has a thick,
spongy stratum on the surface of roots, moss, and soil.
Similar comparatively level tracts, no doubt, exist at many places on the
hills at considerable elevations ; and thus the water falling on them by no
means necessarily finds its way rapidly to the lower levels and the main
river bed. From these causes more water must be taken away by absorption
and evaporation, than at first might be supposed.
One feature in the course of the Manawatu, as of other similar rivers, is
the numerous old water-courses abandoned by the river, and now forming semi- |
circular shaped lagoons of uniform width in the flat bush country.
These are found at intervals in a belt of half a mile to a mile and a half
in width, on both sides of the river.
They have formed old river beds, cut through at the neck by the current,
and the ends silted up by the deposits brought down in floods. This process
still goes on, general extensive bends having been cut off within my own
knowledge, as at Raukawa, and near the mouth of the Tokomaru.
A kind of balance is thus probably kept up between the speed and wearing
power of the current, and the nature of the soil acted on by it, so that the
total length of the river course along its numerous windings, maintains a mean
from time to time ; the formation of a long bend by the stream eating into the
banks at one place, being counterbalanced by the cutting through the neck of
a peninsula at another.
Some of these lagoons are over a mile long, and form fine sheets of
water. They are mostly filled in heavy freshets, by the water backing up the
stream flowing from their lower ends, and they, together with a large extent of
low land subject to floods, for some miles above the junction of the Oroua, act
as storing reservoirs for some of the surplus waters, as also do two large open
swampy tracts whose surface is about the level of high floods,—one on the
south side, called Makurerua, of some 15,000 acres, and the other lower
down on the north side, called Ohotuiti, of some 7000 acres, and both with
many shallow lagoons in their area. These are of rich soil, and when drained, of
which they are capable of being, will form important flax-growing and
meadow lands.
The large extent of sand and gravel deposits also, no doubt, absorbs- and
discharges gradually a large part of the rainfall, and of the waters brought
down by river floods.
Differing from the Ruamahanga, the Manawatu is navigable for many
miles from its entrance, to vessels of six or eight feet draft of water, which the
bar at the mouth allows to enter, and the flood tide, when there is no fresh
in the river, gives an upward current for fifteen or sixteen miles from the
mouth.
The course of the Oroua gives a good section of the land lying to the west
of the Ruahine range. For ten or fifteen miles of its lower course, it divides
the open sandy country of the coast from the alluvial bush land, and here its
202
current is not so rapid, and its channel is narrow, muddy, and canal-like.
Above this it becomes wider and more rapid, with shingle beds, and the banks
show gravel deposits, which increase in height as it is ascended, and in the
upper course cliffs of 100 feet to 200 feet high, washed by the river, show
horizontal well-marked layers of sand, gravel, and clay, with marine shells.
These beds preserve their horizontal position until the spurs of the range are
approached, when they show a decided dip to the west, in parts.
About seventy to eighty miles, by the winding course, from its junction
with the Manawatu, the Oroua cuts through a spur*by a gorge faced by cliffs
of rock, about 150 feet high, and nearly perpendicular, and close to here the
first hard rock was observed, coming up the course.
The channel here is full of boulders and rocks, and the run is
rapid. Looking through this gorge, however, in the direction of the range, the
same horizontal strata of sand, gravel, and clay, ave again seen in the high
river bank ; and it is probable the river extends a long way further into the
main range, as its volume here seems quite as great as in its lower course, showing,
at least, that its main supply comes from the hills surrounding its source in
the Ruahine.
I have not attempted to estimate the quantity of water discharged by
these rivers, although an approximation might be made from the aannaned
rainfall over the areas drained, and allowing for absorption and evaporation ;
yet in the absence of observations on the actual volume of the rivers, at
different periods of level of water, such an estimate would not be satisfactory,
and there are noc yet any observations of the local rainfall on these ranges and
extensive table lands.
The following notes on the route from the Manawatu river to Masterton,
through the forty-mile bush, from a journey undertaken by the author in 1868,
indicate the nature of this very important track, which might be opened up
with a small outlay.
“¢ November 17th, 1868—Left Foxton and rode some twenty miles to Kai-
ranga, on the Manawatu river. Left horses here and crossed river to south
- bank ; walked four miles over a gradually rising country, and camped at foot
of first rise of main range, on the Kahuterawa stream: this is a considerable
height above the sea, probably 100 to 200 feet.
“‘18th—Commenced ascent of Tararua range: top of first rise at Tiro-
hanga is about 1200 feet above where we left this morning ; goes on level for
some way, then a rise of 200 feet more at six and three-quarter miles from
the Manawatu, again a rise of 490 feet to summit at Tipakirikiri, which is
thus 1800 to 1900 feet above foot of range, at camp this morning. Fine view
from here over Tongariro, Manawatu, and Rangitikei conntry, Ruapehu and
some of the Forty-mile bush. Descended to foot of range, 1440 feet. Thence
to Mongahao river, descending 280 feet further, or in all 1700 feet from
summit to Forty-mile bush country. From the Manawatu by this track to the
Mongahao river is twelve miles, passable for horses; cut by Mr. Carkeek,
Assistant Surveyor, in 1868. The track stopsat Mongahao. Diverged down river
a little, and took track to Tutaekara clearing and native pa—about four miles.
“‘19th—Followed on the old native track (from Abhuriri to Wairarapa)
about four miles to Te Hawero clearing—level country. The track from
Manawatu might join here, and there is an old track from here to Alfredtown.
Four and a half miles further crossed Mangatainoko river: country level for
some distance. At, say, eight and a half miles from Te Hawero track rises
on a ridge, about 550 feet, and then falls with a good descent 220 feet. Then
across a table-land which I estimate some 1100 feet above the sea. Camped
about fourteen and a half miles from Te Hawero.
203
“ 20th—A mile on crossed Kahepurapura, and also another strong stream,
passing over good slopes, rising and falling, say, 100 feet: reached Makakahi
river at 8 p.m., nineteen miles from Te Hawero. This is the boundary of
Crown land. Two miles on crossed Mangahinau stream, and followed its
course for some way. One and a half miles further crossed Mangahuarere
stream. At 11.20 a.m. crossed last stream on this side of watershed, say,
twenty-four miles from Te Hawero, The bush along this track is very open
and free from supple-jacks and scrub: a good horse road very easily made.
The track now ascends the water-shed range—rises some 500 feet to a flat top,
ascent pretty good. Flat at top, say one and a half miles, and then a descent
of 700 or 800 feet to crossing of Ruamahanga river, at the head of Opaki
plain, some fourteen or, fifteen miles from Masterton. This descent is steep,
but by exploring we found a leading spur from the flat top, going about one
and a half miles lower down the Ruamahanga, which gives a good descent :
we marked and partially cleared this. Crossed the Ruamahanga at 1.30 p.m.,
and walked over the Opaki plain to Masterton, which we reached about
7.30 p.m.”
Art. XLIX.—On the Raising of the S.S. “Taranaki.” By J. T. Stewart.
(With Illustrations.)
[Read before the Weilington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869.]
AntHoueH this subject has been already brought a good deal before the public,
and the main facts stated, I have thought it advisable to lay a more de-
tailed account of it before the society, at the risk of appearing to go over a
good deal of the same ground that the public prints have already done.
Taking a good deal of interest in this matter from its start, I have
collected the following details, principally from information supplied to me by
Messrs. Seagar and Thirkell; and I have made the accompanying sketches
from that information, and from inspection of the gear used by them.
The screw-steamer ‘‘ Taranaki,” belonging to the New Zealand Steam
Navigation Company, was wrecked and sunk in Bowden’s Bay, Tory Channel,
Queen Charlotte’s Sound, on the 19th August, 1868.
Her tonnage is 299 register, h.p. 100, length of keel 182 feet, beam
25 feet, and depth of hold 16 feet.
She was a new boat, built on the river Clyde, in Scotland, a locality now
taking the lead in British iron shipbuilding.
Shortly after the wreck the company called for tenders for raising her.
The Directors, however, declined undertaking the task of raising the
wreck, and it was sold to a few residents in Wellington, in the beginning of
March, 1869, who then took steps for raising her.
Several schemes were proposed to them, but that submitted by Messrs.
Seagar and Thirkell, of Wellington, was chosen, and the carrying out of
the operations was entrusted to them; and the result shows the choice was
judicious.
I shall endeavour to give a short account of the scheme as proposed for
raising her, and then give some notes of the successful carrying out of the
operations.
The wreck was supposed to be lying in about one hundred feet of water,
and the weight to be raised was estimated at about 450 tons.
lst. There was the floating-power required as a base to work from, and
to carry this weight in addition to the men and the plant or apparatus.
EE
204
2nd. There was the apparatus required to lift the vessel from this floating
base.
For the first purpose four pontoons were planned with the following
dimensions: two of them were 95 feet long on top, 91 feet long at bottom, 14
feet wide at top, 125 feet wide at bottom, and 8 feet deep. The other two were
85 feet long on top, and 81 feet long at bottom, and of the same breadth and
depth as the first two; strongly framed, decked, planked, and caulked, and
with three watertight bulkheads in each.
The pontoons were built by contract, at Picton, of N. Z. white pine.
These four pontoons, if sunk to a depth of 6 feet, would represent a
displacement of 775 tons nearly, and if totally submerged, of some 1050 tons ;
thus allowing an ample margin for the weight of the sunken vessel, and also
for that of the necessary men, tools, and gear, besides their own weight.
In working, it was found that when the weight came on, they had a
displacement of 5 feet in depth, and it was calculated that out of this about
400 tons was due to the weight of the wreck under water, and the remainder
to that of the pontoons themselves, with the workmen and gear.
The iron work for the lifting apparatus was designed and made by Mr.
Seagar, at his works in Wellington.
The lifting apparatus may be described, generally, as consisting of forty-
four long iron rods, with hooks at bottom to catch in the circular openings, or
ports, in the sides of the vessel—twenty-two upon each side. (See plate XII.)
The upper ends of these rods led up to the pontoons, and were attached to
screws on the top of each rod for raising the weight.
More particularly,—each of these rods was of 1} inch diameter round iron,
This was equal to take a strain of sixteen tons each, or in all 700 tons. The
rods were divided into links twelve feet long, with oval eyes, connected by
short double links, 9 inches long, of 34 in. by 3 in. iron, with 1}in. pins. In
working it was observed that it would have been an improvement to have had
the rods in shorter links, say of four feet each.
The hook at bottom was matte of 34 in. by 1 in. iron, and thickened where
it took hold of the port-hole to 2 i Reales and an ingenious slide or stop took
hold of the lower side of the ite -hole, and supported the hook after it was
fixed, thus preventing it slipping out when the upward strain was relaxed, and
this was found effectually to keep the hook in position. This stop was of 24 in
by $in. iron, with a slot in it, to enable it to move along two pinching screws
through the side of the hook. (See sketch.) This stop was fastened by the
diver as soon as he got the hook in its place. When working, a short length
of chain, 3 feet to 4 feet long, was attached between the hook and the lower end
of the suspending rod.
The upper end of each suspending rod had two shorter links of 4 feet
each, and above these, and forming the upper length of suspension bars, was
the fleeting link, which was double and of flat iron, each piece being 3 feet
5in. long by 4in. by 2in., and pierced with 14 in. holes, four and a half inches
apart, so as to admit of adjustment of the length of the bars, when fleeting the
screws to take a fresh lift. These fleeting links were attached at the top to
the bottom of the lifting screw.
The lifting screws were of 22 inches diameter iron, and screwed for
2 feet 34 inches in length, and had four threads to an inch. Hach screw was
turned by a Spanner, or lever, 5 feet long, of 14 inch round iron, moved by
two, or sometimes three, men, and with an eye fitting over the nut, The nut
worked upon double washers or plates, bearing on a wooden block which
rested on the cross logs of the pontoons, as will presently be described. These
washers were adapted to the special nature of the work to be done.
The lifting of a movable body at such a depth, acted on by currents, and
TRANS. OF N.Z. | NSTITUTE VOL. Plate /9.
SIDE VIEW
he dotted lines shew alteration of shape by collapse.
Scale fe inch to a foor.
To wecompany Paper by J.T. Stewart
ow ravstng
S.S.TARANAK |,
Printed at the Gen.Gou. Lith. Press
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TRANS.OF NZ INSTITUTE VOL. Plate /2.
LIFTING APPARATUS USED FOR
SIDE VIEW
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205
the pontoons themselves affected by currents and winds, must involve a certain
amount of swinging motion, horizontally or laterally ; besides the tops of the
rods were not all vertically over the hooks in the port-holes.
To allow for this the upper washer of wrought-iron was rounded in the
bottom, and rested and fitted in a hollow recess in the cast-iron washer or
plate, which hollow was turned so as to fit accurately to the bottom of the
upper washer. This then allowed to the upper washer, the screw, the nut,
and top of rod, a certain amount of oscillation, to suit which the aperture in
the cast-iron washer, or plate, was beveled out somewhat towards the lower
edge. (See sketch).
A set of counter-balance weights had also to be provided to carry the
weight of the rods, when adjusting or fleeting the screws. These weights were
carried by ropes attached to the upper part of the rods, and passing over
sheaves placed in the cross logs which rested on the pontoons. The weight
was made suflicient to balance the weight of rod, and this arrangement allowed
the pontoons to rise and fall with the tide.
The four pontoons were placed two on each side of the sunken vessel, so
that a space was left between them over the wreck, about one foot more
than the breadth of the “Taranaki.”
Twenty-two sets of cross beams, each carrying two lifting rods, rested on the
pontoons, and passed across over the wreck. ‘These beams were double, con-
sisting each of two pieces, each piece 18in. by 9 in., placed five inches apart,
and bolted together in three places by three-quarter inch bolts.
The length of the beams was from 48 feet to 53 feet, according to position.
They were of Kahikatea, or N. Z. white pine. They proved strong enough
for the strain, but with nothing to spare, deflecting a foot in the middle when
the strain came on them. Two of them sprung in the early part of the
work, but they were of lighter scantling, and were strengthened and used
afterwards.
On each of these beams, and over the inner side of the pontoons so as
to plumb the sunken vessel’s sides, were placed two blocks of hard wood
(Rata), each 15in. by 5in., and 2 feet long, with a hole 5 inches square for
the lifting rod to pass through, and on this block was placed the plate, or
washer, already described, carrying the upper washer and nut of the lifting
screw. (See sketch.)
On an average, fifty-four men were employed.
The mode of screwing up a lift was, first to screw up all the screws on
one side for one foot, or half the length of lift, then proceed to the other side
and screw up two feet, or the full length of the lift, and then go back to the
first side, and screw up the remaining half of the lift for this side.
The mode of fleeting the screws was, to begin to fleet simultaneously the
foremost screw on each of the two pontoons upon one side, and the after-
most screw on each of the two pontoons on the other side; and then, when these
had been adjusted and were being tightened up, the screws next but one to
the four already fleeted were slacked off, and so on, till all the screws were gone
through and got ready for a fresh lift. Thus no one log had the strain taken
off both of its ends at one time. In this operation eight sets of lifting rods
were relieved of the weight at one time, and the weight of the wreck was then
borne safely by the remaining thirty-six rods.
They could fleet and screw up twice in one day, taking about an hour to
fleet, and three hours to heave up a lift.
Two divers were employed, who had the arduous task of fixing the hooks
under such a depth of water, opening the ports, cutting away the woodwork,
and other jobs, such as sending up the anchors and chains, etc.
Their labour was much facilitated by the use of a box, or cage, 6 feet by
206
3 feet, formed of iron bars placed openly, and having a wooden floor. This
was slung from the pontoons, and let down where the divers were to work,
and in it they stood when at work. After hooking on the lifting hook to the
port, the diver fixed the stop, or slide, to prevent the hook falling out, and
also made fast the rod to the ship’s rail above, to steady it.
Jt was at first intended to make use of the lifting power of the tide, and
assist it by filling the pontoons with water, and pumping them out as the tide
rose. For this purpose valves were put in the bottom of the pontoons, and
pumps provided.
This plan was put in operation for some time, until, as the vessel was
hauled ahead, it was found that the bank was so steep that she was liable to
slip back when allowed to rest on the bottom. At one place the stern was
observed to have thirty feet more water over it than the bows had, so sudden
was the incline, and for a short distance near the top of the bank, the inclina-
tion was nearly -1 to 1.
It was found necessary after this to keep her always suspended or carried
from the pontoons, and to trust to the lifting power afforded by working the
SCreWws.
This steep bank added much to the difficulties to be overcome, and the
vessel was brought gradually side on to it, so as to bring her more to a level.
This was done by lifting at each lift the stern more than the bows, and hauling
it round at same time up the slope of the bank.
As the vessel was lifted she was hauled ahead by being made fast by a
chain cable from her bow to the “ Ladybird,” which steamer was hauled ahead
from time to time, as required, to moorings placed in shore.
The position of the wreck may be briefly described.
She lay on a comparatively level bottom of soft clay and shells, with a
rise of six feet in the length of the vessel towards the bows, and the stern was
sunk about seven feet in the mud; a great weight of mud was piled upon the
poop deck, probably thrown over the stern when she went down. At the
stern the depth of water was 174 fathoms, or 105 feet, at high-water.
This nearly level bottom extended ahead for about sixty feet, when the
foot of a bank was reached. This bank rose at a rate of thirty feet in two
hundred feet, or in about the length of the vessel, for a distance ahead of some
five hundred feet, when the inclination increased to a rise of twenty-seven feet
in thirty feet, for a short distance up to the top of the bank, over which there
was a depth of twenty-one feet at high-water.
On getting over this bank the depth increased to twenty-four feet for
some distance, and then gradually shoaled in shore fora length of six hundred
feet, or thereabouts, farther.
The rise of tide at springs was 4 feet 6 inches, and at neaps 1 foot 6 inches,
and there was a current on the ebb which greatly interfered with the
operations of the divers for two-thirds of the ebb. The position, however,
was landlocked and sheltered from any waves or swell of consequence.
A notice of some of the damages sustained by the vessel may be in-
teresting.
First, the damage sustained when she struck on the rock before sinking,
as found after she was raised :—
The extent of the damage lay within three frames, or a length of 4 feet,
in the engine room compartment, on the port side, close behind the donkey
engine. There was a crack or rent in one of the plates ; the top of the crack
was about 4 feet under the load water-line ; the crack was alongside one of the
angle iron ship’s frames. It was 3 feet long, and of an average width open of
linch. The frame was bulged in about 8 inches.
There was also a hole about 2 feet aft of the crack and on the same level ;
207
this hole was about 3 inches diameter, and had a sharp pointed bit of hard rock
sticking in it.
The “Taranaki” was divided into three compartments, by watertight
bulkheads. The damage took place in the centre one, but the aft compartment
seems gradually to have filled. The fore compartment evidently remained
unfilled, as will be noticed afterwards.
The vessel kept afloat for seven hours after she struck, and then went
down stern first, burying the stern in the mud, scooping up twenty or thirty
tons of soil on to the poop, knocking away the poop rail and stanchions round
the stern, leaving the steering gear uninjured, but twisting round and breaking
the rudder. The screw propeller had been knocked off on the rock shortly
after she struck.
The boiler was ied when she sunk, and was found to be very seriously
damaged, having collapsed from the outside pressure of the water as the vessel
suddenly sunk to the depth of 174 fathoms, assisted probably by a partial
vacuum formed by condensation of the steam. (See sketch of boiler.)
The top of the shell, although arched and strengthened by angle iron ribs
round the top, with 13 inch stays from the angle irons to the bottom of the
boiler, was forced in 18 inches, crushing and bending these stays, and also the
gusset stays 1 foot wide by 1 inch, at the angle formed by the top and back of
boiler. The 1? inch stays, from top of boiler to top of combustion chamber, also
were broken and bent. In collapsing, the top of the boiler had dragged back
the uptake for 18 inches on top, taking the steam chest with it, and also dragged
the back of the boiler in towards the combustion chamber, leaving the stays
sticking through the back.
The combustion chamber, the tubes, tube plates, and the bottom and front
of the boiler were found uninjured and not moved.
In the fore deck, over the forward compartment, which seems to have
remained free of water till after she sank, ten deck beams were bent down
8 inches by the pressure of the water from outside, bending the 3inch iron
stanchions supporting them from the lower deck, and the hatches were found
forced inwards.
The forward watertight bulkhead was bulged in forward about 1 foot.
Second, the effects accruing from her long retention under water :—
She sunk on the 19th of August, 1868, and was pumped out, on raising
her, on the 26th of September, 1869,—a period of over thirteen months.
Her hull was completely coated with shelly encrustation, except the
bottom, which the marine paint had kept tolerably clean. Her small spars
and upper decks were completely worm eaten and gone ; any Teak wood was
found sound ; the cabin fittings, where painted, were in general sound. |
The engines were found in working order, all the journals and bearings
bright and clean. The wrought-iron starting gear tarnished but not damaged,
and the cast-iron work uninjured.
One of the cylinders was free of water, the other was full.
Having thus attempted to give a description of the plan of operations,
the position of the wreck, and mentioned the principal damages she sustained,
I shall give some notes of the operation of raising the “ Taranaki,” interspersed
with a few extracts from a journal kept by Mr. Thirkell; and thus give some
idea of the nature of the work.
On the morning of June 23, 1869, a start was made by the adventurers
from Wellington, in the steamer “ Ladybird,” hired as a tender during the
operations, and they got to Picton the same afternoon, and next day launched
two of the pontoons and took in the cross logs and moorings.
On the 26th June, left Picton, and towed the two pontoons to Bowden’s
bay, where the “Taranaki” lay sunk. From this time to the 10th July they
208
were getting the anchors and chains out of the “Taranaki” by aid of the
divers, and mooring the two pontoons and the ‘“ Ladybird,’—a work of con-
siderable difficulty ; also getting the cross bearing logs bolted together in pairs,
and other preliminary arrangements made.
On the 12th July, got the stage for the divers into position ; one of the
divers went down and opened one of the port-holes, found depth to port-holes,
at low-water, to be 88 feet.
From this date up to the 21st, engaged getting lifting rods from these two
pontoons hooked on to the ports by the divers, which required much patience,
perseverance, and repeated attempts before completion.
The divers seem to have remained down from twenty minutes to forty
minutes, often over an hour, and on some occasions for one hundred and five
minutes.
On the 21st July, the “ Ladybird” went to Picton, and returned on the
23rd with the third and fourth pontoons, and they now moored the “Ladybird” —
in position for hauling the “Taranaki” ahead, having 60 fathoms of chain
ahead, and with the ‘“ Taranaki” made fast to her stern with 30 fathoms of
chain ; also moored the third and fourth pontoons in position, and this with
getting the rest of the cross logs ready, and other work, occupied until the
26th, on which day the diver examined, and reported on, the extent of the
injury the vessel had received when she struck, and which has already been
described. From this time up to the 6th August, getting the lifting rods from
the third and the fourth pontoons down and fixed, and getting the other gear
ready. For the scupper holes, one or two of which were used, a special hook had
to be extemporised, as the hooks made for the port-holes would not do for
them.
Extracts From Loc :—“ Wednesday, 14th July, 7.15 a.m., commenced
work, light S.W. wind ; men rigging up gear for supporting bars, and attending
to diver.
“One of the divers went down at 7.45 a.m. to hook on, down thirty minutes,
went down again at 8.35 a.m., down sixty-three minutes, wanted stage shifted ;
went down at 10.16 a.m., down twenty-nine minutes, came up, reported slide
too short for the port ; went down at 11 a.m. to unhook and send up the slide
to alter, down sixteen minutes, came up ; the other diver went down at 12.55
p-m., took slide with him.
“Put hook in and secured it with slide, down twenty-five minutes, came up
to shift stage ; went down to second hook at 1.40 p.m., after trying to cut
covering board, came up to shift stage a little aft, down twenty minutes ; went
down again at 2.5 p.m., down fifteen minutes, came up, could not work, tide
too strong; put down bars ready for divers next day, and got blocks and
balance weights ready.
“Tuesday, July 20—Strong N.W. wind and dry weather; 8 am,
commenced. Men putting four full lengths of bars, with hooks, etc., down,
ready for the diver to hook on when the tide slacked a little ; shifting stage,
which was foul, and took a long time to clear, on account of the tide drifting
it against the vessel’s side ; fitting up the remainder of the sheaves on the port
side, and two on the starboard side, and altered the rope from the blocks to the
sheaves, and found the balance weights worked much better.
“ One of the divers went down and commenced to cut out and unscrew
port-hole No. 13, at 11.45 a.m., hooked on and came up after being down forty
minutes ; got refreshed a little, and went down at 12.40 p.m. to clear away for
hook No. 12 ; hooked on, and screwed up and lashed up Nos. 12 and 13 to the
rail, and then came up: down sixty minutes.
“Part of the men went to dinner, and part remained to shift stage and ladder
209
ready for the other diver, who got dressed and went down at 2.40 p.m. to hook
on Nos. 14 and 15; succeeded in opening three port-holes, and cut away and
screwed up Nos. 14 and 15, put lashing on the rail, and came up after being
down eighty-five minutes. The ‘Storm Bird’ arrived from Wellington with
some bars, etc., as the after lengths had been found 4 feet to 8 feet too short.
“Saturday, July 31—Strong N. wind and rain all day, one diver went
down at 9.25 a.m., as soon as the hooks were altered for the scupper hole,
down thirty-eight minutes ; came up and reported the hook too large for the
hole ; made it smaller at the point, and then diver went down at 11.12 to put
it in, down forty-three minutes, came up and reported the hook half way in,
and could not get it any further.
“The other diver got ready and went down at 12.45 p.m., he drove it up
and wedged it with three iron wedges, down sixty-five minutes and came up
to refresh : went down at 2.10 to find the middle scupper hole, found it and
put hook in half way and could not get it further in, nor out again ; down
fifty minutes, came up and could not go down any more to-day.”
By the 7th August, all was ready to try a lift, and on that day we find
the journal saying :—‘‘ Weather fine all day, commenced at 12.30 p.m., sunk
pontoons by letting in water ; connected on at 1.30 p.m., and screwed all the
bars tight, and began to pump out at 2.45 p.m., assisted by the whalers from
the Sound. Vessel began to lift at 3.30 p.m. ; all the water pumped out at
4 p.m. The pontoons rose considerably, two of the after logs of the fore
pontoons sprung, being undersized ; hove in by the ‘ Ladybird’s’ windlass as
the tide flowed, got ahead 50 feet, and ceased at 8 p.m.”
é This was the first lift, and rather an exciting time. The lft got was
‘about 5 feet, of this 3 feet was due to the rise of the tide, and 2 feet to the
effect of pumping out the pontoons.
When she first started out of her bed in the mud, the pontoons started or
jumped up nearly six inches ; before this start the deck of the pontoons was
14 inches out of water on the inner side, and 2 feet on the outer. (Usually,
however, it was afterwards found there was none of this jerking up, but a
steady lift.) The following days the same mode of procedure went on.
“12th August—4 a.m., commenced to connect bars to screws, and screwed
down about 10 inches ; at 6.45 began to pump the water out of pontoons, and
with the tide lifted the bow up about 5 feet, but found the bank witha greater
rise than was expected, which makes the after end difficult to ground, hove
ahead with some of the men, and the remainder finished pumping; at
12.30 p.m. found the anchor, in heaving ahead, ‘come home ;’ could not heave
any more until it is lifted, and placed farther in shore, with one of the pontoon’s
mooring anchors to back it.”
They had now got the wreck hauled ahead close to the rise of the steep
bank, and went on lifting and hauling until the bows got well up, while the
stern got to the foot of the slope, not very much higher than it was originally.
On the 17th August, they sounded and found the vessel to be 264 feet
higher at the bows than at the stern, being about the angle of the bank at this
place. On Saturday the 21st August, they found as the steamer settled down aft,
that she slid down the bank for 16 feet ; so they concluded that she would
have to be lifted over the bank by the screws only.
They now began to put more men on the screws in the after pontoons, so
as to lift the stern a little more than the bows, at each lift, so as gradually to
get a more even keel on the wreck, and as they did so, hauled the stern side-
ways on to the bank, as well as hauling her ahead ; the log going on thus on
the 25th and 26th :—“ Divers commenced to take off some of the long lengths
of the bars.
“ 30th August—6 a.m., commenced work ; fine clear weather.
210
“ Began to screw up; went to breakfast 8 a.m., began work 8.45, finished
up the length of the screws, and fleeted down again, and recommenced to screw
up; went to dinner at noon ; commenced at 1 p.m., screwed up the full length,
and began to fleet part of the screws ; ceased work at 5 p.m., having lifted the
fore end 3 feet, and the after end 4 feet.
“31st August—Day fine throughout, with light N.W. wind.
“At 6 a.m. commenced to take off the second length of long bars of the
two after pontoons, and fleet down the screws on the fore pontoons.
“ At 10 am. commenced to heave up the length of the screws ; hove in
by the north-west chains, and hove the ‘Ladybird’ ahead ; 2 p.m., fleeted down
the screws and commenced to heave up the second lift, got about two-thirds of
the screwing up, and ceased work 6 p.m., having lifted about 34 feet during
the day, and gone well up the north-west bank, as well as ahead.
“September 2nd—Fore lower-mast head about 2 feet out of water.
“ September 3rd—Found two of the hooks had torn away the plate of
the port-holes, not having hold of the angle iron. Let water into pontoons to
ease the bars, the vessel resting on bottom, and sent down both divers to put
in the two hooks properly. Shifted the whole of the logs forward upon the
after pontoon, and took the foremost log into the middle to the two ports left
vacant.
“Having pumped water out of pontoons, after dinner commenced to heave
up, and got a lift of 2 feet. Ceased at 5.30 p.m.
‘September 4th—Fore-top out of water.
“September 6th—Fore-top 2 feet, and main-mast head 1 foot out of
water.
“September 11th—Lifted to-day 3 feet 9 inches at fore-mast, and 4 feet
3 inches at mainmast; forecastle deck 10 feet under water, quarter-deck
25 feet under water.
‘September 13th—Screwed up 3 feet at fore-mast, and 4 feet aft; found
the seams of the pontoons opening a good deal from exposure to the sun.
‘September 14th—Lifted 3 feet 4 inches forward, and 4 feet aft.
‘September 15th—The divers began to take off last lengths of long bars:
lifted at fore-mast 2 feet 5 inches; the fore end of the forecastle deck out of
water, found the pine deck very much worm-eaten.
“September 16th—Lifted forward 1 foot 5 inches, and aft 2 feet.
“September 17th—Let water into pontoons to slack the bars ; shifted all
the logs to a more direct lift, and took one log and screws from the after
pontoons, and put them on the fore pontoons, fleeted the screws down, after
placing the logs in position ; pumped water out of pontoons, and lifted with
the screws ; lifted to-day at fore-mast 2 feet, and aft 2 feet 2 inches, and hove
the vessel ahead about 20 feet.
“September 18th—Lifted at fore-mast 2 feet 6 inches, and aft 4 feet.
“September 20th—Raised the logs which were over the forecastle and
the deck-house ; came ahead to-day about 70 feet ; lifted at fore-mast 1 foot
3 inches, and aft 3 feet.
“September 21st—Hove ahead at high-water ; let water into pontoons ;
cut two logs for blocks for packing up; screwed about 6 inches, and pumped
out water from pontoons ; lifted about 2 feet 6 inches ; floated over the bank
and ran ahead with the strong wind towards the beach for about 300 feet.
“September 22nd—Hove ahead at high-water, and let water into
pontoons to block up logs, which are now upon the rail of the “Taranaki.”
The two divers down to examine the cracks in plates, and stop up holes,
pumped out the pontoons.
“September 23rd—-Commenced to pump out the fore hold of the wreck.
“September 24th—Continued pumping.
211
“ September 25th—Pumping out wreck and stopping leaks and port-holes.
(This was done by putting a sheep-skin and a board over the hole, and screwing
it tight up to a cross bar placed inside.)
“‘ September 26th—Pumping out and repairing cracked plate. (This was
temporarily done by the diver with wooden wedges, and afterwards, when the
water was got under inside, by the engineers putting a plate and a sheep-skin
over it.)
“‘September 27th—Removed the lifting rods, screws, etc., and put them
on board the ‘ Ladybird,’ repaired cracked plate, and fitting up donkey
engine.
“ September 28th—Got the donkey engine to work, cleaning out
vessel, ete.
“‘September 29th—Moved the ‘Taranaki’ alongside of the ‘ Ladybird.’
“September 30th—Taking coals out of the ‘Taranaki’ into the ‘Ladybird,’
and mooring pontoons. Covering the worm-eaten decks with planks to walk
upon.
“‘October 1st—The steamer ‘Wanganui’ arrived from Wellington with
tow-ropes. Left Tory Channel in tow of the ‘ Ladybird’ and the ‘ Wanganui,’
at 10 a.m., and reached Wellington safely in the afternoon at 4.30, after a fine
passage across Cook’s Straits. The vessel very tight, and not making any
water.”
The total lift was 92 feet ; the weight of wreck about 400 tons.
Art. L.—On TuorovucH Drainace. By J. C. Crawrorp, F.G.S.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, September 18, 1869.]
As the subject of thorough drainage is evidently but little understood in this
part of the world, and as I have had some experience in the matter in Scotland,
I propose to make a few remarks, and to lay down a few elementary rules on
the subject, which I hope may prove of use.
It is often supposed that in drainage it is sufficient to remove water from
the actual surface, whereas the beneficial results to be obtained are gained by
lowering the water table, or that level at which the underground water rests,
to a sufficient depth to allow the roots of plants to get well down, and also to
allow rain water to percolate freely through the soil, instead of lying stagnant
on it, carrying with it ammonia and portions of atmospheric air, which
assist in the decomposition of matter previously inert.
It has been found practically, that a depth for drains of about four feet is
that which is economically the best. It becomes very expensive to sink below
this depth. If the subsoil is rocky, and presents great obstacles to sinking, a
depth of three feet six inches may be considered sufficient.
The main drains ought always to have an additional six inches in depth
below that of the small drains.
If a field has an irregular surface half mains are frequently used, so as
with more convenience to run the water into the main drain, than if all the
small drains were led into it direct.
The distance between each drain generally varies from twelve to thirty-six
feet, according to the stiffness of the soil. In heavy clay the short interval of
twelve feet is required, in gravelly soil thirty-six feet would be sufficient. The
drains should follow the steepest slope.
The main drain is generally taken parallel to the fence along the lowest
FF
212
side of the field, at a distance of the breadth of a furrow from the fence, and
empties by one outlet at the lowest part.
It is of great importance to have as few outlets as possible.
If stones are actually on the ground, it may be found cheaper to use ther
for fillmg the drains, but upon the whole, tiles are found the most economical.
They are lighter than stones, and therefore require less carriage. The water
also runs more freely in them. One to two-inch pipes are generally used, and
it is always best to lay them with collars. It is unnecessary and wasteful to
have the same sized tile at the upper part as at the lower part, of a drain.
Mains vary in diameter, according to the amount of water. From four to six-
inch pipes are generally sufficient.
The average expense, in Great Britain, of draining an acre, may be stated
at about £5 10s. In this country it would cost considerably more. Until the
expense is reduced, the system is therefore not likely to come into very general
use, but for small pieces of ground, and particularly gardens, it ought even now to
be applied. In garden ground, no doubt, the pipes are apt to-get choked with
roots, but the damage soon shows itself, and the pipe must simply be lifted
and cleaned, and then relaid. 2
Although there is much excellent natural drainage in this country, yet
many districts would he immediately improved by thorough drainage.
Without going far, J might mention Karori, Porirua, and parts of the
Hutt.
RECAPITULATION.
1. Drains should follow the steepest slope.
2. They should, if possible, have a minimum depth of four feet
perpendicular.
3. The main should have a depth of six inches more than the small
drains.
4. The chief main should be cut along the lowest side of the field, parallel
to the fence, and should empty by one outlet only.
5. The interval between the drains should vary from twelve to thirty-six
feet, according to the stiffness, or openness of the soil and subsoil.
6. It is a waste of material to put the same size of pipe at the upper as at
the lower part of a drain.
7. Pipe tiles are far more permanent, and in the long run cheaper, for
drainage, than any other material. They ought to have collars. The run of
water is more free in them than in any other kind of drain.
A little consideration will show what a difference it will make in the fertility
of land, if the water, which now lies, during the winter months, either on the
surface, or close below it, and in a stagnant state, is kept flowing at a depth of
four feet below. In the one case the roots of plants are perished by the water,
in the other they are nourished, and the rain water also, percolating freely,
assists decomposition, and removes noxious matters.
Wet land in its natural state is unfit to receive manure, which is wasted
if put upon it. When drained it is ready to take advantage of any appli-
cation of fertilizing material.
Tn its natural state the ground is hard to work. It is sodden with water
in winter, and forms hard clods in dry weather. When drained, it is easily
worked at all seasons, and breaks up into fine mould.
The returns from drained land are proportionately great. I can speak
from experience when I say that nothing pays better in Great Britain than
judicious drainage of land. On the other hand, a large landed proprietor
in the Midland Counties informed me that he had thrown away £24,000
upon drainage which would have to be entirely done over again. He had been
persuaded that a two-foot drain would be ample, and found that the depth
213
was quite insufficient. It was at first supposed that the water ought to find
its way directly from the surface to the drain, hence the idea of a two-foot
drain, but this view was found to be erroneous, and the true principle
decided to be as follows :—land is saturated with water rising to a certain
height ; when the water reaches that height, it will run off if opportunity
offers. If no outlet appears, it will rise above the surface, and form a lake or
a swamp. If the water table be lowered by the construction of drains, an
outlet is offered at a lower level for the subsoil water, or water of capillary
attraction, which forms the chief supply of water in the drains. This water
being kept flowing, makes room for rain water to get down to the subsoil,
instead of lying stagnant on the surface or on the upper soil. No doubt, at
times, rain water may pass direct into a drain, but it is not in the usual course.
It is found, therefore, that by keepimg the subsoil water running at a depth of,
say, four feet, that the heaviest rain cannot leave water resting for any time
on the surface, but that it must find its way down to the subsoil, thus
percolating through, and improving the soil, instead of running violently over
the surface, and washing away the finer parts of the ground.
Art. LI.—On the Surface Fall of Water, as a guide for Under Drainage.
By James Baper, C.E.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, July 5, 1869.]
THE practical part of drainage is an agricultural subject, but the principles.
from which rules for practice are deduced, belong to general science. In this.
colony it is of importance that drainage of land be conducted on proper
principles. To examine the properties of one of these is the object of this
paper.
Water on the surface, descending from a higher to a lower level, follows
the general law of bodies in motion, moving in the line of least resistance.
At any point in the descent, this line will be found to be at right angles to the
level or contour-line of the surface at that point. Water drains off an even
surface in straight lines perpendicular to the contours, or in curves having
chords in the same direction. So if the courses of water over any land be
carefully marked, and lines be drawn at right angles to these courses, the line
so drawn will form parts of the contours of the surface.*
A drain laid in the line of these courses will possess the following
properties :—
Water will enter it on both sides with an equal pressure, the depths from
the surface being equal. It will drain equally an equal distance from each
side, for if any two equidistant points be supposed at the depth of the drain,
on what may be termed the drainage surface, on opposite sides, and opposite to
the line of drain, these points and the drain will be on the same level.
The drain will not leak, water will not enter on one side and escape
through the joints on the other side, for having sunk through the soil to
the level of the drain, it must descend through the pipe, that being in the
line of least resistance.
The forces which chiefly act on water descending from the surface of land
to the drainage level are:—impulse from water in motion, and gravitation, The
capillary and molecular attractions, and the absorbent powers of the soil, vary
so much, that they need not be calculated for general rules. These two prin-
cipal forces will operate in the line of descent, at right angles to the contour.
The deduction from this principle is, that the nearer a line of drainage
approaches the perpendicular to the contour, the more efficient that drainage
will be.
* A diagram to illustrate this has heen omitted.-— Ep.
214
Art. LIl.-—On Sewace Irricarion, and its results, with a Sketch of the
Main Drainage Systems of London and Paris. By T. 8. Tancrep,
Assoc. Inst. C.E.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, August 4, 1869.]
THERE are few subjects more interesting to the inhabitants of towns generally,
than questions relating to sanitary arrangements, and properly organized
systems of main drainage.
Although it might be thought that in every large town, such a system had
been in partial operation since the times of the Cloaca Maxima, yet it is a curious
fact that, until very recently, no large city, either in England or on the
Continent, had paid any real attention to this important subject.
The author therefore proposes to state, briefly, what steps have been taken
in London and Paris to secure effectual drainage, and to compare the working
of two distinct systems varying in some important particulars.
Up to the year 1815 it was illegal to discharge any sewerage into the
drains of the city of London. After that date it became impossible to prevent
the influx of sewage matter, and in 1847 the law was reversed, and drainage
into sewers rendered compulsory.
Commissioners were appointed to carry out the various works necessitated
by such a change, and held office until the year 1856, when the present
Board of Works was constituted.
The Board, after full investigation, resolved to adopt the scheme
elaborated by their own engineer, Mr. Bazalgette, under whose most able
administration the works were commenced in the year 1859, and will probably
be completed in the course of a year or so, contemporaneously with the
Thames embankment.
In Paris the cholera attack of 1832 first opened the eyes of the inhabi-
tants to the sanitary condition of the city, and such vigorous measures were
adopted, that in four years their sewerage system was doubled, and within the
next twenty-two years quadrupled. Paris is built in blocks, each block having
its own cesspool, which is emptied at stated times, the contents deodorized and
part sold. All waste water from the houses, and rainfall, passes into the
sewers, which are of sufficient diameter to allow of men working freely in their
interior, and of their serving as subways for the conveyance of gas and water-
pipes, and lines of telegraph. They are cleaned by means of trucks running
on iron rails, and in the case of the main sewers, by a species of boat propelled
by the pressure of the water. The annual cost of cleansing amounts to about
£30,000, whilst it is understood that little or nothing is realized by the sale of
deodorized soil,
Many difficulties arose in dealing with the sewage of London, as is
generally the case in every town which has been built before any definite idea
has been formed as to the ultimate disposal of its sewage ; one of the main
difficulties being, that the discharge was affected by the tide, a considerable
area being below the level of high-water.
The six questions which presented themselves were :—
1. At what point, and at what state of the tide, could sewage be dis-
charged into the river, so that it should not return within the more densely
inhabited portions of the metropolis ?
2. The minimum fall of the intercepting sewers ?
3. The quantity of sewage to be intercepted, whether it passed off
uniformly day and night, or in what manner ?
4. Was rainfall to be included, and what was its probable amount ?
5. Having regard to all these points, how were the sizes of the sewers to
be determined ?
215
6. What description of pumps were best suited for lifting sewage 1
After due consideration and many interesting experiments, the conclusion
was arrived at, that a district of average density of population contained 30,000
people per square mile, and the sewage was proved to be nearly equal in
amount to the water supply. The calculation was, that the average daily
amount to be provided for would be five cubic feet per head per day. The
total areas drained on the north side of the Thames amounted to about forty
square miles, on the south side to about the same, with a quantity of sewage
amounting to 40,000,000 cubic feet per day on the north, and 23,000,000
cubic feet per day on the south side, respectively.
In 1865 a Private Bill was brought before a select committee of ten
members of the House of Commons, having as its object the utilization of
the sewage on the north side of the Thames. The Board of Works had pre-
viously advertised for tenders and proposals for effecting that purpose, with a
view of making the sewage repay the cost of maintaining the drains,—the cost
of construction, which will amount to about £4,100,000, being provided for
by a rate upon an estimated rateable value of £14,500,000. The scheme
which the author is now describing was the one approved by them, and to the
advocates of which they made a grant of the total sewage on the northern
side, for a period of fifty years, upon certain terms. After a protracted
struggle the Bill was passed, in spite of the determined opposition of the
Council of the City of London, who insisted that the terms were not suffi-
ciently favourable to the ratepayers, the maximum estimated price per ton,
twopence, being, in the opinion of their advisers, far beneath the true value
of the sewage.
The main works, which were estimated to cost about £3,000,000, were
then commenced, and for the purpose of testing the value to the farmer, of
London sewage, taken just as it came down the outfall sewer, the directors
determined upon renting a small farm of about two hundred acres, in the
vicinity of Barking, to which the sewage was forced by steam-power, at the
rate of 175 cubic feet, or five tons, per minute. . : ; 1
And the corresponding
altitudes at a mean
temperature of 32° tb. ft: ft. ft.
Fah. . : : 886°9 | 1804°8| 2756-:2| 3743°5 ete.
Which altitudes divided
by the differences
of pressures would
give the factors. 886°9 | 902-4 | 9183 | 935-9 ete.
bo
eo
i
oO
ct
ie)
which could be used for calculating approximately the altitudes corresponding
respectively to the barometer readings between 30 and 29, 29 and 28, 28 and
27, 27 and 26, etc.
“Following up this idea, it further became apparent, that as the differences
of mercurial pressure are expressed in inches and decimals, the decimal
division of the differences between these factors would supply the means of
calculating factors for all intermediate barometric readings, not, it 1s true, with
perfect accuracy, but within limits of error which may be practically disregarded ;
the maximum error, from the employment of the factors in the calculations,
in the resulting altitudes, for elevations under 3250 feet, not exceeding four
inches.
“Tt will be seen at once, that in this system of calculating altitudes, the
correction for the difference between the actual and the tabular mean tempera-
ture will be most readily made, not by reducing the barometer readings, but by
correcting the tabular altitudes ; and also that if each of the factors be divided
by 480, the resulting quotients will give the constants by which they must be
respectively altered, for each degree of difference between the actual and the
tabular mean temperature. The result of the above considerations was the
construction of the following table (calculated for a mean temperature of
32° Fah., and a mercurial pressure at the sea level of 30ins.) by which the
calculation of altitudes from barometric observations may be effected rapidly,
and with the use of very few figures, without the necessity of referring to
a table of Jogarithms, and with a corresponding diminution in che lability to
numerical errors.
225
Difference in Heichtuinitect
: ght, in feet,
the Height. ot per inch of Corrections per Alsi i
Reduced the mercuria. itionenconnithe Tounan ; titudes, in
Barometer column, ae height of ifforencoun eet, above the
readings. the sea level, Ais sraverqorre Ral temperature. sea level.
and at given aiken
altitudes. :
inches, inches. feet. feet. feet.
26 4 935-9 1:9 37435
| Diff.
17:1
27 3 918°8 1:9 2756-2
{ Diff.
16:4
28 2 902-4 1-9 1804°8
| Diff.
15°5
29 1 886-9 1:8 886°9
Difh.
14:9
30 0 872°:0 1:8 Sea level.
“The table in the above form having proved of great service in the author's
professional practice, it has been extended for publication, by calculating the
altitudes for every hundredth of an inch difference in the height of the
mercurial column, from 30 inches to 26 inches ; and a column of temperatures
has been added, which will be found of considerable assistance in calculating
the difference between the actual and the tabular temperature at any given
altitude.”
Mr. Dobson then proceeds to give the principles upon which the tables
are framed, at greater length ; with full explanations of the tables themselves,
directions for registering the observations, and for using the tables in the
calculations of altitudes.
A chapter is devoted to “General Observations,” in which he states that,
‘in tolerably level country, and in clear, calm weather, the observations may
be extended to a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles from a _ well-
ascertained bench-mark without risk of serious error. If, however, there is
much wind, not only must these limits be greatly reduced, but it will be
advisable that the observations at each of the upper stations should be twice
repeated at ten minutes intervals, in order that it may be ascertained whether
the barometer is rising or falling, and that the index error may be adjusted
according to the directions whence the changes come.
“Tt must, however, be remembered that the fluctuations of the barometer
due to variations in the quantity of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere, as
well as to other causes, are so great as to render all barometric observations
valueless, as engineering data, which cannot be corrected for the deviations
from mean atmospheric pressure, by comparison with a register kept at some
neighbouring station, of which the altitude has been ascertained.”
The author suggests that “although the mercurial barometer should always
be used, when practicable for the observations at permanent meteorological
stations, it is at once too cumbrous and too fragile for the rough work of a
reconnaissance survey. For this purpose a properly compensated aneroid
barometer may be substituted, with advantage, for the more perfect instrument.
Up to the present time, the use of the aneroid barometer has, with trifling
226
exceptions, been confined to forecasting the weather, the somewhat intricate
nature of barometric calculations, having prevented its general adoption as an
instrument for taking levels. It is hoped that these tables, by removing the
difficulties referred to, will pave the way to a more extended use of this
valuable instrument which is especially adapted for taking trial sections in
wooded and mountainous districts, and with which, under proper management,
very close results may be obtained, without that expenditure of time and
money, involved in the use of the spirit level under such circumstances.”
Art. LVI. — The earth of New Zealand, a bad Conductor of Electricity,
as compared with that of other countries. By F. E. Wricut.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, September 1, 1869. }
My attention was first attracted to this subject under the following circum-
stances :—
In March, 1867, I had occasion to visit Hawkswood, in the Nelson
Province, and I returned to Christchurch via the Cheviot Hills, following the
line of telegraph all the way back. Between Hawkswood and Glenmark I
saw that a large number of the telegraph poles were lying on the ground ; they
were birch saplings, and most of those still standing appeared to be so badly
rotted at the point of their emergence from the soil, that I have but little
doubt many more fell during a south-west gale which detained me two days at
Mr. Moore’s station. I need hardly state that the poles for the whole of the
distance, here referred to, have been replaced by others of a more substantial
character.
Under these circumstances, on arriving at Christchurch, I felt it almost
useless to ask at the Telegraph Office, if the line was open to Wellington, and
was greatly surprised to find that messages could be forwarded. This was at
variance with my previous knowledge of the subject, and I thought it so
curious and exceptional, that I have since lost no opportunity of enquiring
into the matter, the result of which has been a settled conviction on my mind,
that an altogether anomalous state of the soil, so far as its conductibility of
electricity is concerned, obtains in these Islands.
Mr. de Sauty, the late electrician of the telegraph department, who is
quoted as an authority in several recent works on telegraphy, and who had
been engaged on telegraph lines in various parts of the world, assured me that
he was unaware of any other country or place exhibiting similar character-
istics.
Mr. Bird, the present Provincial Inspector of Telegraphs, informed me, a
year or two since, that were the conditions of the earth as a conductor of
electricity the same here as in Europe or America, it would have been quite
hopeless, for months together, to have endeavoured to send a telegraphic
message in any direction from Christchurch, there being faults in all the lines,
which would have proved sufficient to destroy the connection in any other
place but New Zealand.
Mr. Meddings, attached to the Telegraph Office in this city, who takes
the greatest personal interest in his vocation, and works at it with a zeal
which may be termed enthusiastic, has made many interesting experiments on
the subject. He tells me that he finds the greatest difficulty in getting a good
dead earth in Christchurch, or in fact in any part of New Zealand to which he
has been called by his employment.
This anomalous state of the earth in this country was at first to some
extent accounted for, in my mind, by the dryness of the soil, thinking that the
227
absence of moisture on the plains might render the ground a bad conductor ;
but I have since learned from Mr. Mason, the gentleman at present in charge
of the Telegraph Office here, that in some of the very driest districts of
Australia, it is only necessary to force a small iron bar a few inches into the
ground, effectually to disperse any electricity which might be conducted to it }
whereas in Christchurch, where, a foot or so from the surface, the ground is at
all times moist, an earth plate of the size ordinarily used in England disperses
the electricity in a very imperfect manner.
Mr. Meddings, in one instance, connected the wires with the pipes of an
artesian well from which the water was flowing, and it proved a very imperfect
dead earth for the electricity conducted to it. He also experimented on a
telegraph line forty-one miles in length, in the Province of Hawke’s Bay, with
the following results. ' He generated the electricity at a point about a mile
from one of the extremities of the line, which was connected with the earth by
wires and earth plates, at this point, as also at the nearest extremity. This under
all ordinary states of the earth in other parts of the world, would, I am led ie
believe, at once have disposed of any current of electricity sent along it ;
place of which, however, the electricity was resisted by the earth at each of the
places where it was connected with it, and was forced to the more distant
extremity. At the Cheviot Hills Station, which is provided with an ordinary
earth plate, a considerable portion of the electricity finds its way to Christ-
church, when it should be absorbed in the earth at the station.
T must ask your indulgence for the crude and superficial character of this
short paper, but I trust that the subject which I have thus had the temerity
to bring under your notice, may lead to its investigation by others more able
to expend time, and bring knowledge and requisite appliances to its
elucidation,
Art. LVIIL—On the Mechanical Principles involved in the Flight of the
Albatros.* By Captain F. W. Hurron, F.G.S.
[Read before the Auckland Institute, June 1, 1868.]
_ PERHAPS no subject in ornithology has been less satisfactorily treated than
that of fight, although it possesses very great interest, both for the naturalist
and the mathematician. It is, however, one of considerable difficulty, as
it has to deal with the complicated question of the resistance of the air to
bodies moving with variable velocities; and the following remarks do not
pretend to do more than indicate the principles involved in the flight of the
albatros when sailing along without moving its wings.
I must premise, at star ting, that 1 take it for granted that no movement
of the wings, body, or feathers of the bird takes place other than those
necessary for seeking its food, or altering its direction of flight, as all observers
are agreed on this point. It may also be necessary to remark that the
velocities spoken of are velocities of the bird through the air, and not over
the water, which might be very different. For example, suppose an albatros
to be flying with a velocity of 40 feet a second, against a wind having also a
* This, and the following paper on ‘‘Sinking Funds” (Art. LX.), had to be reserved -
last year, for want of the necessary algebraic type : they are now printed, together with
a reply by Mr. J. S. Webb, to Captain Hutton’s paper on the ‘‘ Flight of the Albatros.”
As it was still found impossible to procure all the mathematical signs, the following
substitutions have been made throughout :—
For Greek Beta the letter F has been inserted,
” ” Theta os) I ” 7) 9
” ” Phi ” Q ” 9 ” —Ep:
H H
228
velocity of 40 feet a second ; it is clear that the bird would remain stationary
with regard to the sea over which he was flying, nevertheless he would have a
velocity of 40 feet a second through the air, just as much as if the day was
quite calm, and he was flying both through the air and over the water equally at
the rate of 40 feet a second. This being understood, I will first suppose an
albatros, on a perfectly calm day, to be placed in the air at some distance above
the sea-level, with its wings and neck stretched out in the attitude of flight,
but without any forward movement. It is clear that the moment the support
was withdrawn, it would commence falling in a nearly vertical direction, unless,
indeed, it had power to buoy itself up by inflating its air-cells with hot air.
That it has not this power I have elsewhere shown (See “ Ibis,” July, 1865),
but for the sake of completeness I may perhaps be allowed to repeat it here.
“The temperature of the albatros, as taken by Sir G. Grey, by placing a
thermometer under the tongue, is 98° F., and if we add 10° F. to this, in order
to allow for the difference between the head and the body, we shall have the
temperature of the air-cells at 108° F. The temperature of the surrounding
air cannot be taken lower than 48° F. ; the bird, therefore, could not raise the
temperature of the air taken into these cells more than 60°F. This would
increase its volume not quite one eighth ; and taking 100 cubic inches of air
to weigh 31 grains, and the average weight of an albatros to be 17 Ibs., it
would be necessary, in order that the specific gravity of the bird might be
brought to that of the atmosphere, that these cells should contain 1820 cubic
feet of air, or in other words, they must be more than 1000 times the size of
the body of the bird. In fact it would require a sphere of more than 15 feet
in diameter to contain the necessary quantity.” This objection being disposed
of, it follows that the bird must fall.
If now we take the area of the under surface of the body, neck, and
expanded wings and tail of the albatros to be 8 square feet, and its weight
17 lbs., we see that it would take an upward pressure of 2°12 lbs. per square
foot, to support it. This pressure would be given by a current of air moving
upwards with a velocity of 20 feet a second, so that on a perfectly calm day
the bird would fall downwards at a constantly increasing rate, until it had
attained a velocity of 20 feet a second, which velocity it would keep until it
fell into the sea. This is called its ‘“‘ terminal velocity.”
It is necessary to notice that as the position of the body, wings, and wing-
feathers of the bird would be inclined to the horizon, the direction of descent
would not be quite vertical, but would be inclined in the same direction as the
body and feathers of the bird, namely, backwards.
I will next suppose that instead of being calm, a breeze is blowing with a
velocity of C feet a second. The bird would now, of course, be forced back in
the direction of the wind at the same time that it was falling. But it is well-
known that when a body at rest is set in motion, by a force acting upon it,
the body commences to move gradually, and acquires a certain velocity in a
certain time which is represented by the formula
Pitt
2 RRB l sche ft ant
ct W (1)
where v. is the velocity acquired in the time t., when a force P. acts upon a
body weighing W. lbs., g being the force of gravity. This is called the
‘“‘inertia” of the body. If then we suppose the bird to be facing the wind,
the backward velocity, communicated by the wind would increase, while the
force of the wind upon it would decrease, but of course P+v would always
be equal to C.
Vf et (OPS AEA As : : ‘ 1000 ; p< ove and
v=1.05—which in practice will include all cases—it will be found that
(p+2) t<(p+1) T—1.
The actual amount that would have to be spent by either method can be
easily found by substituting in the following formule the different values for
a, p, v, and v’.
239
\ log \ a (v—1)+pv \ —log py
B I aes) |) Q ° .
By the first method \ a (v’—1)+p ; bay.
(v’—1) @—p)
2p
a
By the second method
From this comparison it follows that when money can be invested at 5 per
cent., and the Sinking Fund is less than 7 per cent. of the loan, the first is the
more economical method ; and the smaller the Sinking Fund, and the higher
the rate of interest, the greater will be the saving effected by investing the
fund in other securities, than by using it to buy up annually part of the loan.
This however is only the mathematical or pecuniary view of the question ;
from the political point_of view many reasons can be given why the second
method should be preferred, and the difference pecuniarily is not sufficiently
great to override them.
Art. LXI.—Lisé of Plants found in the Northern District of the Province of
Auckland. By J. BucHanan and T. Kirk.
[In the course of the geological survey of the above district in 1865-6, an
extensive collection of plants was made by Mr. Buchanan, and forwarded to
Dr. Hooker, at Kew. They were, however, unfortunately, distributed by an
assistant without being examined, so that a complete list was not obtained, and
any few novelties escaped notice in the appendix to Vol. 1. of the “‘ Handbook
of the New Zealand Flora.”
From the portion of the collection retained, and from notes made on the spot,
Mr. Buchanan compiled the greater part of the following list, with the exception of
the natural orders, Junceze, Restiaceze, Cyperaceze, and Graminex, the lists of
which are furnished altogether by Mr. Kirk. As Mr. Buchanan collected in
the months of November and December, and Mr. Kirk went over most of
the same ground in April, the latter observer was also able to add largely to
the number of plants, the results, as combined in the following lists, should
give a tolerably complete Flora of each locality indicated.
An account of the chief plants of interest obtained by Mr. Kirk is given
in a paper published in the “Transactions” for last year (p. 140) ; along with
which his contribution to the following tables was to have been printed, had
not circumstances prevented it. ‘
For the characteristic plants of the district, and a comparison of its botany
with that of other parts of New Zealand, the reader is referred to Mr. Colenso’s
Essay, also in Vol. i. of the “Transactions.” —Eb. |
Introductory Remarks by J. BucHanay.
The above area may be divided into eight districts, viz. :—
1. Wangarei,
2. Bay of Islands,
3. Wangaroa,
4, Stephenson’s Island,
the latter as showing the comparative botany of a portion of land detached
from the Main Island.
5. Mount Camel,
6. North Cape.
240
Nos. 5 and 6 are isolated districts, the latter, in a great measure, cut off
from the general Flora by a peninsula of sand-hills, nearly 70 miles in length.
7. Kaitaia,
8. Hokianga.
The general facies of the vegetation over the whole is alternately bush,
and open scrubby or fern land; there being very little natural grass land,
the largest area being that at the North Cape, and even there the prevailing
species are not indigenous to New Zealand. The whole country has been, at
no distant time, covered by bush, which, no doubt, has been partially cleared
off by fires, as extensive denudation by this means is still in progress.
The most of the open land yields Kauri gum, which is obtained by digging
for afew feet beneath the surface, thus proving the Kauri pine (Dammara aus-
tralis) to have formerly been the prevailing species of tree. It might be safely
inferred from this fact alone, that a soil capable of producing such heavy forest
growth, should now yield heavy crops of other kinds; and so it would under
conditions of sufficient moisture.
In addition to the known influence of trees, in drawing more frequent
rains, evaporation is also checked, but dry soils, such as the Kauri gum land
of Auckland, or the Manuka land of Otago, are always more easily burned in
dry seasons ; and as, with every additional area added to the open country, the
whole will become more arid, it may in the end defy all improvement, even
with the aid of agricultural science. In the meantime, it is probable that the
prevailing idea that this open land is barren, may be an error ; but the principal
reason for this idea is its aridity ; it is a question therefore of some importance
whether further extensive denudations of bush may not render the country
positively barren, except in valley bottoms.
As in other parts of New Zealand, the greatest extent of the open land in
the northern district of Auckland, is found on the east coast. Much of it is
covered by fern (Pteris esculenta), but more commonly the vegetation is mixed,
including Leptospermum scoparium, L. ericoides, Pomaderris elliptica, P.
phylicifolia, Dracophyllum Urvilleanum, Coriaria ruscifolia, Leucopogon
Jasciculatum, Weinmannia sylvicola, Gleichenia circinata, Kpacris pauciflora,
Phormium tenax, with smaller plants of the Orders Lycopodiacex, Cyperacez,
Grasses and Ferns.
The bush is rich in fine species, many of which are found only in the
northern half of the North Island, although a few may push stragglers further
south ; the following are prominent species :—Dammara australis, Nesodaphne
Tarairi, Vitex littoralis, Avicennia tomentosa, Metrosideros tomentosa,
Tetranthera calicaris, Sapota costata, Iuerba brexioides, Quintinia serrata,
Pittosporum umbellatum, P. Kirkii, P. Huttoniana, Phebalium nudum,
Phylloclades trichomanoides, Colensoa physaloides.
Such is the sameness of conditions of plant-growth over this northern
part of New Zealand, that the vegetation may be classed under two Zones,
LInttoral, and Interior. No sufficient altitude existing to produce any
change worthy of notice. On Maungataniwha (2700 feet), the greatest
elevation in these districts, the bush covering the top, is not stunted in growth,
which is the first thing noticed on ascending a mountain, if change is produced
by altitude. Again on Taratara Hill, inland from Wangaroa Bay, where a
portion of the summit is open land, the vegetation is identical with that of the
lower levels.
As [have had an opportunity of comparing the vegetation at the extremes
of latitude in New Zealand, I may state that many prominent species range
over the whole islands ; of such are, Myrsine Urvilleanum, Aristotelia racemosa,
Myoporum letum, and the more important species of the Natural Order
241
Conifere ; such plants are found equally abundant and luxuriant in the north,
as in the extreme south.
Others again find their northern limits before reaching the North Cape
district, or dwindle in size from the locality of their maximum growth in the
South Island. Of such are some of the Pittosporums, Leptospermum ericoides,
and L, scoparium, Fuchsia excorticata, Griselinia littoralis, Drimys axillaris,
and D. Colorata.
The birch forests (Fagus), which are so important in the South, are also
absent from the North, a few stragglers only being found on the line of the
main ranges.
In the district under notice, frequent instances may be found of that
disposition to vary, so common among New Zealand species of plants, the cause
of which by some has been ascribed to the whole Flora having arrived at such a
delicate state of balance, that any small disturbance would produce a great
change ; but I think it more probable that causes of change have always been in
operation while a Flora existed in the islands ; and if the range of latitude, and
thermal variations which must exist over such a range be considered, it will
only require the transportation of plants from localities well suited to them,
and vice versa, to produce some variation of form, as we see.
As might be expected, arid winds seem to exert a stronger influence, in
producing plant variation, than even temperature. For instance, at the North
Cape, and Cape Maria Van Diemen, species such as Myoporum letwm,
Coprosma acerosa, and others, even under the dry warm winds of that
latitude, may be seen dwarfed and stunted, flattened out on the ground, and
hiding themselves, as it were, behind the sand-hills. The same may be seen at
Mount Camel, where large patches of low copse forest of the Akerautangi
(Dodoncea viscosa) cover the ground, whereas the same plant at Nelson, 7° of
latitude further south, forms a handsome, though small tree. In these cases
where the causes to variation are not so evident and direct as the action of
arid winds, it would appear that the tendency of a plant to vary is increased
with the distance from its centre of maximum growth.*
Iam inclined to the opinion that variation in some species shows its
derivative track by the young plants reverting to some older type form. As
an instance of this, Weinmannia Sylvicola is often seen, in the young state,
dotted over the open Kauri gum land, having only imparipinnate leaves, while
the older tree assumes a ternate form in the upper branches ; and in full adult
trees, the foliage becomes unifoliolate in the upper branches, and ternate in
the lower—thus, I infer, showing the typical foliage of two species now extinct.
It is even probable that the above species has passed through one form that
still exists in the South, Weinmannia racemosa, which also shows the extinct
form of ternate leaves, but only in the young plant and lower branches.
The limits of this paper will not allow further illustrations of this curious
point, although there might be many added with facility. Local collectors
will always be liable, in New Zealand, which possesses such a varying Flora, to
be deceived with supposed new discoveries, and may be frequently puzzled,
from the descriptions in Hooker’s “Handbook” having been frequently taken
from specimens found only in one locality. Thus, no southern collector has
*As illustrative of the influence of humidity or aridity on plant variation, the Kowhai
(Sophora tetraptera) may be taken as an example. Near Dunedin it may be said to have
acquired its maximum of growth, under the conditions of excess of cold humid winds.
On the west coast of the South Island, again, under conditions of warm humid winds,
it is a delicate drooping branched shrub-tree, while on the seaward grass hills of Marl-
borough, under the conditions of an arid cold wind, the same plant has become dwarfed
to a few inches high, covering patches of ground, and rigid enough to be walked on ;
temperature here shows the least influence, as otherwise the West Coast variety would
have been the largest.
242
probably seen the young plants of Panax Colensoi, or Scheflera digitata, with
lobulate leaves, yet such are found in the North. Again, he might be puzzled
to find Pittosporum tenuifolium with fasicles of flowers in the upper branches,
and alternate in the lower. Some of the plants of this genus are remarkably
varied in different localities, and to found species on distinctions of flowers
being umbellate or alternate, fasicled or alternate, is simply to produce confusion,
for as far as the present extent of variation has gone, there is always a common
facies in all the varieties of a species, which never can be mistaken.
So inconstant, and limited in distribution are some varieties, that it is
necessary to know the New Zealand Flora in every locality, to be able to
describe a species, and even opinions on the value of timber, etc., have only a
local value from the same cause. Hence the necessity of local observations by
many persons, and a combination of the results of their labours, as by such
means only will future botanists be able to make out the true cause and laws
of variation in plants.
RANUNCULACEE., Hoheria var. a, vulgaris, 1 25 6 7 8
Clematis indivisa, 1 2367 8 var. b, lanceolata, 1
», Colensoi, 1 2 6 7 var. c, angustifolia, 1 2 3 6 7
» parviflora, 1 var. d, crateegifolia, 5 7 8
Ranunculus plebeius, 1 235 67 8 Hibiscus Trionum, 1 6 7
¥ multiscapus, 1 2 » Laylori, 6
bs rivularis, 1 2 3 7 TILIACEA.
CRUCIFER. Entelea arborescens, 123467 8
Nasturtium palustre, 2 6 Aristotelia racemosa, 1 2367 8
Barbarea vulgaris, 1 2 6 Eleocarpus dentatus, 123678
Cardamine-hirsuta, 1 2 LINE.
Lepidium oleraceum, 1 2 Linum monogynum, 1 23 68
VIOLARES. GERANIACE®.
Melicytus ramiflorus, 12345678) Geranium carolinianum, 1 245678
a macrophyllus, 2 5 6 » microphyllum, 1 2368
es lanceolatus, 1 Pelargonium clandestinum, | 6
Hymenanthera crassifolia, 5 6 Oxalis corniculata, 123567 8
PITTOSPOREA. $5 magellanica, 27
Pittosporum tenuifolium, 1 2367.8 RuTAcesz.
Bs Colensoi, 1 238 Phebalium nudum, 1 237 8
i reflexum, | Melicope ternata, 12367"
ce crassifolium, 1 2 3 “ . Mantel 1257
a umbellatum, 1 238 i simplex. laaao
5 eugenioides, | 2 8 MELIACES.
- cornifolium, 1 2 3 8 Dysoxylum spectabile, 1 2357 8
5, Kirku, 1 RHAMNEA,
ai Huttoniana, | Pomaderris elliptica, 2 3 5 6 7
CARYOPHYLLE. os Edgerleyi, 1 6
Colobanthus Billardieri, 5 5 phylicifolia, 12345678
ELATINES. SAPINDACES.
Elatine americana, 2 Dodonea viscosa, 1 2 3 6 7 8
HYPERICINEE. Alectryon excelsum, 1 23678
Hypericum gramineum, 1 2 ANACARDIACE. ;
MALVACER. Corynocarpus levigata, 12345678
Plagianthus divaricatus, 1 2 3 6 CoRIARES.
. betulinus, 2 8 Coriaria ruscifolia, 1234567 8
1. Wangarei. 3. Wangaroa. 5. Mount Camel. 7. Kaitaia.
2. Bay of Islands. 4, Stephenson’s Island. 6. North Cape. 8. Hokianga.
243
LEGUMINOSEZ. Tetragonia expansa, 1 5 6 8
Carmichelia australis, 1 23567 8 UMBELLIFER®.
Sophora tetraptera, var. a, 1 2 3678 | Hydrocotyle elongata, 1 2 3 8
RosacEz. a Asiatica, 1 2 3 6
Rubus australis, 3 vars., 1 2367 8 Crantzia maritima, 6
Acena Sanguisorbe, 12345678 Apium australe, 1 2 3 45 6 8
SAXIFRAGE®. » tiliforme, 2
Quintinia serrata, 1 7 Angelica roszefolia, 1
Carpodetus serratus, 1 2367 8 Daucus brachiatus, 5 6
Ackama roszfolia, 1 2 7 8 ARALIACES.
Weinmannia sylvicola, 1255678 Panax simplex, 1 2367 8
DROSERACEX. » Hdgerleyi, 1 236 8
Drosera pygmea, 2 8 » erassifolium, 12367 8
» Spathulata, 2 » wLessoni, 1235678
ebinatas le 23 ORS 5», arboreum, 1235678
woe auciculata, ly 2) 7 » anomalum, 3
HALORAGER. Schefflera digitata, 1235678
Haloragis alata, 1 2 5 6 CoRNE.
5 depressa, 1 2 3 6 7 Griselinia lucida, 1 2 3 8
. maicranehe 123" G7 » littoralis, 1237 8
i. tetragyna, 35 7 Corokia buddleoides, 1 2 7
R diffusa, 1 6 5 cotoneaster, 1 6
Myriophyllum varizefolium, 1 5 LORANTHACE.
Gunnera monoica, 2 6 Loranthus tetrapetalous, 1 2 3 8
Callitriche, 2 micranthus, | 2 3 8
MyrrTacE&. Tupeia antaretica, 1 2 367
Leptospermum scoparium, 1 2 3 4 5 CAPRIFOLIACER,
678 Alseuosmia macrophylla, 1 2 3 8
ericoides, 1235678 Ar Banksii, 1 2 37 8
iMiemost dees florida, 1 2 2) if ts) 3s linariifolia, 1 2 3
ss Aividord: iL gs RUBIACEE.
5 hypericifolia, 1 23578 | Coprosma lucida, 1 235 6 8
Se robusta, 1 2367 8 55 grandifolia, 1235678
e tomentosa, 1 2 3 456 ‘ Baueriana, 1 2 4 5
78 9 petiolata, 6 7 8
scandens, 1 2 Be ‘ Cunninghamil, 2
Myrtus bullata, 1 23567 *5 robusta, 12345678
wy eelvaliphar) 152 3 spathulata, 1237 8
» pedunculata, 1 2 3 8 sy rotundifolia, 1 2
Eugenia Maire, 1 2367 8 si tenuicaulis, | 23 8
ONAGRARIER. us divaricata, 12567 8
Fuchsia excorticata, 1 23678 » parviflora, 1 7 8
Epilobium numimularifolium, 1 2368 3 acerosa, 123678
Pr tetragonum, | 6 7 linariifolia, 1 2367 8
ot glabellum, IS O08 INSHIGED dichondrefolia, 1 2 8
93 junceum, 1 2 3 6 Galium tenuicaule, |
a Billardierianum, 6 8 CoMPosITz.
Pr pallidiflorum, 1 2 6 7 Olearia furfuracea, 1 2 3 8
PASSIFLORES. =e Cunninghami, Wercar (Off 18)
Passifora tetrandra, 1 27 8 ee allotdasalee2 eo) GrS
FICOIDE®. a virgata, le ) 7
Mesembryanthemum australe, 1 2 3 4 » olandri, 12368
5678 Celmisia (Monroi 2), 1
1. Wangarei. 3. Wangaroa. 5. Mount Camel. 7. Kaitaia,
2. Bay of Islands. 4. Stephenson’s Island. 6. North Cape. 8. Hokianga.
KK
Lagenophora Forsteri, 1 2 367 8
lanata, 1 2
Bidens pilosa, 1 5 6
Cotula coronopifolia, 1
australis, 6
» minuta, 6
Cassinia retorta, 1 2 6 8
» leptophylla, 123468
Ozothamnus glomeratus, 1
cs lanceolatus, 8
Gnaphalium luteo-album, | 6
Keriense, 1 6
involucratum, 1 2 6
= collinum, 1 2 6
Senecio lautus, 1 2368
» glastifolius,
Brachyglottis repand
Picris hieracioides, 1
Sonchus oleraceus, 1
CAMPANULACES.
Wahlenbergia gracilis,
Colensoa physaloides
Lobelia anceps, 1 2 3
Selliera radicans, 1 2
ERICEs.
Gaultheria antipoda,
i rupestris,
Cyathodes acerosa, 1
Leucopogon fasciculatus,
e Frazeri, |
Epacris purpurascens, |
» pauciflora, 1235678
Dracophyllum latifolium, 1 2367 8
squarrosum, 2 3
= Urvilleanum,125678
MyYRSINES.
Myrsine salicina, 1 2
Urvillei, 1 2
PRIMULACES.
Samolus littoralis, 1
SAPOTER.
Sapota costata, 1 2 5 6
JASMINE.
Olea Cunninghami, 1 3 7 8
», lanceolata, 1 3 6 7
montana, 1 2 3
APOCYNES.
Parsonsia albiflora, 1 2367 8
LOGANIACER.
Geniostoma ligustrifolium, 1 2 3 4 5
678
CONVOLVULACE.
Convolvulus sepium, 1 2367 8
237
9?
9?
99
12
ae
26
26
oJ
_
me ae
3
4
6
1
1
2
368
35678
9
23678
99
1. Wangarei.
2. Bay of Islands.
3. Wangaroa.
4, Stephenson’s Island.
244
Convolvulus Tuguriorum,
Soldanella, 1
erubescens, 6
marginata, 1 2
Ipomea tuberculata, 25 6 7
Dichondra repens, 1
SOLANE.
Solanum aviculare, 1 2
oe nigrum, e216
SCROPHULARINES.
Gratiola sexdentata, 2
ee eeeMatae lie es
Glossostigma elatinoides, 2
Veronica speciosa, 8
macroura, 1 6
salicifolia, 1 2
parviflora, 1 2
ligustrifolia, 1
diosmeefolia, 2
elongata, 2
GESNERIACE.
Rhabdothamnus Solandri, 1 2 3 6 7 8
V ERBENACES.
Vitex littoralis, 123567 8
Teucridium parvifolium, 3
Avicennia officinalis, | 2 3
Myoporum letum, 1 2 35
LABIATA.
Mentha Cunninghami, 1 2
PLANTAGINES.
Plantago Raoulii, 5 6
NYCTAGINE.
Pisonia Brunoniana, 1 2
CHENOPODIACES.
Chenopodium ambiguum, | 6 7
ambrosioides, 1 2 6
carinatum, 1 2 6
Ssifisemain indica, 123678
AMARANTHACER,
A lternanthera sessilis,
PARONYCHIES.
Scleranthus biflorus, 1 4 6
POLYGONES.
Polygonum decipiens, 1 2
‘ aviculare, 1 2
Muhlenbeckia adpressa, |
complexa, 1
1267
9?
99
3678
78
3
5
2
6
6 8
678
9?
12567
DN aan
99
Rumex flexuosus,
LAURINES.
Tetranthera calicaris, 1235678
Nesodaphne Tarairi, 1 23567 8
Tawa, 123678
5 var. Tawa-rau-nui, | 2
5. Mount Camel. 7. Kaitaia.
6. North Cape. 8. Hokianga.
99
245
Cassytha paniculata, 6
MonIMIACES.
Atherosperma Nove Zelandiz, 1 2 3
78
Hedycarya dentata, 1 2
PROTEACEZ.
Knightia excelsa, 123567 8
Persoonia Toro, 1 237 8
THYMELES.
Pimelea virgata, 12367 8
5 arenaria, 12345678
35678
» prostrata, 1235678
SANTALACE.
Santalum Cunninghami, 1 2 37 8
EuPHORBIACER.
Euphorbia glauca, 1 2367 8
Waiicn a,
Epicarpurus microphyllus, 1 2
Hlatostemma rugosum, 1 2 3 7
CHLORANTHACER.
Ascarina lucida, 1 237 8
PIPERACES.
Peperomia Urvilleana, 1
Piper excelsum, 1 2 3 5
CoNIFER2.
Dammara australis, 1 2 3 6
Libocedrus Doniana, 1 2
Podocarpus ferruginea, |
3 Totara, 1 2 3
3% spicata, 1 2 3
5 dacrydioides, |
Dacrydium cupressinum, |
Colensoi, 3
Phyllocladus trichomanoides, 12368
ORCHIDEA.
Earina mucronata, 1 2 3 8
» autumnalis, 1 238
Dendrobium Cunninghami, | 2 3
Bolbophyllum pygmeum, | 8
Corysanthes triloba, 1 2
Microtis porrifolia, 1 2 3 7 8
Pterostylis Banksii, 1 2 3 7
Prasophyllum pumilum, 2 6 7
TRIDEZ.
Libertia ixioides, 1 2
a5 grandiflora, 1
PANDANES.
Freycinetia Banksii, 1 2 3 8
TYPHACER.
Typha angustifolia, 12345678
Sparganium simplex, |
NAIADES.
Lemna minor, 6
2
6
3
2
6
6
1. Wangarei.
3. Wangaroa.
2. Bay of Islands.
4, Stephenson’s Island.
Triglochin triandrum, 1 2 6
Zostera marina, 1 3 6
Potamogeton heterophyllus, 2
LILIACEs.
Rhipogonum scandens, 1 2 3 6 7 8
Cordyline australis, 1235678
4s Banksi, 123567 8
a Pumilio, 1235678
Dianella intermedia, 1 2 3 6 7
Astelia Cunninghami, | 2 3 4
oe banksue 1 2: 1OniaS
» Noland, 1245678
» grandis, 6
Arthropodium cirrhatum, 1 2 3 4 5 6
78
Phormium tenax, 12345678
a Colensoi, 1 2 6 7
PALMES.
Areca sapida, 123678
J UNCER.
Juncus communis, 1 6
» planifolius, 1 2 6
» australis, 2
» Iaritimus, 2 6 8
» effusus, 2
», bufonius, 1 6 8
vaginatus, 6
Luzula campestris, 1 2 7 8
», Oldfieldii, 1278
» pumila, 1278
RESTIACES.
Leptocarpus simplex, 1 2 6 7
CYPERACE.
Cyperus ustulatus, 1 2 6 8
Scheenus, axillaris, 1 6
“| Lendo: 1256
3: tenax, 1256
Scirpus maritimus, 1 2 4
», lacustris, D
», triqueter, 8
Eleocharis sphacelata, 2 6 7 8
¥ var. gracillima, 1
b platylepis, 2 6
Isolepis prolifer, 1 2 6
i) wlpania.:2 16
» nodosa, 6
5678
Desmoscheenus spiralis, 1 23467 8
Cladium glomeratum, 1 2 6
» teretifolium, 1 2 6
., axrticulatum, 1 2° 6
» Jjunceum, 5 6 7
» Sinelairi, 6
Gahnia setifolia, 1 7 8
5. Mount Camel. 7. Kaitaia.
6. North Cape. 8. Hokianga.
Gahnia lacera, 1 6
xanthocarpa, | 3
» arenaria, 1 2 6
Lepidosperma tetragona, 1 5 6 8
5 concava, 1 26
Uncinia australis, 1 8
‘ Banksu, 1
Carex ternaria, 1 28
virgata, 1237 8
pumila, 6 8
breviculmis,
dissita, 1 6
Lambertiana, | 2
vacillans, 1 6
GRAMINE.
Microleena stipoides, 2
os avenacea, |
Spinifex hirsutus, 1 2 46 7 8
Paspalum scrobiculatum, 1 2 6
me distichum, 6
Panicum imbecille, 1 2 6 7
Isachne australis, 1 2
Echinopogon ovatus, 2 4 7 8
Dichelachne stipoides, 4 5 6
Sporobolus elongatus, 1 2 6
Agrostis emula, 6 7 8
Billardieri, 6
s quadriseta, 2 6
Arundo conspicua, 12345678
Danthonia Cunninghami, 2
seml-annularis, 1 2 3 45 6
78
Poa breviglumis, 5
» anceps, 1 5 6 7
», foliosa, 4 5
Festuca scoparia, 5 6 8
5, littorals, 12.7.8
Triticum multiflorum, 2
FILICES.
Gleichenia circinata, 1 2
. flabellata, 1 2
Cyathea dealbata, 1 2 3
medals 12
y Cunninghami,
Dicksonia squarrosa, 2 7
a lanata, 1237 8
Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, 1 2 3
(Xs)
22
16
29
)?
9
oe
a
minimum, 3
rarum, 1 2 8
dilatatum, 123678
)
ad
46
Hymenophyllum demissum, 1 23678
scabrum, 38
isichoranes reniforme, 1
strictum, 8
elongatum, 12
Ks humile, 1 2
Loxsoma Cunninghami, 1 2
Lindsza linearis, 1 2 3 6 7
5 trichomanoides,
Adiantum hispidulum, 1
Cunninghami,
fulvum, | 2 6
xthiopicum, |
a formosum, 1
Hypolepis tenuifolia, 1 2
Millefolium, 1
“ distans, 1 3
Pellea falcata, 2 3
» rotundifolia, 12367 8
Cheilanthes tenuifolia,
Pteris esculenta, 1 2 3
tremula, 1 2 3
6
ie
23
97
37
99
92
99
3678
bb)
it
4
Seaberula, 1 2
incisa,: 1 2 3
macilenta, |
Mndlicheran ;
Wowie filiformis,
procera, 1
fluviatilis,
mombranaces,
pumila, |
lanceolata,
discolor, 1
Banksii, 6
Fraseri, 1 2
Moodin media, 1 2 4
s Candera 12
Asplenium obtusatum m,
lucidum, iG
Pilea,
Hookerianu, ¥ of
bulbiferum, 1
flaccidum, 1 3 5
australe, 1
Aspidium Richardi, 15678
Nephrodium velutinum, 7
decompositum, 1 2 7
$3 hispidum, 1 25 7 8
Polypodium australe, 1 3
Grammitidis, 1 2 7 8
tenellum, 1 7
2
a
12
2
1
2)
23
6
5
6
2?
ID
2378
78
99
99
x crispatum, 1 2 3 8 ms rugulosum, 2
Rs polyanthos, 123678 ue pennigerum, 125678
1. Wangarei. 3. Wangaroa. 5. Mount Camel. 7. Kaitaia.
2. Bay of Islands. 4. Stephenson’s Island. 6. North Cape. 8. Hokianga.
TRANS. OF NZANSTITUTE VOLIE Plate iif
A
Lteiiticgag
WIND WORN STONES
Ly ans Bay Wellington
HO illustrate Paper by WIL. Travers.
SBuchanan deb. &th, “ Lyinied at the GonGov Lith Fess by TE arle,
247
Polypodium rupestre, 125678 Marattia salicina, 1 2
ry Cunninghami, 1235 7 | Ophioglossum vulgatum, 1
f pustulatum, 1257 8 Botrychium Geren ium, 1 2 6
nF Billardieri, 12345678 LycopopracE&.
Todea africana, 3 6 Lycopodium etenges 1237
Leptopteris hymenophylloides, 1 2 3 Ap densum, 2 56
58 5 laterale, 2 ° 6
Lygodium articulatum, 1 23678 Mi cernuum, 2 5
Schizzea dichotoma, 1 237 8 volubile, 1235678
=; - lovanteley 1 7p Timesipteris Forsteri, 1 2 6
1. Wangarei. 3. Wangaroa. 5. Mount Camel. 7. Kaitaia.
2. Bay of Islands. 4. Stephenson’s Island. 6. North Cape. 8. Hokianga.
Art. LXII.—On the Sand-worn Stones of Evans’ Bay. By
W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S.
(With Illustrations.)
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, February 9, 1869.]
THE first specimen of these curious stones brought under my notice was given to
me by young Mr. Hackworth, the son of the Acting Collector of Customs here,
who informed me that he had found it near an old Maori kitchen-mound, in Lyall’s
Bay. This specimen (Fig. 1), is an inch and a half in length, pointed at both
ends, and presenting three equal triangular facets. Both extremities of the
stone have a slight twist in opposite directions, such as would, if it were used
as an arrow-head, insure its more direct flight, in the same manner as the twist
given to a bullet by the rifling of a gun. The facets, moreover, are perfectly
smooth and slightly concave, and the edges quite sharp. A cross section any-
where would give an equilateral triangle, the greatest length of side, through
the middle of the stone, being rather over half an inch. Looking to the
extreme regularity of the shape of this stone, it is difficult, even with our
present knowledge of the manner in which it was formed, to realize the fact
that it is not an artificial production. When I first obtained it, I showed
it to Dr. Hector and Mr. Mantell, and although we all came to the conclusion,
at that time, that it was an artificial production, we were unable to assign any
particular use to it. The most plausible suggestion was that it had been. used
to cut and polish the grooves in the “ Hei Tiki” or jade ornaments worn by
natives of rank. However, on applying to several Maoris, they said that they
had never seen any stone like it, and that the grooves in the ‘‘ Hei Tiki” were
not cut in the manner suggested.
A short time after | received the stone I again saw young Mr. Hackworth,
who described to me where he had found it, and promised to show me the
exact spot, at the same time informing me that “there were plenty more
there.” This was somewhat puzzling, and soon afterwards I went to the locality
indicated, in company with Dr. Hector and Mr. Mantell, who were both
anxious to solve the apparent mystery, and we then found that this stone had
been reduced to its present form by an action, and under circumstances which
I will now describe to you, and at the same time we collected the series of
illustrative specimens now on the table.
You all know the peninsula occupied by Mr. Crawford as a sheep run,
which lies at the eastern side of Evans’ and Lyall’s Bays, and you also all
know that the side of that peninsula adjoining those bays presents a pretty
248
regular hill face running north-west and south-east. The hills on the western
side of both bays also present an equally regular slope running in the same
direction. The distance between these two ridges is about half a mile, and
the space intervening between the waters at the heads of Lyall’s and Evans’
Bays is occupied by a boulder bank and sand-dunes, about a mile ora mile
and a quarter in width. The boulder bank lies in the middle of this space,
and forms a ridge sloping from a summit towards both bays—the summit
being slightly higher than the general level of the sand-dunes on either side of
it. Between the boulder bank and the water line in each of the bays, lie
these sand-dunes, composed of ordinary siliceous sea sand, here and there
clothed with the vegetation usual to such habitats. The stones composing the
boulder bank are chiefly sandstones, varying much in size and hardness, and in
some instances intersected with little veins of quartz.
Now you are aware that the prevalent winds here are north-west and south-
east, and blowing as they frequently do with considerable force through the
opening between Evans’ and Lyall’s Bays, they are constantly carrying the sand of
the dunes from one side of the boulder bank to the other. The motion of drift-
sand is by a succession of jumps along the surface of the ground, and, strange
as it may seem, it is the cutting action of the sand in its passage over the
boulder bank which produces these stones. This is evident from an examina-
tion of the series of specimens before you, and becomes the more so when they
are seen in the locality indicated. The action of drift-sand in cutting rock has
long been observed, and, indeed, in the Museum you have many specimens
illustrative of this action, but in no instance that I am aware of, has it been
noticed as producing results of so remarkable a character, as those which I
have so imperfectly brought before you.
The cutting action of drift sand has received much attention from geolo-
gists and engineers engaged in examining the line of the great Pacific railway,
and it would be interesting to ascertain whether anything of the same kind had
been observed by them.
1g Ali Jt dee
LECTURES.
ie
ANGE
Pay or,
On the Nature oF Art. By James Epwarp FirzcEraLp.
[Lecture delivered at the Colonial Musewm, Wellington, August 18, 1868.]
It was once said that ‘‘ Man made the town, but God made the country ;” and
I do not know that any expression more immediately or strikingly suggests
the two great branches into which all human learning may be divided ;—the
two great divisions, in one or other of which must be placed all the objects
which are presented for our curiosity or our study, m such a Museum as that
in which I address you this evening.
The phenomena of nature, and the phenomena of man—the study of
nature and the study of man—these two embrace the whole range of human
enquiry.
Tt is no new discovery, although we seem to realize it more distinctly
with every fresh step in scientific knowledge, that all the operations which are
going on in the universe around us, all the subtle and manifold changes, which
transform the external appearance of our planetary home, from epoch to epoch,
year to year, season to season, and hour to hour, are conducted, not by the
chapter of accidents, not by arbitrary will, but by fixed and irrevocable law.
In our present provisional and partial insight into nature, we call by
technical names, and arrange and classify under technical systems, the unity of
which, or the connection “between which, are at present but very dimly
perceived, those hidden relations which subsist between the particles of matter,
and which produce the various phenomena which become the subject of our
observation and study. hat strange quality by which the planets revolve in
their orbits, and the mountains remain fixed in their places undisturbed by the
gyrations of the world in space, we call the law of gravity. We speak of the
laws of chemistry and electricity, of light, and heat, and sound, of statics and
dynamics, and of the rest and motion of fluids, and so on ; and, with a far less
definite sense of what we mean, we talk of the powers of animal and vegetable
life ; and perhaps the day may come, when we shall be able to recognise in
all these various laws, the anidleneas of one all-comprehensive principle,
impressed upon and inherent in all created matter, of which the laws at
present within the scope of our philosophy are but partial and subordinate
manifestations. However this may be, it will be admitted by all, that the
tendency of scientific knowledge has been to present nature to us as under the
influence of fixed law, as opposed to arbitrary will.
In the earlier ages of the world, when the intelligence of man had not
penetrated beyond a superficial observation of the external appearance of
things, he was wont to ascribe to the powers of uature, a personality similar to
that which he recognised in himself. He loved to symbolise its localities and
operations under the forms of imaginary beings, invested with such human
characters and attributes as were suggested by Aine emotions and feelings which
those localities and operations natur. ally awoke in his mind. Thus the streams
and the groves, the winds and the ocean, the voleano and the whirlpool, were
clothed in the language of the poet, and in popular belief, with the forms and
char i nymphs and dryads,
Afolus with his cavern-bound winds, Neptune and his Tritons, Vulcan and his
Cyclops ; until every power of nature was endowed in popular superstition
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252
with a personal and individual will, influenced by motives and subject to caprices
similar to those of humanity, and operating sometimes for the benefit, and
sometimes for the destruction of man.
It has not been until comparatively modern times, and even now, I fear,
but over a small part of the human family, that scientific knowledge has
triumphed over popular credulity ; and that the realm of nature is presented
to us in every part, as subject to immutable /aw, from which the idea of choice
or will, of object or design, residing in matter itself or in the powers of nature,
is absolutely excluded.
When, however, we pass from the phenomena of nature, to those con-
nected with man, a new scene opens to our view. We stand face to face with
free will ; with a new creative power at work in the midst of the vast and
complex machinery of nature. If you take two seeds from the same plant,
apparently, so far as you can judge, similar in all respects, and plant them in
the same soil, and in the same climate, there shall grow from them two trees
widely differing from each other, in size, and strength, and character. Yet we
do not suppose for a moment that any act of choice or will on the part of the
tree has modified its form or its growth; but rather that the unknown incidents
of nourishment and of atmosphere, of sunlight and of moisture, have dictated
the development of every leaf and every fibre. Butif you take two human beings,
apparently similar in the cradle, subject them to the same education and
the same influences, and observe them at successive periods of life, you are
compelled to admit, that the result in each has not been arrived at solely by
the operation of natural and mechanical laws, but by those laws modified,
controlled, interfered with, by the operation of an independent force residin
in the man himself,—by his power to choose or to refuse—by his free will.
At what exact point this free will first enters into the scale of nature, is
perhaps the most insoluble of all the mysteries by which we are surrounded.
Does it appear first with locomotion? Is the cow absolutely free to turn to
the right hand or to the left, to crop the wholesome, and reject the poisonous
herbage as she pleases? Or are all animals like plants, only more delicate and
complicated parts in the one vast mechanism of nature? Or if we admit a
certain degree of free will to the higher animals, shall we apply the same law
to the oyster and the polypus? Or what shall we say of that large portion of
animated nature, which lies in the border land between the animal and
vegetable kingdoms? In truth it would appear as if not only the will, but
most, if not all, the mental powers of man had their latent germs in the lower
animals ; and that these germs are more perfectly developed as we rise in the
scale of creation. Thus we can trace in animals the emotions of courage and
fear, memory and hope, love and hatred, gratitude and revenge, joy and sorrow,
and a distinct though imperfect power of reason, connecting cause with effect
and governing the actions accordingly. Of the creative power of imagination
I am not aware that any trace has been discovered except in man.
To whatever extent, then, if to any, we may consider animals as governed
by a personal will under the influence of moral emctions, superimposed upon
mechanical law, it is certain that the evidence of such an independent will in
man is infinitely greater than in any lower order of beings ; and that, so far as
we know, he stands alone amidst creation as possessing a creative power of
imagination. And there is no reason, because impenetrable mist obscures the
boundary line between matter subjected to mechanical law alone, and matter
subjected, not only to such law, but to the operation of external and indepen-
dent will, that we should therefore ignore the broad and unmistakable
difference between the two classes of facts which present themselves at the
opposite ends of the scale; between, on the one hand, such facts as are
presented to us by chemical experiments, the result of which we can confidently
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53
predict, and on the other, by the phenomena of human action and caprice,
which elude all possibility of scientific mensuration.
I know, indeed,—and I notice it, not because it will enter into consideration
this evening, but because it would be disingenuous if I were to pretend to be
ignorant of the fact ;—I know it has been argued, that man himself, not only
in his lower and material organisation, but even in the more subtle and im-
palpable action of his reason, his imagination, and his will, is equally the
unconscious subject of the same immutable law which he recognises in external
nature ; that he is no more than a passive and predestinated instrument, no
more than one inert link, in the mechanical chain of cause and effect, which
unites the past to the future in the sequence of the operations of nature.
I will pass by the wide field for discussion which this strange philosophy opens
to our view ; because it is sufficient for our purpose this evening to assume,
that, even were the doctrine of predestination established, were it proven that
free will in man is a chimera, and the creative powers of his imagination no
more than a delusion, still the laws of human action, what we are content to
call his power of choice, his free will, are so entirely different from and inde-
pendent of the natural laws of growth and change, that, as compared with the
latter, we may logically consider man as possessed of an inherent power of
action, independent of mechanical law. And we recognise this power, not only
as modifying his own growth and development, but still more clearly in the
action of man upon the world which he inhabits, in the creations of his hand
and his brain. I have said the tree grows in obedience to mechanical law.
Given its origin, and the circumstances surrounding it, and it must of necessity
have attained its own particular form and stature and character ; that indi-
vidual one and none other. But the house does not grow in obedience to any
such law. It was not in compliance with any such law that there are so many
windows in the roof above me, instead of six or seven or any other number,
That particular number, and so all the special proportions of this building,
were the result of choice and design on the part of the architect, who was free
to select or reject as he pleased. And so it is that when we pass from the
operations of nature to the works of man, we pass from the world of nature
into the world of Art; for Art is a term which embraces every modification
in the forms of nature which has been achieved by the intelligence, the
imagination, the memory, the creative power, the imitative ability, the skilful
ingenuity of man.
What is it, then, which we mean by Art? It is not the mere mechanical
combination of matter into new forms, designed for new uses, with which Art
deals. Art takes no cognizance of the principles of structure, or the nature of
materials, or the composition of the elements which it uses as a language in
which to convey its ideas. Art deals only with the images produced, in respect
to their beauty or their ugliness ; that is to say, in respect to the effect which
such images have upon the mind of man ; upon that quality of his mind which
receives pleasure from the perception of beauty, and pain from the presence of
the opposite. And this feeling of pain or pleasure is evoked, not only by the
manifestation of beauty or the contrary in material form, but from ideas which
have a less material embodiment. It is the images which arise in or are
impressed on the mind, in respect to their beauty or the reverse, which, and
which alone, are within the realm of Art.
Although Art takes no cognizance of the laws of nature, even when
expressing itself in materials subject to those laws, yet it is limited and con-
trolled by them. For example: if you build a house, you must build it in
compliance with the law of gravity operating on your materials, or it will
cease to be a house; it will tumble down. If you paint a picture you must
use pigments and colours which will not undergo chemical change, cr your
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54
colours will fade under your brush; the idea in your mind will have no
expression. If you would produce a strain of music on a violin, you must rub
your bow with resin and not with grease, or your music will remain amongst the
eternal silences. If you make a pudding, you must use ingredients which will
combine in the manner you expect, or your pudding will curdle, and, as a
work of art, will be nothing more than a praiseworthy intention. But still
it is not with the material conditions of the work that Art deals. These
are within the province of the mechanist and workman, not of the Artist.
Nor does Art enquire what are the uses for which a thing is made, nor
of its fitness or the contrary, for such uses ; further than our perception of
such fitness or unfitness may enhance or destroy our sense of beauty. Art
deals solely with works in respect to their beauty; that is, in respect to
their capacity to kindle in the mind that emotion which the contemplation
of beauty affords.
When we say that Art is limited by the laws of nature, we mean no
more than this—that Art is limited by the possibility of expression in
material forms. And all ideas must be expressed more or less in material
forms; for even ideas unwritten and unspoken are incapable of being
recognised by the mind, except through the medium of language. If we
think at all, we think in a language of some sort. Art, thonetore) must
have an expression ; and that expression is subject to the laws which govern
the materials which it uses for the purpose. But within these limics,
subject only to the conditions thus imposed, the artist roams free and
uncontrolled in a paradise of his own fancy, peopled by the creations of
his own teeming brain. And so, in and around the material world, and
out of elements of which he is himself a part, man weaves a new world,
which hangs like a vision around the coarser elements of matter, and by
the spells of his creative fancy, he calls into existence the world of Art.
I may seem, by what I have said, to imply, that the idea of material
beauty, is wholly independent of the physical laws which rule the operations
of nature. But upon this point we should speak with the caution and modesty
becoming a very limited perception of truth. For we do not know that
there may not be some necessary connection between the laws of nature
and the manifestation of beauty. How can we say that the glories of the
evening sky are not a necessary result of the same causes by which the
revolution of the earth brings the sun every evening on the horizon ; which
guide the lght of the sun through space, and refract it through our
atmosphere, and, absorbing some of the rays, transmit the rest in colour to
our eyes; which suck up the moisture of the earth into the heavens, and
suspend it in graceful drapery over our heads? Who shall say that the
solemn beauty | of the primeval forest is not an essential and necessary
consequence of the laws by which the forest grew? Certain it is that the
full development of the powers of life in an individual bears with it a
higher degree of physical beauty than the same individual exhibits, when its
vitality is impaired by age or sickness. The more perfectly fitted things are
for the uses for which they are designed, the more beautiful do they frequently
appear. For example, a yacht is more beautiful than a coal barge, even
in the eyes of those who are entirely ignorant of the superiority of one over
the other as a machine for sailing. I say not that this is a universal law ; but
I do say that its frequent appearance is sufficient to raise a doubt, whether
the production of beauty may not, in some manner of which we can form
no conception, be inherently and necessarily connected with the mechanism. of
nature.
I have said that Art, in the proper sense of the term, does not deal
with the productions of man in any other respect than as regards their
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beauty. Indeed, the term is often used in a more limited sense, as applying
only to works which are produced solely for their beauty—such as pictures,
statues, and so on; which are therefore called, par excellence, works of Art.
But it is clear that the term is capable of a n nuch wider aj pplication ; because,
if we make anything for a special use, if it be only a toasting fork, we can
conceive a vast variety of forms in which it may be moulded, all of which
may equally subserve the same end, but which may ditfer widely from one
another in ornament and in beauty. In so far as the thing is a machine
for doing a particular work, it is beyond the cognizance of Art ; but in so far
as it is more or less beautiful, it is a work of Art.
Hence it is, that not only objects which are made Solely for creating
pleasure, such as pictures and statues, but things which are in the first instance
designed for physical utility, are equally works of Art. Thus our churches,
our houses, our chairs and tables, our fire-irons and our clothes, our carriages
and our crockery, all bear witness, not only to the skill of the workman, but
to the inventive fancy of the artist ; and the graceful curvature of a chignon
has no more claim to the dignity of Art than the delicate colouring ae:
tobacco-pipe ; though the one object is designed to enhance the beauty of
women, the other the comfort of men ; nor does it alter the result that the
former as signally fails, as the latter succeeds in its mission.
In short, there is nothing upon which man bestows labour, which does
not come more or less within the realm of Art. Hence it 1s that the study
of Art is co-ordinate with the study of mankind. It is not only in monuments
_and pictures and statues, but in every specimen of handicraft, that we read
the history of the people by and for whom they were made. A people thus
unconsciously writes 1ts own history in the daily works of its hands. For
by these records we learn not only what its workmen and artists could do, but
what the people for whom they worked used to admire. The artist not only
acts upon, but is reacted upon by the age and race in which he lives. When
he aims at producing the beautiful, he is influenced by the consciousness of
what his patrons, the public, will accept or recognise as beautiful. It is the
same with the poet. In his creations, the poet unconsciously assimilates the
standard of his readers. If he describes a hero, he describes a character such
as his age and race recognises as heroic. Thus Homer has not only handed
down to us poems which have for centuries commanded the interest and
admiration of mankind, but he has preserved to us for ever the great historic
fact, what was the true type of a hero in the mind of an ancient Greek.
And thus, too, the legends of King Arthur’s table teach us what was regarded
for centuries in England as the highest standard and model of chivalry. So
it is in Art. From the works of past ages, we learn what sort of thing
it was which a people admired at the time those works were produced. And
it is owing to this sympathy between the artist and his race and age, that
we trace a distinctive character in the Art of the different nations of antiquity,
which can never be mistaken for one another. Thus the Assyrian, the
Egyptian, the Greek, the Roman, the Saxon, the Byzantine, the Moorish, and
so on, all present peculiar characteristics of style and design and workmanship,
which are easily recognised. And there is, moreover, a sort of relation,
which it is far easier to appreciate than to describe in language, between the
productions of the artist and those of the poet and the historian of the same
age and people. Perhaps the most striking instance of this is that presented
by the Assyrian sculptures discovered by Mr. Layard, and now in the British
Museum. Often have I been powerfully moved when gazing on those strange
monuments, made, as they are, of the most perishable material, and yet almost
miraculously preserved for us for more than two thousand years, by being
buried in the warin and dry sand of the desert—often have I thought that
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those very monuments had been, no doubt, seen by the Prophet Ezekiel
himself, when he penned his inspired visions on the banks of the River
Chebar ; and that the artistic forms by which he was surrounded impressed
themselves upon the peculiar imagery in which he delivered his divine message
to his captive race. The unity of feeling, of fancy, of imagination, between
the language of Hzekiel and the marbles of Nineveh, is too obvious and
remarkable not to strike any one who has carefully studied them together.
And thus we read in the material works of Art, as in the creations of
the poet, the character of the imagery, the style of workmanship, the type
of ornament, the sort of ideas, in fine, in which, the people for whom the
work was made were accustomed to seek the gratification of that yearning for
the beautiful, which is one of the ruling powers of the human soul. The most
barbarous people has some sort of perception of the difference of forms, in
respect of their beauty ; and seeks, it may be in very grotesque ornament and
distorted images to gratify its capacity for admiring. And so it leaves behind,
in the works of its hands, a record from which we may infer somewhat of the
character of its mind, and the state of its civilisation.
But not only do we find a perceptible difference in the character of the
Art of different races, but there is also a history in the Art of each. There
is a distinct law of growth and change, of culmination and decay. In no Art
is this history so distinctly traceable as in the Greek and the Roman. The
Roman, indeed, may be regarded as merely an off-shoot and product of the
Greek ; for in Rome, Art was exotic and imitated, not indigenous. And this,
no doubt, arises from the fact, first, that no other race has left us anything like
the same number of works of Art extending over so many centuries, in coins,
and gems, statues and vases, made in imperishable materials ; and secondly,
because no nation ever approximated to the Greek in the perception and love
of the beautiful ; and therefore in the Art of no people is there the same
difference between its worst and best works. Now we find one remarkable
law pervading this history of Art; namely, that it grew with the growth of a
race, and decayed with its national vigour. And this is by no means accounted
for by the increased wealth which accompanies national prosperity ; for
neither a man nor a people can do more than it is in them to do, because they
get more money for it. There is, besides, abundant evidence, that the standard
of Art and the perception of beauty do not rise and fade with mere wealth.
Long before the time when the wealth of the Roman began to decay, he had lost
the only inspiraticen he ever received from his Greek master ; and his Art was
rapidly degenerating, when his wealth and luxury were at their greatest. But
with the Greeks, the growth of their race, not only in the parent States but in
all their numerous colonies which studded the coast of the Mediterranean,
from the Pillars of Hercules to the valleys of Lycia, is written in indelible
characters upon their Art, from the earliest ages to the culmination of their
glory in the age of Pericles ; and in the same language, the decay of national
life after the time of Alexander the Great, is recorded with equal fidelity.
And so well ascertained is this law of growth and change, that the archeologist
is never at a loss to assign to any work of Art, the approximate period, in
which it was produced. If you take the series of coins of any one city, such
as Thurium or Tarentuim, in Magna Grecia, on which one type occurs through-
out, you get the most perfect illustration of the growth of Art. The common
type on the coins of Thurium was a rushing bull; on those of Tarentum, on
the obverse, a horse, and on the reverse, a boy riding on a dolphin. In the
earlier part of the series of these works, you find the first attempts of the
artist to express his idea. The character of the work is hard and crude, but
thoroughly honest and conscientious. You can see that the artist is doing his best.
He never slurs an outline, but always renders it distinctly. There is no flow
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in the lines, they are rigid and unyielding. They are like the first lispings of
the child to speak ; the effort is great and the success imperfect, but you feel
that it is but lisping ; it is not the language the child will one day talk. As
time goes on the work improves; the skeleton is filled in with flesh, the
detail is elaborated. The artist gets a more complete mastery over his subject,
but loses none of his truth ; for it is evident that he is still taking his inspira-
tion from Nature. Recollect, I am not speaking of the life of one artist, but
of the operation of many cycles of years. Hach artist deals with the same type,
sacred to his city from its relation to its mythical traditions, but he does not
copy from his predecessors. He works in the studio of Nature, and owns no
other master. And so, at last, you have in some of these little silver coins,
no larger than a shilling, some of the most glorious works of Art which the
world has produced.
Jt was this character of faithfulness and honesty to his Art and his subject,
which was the peculiarity of Greek, as it is of all truly great Art. Take, for
example, those marbles which stand unrivalled in the artistic efforts of
mankind—the groups from the Pediment of the Parthenon, now in the Elgin
Gallery of the British Museum. These statues stood more than forty feet
from the ground ; they were somewhat larger than life size ; and they stood,
of course, against the wall of the pediment, so that one side only could be seen,
and that from a distance. And yet you find that, not only in front but
behind, the same wonderfully elaborate and detailed work has been devoted
with the most lavish and ungrudging honesty. The hard and brittle material
vanishes from sight as you gaze ; now melting into softest flesh, which seems
as if it would yield to the pressure of the hand ; now ossifying into bone; here
quivering in a muscle, there palpitating in a vein. If we be inclined to say—
why waste so much labour on a work, so much of which was never to be
seen? I reply, the man who had failed so to work for the unseen, would have
been incapable of producing what was seen ; for the true artist works, not for
gain or for applause, for vanity or for fame, but in a pure, unselfish, and
absorbing love of his Art, and in reverend adoration of the spirit of beauty
which he worships. And in Ancient Greece this passion for Art was no
doubt elevated and intensified by the feeling of religion. It was not in
painting portraits of one another’s faces, and chronicling imperfections, but in
striving to realise forms fit to impersonate the gods, that Art attained its
highest perfection.
If we turn now from the period of growth and culmination, to that of
decadence, we find the picture reversed. The lines are no longer wrong through
unsuccessful effort, but through careless neglect. The artist, instead of going
to Nature for his inspiration, is evidently only copying from his predecessor,
and his expression becomes wavering and indistinct. The outlines are slurred,
and the faults of the past repeated and exaggerated. The character of the
work becomes sensuous as the feeling becomes superficial. The sacred type
has changed from a faith to a fashion ; and so the artist’s right hand loses its
cunning, and can no longer grasp the idea, when the soul of the idea itself is
passing away. There is one most remarkable instance of this history of
decadence in the barbaric imitations of the coins of Macedon. The common
type upon the coins of Philip and Alexander was the head of some deity
personifying the King, or rather the head of the King in the character of the
god, bound with a fillet of laurel leaves. Barbarous races seem to have copied
this type from one to the other, until at last the original type became so
indistinct that it was lost. There are ancient British coins, in which the head
consists of nothing more than some rude lines and dots ; and it is only by seeing
a whole series of these coins at once, and tracing the deterioration down from
one to the other, that you can believe that a head is*intended at all. Amidst
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this chaos of marks, the laurel wreath, being the easiest to copy, remained
somewhat more distinct, when other parts of the head had disappeared ; and
there are some curious coins of Cunobolinus, one of the kings of Britain in
Roman times—the Cymbeline of Shakespeare—in which some artist, evidently
a genius in his way, finding these curious marks on the coin he had to imitate,
and not liking to imitate what he did not understand, assumed that they were
meant for an ear of wheat, and reproduced an exceedingly g good representation
of an ear of wheat, evidently taken from Nature. Thus, in the course of time,
and by the decadence of Art, the head of Philip of Macedon is changed into an
ear of wheat. A singular analogy to the cynical philosophy of Hamlet.
I will not delay you by applying these principles, as I might, to the
Christian Art of the Middle Ages, but you will at once perceive what a close
analogy there is between the archaic character of the early Greek Art which I
have been describing, and that of the Italian masters before the time of Michael
Angelo and Raphael, which may be considered as the culmination of Christian
Art. You are all now familiar with the character of this early style, from its
revival in recent times under the name of the Pre-Raphaelite school.
Taking, then, these two great principles :—First, that the Art of every
race has a distinctive character of its own, which follows it wherever it goes ;
and, secondly, that the Art in each race undergoes a steady and perceptible
change, either for the better or worse; itis apparent how powerful an auxiliary
the study of Art becomes, to those who are seeking through other channels an
insight into the history of the human race. The philologist traces the several
streams of mankind up to their parent fountains, by analyzing their language,
and discovering from what source its first plemenns its bases, its roots, were
derived. The ‘comparative anatomist pursues the same enquiry by studying
the minute peculiarities of his physical structure, the form of his skull, and
the proportions of his imbs. But the student of Art follows up the investi-
gation by an independent course. He takes the works of the hands of a
people, and forces them to tell their faithful, because unconscious, story as to
the sources from whence they derived their traditions of taste and of feeling,
their modes of interpreting or representing the beautiful, the character of their
ornament—in a word, from whence they derived the symbols and standard of
their Art.
I cannot pass from this part of my subject without expressing my convic-
tion, that the machinery thus provided by the study of Art might well be put
in motion, and brought to bear upon the very interesting subject of the origin
and cradle of the aboriginal inhabitants of these islands. We have a consider-
able number of works of Maori Art; the most interesting of which is the
runanga whare of Tauranga, which is fortunately preserved in this Museum.
And there are preserved amongst us a considerable number of canoe heads,
spears, and other weapons and vessels, mats, and so on, which must have been
produced at the cost of considerable skill and labour. Now, it is obvious to the
most casual observer, that there is a similarity of ornament and design and
workmanship running through all these objects. The two great questions
which we might, by a “sufficiently extended study, be able to decide are—where
does this Art come from? It was not created in New Zealand for the first
time. It was no doubt displayed on the canoes and the arms of the warriors
who first landed on these shores ; and I have no doubt that it might be traced
up, through all its changes amongst the Pacific Islands, to its cradle on the
Continent of Asia. I think it not unlikely that a study of the works of the
country from which it springs, would enable us to judge, with fair approxima-
tion to the truth, of the date at which the Art now existing in New Zealand
was severed from its parent stem in Asia. This is a work, which, so far as I.
know, has yet to be undeftaken. And the first step towards it is to bring
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together into one Museum such as this, a sufficient number of objects of all
kinds, arrayed, so far as possible, according to the dates of their production.
The latter is, of course, the greatest difficulty. But an object whose approxi-
mate date is known, is worth a dozen about which we know nothing. Every
effort therefore ought to be made to collect those objects, such as spears and
meres, which are known by the Maoris to have been in existence for several
generations. I think it quite possible that enough might be done to establish
something like the law of change in Maori Art ; “and then we should be able
to answer the second question is this an Art in advance or decay? Is it in
a period of growth or of decadence? Is this grotesque ornamentation the work
of a people struggling out of primitive ignorance towards a higher perfection ?
or is it the fragment of a higher art from which the soul has departed, and of
which the traditions have been imperfectly preserved, by a people which has
relapsed into barbarism? I venture not to offer any theory upon the subject,
but I cannot but think that the subject is one full of interest and instruction,
and that it is within the scope of such an institution as this to collectthe materials
which shall enable some competent archeologist to do for Maori Art, what Sir
George Grey has so ably done for Maori literature.
I have endeavoured to show the relations in which Art stands to physical
law, and to explain its limits. I have also shown how it is incorporated into
and forms an important part of the external history of man. I proceed now
to enquire what are the relations which exist between Art and the subjects of
the other intellectual and moral powers of man.
That upon which Art is based, without which it could not exist is the
natural and inherent capacity in man to distinguish the beautiful from the
ugly ;—that quality in his soul which has an affinity for the one, and revolts
from the other. And I lay this down as an undeniable truth, that such a
capacity is an essential part of the organization of man, in spite of the fact
constantly presented to us, that not only individual men, but whole ages and
races of men, have derived pleasure from forms and ideas, which to other men
and other times have been utterly painful and repugnant. Hence it is that,
even amongst cultivated men, we hear the heresy constantly repeated, that
Art is all a matter of taste, and that that is beautiful to each man which he
feels to be so. And so upon no subject, except perhaps religion, is there so
much unsettled opinion as in matters of Art. In the philosophy of Art, as in
religion, men range between the extreme limits of a superstitious reverence
for authority on the one hand, and, on the other, a sceptical rejection of
everything outside an individual, and mostly an ignorant, private judgment.
But does it not seem a sounder philosophy to believe that this great,
distinctive, and powerful capacity of the soul—this affinity for the beautiful—
is cognate to other capacities and powers of our being? We have a capacity
for distinguishing abstract truth from error; and we do not doubt that truth
is truth, and error error, because the majority of men are only partially capable
of perceiving the distinction. We have a capacity for distinguishing right
from wrong in morals ; and we do not conclude that there is no right or
wrong, because whole races and generations of men have failed to recognise
which was which. Why, then, should we argue that there is no standard or
test of the beautiful beyond individual and undeveloped judgment? Man does
not create the essence or principle of beauty, any more than he does that of
abstract truth, or of moral goodness. He only recognises it and assimilates it.
If he fails to do so ; if he takes that for the beautiful which is not so; if he
worships false gods : ; it is not that the nature of the object is altered, but that
his powers are either undeveloped or depraved. Is it not rather the case that
all the spiritual and intellectual organs in man are subject to the same law
which obtains in the material organs of all animated nature, in that they are
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more or less perfectly developed by circumstances, and grow by use and
cultivation ?
Most of these difficulties vanish if we realize the distinction between the
real and the ideal. The ideal is that type to which the real ever tends, as the
curve to its asymptote, and the infinite series to its sum, although the one
never reaches the other in finite time and space. If you take every oak leaf
upon an oak tree, you will perceive that they have all one type, although they
all differ from one another. You can conceive the idea of an oak leaf having
that perfect form towards which each individual tends, but of which each falls
short, some in one particular, some in another ; but which the imagination
seems to grasp, as the possible perfect form of the oak leaf in its full development.
I have already noticed the perfection of Greek Art; this it was which was
the key to its excellence—that the artist sought, by the study of the imperfect
individual, to reach the conception of the ideal, and so to symbolise the idea of
a god under the material form of a perfect man.
If, then, we would emancipate ourselves from the difficulties which so
often entwine us in esthetical as well as ethical questions, we must shake off
the trammels which imperfect development casts around every subject, every
idea, every faculty ; and endeavour to look, not from the lower standing ground
of the real, but from the loftier region of the ideal. Thus we shall recognise
that only to be perfectly and eternally true, which man, in the most perfect
development of his intellectual faculties, would recognise as such. We should
accept as morally right, not that which may seem to man, living under
provisional and circumstantial law, to be so, but that which man, in the full
perfection of his moral faculties, would acknowledge as a perfect moral law.
And so we shall receive as a standard of true excellence in Art, and regard
those only to be manifestations of perfect beauty, which man, in the ideal and
perfect development of his esthetic capacity, would feel to be in perfect affinity
and harmony with his power of appreciating the beautiful.
But I would endeavour, if I do not weary you, to trace even further the
relations which may possibly subsist between, subjectively, the intellectual,
ethical, and esthetical powers in man ; objectively, between truth, goodness,
and beauty, in the harmony of things. It seems to me, that prior to the
conception of all created being and all action, and, a@ priori, prior to the idea of
matter, we must conceive some necessary law or principle underlying and
pervading the whole structure ; underlying, as it were, the possibility of any
scheme of creation whatever. Such a principle seems to me to be—the law of
truth: and by truth I mean perfect consistency—the perfect harmony of part
with part, and of every part with the whole. This is, if we consider it, the
widest and most accurate definition of truth. Its absence involves the idea of
something more than chaos—of an impossibility of existence at all. This idea
of truth seems to be the essence of all possible schemes of all possible creations.
The dogma that ‘God is truth,” which we reverently receive as in harmony
with our instincts in religion, is not only the assertion of a fact, or the
attribution of an incidental quality to the Deity: it is the enunciation of a
necessary philosophical law. Without the law of truth, we are incapable of
conceiving that a universe could have been created, or a God could have
existed to make it. Now we first come in contact with this principle of
truth—involving the idea of its co-relative untruth—in abstract reason. And
we have a faculty or quality of our minds, our pure intellect, which recognises
and accepts this law in matters which are independent of all action and of
all matter. But the moment the idea of a being capable of action is introduced,
it follows that the quality of his action must be determined by the same all-
pervading law. Moral goodness, therefore, is truth in action: it is the
operation of truth performed upon action : or to use a mathematical formula,
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goodness is truth multiplied into action. As yet our reasoning has not involved
the existence of matter at all ; but no sooner does the idea of matter arise,
with all its sensive attributes of form, colour, sound, and so on, than. we are
compelled to enquire, how this new economy is affected by the omnipresent law
in subordination to which it must have been created. The character or quality
of form must be determined by the same rule. In other words, the operation of
truth performed upon form, is beauty ; or to use the same mathematical
formula, beauty is truth multiplied into form. I use the word form of course
as comprising every external quality of matter by which it becomes present to
the mind. If this be so, then, the true, the good, and the beautiful, are no
more than the three different manifestations of the same one law, which are
recognised by the three spiritual faculties in man, his pure reason, his moral
judgment, and his esthetic power. Having once recognised the idea of truth
in the abstract, goodness is truth in action ; beauty is truth in form.
And it is curious to observe how this identity between the three seems to
be witnessed by the unconscious testimony of language. In our daily commu-
nication of thought we are in the habit of interchanging the words by which
we express Intellectual truth, moral goodness, and physical beauty ; as if we
were secretly conscious of a unity of idea or principle pervading these three
objects which operate upon our different spiritual powers. Thus for example
we talk of a good man, and a good picture—meaning by one moral excellence,
by the other beauty. Again we speak of a good bargain—meaning a bargain
consistent with its object, to make money; and we should equally use the
word good, if the character of the transaction had been the reverse of good
morally. Again we speak of the truth of a painting; and the beauty of
a mathemathical demonstration ; and of the beauty of holiness; and we tell a
boy at school that it is wrong to tell lies, and that his sum is wrong. Now I
say that these unconscious witnesses of language are not unimportant, as
testifying that there is a real connection—a common principle, underlying our
ideas of truth, goodness, and beauty ; so much so, that we seem unable to
express our full perception of the one, without borrowing the language we have
already assigned to the others. At all events, should this seem to you but a ~
fanciful analogy, I plead that it is no unworthy object to endeavour to trace
out one additional thread in the complex fabric of creation, or to elucidate
some fresh view of the manner in which the worlds of thought, of feeling, and
of matter, are bound together by one common principle, and so minister to
the divine and eternal harmony of the whole.
If time allowed me, it would be my task to pass under review the various
arts in which men have sought to gratify their perceptions of the beautiful,
and to show how the principles I have been endeavouring to elucidate are
applicable to all alike :—Arts which may be called those purely of the imagi-
nation, such as poetry and prose writings ; which come within the region of
Art, in so far as the modulation of the idea and the choice of expression
appeal to our sense of pleasure, and are adopted with regard to their beauty:
the art of oratory, in which the ideas are not only conveyed in written lan-
guage, but the pleasure is enhanced by the melody of speech :—music, which
like oratory, consists of two arts—the art of the composition, by which the
master developes his idea and expresses his feeling by a disposition of possible
musical sounds ; and the art of singing or playing, by which these possible
sounds receive utterance in vocal or instrumental music :—statuary, painting,
and architecture, which deal with matter in its form and colour :—and even
the arts which appeal to our touch—our taste—such as eating, drinking, and
o)
smoking, which must claim their place in the realm of Art, in so far as there
is a greater or less degree of pleasure to be derived from the combination,
situation, and treatment of the materials which subserve to their uses. But
262
time would fail me in the attempt. I will therefore very briefly refer to that
one art, which more than any other is within our reach in this country.
All Art in a country like this, in which the whole time, energy, and
interest of the population is devoted to business and to the accumulation of
wealth, must be in a neglected condition. Of pictures and statues we have
comparatively speaking nothing. Poetry we can have as much of as each man
wishes, in an age in which books are within the reach of all. Of musical
composition the same may be said ; but of musical performance I can only say,
that if we are to accept the critiques which I see in the local papers, there is
nothing more to be desired. Over the Art of dining in the colony I draw a
veil. It seems to me a subject to be spoken of only as amongst the sacred
memories of the past.
All these Arts we engage in as our tastes or our powers suggest. But
one Art there is, which is forced on us of necessity. We may or may not hang
our walls with pictures, or adorn our vestibules with statues ; but we must
have walls and vestibules of some sort. We may or may not indulge in music ;
but we must have rooms to practice it in ; or if we confine our efforts to the
serenade, we must have ladies’ windows under which to breathe our amorous
strains. Over three-fourths of the earth’s surface, the existence of an animal
of a constructive mind but a thin skin, clothed with neither fur nor feathers,
involves the construction of some sort of shelter ; and out of that necessity of
his nature grows the Art of architecture. Again, there are two features in
architecture which give it an importance peculiar to itself. First, that its
works are durable, and secondly that they are public. They are not like the
production of musical sound, or the enjoyment of a feast, things that are gone
and remain only in the memory ; nor like clothes, which are perishable and
change with the fickleness of fashion. Almost the most perishable structure
outlives its builder. And they are public, not private. Your pictures are shut
up in your own rooms for the enjoyment of yourself and your friends. Your
music is mostly practised in the privacy of your own houses. But it is not so
with your house. Once build it, and as a work of Art it ceases to be yours.
It belongs to all alike. The bricks and mortar, the wood and the iron are
yours, but the form, the image, the Art, is the property of every beholder. The
humblest peasant who gazes on the vanes and pinnacles of the neighbouring
mansion, as he rests from his labour under the evening sky, can derive as much
pleasure from the sight as its lordly proprietor. You can levy no protective
duty upon the admiration of your neighbours. You can take out no patent
for the monopoly of the enjoyment of beauty. No action for libel will protect
you from the rude criticisms of offended taste. Therefore is architecture above
all others the catholic art, and move than all cthers reflects and expresses
whatever a nation may have in it of the power of creating the beautiful. And
so, on the other hand, there is involved in architecture a responsibility which
does not attach to the productions of other arts. You may hide your little
ugliness in your own chambers, and sing out of tune in your own boudoirs, and
indulge in tawdry ornament and worship a false fashion in the privacy of
social life ; but you do not thereby poison the public taste, or pervert the
popular judgment. But you cannot erect forms upon which for long years the eye
of the public must rest day by day and hour by hour, without more or less
moulding the feeling of the community at large. Whether you wish it or not,
every house is a lesson, every town and village a school in art. The extent to
which the popular taste becomes moulded by the impression of what is daily
before its eyes, is evidenced by the distinctive character which particular towns,
villages, and districts acquire in the course of time. Not that all the buildings
are the same, but that there is a certain unity of feeling which pervades them
all, and which gives a special character to the whole which it retains for ages.
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I have heard it said,—“ of what use is it to devote money or labour to an archi-
tecture in perishable materials, in 3 x 4 scantling and inch boards?” I reply,
first, that wood properly used is by no means so perishable a material as is
generally supposed. The church of Beover, in Cheshire, which was restored
some years ago, is one of the noblest specimens of the medizeval wooden archi-
tecture of England. It was built, I believe, about 1350, and is in perfect
preservation. I have heard there still exists a small chapel of oaken logs in
which the body of St. Edmund was laid one night on its journey to Bury St.
Edmunds, where it was buried. That was in the ninth century, a thousand
years ago. Many of our finest roofs are many hundred years old: witness
that of Westminster Abbey, built by Richard II. The spire of old St. Paul’s,
which was burnt in the fire of London, having lasted nearly four hundred and
fifty years, was 500 feet high, and was entirely of wood.
But even were it so, I reply that your house itself may perish, but the
idea does not perish ; the effect on the public judgment is imperishable. If
your house be false and hideous, it has diffused its ugliness into the hearts of
all beholders for the period of its short but noxious existence. It has to a
certain extent incapacitated the public mind from appreciating nobler forms.
If you build ugly houses in wood, your children will build uglier houses—were
that possible—in stone. All architecture was originally wood. The marble
temples and porticos of Athens never lost the forms which were derived from
their original wooden construction. England had a wooden architecture
specially adapted to her climate, of remarkable beauty. In the perishable
structures of earlier times are laid the foundations of that true and cultivated
sense of the beautiful, out of which alone a noble Art can arise of more costly
and permanent materials.
Now I cannot at present even glance at the sources of beauty in archi-
tecture, but I may indicate one principle which follows from what we have
dwelt on this evening. One principle there is, from which there is no excep-
tion ; that falsehood, sham, pretence, vanity, are incompatible with all that is
great, noble, and beautiful in Art. I will take two instances of what I mean,
derived from the architecture of this colony. First, the attempt to imitate
stone in wood. This pervades the whole character of our Art. Even our
construction is borrowed from stone. I see buttresses to our churches, which,
were they of solid stone, would have been a source of strength ; but which,
being no more than hollow boxes of inch board, covering a prop or strut, are
of compartively little use. Secondly, all the mouldings and ornaments are
borrowed from stone, and look well enough as long as they are new ; but when
the varnish is gone, and the paint cracked, and the wood distorted and shrunk,
which very soon happers, they look tawdry and dilapidated. We adopt a
style of ornament applicable to stone, but which cannot be durably rendered
in wood. The result is that our towns look as if they had got up late after
spending the past night in dissipation. Again, we complete the whole by
painting and sanding the boards, and working the edges so as to make the wall
look like stone. And so our building stands staring us in the face with a per-
petual falsehood, and one which we can all the time detect. Now whatever
we may think of a lie, surely an unsuccessful lie is the most contemptible of
human efforts.
One more instance I will take, and it shall be the last. The noblest form
in architecture is beyond doubt the gable ; running, where both faces are
equal, into the pinnacle and spire. The gable naturally rises out of the neces-
sity for throwing the rain off the house-top by a sloping roof; and we have
seen in the earlier part of this discourse, that it is out of such necessilies that
the most beautiful forms frequently grow. But in street architecture it is often
more convenient to place the ridge of the roof parallel to the street, in which
264
case the line of the eaves or the parapet of the gutter forms a horizontal line.
Now a horizontal line cutting the sky is always a somewhat distressing form ;
except in the case of the sea horizon, where the infinite delicacy of the ruling,
and the immensity of the object, enwrap the feelings and overawe every subor-
dinate sense of pleasure. The horizontal line of the parapet is, however, bear-
able without offence where it is natural and consistent with the whole idea of
the building. But I see frequently in all our towns, a gable turned to the
street, and a large dead wall of scantling and boards built up to conceal it. A
deliberate and wilful determination to hide the more beautiful form by the
less beautiful ;—false in construction, for it weakens the house materially by
exposing a needless surface to the wind ; false in economy, for it costs money
without increasing accommodation ; utterly false in Art, for it is a miserable
sham in every aspect. What then is it for? It is to gratify a false and
ignoble vanity. It is to make the house look bigger than it is. I stand
opposite such a building, and it seems to say to me, “aN ow, look at me. You
see [ am a good substantial two-storied tenement, with an upper storey about
ten feet high, and a comfortable upper room with a window in the middle of
the wall ;—a building of which my architect and owner may well be proud.”
I reply, «Byiend house, you are a complete humbug. That square front of
yours is for the most part exposed to ai blasts of heaven, behind as well as in
front. Youare in a great measure not a house, but a signboard, a hoarding
stuck up in the air. That square window is not in the middle of the wall of a large
and comfortable chamber, but of a wretched garret, and has been with difficulty
squeezed in between, the sloping rafters. You are not a two-storied house, but
a cottage with one floor and a cockloft ; and asa work of art, you are everything
that is odious and contemptible.”
The one class of buildings which most awaken my feeling of the beautiful,
and they are now very rare, are those small unpretending Ttenements nilh
were built by the early colonists : some of them not ungraceful in their pro-
portions ; all of them possessing the beauty of simplicity and truth, devoid of
vulgar pretension, tawdry vanity, and inappropriate ornament.
And I cannot but take this epportunity of earnestly impressing upon you
the great responsibility which rests upon the Government of every country, to
erect public buildings which shall elevate and educate, instead of depraving
the public taste. If a Government represent ts, as it should do, whatever there
is of worth and nobility in the nation ; if it be, as it ought to be, an imperso-
nation of the strength and wisdom, the knowledge and the feeling of the
people ; so ought it, in the public works which it undertakes, to reflect and
embody the great qualities of which it is the representative and depository.
But besides this, it should ever bear in mind that the external symbols of
power are not the expression of a love of pompous or idle pageantry, but arise
out of the consciousness, that human nature requires that power must ever
present itself to the public in the habiliments which may remind men of the
respect and homage which are its due. Jt is not power in palaces which we
have to dread in these countries and in this age : it is power in the tavern and
the hovel ; and I cannot but tremble for the life of authority which a nation
is content to deprive of the external symbols of respect.
Gentlemen, I conclude this long and uninteresting discourse, by entering
my humble protest against the sacrifice of public honour and dignity to private
wealth and luxury ; by entering my protest against the vices of an age which
subordinates its love of the beautiful to its worship of wealth ; which prefers false
glitter to true taste ; which makes Art the advertisement of riches instead of
their crown and glory ; which wears false hair, false jewels, false gold ; which
makes one storied houses look like two storied houses ; whose tastes and whose
arts are essentially vain and selfish. I would deliver my own soul by proclaim-
265
ing, that truth is the one element in Art, as in all that belongs to man,
without which he can produce nothing that is permanently great or noble.
And I would suggest to your earnest consideration, whether, having not
only been placed by our Creator under the authority of a moral law, but placed
also by the same power in the midst of a world teeming, from the infinity of
greatness to the infinity of littleness, with forms of unspeakable majesty and
beauty, it may not be a mistake greater than most of us suppose, to neglect,
individually and nationally, the study of this principle of beauty for the
recognition and enjoyment of which we are specially adapted by our nature.
Man’s Puace in Creation. By C. W. Ricumonp, One of the Judges
of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.
[Lecture delivered in Nelson, June 25, 1869. ]
Most of you are, no doubt, aware that Modern Physiological Science is by
some persons thought to tno strong light upon the subject on which I am
proposing to address you: Man’s Pracr ix Nature. It has at all times been,
in a vague way, admitted, that, in respect of his corporeal frame, man is a
member of the Animal Kingdom. But, it is undeniable, that recent science
tends to bring home more thoroughly the fact of this connection with the lower
creatures ; so that, to many well instructed persons, that being, who, in the
eye of Faith, once seemed to rank only a little lower than the Angels, now
appears, viewed in the light of modern speculation, hardly removed one grade
above the Apes ; and, just as much as these, the creature of material necessity.
Thus, the great questions of the Nature and the Destiny of Man, heretofore
thought exclusively the property of theologians, seem to be brought into close
relation with modern physics. It is my purpose to investigate the character
of this relation ; the real bearing, in other words, of Natural Science, in its
present aspect, on those intensely interesting questions of ‘“‘Our Whence and
Whither.”
T know it will be thought by some a highly dangerous course to move this
matter. I know the dread, sometimes avowed, but much more often felt without
avowal, that such inquiries must certainly confuse our thoughts, and, very
likely may perplex our lives. But who is ignorant that, at this very moment, the
literary world resounds with this discussion? Who can close his ears to all the
loud debate now going on ; or can refuse to hear conclusions, fatal to every
form of Human Faith, yet drawn triumphantly, and, (so the reasoners think)
with logic not to be evaded, from premises supplied by the undoubted science of
the day? Amongst the young the most inquiring minds cannot be kept in
ignorance about these things. Their elders, if they please, may try the ostrich
plan of safety for themselves, or may draw back, like blinking owls from the
unwelcome daylight. But in these days of universal reading mere reticence
in Church or Home will not avail. Come good, come ill, the best and manliest
minds will strive to sift the matter to the br ran, and try conclusions for them-
selves. There is, then, nothing for it but that those who would uphold the
ancient faith in God and Man should don their armour, and go down to battle
with this newest foe; unless, indeed, they wish to see materialists in sole
possession of the field of thought, free to impose their dreary creed upon the
coming age. Divines in vain protest that Man is no fit subject of Zoology.
The Naturalists refuse 1o be warned off the Human ground. In virtue of
man’s physical frame they claim him, and will keep him in spite of all objectors,
as a subject of their science ; and to me it seems expedient at least to listen to
them, and learn what they have to say. The faith that hides its head from all
opposers is scarcely worthy to be called a faith.
My plan, of course, requires me to begin with some succinct account of
those researches to which I have alluded. The compass of a single Lecture
(not to mention my own want of technical knowledge), will not admit of more
than a broad and rapid sketch, or, as I fear I rather ought to say, a meagre
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outline, drawn by no master’s hand: yet even such an outline may, I trust,
suffice for my main purpose.
The branch of physics most closely connected with our subject is known
as Comparative Physiolgy. In this department of physical inquiry the
ultimate object is nothing less than to discover the plan of Organic Nature in
both the great kingdoms, the Animal and the Vegetable. The special
instrument of inquiry is collation or comparison of one organic form with
another, with a view to ascertain the characteristic of each, and thence to infer
their relation to one another, and to the whole organic world. This science,
like every other part of physical investigation, assumes, of necessity, the
existence of a general plan or scheme of things ; a plan or scheme towards the
discovery of which the Human Intellect is capable of advancing. What then
has this science to say on the subject of our inquiry.
In the comparison of organic forms the first great division which presents
itself is that already noticed, into Animal and Vegetable. So vast is the
difference between the more highly organised members of either kingdom—
take for instance a Lion and an Oak-tree—that the untrained mind at first
refuses to conceive of a possible relation between such diverse forms. Yet when
compared with inorganic matter, with clay or granite, it is seen at once that
beast and tree resemble each other in presenting, though under such different
aspects, the grand phenomenon of vitality ; and we express this very simple
fact when we say that they are both alive. Science has revealed in detail
many points of resemblance between Animal and Vegetable organisms. In
both, provision is made for nutrition, and for the reproduction of the species :
both also possess an apparatus for the circulation of the nutrient fluid, and for
respiration. And, broad as is the distinction manifest between the Animal
and Vegetable, when each is highly organized, it is matter of great difficulty
to discriminate between the lowest forms of the two kingdoms. Common
observation recognises this in the designation, ‘““Animal-plant,” popularly applied
to the sea anemone, and other creatures of the same class. The great vital
divisions may be likened to two stems of a tree which divide close to the
ground : as the topmost branches of each are those which have the least con-
nection, so does the highest vegetable seem farthest removed from the highest
animal organisation. On the other hand, the two kingdoms seem to coalesce
at their respective bases ; just as do the stems of the tree at the point where
they branch out. Now, amongst the grounds of distinction between Animals
and Plants, there is this possibly essential difference; at all events it is the
difference to which I shall specially direct your attention to-night—Plants are
destitute of any nervous system.* The characteristic difference hence arising
between Animal and Vegetable life is thus expressed by Dr. Carpenter, ‘“‘'The
whole nisus (effort, striving) of Vegetative existence consists in the activity of
the organs of nutrition and re-production ; but, on the other hand, the nisus
of animal life tends towards the evolution of the faculties of sensation, and of
self-determined motion ; and in its highest manifestation to that of the intelli-
gence and will.” So that there is, you see, a kind of life common to both
Animal and Vegetable, which the great French Anatomist, Bichat, has termed
“Organic Life ;” sometimes also called “Vegetative Life,” as being the only life
possessed by plants; and there is another kind of life confined to animals,
termed by Bichat, “Animal Life ;’ and which I shall sometimes refer to as
“ Nervous Life.” In the animal, the stomach, intestines, and glandular
system, and, in some degree, the apparatus for circulation, are organs of the
* The appearance of nervous irritability presented by parts of particular plants, as by
the leaflets of the sensitive plant, and the stamens of the barberry, is pronounced to be
due to a different cause,
269
Vegetative or Organic Life ; the brain, nerves, eye, ear, and muscular system,
of Animal, or Nervous Life.
The two Kingdoms being thus discriminated, the study of the resemblances
and differences presented by Animals has led to the division of the Animal
Kingdom into various groups ; on the ground that all the members of each
group, in certain points, resemble one another, and differ from the members
of other groups. The primary divisions are named Sub-Kingdoms. Each
Sub-Kingdom is divided into Classes, the Classes into Orders, the Orders
into Families, the Families into Genera. The ultimate Sub-Division is of
Genera into Species.
The Animal Kingdom is now usually divided into Five Sub-Kingdoms,
each under a title, more or less descriptive of some obvious and leading
peculiarity of structure. The Vertebrata form the highest Sub-Kingdom ; so
named from the possession of a backbone, or spine, composed of a variable
number of small bones. called Vertebraee—as examples of each of its four classes,
take the Horse, the Eagle, the Crocodile, the Salmon. The title of the Second
Sub-Kingdom, Articulata, indicates that it comprises Animals, whose bodies
are composed of a succession of segments, arranged in a line—hence called
jointed, or articulated, animals—of which peculiar structure the Bee and the
Lobster are well known forms. All the insect tribes belong to this Sub-
Kingdom. The Third Sub-Kingdom comprises the Mollusca, so named from
the softness of their bodies ; some, but not all, of these Creatures are protected
by a shell. The Slug and Oyster are both Molluscs. The Radiata compose
the Fourth Sub-Kingdom ; and take their designation from the radial or star-
like symmetry of their bodies. This form, Carpenter remarks, must in itself
be regarded as a Vegetative character, for it corresponds with that which is
seen in the disposition of the appendages around the axis in the leaf-buds and
flower-buds of Plants. The Star-fish and Sea-Anemone are characteristic forms
of the Radiata. The Fifth Sub-Kingdom contains the Protozoa, so called as
being the first and lowest form of Animal Life, corresponding in rank with
Protophytes in the Vegetable Kingdom. Infusoria and Sponges are members
of this group.*
Now, in determining the priority and mutual relations of these great groups,
and of their sub-divisions, we must keep in view the principle of Animal
Perfection already announced ; namely, the degree of Nervous Life accorded
to each, and displayed in the faculties of sensation and locomotion; and, finally,
in the mental attributes of Intelligence and Will. An animal is high in the
scale, as it recedes from, low as it approaches, a mere Vegetative Life. In
other words, the more it is endowed with Nervous Life the higher is it to be
placed on the scale of Animal Existence. Tried by this test, we find the
Protozoa scarcely entitled to rank as Animals. No definite trace of a Nervous
System has yet, I believe, been discovered in them; and their claim to be
reckoned Animals rests chiefly upon the nature of their food, which consists of
Organic substances ; (whereas, Plants are enabled to assimilate mineral sub-
stances ;) and upon their performance, after a strange fashion of their own, of
the function of digestion.
It is not until we reach the higher Radiata that we find the first definite
indications of a nervous system. Every segment, or division, of these
creatures is connected with a ganglionic centre; a ganglion being a little
swelling lump or knot of nervous substance ; and this centre seems subservient
* Cuvier made only four sub-kingdoms. But his lowest division, Radiata, comprises
so heterogeneous an assemblage of forms, that later Naturalists have broken it up, and a
portion of what Huxley has called the ‘‘Radiate Mob” of Cuvier, is now classed as a
distinct sub-kingdom, under the title of Protozoa. The arrangement, like every other
part of merely physical science, must continue to vary with increasing knowledge.
270
to its own division alone ; at least to have very little dependence upon the
other segments of the Animal. In short, to borrow an allusion from our local
politics, these creatures may be said to have ultra-provincial constitutions.
Next we come to the Two Sub-Kingdoms, immediately beneath the Ver-
tebrata ; and these indeed present a sharp and interesting contrast. On the
one hand the Mollusca represent the gradually increasing perfection of the
apparatus for the discharge of the functions of Organic, or Vegetative Life—
creatures, for the most part, sluggish and inert, yet greedy and voracious ;
“whose God is their belly” ; as Carpenter quaintly remarks of them. On the
other hand the Articulata are generally characterised by the rapidity of their
movements, the great, and sometimes enormous, proportionate strength of their
muscles, the extraordinary instincts displayed by some members of the group,
and the large endowment of nervous force with which these various gifts are
connected, and on which they are, in a physical sense, dependent. Thus the
Articulata represent the gradually increasing perfection of the Nervous or
Animal Life.
In the Mollusca the Nervous System is by no means so striking a feature
of the organisation. In many of the lower members of the class the mouth is
the only indication of a head ; the organs of sight, if they exist, are imperfectly
evolved. But in the higher classes the case is different. Many of these
possess the senses of sight and hearing, and the organs of these senses are
collected upon a Head, about which the Nervous ganglions are concentrated.
But even in the highest class of Molluscs the Nervous System appears sub-
servient to the sensorial and nutritive functions.
Turning to the Articulata, we find very distinct indications of an approach
in Nervous structure to the Vertebrata. The characteristic feature is a double
Nervous cord studded with ganglia at intervals, there being one ganglionic
centre for each segment (or division) of the Animal. The more alike the
different segments, the more equal are the ganglia. In the lower classes, all
the segments of the trunk being nearly of a size, so are the ganglia; and the
power of each ganglion is almost wholly confined to its own segment. In this
they resemble the Radiata ; the chief difference being that the segments of the
latter are disposed in a radiate manner, whilst in all the Articulata they are
longitudinally arranged. But in the higher Articulata, the great power of the
Nervous System is concentrated about the head and thorax (chest). The
ganglia of the head are always larger and more important. ‘They are connected
with the organs of Sight and other Special Senses, and evidently possess a
power of directing and controlling the movements of the entire body, whilst
the power of each ganglion of the trunk is, as already said, mostly confined to
its own segment. It is obvious that the double Nervous Cord of the Articu-
lata corresponds with, and as it were pre-figures, the Spinal Cord of
Vertebrata ; and that the cephalic ganglia (ganglia of the head) correspond
with the contents, at least with a portion of the contents, of the Vertebrate
skull.
In the class of Jnsects which is the highest of the Sub-Kingdom
“Articulata,” the development of pure imstinct reaches its highest point. Ants
and Bees are equalled by no other creature in the geometrical precision of their
structures, their perfect adaptation of means to ends, and the absolute regu-
larity with which each member of their wonderful societies performs its allotted
part in the economy of the nest or hive. And as pure instinct culminates in
these creatures, it would seem that the higher Articulata should be treated as a
lateral branch of that great tree of Organic Life, of which we have been as it
were, tracing the upward growth. In their own line, there is nothing superior
or equal to the Social Insects.
Another observation tends in the same direction, it is this: as regards all
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the functions of Organic, as distinguished from Animal Life, the Mollusca are
nearer Fishes, the lowest class of Vertebrata, than are the Articulata. In
continuously tracing the upward course of Nature, we must, therefore, come
down again, as it were, from the topmost Articulata in order to regain the
main line of progressive development.
Pursuing this course, we revert to the highest of the Mollusca, the
Cephalopoda ; and here we find the first hint of the structure which gives to
Animals of the highest Sub-Kingdom the name of Vertebrata. The Nervous
centres of the Insect are protected by firmly joimted rings, which may be
regarded as an exterior skeleton. But the Cephalopod, known as the Cuttle-
flsh, possesses in the bone, which is a well-known article of commerce, the
rudiments of a true internal skeleton. If amongst the Articulata we find the
first trace of the Spinal Cord, it is here that the bony case which is to hold it
begins to make its appearance.
You are of course aware that the Spinal Column, or backbone in Man
and all Vertebrated Animals, consists of a series of bones strongly connected
together, called Vertebree. Now the received doctrine of modern osteologists
is, that the whole skeleton is derived from the development of the elements of
Vertebre. The Human skull is found to be but a continuation of the back-
bone, consisting of four developed Vertebre. The ribs, and even the limbs,
are equally developments of vertebral appendages. Now, what is the signifi-
cance of this new rigid element in the structure of animals of the highest Sub-
Kingdom? If we see a man providing himself with a strong box, we judge
that he is getting ready a safe receptacle for treasure ; and similarly this new
precaution taken by Nature in the structure of the Spinal Column and skull
surely indicates that the contents of these parts are of paramount importance
in the animal economy—as we know to be the case.
The Vertebrata are divided into four great classes—I. Mammalia (Sucklers) ;
II. Aves (Birds) ; ILI. Reptilia (Reptiles) ; IV. Pisces (Fishes). The gradual
ascent in type is even more evident in this division of the Animal Kingdom
than in the lower part of the scale. This diagram shows how the three
superior classes of Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles, rise gradually upwards,
each above the one immediately below it, by the improvement of some vital
function ; each advance implying increased organic complexity and fitting the
creature for a higher mode of life.
MAMMALS.
m ii Ay =e
Air-breathing, Warm-blooded, Viviparous.
BIRDS.
CS EE De ee aaan\
Oviparous, Air-breathing, Warm-blooded.
REPTILES.
ma = Tia >
Cold-blooded, Oviparous, Air-breathing.
FISHES.
(eam Tae a
Water-breathing, Cold-blooded, Oviparous.
The functions which I have here selected for comparison are, you see, all
functious of the organic life ; respiration, circulation, and re-production. But
I do not mean to abandon that which I have selected as the best criterion of
progress in the scale of being, viz, the advancing perfection of the nervous
system. The four classes of vertebrates will retain the same relative positions,
whether we take as our criterion the perfection of the apparatus of Organic,
or that of Animal Life: for the type of Organic Life is raised and improved
concurrently with the advance of the Animal Life which it subserves. I have
referred to the provision made by Nature in the spinal column and skull for
272
guarding the physical seats of sensation, emotion, and thought. The inspection
of vertebrate forms shows the necessity for this provision in the increasing
complexity and delicacy of the Nervous Apparatus, and in its greater import-
ance relatively to the entire Organism. Bearing in mind that the Nervous
System of Insects is capable of two great divisions, viz.: (1) the ganglions of
the trunk with their double connecting cord, (2) the ganglia of the Head ; we
find in the Vertebrata that there are gradually developed two additional nervous
centres, both contained in the skull. These are called the cerebellum and
cerebrum. So that in vertebrates we may take a general view of the system
of nervous centres as comprising (1) the spinal cord with its extensions ; (2) the
Sensory ganglia, or nervous organs of the special senses of sight, hearing,
and smell and perhaps of general tactile sensibility ; which, collectively, may be
called the Sensoriwm ; (3) the cerebellum ; (4) the cerebrum. The first two, you
will recollect, and those only, have their ‘analogues i in the Insects and higher
Molluscs. From the fact that the greatest proportionate development of sensory
ganglia occurs in those tribes of living creatures, I mean the social insects, in
which instinct is most powerful, Physiologists infer, no doubt justly, that the
physical seat of instinct is in that part of the frame. Now there is, in com-
parative Physiology, without calling in the aid of other sciences, the very
strongest ground for a similar inference respecting the physical seat of intelli-
gence as distinguished from instinct. For, as we pass from one type of
vertebrated animal to another we find that the intelligence of the species
appears to increase in a just ratio with the increase in the size of the cerebrum ;
and this organ also becomes, at every step upwards, more and more complex
in structure. The inference of course is, that the cerebrum is the physical
organ of intelligence. Of the cerebellum the functions seem to be to some
extent unascertained. It is largest in man, and appears to be a necessary
accompaniment of the expanding powers of the cerebrum. It is generally
considered as enabling us unconsciously to combine and harmonise the efforts
of a great variety of muscles in complex actions, in obedience to a general
volition. We have all seen how a complicated piece of music may be per-
formed automatically, if the piece be well known to the performer ; although
in learning the piece each movement might have required the exertion of the
will. The direction of this sort of automatic action seems to be one, at least,
of the functions of the cerebellum, acting in conjunction with the sensory
ganglia.
Returning to the structure of the Cerebrum: it is divided into two sec-
tions, known as the Cerebral Hemispheres. The Hemispheres occupy quite a
subordinate position in the lower classes of Vertebrates—that is in Fishes and
Reptiles. Looking, from above, at the brain of a Cod-fish, the sensory ganglia,
especially those pertaining to the Organs of Sight and Smell, are very promi-
nent objects, and form the chief mass of the brain. Gradually, as we rise in
the scale, the Cerebral Hemispheres assume increased importance, till in the
Mammalia they form the mass of the brain, capping and completely covering
in the sensory ganglia, and also, more or less, over-lapping the Cerebellum.
The Cerebellum partly shows itself, however, when we look at the brain
from above downwards, in every creature except man himself, and those
animals which, in general structure, make a close approach to the Human
type—I mean, of course, the Monkeys, Baboons, and Apes. In all these
animals the posterior lobe of the Cerebrum is well developed, and completely
covers the Cerebellum when the brain is viewed from above. So closely, indeed,
does the brain of some of the higher A pes approach to that of man, that Professor
Huxley declares it to be impossible “to erect any Cerebral barrier” between
them. “So far as Cerebral structure goes it is clear,” he says, “that man
differs less from the Chimpanzee or the Orang than these do even from the
273
Monkeys ; and that the difference between the brains of the Chimpanzee and
Man is almost insignificant, when compared with that between the Chimpanzee
brain and that of the Lemur.” Now the Lemur is recognised as the near
relation of the Monkeys. Both are included in the order Quadrumana. Yet
it should not be too hastily inferred that these creatures, the Apes and Mon-
keys, are nearest man in point of intelligence. The intelligence of the Elephant
and Dog so far exceeding that of the larger part of the Quadrumana, although
their brains are of a type much more remote from the Human, may serve (as
Lyell remarks) to convince us that we are yet far from understanding the real
nature of the connection of intellectual superiority with Cerebral development.
Time will not allow me to enter into any detail of the experiments which
have confirmed inferential reasoning respecting the functions of the various
Nervous centres. Suffice it to observe that the paramount importance of the
Cerebrum is ascertained by a common experience. Severe injuries to the
Human brain which involve the Cerebral hemispheres, whether through
external violence, or through disease, are instantly attended by deprivation of
all power of manifesting any Mental Faculty. In such cases, when persons
recover, it is commonly found that they have remained totally unconscious
from the time when they received the injury until their recovery ; the inter-
vening period having been a blank in their Mental Life.
Nor can I do more than glance at the Darwinian theory. All existing
forms of life, it teaches, may gradually have been evolved in the course of ages,
from a very few primal types ; perhaps from one only. Mr. Darwin’s reasoning
has, of course, a bearing on the question of our affinity to the Brute Creation.
It goes to show—not indeed that we are descended from Gorillas, but—that
Man and the existing Apes may have been slowly developed by change after
change from some common form now extinct. Thus, though it is not asserted
that our progenitors were Apes, yet it is plain on Mr. Darwin’s theory, that
these beasts are entitled to put in a detestable claim of cousin-ship to Man.
I do not see, however, that the question of our affinity to the Brute
Creation is, in reality, affected by the theory of development. That affinity
in truth depends upon the identity of our physical constitution with that of
the lower Animals; and this can be established, and is, I think, established,
independently of a genetic relation.
On the whole, the general conclusions of Physiological Science, upon
evidence of which I have here summarised some portions only, are :—Vfirst,
that the Cerebrum is the Organ, or Physical seat of Man’s mental faculties ;
Secondly, that this structure is not peculiar to Man, but is possessed by many
of the higher Animals ; Lastly, that the most highly organised Brutes, the
Anthropoid Apes, approach so closely to Man in cerebral structure that it is
not possible, in the present state of Science, to establish any anatomical or
physiological distinction between them.
I have been able to take no notice of the confirmation added by Geology, or
rather by Paleontology, to these conclusions. No scientific man, I had almost
said no rational being, now disputes the fact that life existed on this
planet of ours for immeasurable ages before the appearance of Mankind upon
the scene. Now the operations of Organic Nature through these immeasurable
tracts of time, ‘imperfectly interpreted as they yet undoubtedly are, Pe
writes Mr. Page, “a series of vital gradation and progress, - 2
from humbler to more highly organised orders ; as if the great design of Nature
had been to ascend from the simpler conception of Materialism to the higher
aims of mechanical construction ; from Mechanism to the subtler elimination
of mind ; and from Mentalism to the “still higher attribute of Moralism, as
developed alone in the heart and soul of Man.” Thus; while Physiology
shows us this stage of being as now occupied by a hierarchy of creatures ;
Geology adds, as a probable opinion, that these creatures have made their
several entrances in the order of their dignity. Stranger yet, it seems that
each individual member of the higher orders passes, in the embryonic stages of
its growth, through a succession of phases corresponding very closely to the
great ascending steps of universal Nature. ‘ Because, in the little frame
of Man’s body there is a representation of the universal and (by allusion)
a kind of participation of all the parts there, therefore was Man called
Microcosmos, or the little world.” So writes Sir Walter Raleigh, and the
idea which he describes has been treated as a dreaming fancy ; but our latest
Science tends to establish it as not far off a literal truth.
And now, at last, I turn to make enquiry, how should these facts affect
our views of "Man as a responsible being, and as a living soul. If it has
hitherto been held that man _ possesses, by Divine ordination, a faculty of
determining his own actions within certain limits—free will in short—do the
revelations of Physiology consist with this belief? Again, if we have believed
that the Mind of Man is an immaterial substance, not of necessity bound to
the body which is its present Organ of expression, nor ceasing to exist upon
the dissolution of that body, are we required by Physical Science to surrender,
or to modify that faith ?
It has been proved to demonstration, the Materialist will promptly answer,
that Thought, Fancy, Feeling, are merely operations of that aggregation of
material particles, which constitutes the Brain of Man. Could we, with
adequate knowledge and instruments investigate the working of that organ,
can it be doubted that we might trace in every detail those molecular changes
which we call the action of the mind? The Past, Present, and Future of
every one of us lie packed, they will aver, in that small receptacle, the Human
Cranium. Hven existing Science is justified i in stating, that in the tissues of
the Human Brain, all that a Man has been, is faithfully recorded, all that he
is, unmistakably expressed, all that he will be, infallibly pre-determined and
announced, We await only fuller knowledge to decipher on these fleshly
tablets, inscriptions, of an inexorable fate.
In replying to such assertions, feeling is apt to get the start of reason.
It is the Heart first, which in wrath, arises and exclaims, ‘“‘ Let Science prove
all this ”————
‘and then,
What matters Science unto Men?
At least to me: I would not stay.”
Now my confidence is fixed, that feeling here does not mislead us; that
emotion so uniform, so powerful, so pure, as this which springs up to rebuke
the cold pedantry of the Positive school has a deep, perennial source in the
Reason of Mankind, and the Reality of Things. To express this reason, and
give the argument a shape, is by no means easy. That, however, is what I
shall try to do; but let no one take my failure for the failure of the grounds
I go on.
First then, I say, there is a plain absurdity in the assumption that cere-
bral phenomena and mental, being concurrent, are therefore identical. If there
be such a thing as mind ;—and the materialist must not set out by assuming
the contrary ;—it may be that by the will of God, certain mental events, call
them if you please, phenomena, are ordained to run in parallel series with
certain physical events ; just as if, to give a very simple illustration, two files
of soldiers should be moving simultaneously along opposite sides of a street ;
halting together ; again advancing together ; manceuvre throughout answering
to manceuvre ; the companies so appearing inseparably connected i in their move-
ments ; and 1 in point of fact inseparably connected ; not, however, by a physical
275
necessity, but by the will of the commander, and the discipline of the men.
I, for my part, am prepared to grant that every Thought, Emotion and Memory
of Man may have its physical counterpart ; but the Materialist confounds the
physical expression with the thing expressed. The absurdity is as great as it
would be to identify the motions of the Telegraphic apparatus with the trans-
mitted message. As those motions are merely the selected vehicles of expression,
so may it be,—so is it, as I believe—with the apparatus of the Human Mind.
In short, the mistake of Materialism is the old confusion between syinbol and
thing signified, which has played such wild work in the World.
‘Tt is impossible,” says a great philosophical writer of the present day, to
“form a steady conception of theught except as originating behind even the
innermost bodily structures, and intrinsically different from them. However
much you refine and attenuate the living organism, yet after all, Thought is
something quite unlike the whitest and thinnest tissue ; and the most delicate
of fibres, woven, if you please, in fairy loom, cannot be spun into Emotions,
Nor is it at all easier to imagine Ideas and Feelings to be the resw/is of organi-
sation, and to constitute one of the physical relations of atoms ; and, if anyone
affirms that the juxta-position of a number of particles makes a Hope, and
that an aggregation of curious textures forms Veneration, he affirms a proposi-
tion to which I can attach no idea. Agitate and affect these structures as
you will, pass them through every imaginable change, let them vibrate and
glow and take a thousand hues; still you can get nothing but motion and
temperature and colour ; fit marks and curious signals of Thought behind them-
selves, but no more to be confounded with it, than are written characters to be
mistaken for the genius and knowledge which may record themselves in
language. The corporeal frame then is but the mechanism for making Thoughts
and Affections apparent, the signal-house with which God has covered us, the
electric telegraph by which quickest information flies abroad of the Spiritual
force within us. The instrument may be broken, the dial-plate effaced ; and
though the hidden artist can make no more signs, he may be as rich as ever in
the things to be signified. Fever may fire the pulses of the body: but
Wisdom and Sanctity cannot sicken, be inflamed, and die. Neither consump-
tion can waste, nor fracture mutilate, nor gunpowder scatter away, Thought
and Fidelity and Love, but only that organisation which the Spirit sequestered
therein renders so fair and noble. To suppose such a thing would be to invert
the order of rank, which God has visibly established among the forces of our
World, and to give a downright ascendency to the brute energies of matter,
above the Vitality of the Mind, which up to that point, discovers, subdues,
and rules them. “ a
The position that the action of the Brain, styled, “‘Cerebration” in the
latest jargon of Materialism, is identical with Thought and Feeling, must then
be surrendered as intr insically absurd. But next, perhaps, the contention is,
that Thought and Feeling are mere effects of a material cause. That the
bursting of a small duct on the Brain, should, in a moment, destroy the life
of Consciousness, and put a stop to every Mental process, is, no doubt, as has
been said, a fact of which the significance cannot be increased by the adduc-
tion of a thousand like instances. In this, it may be argued, and in the
cognate phenomena of Insanity, and of old Age, is the plain ‘proof that Mind
is a mere Organic function ; suspended when the Organ is deranged, and, on
its dissolution, ceasing altogether. Now, in common speech, we 9 do. no doubt,
talk of the physical occurrence, the apoplexy, the fever, or the blow, as the
very cause of the Mind’s failure. But, on a closer scrutiny, we find we are
not justified in making such an inference. In truth, we have no right to
speak at all of a material cause. Of natural phenomena we know only this,
that one event, improperly referred to as effect, invariably, attends upon, or
00
bo
276
follows, some other event, improperly styled cause. This sounds abstruse; yet
I believe, by homely illustration it may be made intelligible ; and it is a most
important point for the Mind to seize, and keep firm hold of.
Suppose some one watching, in a miil or factory, the slow revolution of a
huge wheel, or endless band ; and that he could, from his stand-point, command
a view of but a small part of the entire revolution, the rest being screened from
him. Let one point on the tire, or revolving circumference, be supposed to
bear some distinguishing mark, say a number, and other points at certain
distances other consecutive numbers. After watching for a time the move-
ment before him, the spectator of course becomes aware of the order in rotation
of these numbers ; and at the return of No. 1, will confidently expect that
No. 2 will come into his field of view, at some calculable interval, according to
the speed of the machine. No. 2 he will know, and may predict, will be
followed by Nos. 3, 4, and the rest in regular succession to the end of the
series. Now, this is exactly like our observation of Nature. We become
aware that physical phenomena follow one another in a certain, invariable
order ; so that the appearance of a known antecedent phenomenon prepares us
to expect, and enables us to predict, the appearance in due course of the regular
consequent. Or it may be that two phenomena occur together, in which case
we know, that when one is perceived the other also is present. But, more than
this Physics can never teach us. ‘They can never warrant us in declaring that
one phenomenon is the true, that is, the efficient, cause of some other of which
it is the precursor, or companion. In the case of the revolving wheel, we
ever for one moment suppose that the emergence of the first marked point
causes the emergence of that which we know is next to follow. True, in this
example, the Mind is not tempted into such a fallacy ; since it is known that
the real source of the succession we behold is the motive power of the
machinery. But the forces which actuate Nature’s great machine are beyond
our ken. What they do we know, not what in themselves they are. We are
not behind the scenes of that great show, and hence are tempted by that law
of our Mental structure which will demand a cause for everything, to attribute
casuality to what, as far as we know, is a mere antecedent. Nor does it
signify, that in Nature force seems to be transmitted in each of her operations.
Each physical event is but a link in the infinite chain of like events ; seeming
to stand as a cause of those that follow, but, in truth, itself, but the effect of
all that have preceded it—so carrying back the mind “with a never ending
regress,” in vain search for something which may be rightly called a cause. It
is as if we should see the balls upon the table, but not the player; and so
should foolishly be moved to attribute to mere ivory impinging upon ivory a
power which lies not in dead matter, but in some living Will giving the primal
impulse.
That Physical Science, apart from mental experience, tells nothing what-
ever of the cause of Physical events, but merely ascertains their sequences, 1s a
truth admitted by both the great opposing schools into which all modern
Philosophers may be divided. Since Hume, all agree that Natural Science is
conversant only with the invariable succession of antecedent and consequent,
and must disclaim all knowledge of efficient causes, and all idea of necessary
connection between cause and effect. Uniform experience leads us to expect
that one phenomenon wil/ be followed by a certain other, but gives us no right
to affirm that it must be so followed. Physics in short, have no concern at all
with efficient causes ; which are indeed explained away, or quite ignored, by
the Positive School of Metaphysics. Those Philosophers to whom the
Materialist would make his appeal as the only trustworthy authorities, Hume,
Brown, Comte, the two Mills, Bain, concur in this ; which is the very corner-
stone of their Philosophy. The last argument of the Materialist ig then as
1)
77
weak as the first. The phenomena of Disease, Insanity, old Age and the like,
give no just ground for the conclusion that Thought and Feeling are mere
products of the material organisation. Again | say, the Physical are not
shown to be more than concomitants of the Mental occurrences ; and ic is still
open to the Theist to refer their connection to the Will of the Almighty.*
I am fully aware that in spite of every argument there will remain on
some minds a strong, though perhaps not distinct impression, that the advance
of physical science, unfolding more and more as it is doing the boundless plan
of creation is decidedly adverse to a belief in Human responsibility. The
sources of this general notion are well worth exploration. But I must now
limit myself to the narrow ground of the special tendency in this direction of
the physical facts I am to-night endeavouring to interpret. Before concluding,
I propose, therefore, to say something on the seemingly close affinity to the
Brute Creation which the Naturalists have fastened upon us. At the first
aspect of the facts on which this unpleasing conclusion is based ; when, too,
we hear an Owen declare that to determine the difference between Homo and
Pithecus is the Anatomist’s difficulty ; or when a Huxley affirms, that no
cerebral barrier intervenes between us and the Quadrumana ; our blood begins
to curdle, and for a time, we are on the way to think that the dignity of Man,
his awful responsibilities, his Heavenly hopes, alike are dreams of Theologians,
which the wiser modern world has now left far behind it. ‘ Yea,” say we, in
such a mood, “‘ yea, they have all one breath ; so that a man hath no pre-
eminence above a beast ; all go to one place ; all are of the dust, and all turn
to dust again.” And what is worse, we are half tempted to the logical
conclusion, ‘that for a Beast there is nothing better than a Beast’s enjoyment,”
nothing better for a Man than that he ‘should eat and drink, and that he
should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.” But rousing ourselves to
consider facts, we cannot but perceive the folly of ignoring the immense chasm
which separates the reflecting mind, thus debating with itself these arduous
themes from the highest of the brutes. Anatomy, it is said, can detect no
difference between the brain of a Newton and that of the last discovered Ape.
Ts it indeed so? So much the worse then for Anatomy! At most it comes
to this, that there exist no physical signs of an enormous disparity. But this
is no reason for discrediting our own most certain conyiction that the disparity
does, in fact, exist. A far more likely solution is, that the imperfect methods
of the Science are as yet unequal to detect the physical indicia. I, for one, am
far from thinking that anatomy may not hereafter throw a strong reflected
light upon mental science. I say a reflected light, for the original ray divine,
the pregnant hint of what to look for, must ever come from Psychology itself.
Meanwhile, what folly to surrender our beliefs, because they are not contradicted,
but, simply, unrecognised, by the imperfect science of the day. The greater
physicists are too wise to forget the limits of their own department. And as
to the mere dogmatists of the dissecting room—men, who like Draper of New
York, will tell you that those whose fingers have never puddled in the dead
brain, can know nothing of the living mind—we must recollect that the
“ dyer’s hand is subdued to what it works in.” It is certain that men may, by
too gross a familiarity with the secrets of this fleshly frame, “‘ encarnalise their
spirits.” Look for no wide philosophic scope in such a quarter. Inured to
the Physical order of ideas they are become incapable of dealing with the
Psychological. Leave them to think, if they can, that their own Meditations,
* Tt is exceedingly satisfactory to find that Professor Huxley, in the paper to which I
shall presently refer, entirely agrees in repudiating any knowledge of efficient causes in
Physics. Less accomplished men of the Professor’s school are continually forgetting this
truth, and setting up material causes in opposition to the spiritual first cause believed in
by the Theist.
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Feelings, Aspirations, are simply oxidation in Cerebral tissues of so much
phosphorus. ‘ Ephraim is joined to Idols ; let him alone.”
Physical Science (in fine) must not pretend to dictate to Mankind on
subjects which transcend her sphere. Knowledge of the external shows of the
World, beautiful and valuable as it is, can never supersede our inner experience
of the life which underlies those forms. Man’s knowledge of his own mental
acts, derived from reflection, cannot be set aside by observation, which,
pretending not to leave the region of the sensible, remains of necessity
incognisant of mind. But, indeed, I do not greatly fear that common sense
will ever seriously lend its ear to a Philosophy which ‘denying that we can
know ourselves, yet insists that we can decipher the Universe.”
One puzzling question remains: Wherein shall we place the mental
difference between Man and those lower animals which most. closely approach
him in intelligence? ‘The range of the passions of Animals is,” says Agassiz,
“‘as extensive as that of the Human mind, and EF am at a loss to perceive a
difference of kind between them, however much they may differ in degree, and
in the manner in which they are expressed. The gradations of the moral
faculties among the higher Animals and Man are, moreover, so imperceptible,
that to deny to the first a certain sense of responsibility and consciousness,
would certainly be an exaggeration of the difference between Animals and
Man.” Again Huxley writes, “ No impartial judge can doubt that the roots,
as it were, of those great faculties which confer on Man his immeasurable
superiority above all other animate things are traceable far down into the
animate World. The Dog, the Cat, and the Parrot return love for our love,
and hatred for our hatred. They are capable of shame, and of sorrow ; and
though they may have no logic nor conscious ratiocination, no one who has
watched their ways can doubt that they possess that power of rational
cerebration which evolves reasonable acts from the premises furnished by the
senses, a process which takes fully as large a share as conscious reason in
Human activity,”
It is no subject for any one to dogmatise upon ; yet, until the Naturalists
show better reasons than any yet adduced, men will continue to believe that
Nature, in passing upward from the Brutes, to what is, as yet, her crowning
work upon this planet, has taken one of her great strides, and made a
difference in kind. And a sound Psychology, guiding the careful observation
of external nature, will here, I think, wholly confirm the views of common
sense. As Man is apparently distiguished chiefly by his capacity for moral
and spiritual ideas, it is in the faculties concerned with these that we ought to
seek the special Human characteristics. It is to three great faculties, that we
may trace Man’s capability in this direction—Self-consciousness, Conscience,
and Free Will. The first confers the idea of personality ; in the second
originates the sense of duty ; the third carries with it the feeling of responsi-
bility. United, these faculties confer the power of conscious self-regulation by
an ideal standard of perfection. Now, what ground have we for thinking that
any of the Brute Creation possess these great endowments, and share the vast
responsibilities which they involve? Agassiz, in the passage I have just cited,
vaguely talks of “a certain sense of responsibility and consciousness ;” and I
know it has been thought that, in the Dog, there is the beginning of a
Conscience ; the first dawning of a Moral nature. And if by Conscience be
meant the dread of punishment, the Dog, no doubt, possesses one ; and not the
Dog alone, but many other Animals. But, if the term be used in its true
sense to indicate perception of the difference in moral worth of several
competing principles of action, there is then no reason to believe that Conscience
is a faculty possessed by any of the lower creatures. Such of their actions as
present, at first sight, the aspect of true voluntary self-restraint, are all to be-
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referred, I think, to training, the habit of Obedience, or to the absorbing
power of some strong affection which, for the time blindly predominates. In
no case that I have ever heard of need it be supposed, that there has been that
conscious and voluntary preference of the higher to the lower ground of
action in which the Moral life of Man consists. The moral faculty declaring
“What I ought to do?” cannot conceivably exist apart from that. self-
consciousness which, holding up a mental mirror wherein the Soul can see and
know itself, enables me to say,—“ This is I.”
I know what moral grandeur some of the recorded actions of Animals
assume. But there is some illusion in our admiration of these affectionate and
faithful Brutes. Outwardly, their acts have all the beauty of self-forgetful
love. Yet how can there be self-oblivion, or self:surrender in creatures upon
whom the idea of self has never dawned? Man is apt to measure all things by
the standard of his own nature, and thus it is that we unconsciously attribute
to the lower creatures an ideal elevation of which there is no valid reason to
suppose them capable.
The supposition that the Brutes are destitute of self-consciousness, also
best explains, I think, the difference between their intelligence and ours. The
mind, which is a mere theatre on which impressions and recollections make
their entrances and exits without the faculty of detaining or recalling them at
will to compare and classify, must be incapable of general ideas, and of all
abstract reasoning. To Man alone, it seems, is given command over his own
intelligenze. The Dog thinks, but only Man has the power of thought.
That God has withheld self-consciousness from the Brute creation, may
perhaps be thought to cast some ray of light upon another mysterious subject.
It may be that the gift of Immortality has, by the All-Righteous One been
confined to that created being in whom alone, so far as our knowledge goes,
He has raised the hope and expectation of it—who alone ‘“‘ihinks he is not
made to die.” Yet on this dark subject it becomes all to speak with great
reserve. Who shall pretend even in thought, to limit His designs? Surely
we may preserve our faith in Man’s great heritage, without pretending to make
it clear that all God’s other creatures are shut out. Their destiny is nowise
our concern. It isa mystery which as yet transcends our knowledge ; and,
not improbably, our faculty of knowledge.
In what I have just assayed to express respecting the mental charac-
teristic of humanity, I cannot hope to content any one who denies the
existence in Man of a moral faculty and free causal power. [expect no one
to concur who, in metaphysics, prefers Hume and Mill to Coleridge and
Martineau ; or who, in Ethics, holds with Paley against Bishop Butler. The
differentiation of Mankind from Brutes, must needs fail in the hands of a
Philosophy which has analysed away every Human characteristic. As little
can I carry with me any of the modern scientific school, which, in terms,
abjures materialism, and, with Hume and Comte, disclaims knowledge of efti-
cient causes, yet is ever seeking to refer the whole Creation, the Human mind
included, to a supposed primal material impulse. No one who, like Professor
Huxley, can think of his own mind as “the expression of molecular changes,”
in that matter of life which is common to himself and the stinging nettle, can
be convinced by any argument which I have here adduced. Exiling from the
world, as they seek to do, all present creative energy, such thinkers are bound
to find, in every phenomenon of the Cosmos, neither more nor less than is
contained in its immediate antecedent. With them, all existences are but
phases of one blind force, whose undulations fill all space and time; and no
essential difference can be admitted to exist amongst them.*
* This whole paragraph, with some of what precedes, has been written since the
delivery of the lecture, since which, also, I have read Professor Huxley’s paper in the
280
After all, look at it steadily, and you will see that this doctrine of Man’s
actual physical affinity to brutal forms, instead of raising new doubts, goes far
to explain certain admitted facts of human experience, and to lesson the
pressure of some old difficulties. I extract the following striking passage,
(cited by Lyell, in this connection,) from Hallam’s Literature of Europe.—“ It
might be wandering from the subject of these volumes if we were to pause,
even shortly, to inquire whether, while the creation of a world so full of evil
must ever remain the most inscrutable of mysteries, we might not be led some
way in tracing the connection of moral and physical evil in man with his place
in that creation ; and especially, whether the law of continuity, which it has not
pleased his Maker to break with respect to his bodily structure, and which
binds that, in the unity of one great type, to the lower forms of animal life by
the common conditions of nourishment, reproduction, and self-defence, has not
rendered necessary both the physical appetites and the propensities which
terminate in self ; whether, again, the superior endowments of his intellectual
nature, his susceptibility of moral emotion, and of those disinterested affections,
which, if not exclusively, he far more intensely professes than any inferior
being—above all, the gifts of conscience, and a capacity to know God, might
not be expected, even beforehand, by their conflict with animal passions, to
produce some partiai inconsistencies, some anomalies at least, which he could
not himself explain in so compound a being. Every link in the long chain of
creation does not pass by easy transition into the next. There are necessary
chasms, and as it were leaps from one creation to another, which, though not
exceptions to the law of continuity, are accommodations of it to a new series of
being. If Man was made in the image of God, he was also made in the image
ofan Ape. The framework of the body of him who has weighed the stars and
made the lightning his slave, approaches to that of a speechless Brute, who
wanders in the forests of Sumatra. Thus standing on the frontier land
5
between animal and angelic natures, what wonder that he should partake of
both !”
The same thought appears in the exhortation of the most modern-minded
of Poets—
‘*Move upward, working out the Beast,
And let the Ape and Tiger die.”
Let man put down within himself the ferocious and the obscene. The
ery emotion of disgust raised by our nearest neighbours on the scale, those
‘blurred copies” of ourselves, is not, we may be sure, without a salutary
purpose in the divine economy.
Physiology, in fine, does but bring home, in a more lively way, if that be
possible, one of the very oldest of human convictions, one of the very first of
religious lessons. Man has always perceived within himself the contest of the
double nature ; has always felt the downward drag of the heavy body, the
stirring of the brute within him. Oriental thought does but exaggerate this
truth in the doctrine of the inherent evil of matter ; a doctrine well known to
Fortnightly Review, February, 1869, ‘ON Tur Puystcan Basis or Lire.” The physical
observations detailed are of great interest. The metaphysics derived from J. 8. Mill are a
good example of that modern philosophizing which A. de Morgan not long ago described, with
equal truth and point, as ‘‘ proving that everything is something else ; and nothing, any-
thing at all.” As to the Professor’s humorous caution against ‘lunar politics,” and con-
cluding moral, it is impossible not to be reminded of the jew d’ esprit in Punch,—‘‘ What
is matter? Never mind! What is mind? No matter!” It is certain that physical
science cannot but lose by this alliance with mistaken metaphysics. Let the attempt be
made by all means, to reduce phenomena to a common formula. But this must not be
done by leaving out what is peculiar to each. It is no true science which would explain
away whatever it cannot explain. Let physical philosophy confess that the phenomena
of mind are wholly different from those with which it has to do,
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Theology as Manicheism, to which Dean Milman traces most of the heresies of
Christendom ; and which may perhaps be found a large ingredient in not a few
of its existing creeds. Nor is that a strange voice which we may hear com-
plaining—‘“TI delight in the law of God after the inner man ; but I see another
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man
that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this Death?” Cleared from
the partial misconceptions which obscure it, the primitive belief in God and
Man, so deeply grounded, so universally diffused, most surely will outlast
successive theories of Physics which, to our darkened understandings, appear
from age to age to threaten its extinction ; and out of their materials will find
fresh arguments to vindicate itself. And, stationed at the summit of terrestrial
Nature, looking thence, backward, on the long gradations of inferior creatures,
forward, up the world’s great altar-stairs, to glory upon glory, dimly discerned,
yet surely awaiting the obedient, the soul of Man, as in the days of old, will
overflow in grateful benediction for the life already given ; in earnest prayer
for larger measures of the quickening Spirit Who is Himself the substance of
the fuller life to come.
THe Mopern Aspect oF Naturat TuroLocy. By C. W. Ricumonp,
One of the Judges of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.
[Lecture delivered in Nelson, August 21, 1869.]
Natura TuHeoxoey is definable as that branch of Moral Science which inves-
tigates the indications in Nature of the Divine existence and attributes.
Observe, I say, a branch of Moral Science ; for to me it seems a great mistake
to claim a place in Physics, or even an influence, for any department of
Divinity. Physical Science and Theology alike suffer from confusion of their
respective Provinces. In times not very distant, Theology, as we all know,
attempted to dictate to the leaders of physical inquiry, most happily for us,
without success. For if the ecclesiastics could have had their way, not only
should we have lost the grand results of our present extended knowledge of the
laws of Nature, but Divinity itself would, in all likelihood, have retained its
narrow medizval type ; and mankind, subjected to that withering influence,
would have sunk deeper and deeper in the slough of a childish and cruel super-
stition. About 250 years ago it was heretical to believe that the earth moves
round the sun. At the same period the few who had sufficient courage and
enlightenment to deny the reality of witches and sorcerers were branded as
blasphemers. And, reverting to still earlier times, the Australasian colonist is
amused to learn, that by the Christian Father Lactantius, the Antipodes were
held to be impossible ; by Saint Augustine, contrary to Scripture ; by Saint
Boniface, of Mentz, beyond the latitude of salvation. In the middle of
the eighth century, Virgilius, an Irishman, rashly venturing to assert their
existence, the whole religious world was thrown, says Mr. Lecky, into a
paroxism of indignation. For, as Cosmas had well reasoned, does not Saint
Paul expressly tell us, that all men are made to dwell upon ‘the face of the
earth?” From which it clearly follows that they do not live upon more faces
than one, or upon the back. With such a passage before his eyes, a Christian,
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says Cosmas, should not ‘even speak of the Antipodes.” But why travel to
remote ages and barbarous times for examples of these ludicrous attempts to
control the course of scientific thought? We ourselves are witnesses that the
same spirit has survived to our own days, and is yet active in the midst of us.
We have seen, and still see, the conclusions of the Naturalist contested, not on
the ground that they are unwarranted by observation, but because to the
objector they seem to contradict some supposed Revelation on the subject
contained in Scripture. Now I desire to assert on the threshold of our
inquiry that, in regard to the constitution of the physical world, Theology
must be content to sit at the feet of her younger sister Science. Scientific
inference is to be supported and opposed purely on scientific grounds. But
more especially in the department of Natural Theology it is obvious we must
take our facts from Natural Science ; making of them what we can.
But, as physical science is progressive, the illustrations drawn from nature of
the theistic arguments must needs adapt themselves to this advance, and theory
after theory be shown to be consistent with what is fundamental in human
faith. I cannot therefore see that Dr. Hooker was justified in one charge
which he made last year against this department of Theology. In his opening
address, as President for the year, to the British Association, he makes it a
reproach, that Natural Theology “shifts its ground to meet the requirements
of every new fact that science establishes.” Now in one sense, no doubt, it
does, and ought, to “ shift its ground.” Essentially it is occupied in showing
that each new fact, and each successive theory, consists with, though it may
not prove, the fundamental point of Natural Religion. Its assumption of
scientific conclusions is of necessity, provisional only ; for these conclusions,
in their very nature, are never final. Science it is rightly said, knows nothing
of Confessions, Creeds, and Articles. With her nothing is permanent, except
the guiding principles of her research. At each step upward a wider prospect
opens out upon her ; and the theories of the past expand into more compre-
hensive views of truth. Theology is bound to follow with her comment
this continuous advance. Plainly, there is confusion in Dr. Hooker’s mind
between Natural Theology and those ill-judged efforts, of which we have seen
so many to reconcile the facts of Science with the letter of Scripture by per-
verting the interpretation of both the subjects of comparison.
The earliest speculations upon the physical forces of the Universe seem to
have arisen out of religious feeling—thereby understanding simply, the human
sense of dependence on an irresistible external power. The might of the
elements, contrasted with the sense of feebleness within, attracts an awe-struck
worship ; giving rise to those naturalistic systems of Religion which we find to
have prevailed in the ancient civilized communities of Asia. In these systems
every operation of nature is attributed to a supernatural influence. The
elementary powers, and the more striking phenomena of the physical world,
are Impersonated and deified. In the earliest known form of the religion of
India, fire, the winds, the sun, the dawn, the bright and cloudless firmament,
are venerated as gods. But as there arises some conception of natural law,
the notion of Divine interference becomes more and more restricted to the less
frequent and apparently irregular phenomena ; more especiaily to such as are
of an appalling or destructive character. Pestilence, drought, earthquakes,
hurricanes, are regarded as Divine visitations, long after men have ceased to
worship the sun and stars. Eclipses, comets, and meteors, also, from their
apparently irregular occurrence, and startling effect upon the senses, are placed
in the same class, and taken for portents of the Divine anger. But in the
progress of the adventurous European races, the bold and lively sons of Japhet
have more and more asserted man’s mental rights and bodily powers against
external nature. Growing familiar with the regularity of all her ways, and
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taught to turn to use some of her most tremendous agencies, the western
nations, little by little, have ceased to yield her a divine regard. At last,
nothing in nature excites a sacred awe but those unusual effects in which the
hand of God is still, for the time, thought to be specially at work.
Modern science has completed this great revolution of feeling and opinion.
Certainly, at the present day, no educated person supposes the Divine influence
to be more peculiarly manifested in an eclipse—of which he will find the time
of occurrence, and area of visibility, predicted in his Almanac with perfect
accuracy—than in the phases of the moon, or the regular recurrence of the
seasons. If the periodical return of comets is as yet less exactly calculated,
this is only, as we all understand, because the elements of the problem are
more complex ; and no one doubts that, sooner or later, our present compara-
tive ignorance will be removed. The advance of Meteorology is gradually
unfolding to us the laws obeyed by the seemingly capricious winds and clouds ;
enabling us to plot out beforehand the destructive path of the cyclone ; making
it impossible to regard seasons of excessive rain or drought as the chastisement
of special sins. Plague, typhus, and cholera, may, indeed, be looked on as
penalties affixed, by an immutable law, to filth and laziness; but in the
medizval sense, can no longer be taken as specially expressive of God’s dis-
satisfaction with human deeds. And the laws of nature are found to be as
universal in Space as invariable in Time. The order which reigns amongst
the minute particles disclosed to us by the microscope, extends to the remotest
regions accessible to the powers of those huge instruments which aid the
research of the modern Astronomer. The same law that brings a feather to the
ground, and wheels the planets in their orbits, governs, it seems, the vast
revolutions of the multiple systems of stars ; white, red, green, and blue suns,
circling about their several common centres, at inconceivable distances, distances
compared with which the whole diameter of the Harth’s orbit is but as a point.
Nor is the substance of the remotest bodies different, as it appears, from those
forms of matter with which we are familiar. The latest experiments on the
light emitted by what are called the fixed stars, are believed to give positive
assurance that the chemical constituents of these bodies are in part, at least,
identical with those of our own planet. Thus, while the Divine power seems
everywhere replaced by Natural force, the scrutiny of Science leaves in the
wide Universe no befitting seat of Deity. What has become of the conception
of a local Heaven? What place have the astronomers left for it? Herschel
has tried to gauge for us the visible Universe in vain; his plummet lowered
into an ocean, every drop of which is a solar system, finds no bottom. The
faint and hazy light, dimmed by immeasurable distance, of suns and systems,
sown in countless multitudes on the dark background, still keeps dawning on
the increasing powers of our space-penetrating instruments ; and beyond
these visible forms of matter, if indeed they have an end, there is nothing but
a sense of vacuity more appalling still. Let any one, on a starry night, look
steadfastly into the starless spaces of our antarctic heavens, and let him try to
fancy God’s unclouded presence as shining out beyond the verge of what is
visible : he will feel that Heaven can no longer seem to us, as to the early
world: we cannot say of it “Lo here! Lo there!” that awful depth seems
rather the abode of Eternal Night. In presence of considerations such as these,
almost overwhelming as they may be found at times, even by the steadiest
intellect and the most lively faith, is it surprising that, to very many, Matter and
its Laws, seem all in all; or can we wonder, that the speculative mind,
descending to the lowest level, sometimes finds at last a dull repose in the Dead
Sea of Thought, the creed of the Materialistic atheist? This then, is the great
cycle of opinion, we find the station of the bold and self-sufficient unbeliever
of our days diametrically opposed to that of the submissive Asiatic—Nature,
sede
284
in the old mode of thought, appearing all miraculous, wholly divine ; but, in
the modern view, just the rever se ; quite unmiraculous and undivine.
But not materialists alone hold the opinion, that where physical law is
present, God is absent. A considerable section of the ‘“ religious world,”
unconsciously adopts that proposition. And this explains the jealousy so
frequently displayed, of all extensions of scientific knowledge. The so-called
“explanations” of Science seem, from this point of view, to empty Nature of
everything divine. The awful voice no longer sounds in the reverberations of
the thunder: His dread judgments are no more announced in pestilence and
famine: the earth no longer trembles at His look: it is not at His touch that
the volcano vomits forth its smoke and lava-torrents. With these believers,
as with the scientific Atheist, miracle stands as the opposite of natural law ;
the one divine, the other godless. With either party, to shut out miracle is to
banish Deity itself Hence the passionate opposition, renewed at every fresh
attempt, made by contemporary science, at deeper penetration into the
mysteries of Nature—passion arising from the unconscious notion that Faith
itself depends on the continuance of scientific ignorance.
The latest instance of this state of feeling is found in the attitude taken
by many theologians towards Mr. Darwin’s speculations on the Origin of
Species in the Organic world. So long as Creation can be regarded as a
unique act, hidden deep in the past from scientific scrutiny, it may retain the
character of miracle. The new doctrine of development threatens this last
stronghold. In the theological view the long train of organic nature, first
herb and tree, then moving creature that the waters brought forth, winged
fowl, creeping thing and beast of the earth, lastly man himself, emerge at the
Divine fiat from nothingness ; each differmg from each, fixed in its type,
perfect in its kind. On the other hand the school of Darwin is striving to
refer this mystery to the operation of the known laws of Organic nature.
Instead of detached creative acts manifesting the power and intelligence of the
Supreme, they see quasi-mechanical evolution from some primitive germ—
evolution proceeding as surely, whilst I speak, as at any former instant in the
world’s life.
Those who have seized the principle, which in a former lecture I have
endeavoured to expound and recommend, may view the controversy without
taking either side, and with quiet certainty that the result must be indifferent to
Natural Religion. Once perceive that Physical science can investigate only
the method of the Universe, and except in concert with higher modes of
thought, is incompetent to reveal i#s cause, and it will be plain, that Theism,
at least, must stand secure in every change of scientific theory. Science, alone,
does not, it must be granted, and cannot, reveal God ; but far less can she
provide a substitute. The whole question of causation lies beyond her sphere.
This I repeat is, on all hands, an admitted principle. Bear with me whilst I
endeavour to bring before you some proof of this assertion. And first as to
the doctrine of the school of Hume on this important topic. ‘ When,” writes
the great master in that beautifully lucid style of his, “we look about us
towards external objects, and consider the operation of causes, we are never
able, in a single instance, to discover any power or necessary connection ; any
quality, which binds the effect to the cause, and renders the one an infallible
consequence of the other. We only find, that the one does actually, im fact,
follow the other. The impulse of the one billiard-ball is attended with motion
in the second. This is the whole that appears to the outward senses. The
mind feels no sentiment or inward impression from this succession of objects :
consequently there is not in any single particular instance of cause and effect
anything which can suggest the idea of power or necessary connection. * *”
“In reality,” he continues, “there is no part of matter that does ever, by its
bs
85
sensible qualities, discover any power or energy, or give us ground to imagine
that it could produce anything, or be followed by any other object which we
could denominate its effect. = - = The scenes of the universe
are continually shifting, and one object follows another in an uninterrupted
succession ; as the power, or force, which actuates the whole machine, is
entirely concealed from us, and never discovers itself in any of the sensible
qualities of body. We know that, in fact, heat is a constant attendant of
flame ; but what is the connection betwixt them we have no room so much as
to conjecture or imagine. It is impossible, therefore, that the idea of power
can be derived from the contemplation of bodies in single instances of their
operation, because no bodies ever discover any power which can be the original
of this idea.” With equal emphasis, John Stuart Mill declares, that scientific
investigation is not concerned with the inquiry into the efficient cause of a
phenomenon, “the cause which is not only followed by, but actually produces,
the effect.” Some writers, thinking they are following Mill, are ready to
assert that juxta-position of certain elements produces the galvanic current ; or
even, that like juxta-position produces mental action. Their master is more
consistent in his Nescience.. Strange as it may seem, with him, as with the
great originator of this way of thinking, no one thing, within ow: knowledge,
produces any other. Certain things invariably follow other things: Hume,
Mill, Comte, pretend to know no more. The leaders entering the penetralia of
Nature’s temple, report they find a vacant seat, an empty shrine ; (vacuam
sedem, inania arcana); the weaker followers declare they see the idol of
Material Necessity enthroned between the Cherubim.*
I now turn to the teaching of the opposite school. This need not long
detain us ; for nothing is more certain than that thinkers of this class give not
the slightest countenance to the fallacy that the so-called powers of Nature can,
in themselves be causative.
These metaphysicians, jealous as they are of the rights of common sense,
and strong in their belief that every instructive assurance of our nature points
at some reality, yet join with Hume and Mill to set aside that mistaken notion
which I am combating. ‘“ Rude nations,” says Dr. Reid, “do really believe
* With those disciples of Mill who, like a Reviewer of my former Lecture,
‘attribute nothing to matter as a cause,” I have, so far, no difference; except
that it seems to me they are not justified in adopting such a formula as ‘‘that mental
phenomena are the result of cerebral organisation,” without a distinct understanding
that the word ‘‘result” carries with it no sense of necessary connection. This is their
difficulty. For they themselves, in spite of their philosophy, like all mankind, cannot
help letting the true idea of cause (disowned by Hume) glide in. Thus, unwittingly, and
unwillingly, they are materialists. ‘‘ Result” will continue, in spite of every philosophic
caution to be taken as equivalent to ‘‘ effect.” ‘‘ Effect” imports its correlative ‘‘ cause.”
If we wish to understand one another, we must banish words in which there lurks a
casual signification, and keep to terms such as ‘‘consequent” and ‘‘concomitant.” My
reviewer himself betrays the weakness I have pointed out, and forgets the doctrine of his
school, when he talks of Nature ‘‘ manipulating cerebral matter so as to produce mental
phenomena.” What is this (to use his own language) but to make a supposed ‘‘meta-
physical entity ‘Nature’ ‘do duty as an efficient cause.” Nor is this in his mouth,
a mere rhetorical expression, such as he himself lays hold of in his remarks on the passage
cited by me from Martineau’s Sermons. It betrays the inner conception of Natural (or
Material) Necessity, as the first cause of things. So in the poem of the great Latin
Materialist, Natura, Venus, dedala tellus, are assumed as causes. Further on in the
argument I am pursuing in the text, I come upon the fundamental difference between the
two Philosophies. Hume, and his sect, in ignoring causation (except, as an eviscerated
notion, in the sense of invariable sequence) contradict our consciousness of that moral
freedom, and avow their nescience of God: thus sapping the intellectual basis of both
Morals and Religion. By regarding Matter ‘‘merely as a condition of phenomena,” like
Time and Space, this mode of thought escapes the grossness of common Materialism
becoming intensely Idealistic ; but the restriction of knowledge to phenomena leaves Man
a phantom in the world of phantoms.
sun, moon and stars, earth, sea and air, fountains and lakes, to have under-
standing and active power. i ie a As philosophy advances, life
and activity in natural objects retires, and leaves them dead and inactive.
Instead of moving voluntarily, we find them to be moved necessarily ; instead
of acting, we find them to be acted upon ; and Nature appears to us one great
machine, where one wheel is turned by another, that by a third ; and how far
this necessary succession may reach the Philosopher does not know.”
But it will be asked, are not the various Forces which Modern Science
has detected, truly efficient causes ; which the Theist, if he please, may style
second causes, but which the scientific mind may rest upon as ultimate?
Are not Gravitation, Elasticity, Cohesion, Attraction, Electricity, Magnetism,
Caloric, Chemical Affinity, and the rest, causes in this sense? To these
questions Hume and the Positivist school, with Mill and all his followers,
will still answer with an avowal of ignorance. For their philosophy knows
nothing but phenomena. Force, clearly, is no phenomenon, but the hidden
producer of phenomena. And in this answer the opposite sect in metaphysics
will most certainly concur. As Martineau shortly puts it, “ Inductive Science
gives us no access to causes behind phenomena.” Force is not matter, but
the supposed power which acts on matter. In itself it is visible, inaudible,
impalpable, inaccessible, in short, to sense of any kind, or to any instruments
of sense. Its intensity, indeed, as appearing in its various effects of motion,
weight, elasticity, colour, heat, deflection of the needle, and so on, is, in most cases
measurable by appropriate methods. But the power itself lies outside the field
of observation ; like that veiled Egyptian goddess, whose hands, stretched forth
from her closely enwrapping mantle, alone were visible. “ You sometimes
speak of gravity,” Sir Isaac Newton writes to Bentley, ‘as essential and
inherent to matter. Pray do not ascribe that notion to me ; for the cause of
gravity is what I do not pretend to know.” Here we have the great discoverer
avowing, that gravitation, according to his judgment, is not in itself a cause
but the effect of some ulterior and undiscovered agency. If this be the case
with gravity, it will scarcely be denied that the same is true of the entire
catalogue of forces I have above rehearsed, together with actinic force, kinetic,
and whatever other fresh coinage the always-active mind of scientific termin-
ology may hereafter issue for temporary circulation. All are but names, I will
not say to cover ignorance, although, in fact, they do conceal it, but to indicate
the supposed common origin of phenomena which appear connected.
This will be made still plainer if we observe two contrary tendencies of
physical research. On the one hand, there is a tendency to augment the
number of supposed material forces arising from the continual discovery of
natural operations before unobserved. When such discovery occurs ; as in the
case of the action of light on certain salts of silver, (now become to us so
familiar a fact in the arts of Photography ;) the new class of effects is ascribed,
for a time, to a new species of natural power. Thus Photography has taught
us to speak of the “actinic” power of ight. But on the other hand investi-
gation is ever revealing to us the hidden analogies of Nature, and thus enabling
us to collect phenomena in larger groups, which we then refer to some one
form of force, instead of, as before, to several different forces. Here there isa
tendency to reduce the length of the Dynamic catalogue. This consideration
should satisfy us that the (so-called) physical agencies are plastic suppositions ;
hypotheses to serve a temporary purpose in scientific classification ; not exis-
tences of which we have any real knowledge. Moreover the tendency of
Modern Science is wholly to abandon the former notion of a multitude of
Forces, and to refer all natural operations to a single form of Force. Force
according to modern theory, never disappears in one shape without reappearing
in another, with exactly corresponding intensity. The blow of the smith’s
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hammer is arrested by the anvil, and its force seems spent ; but, in truth, it
only changes shape, reappearing in the form of heat communicated to the anvil
and the hammer. In the steam engine we see the reverse operation—Heat, in
this instance, disappears in producing mechanical force. In like manner Heat
will produce thermo-electric currents, whilst Electricity, in its turn, generates
Heat. Electricity and Magnetism also, it is now known, are mutually con-
vertible. Temporary magnets are made by electric currents, and sparks are
elicited from magnets. Many other instances of like convertibility might be
given. It is likely, then, that our conception of natural forces will, sooner or
later, be reduced to some single type ; and this one force will be conceived of
as ever varying in its aspects; now Heat, now Chemical force, and now
Mechanical ; yet never spent. Here, then, it will perhaps be said, we shall
have at last the material cause of which we are in search. I answer, No; you
will have found matter in action; nothing more. The question will remain
unanswered, “‘ what makes it act Te
The Theist may then leave Darwinians to fight 1t out with their opponents
on the scientific field ; secure that Natural Religion is nowise interested in the
issue of the controversy. But is human faith, in any shape, truly in peril
should it be established, as seems not unlikely, that Creation is no past event
but a process ever going on? Grant to the advocate of progressive Develop-
ment his ‘‘nucleated vesicle,” ‘“ primordial cell,” or whatever he likes to call it,
out of which he is to bring the whole Organic world. Only do you and he
remember, that the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms are in that cell, as
truly as the oak is in the acorn. The cell accounts, he says, for the whole
Organic world. Be it so: but the cell? what accounts for that?
And, as we further see, the ground of the religious opposition is a mis-
conception. The antithesis of miracle and natural law, as one divine, the other
undivine, is, here, a false one; for the Power of God is no more at work in
miracle than in Nature.
Observe, I speak of the operation of Divine power, not of the manifestation
of Divine purpose, which is not here in question. In almost every form of creed,
the Divine character is supposed to be more fully expressed in miracle than in
Nature. But of Divine power, surely, this amazing universe, filled and pul-
sating with self-renewing life in countless myriads of forms, is the greater
physical expression : so that it is absurd to compare with it, in this respect,
any recorded or imaginable deviation from established order. ‘Command that
these stones be made bread,” was the word of the Tempter, as we read. The
miracle, though then withheld, is worked, (on how huge a scale!) in each
returning season, in our ripened crops. To fill a starving multitude from the
scanty store of a poor fisher, what indeed, as a work of power is that to Him,
‘Who men and angels daily feeds,
And stills the wailing sea-bird, on the hungry shore?”
Scattered miracles of healing are small things to the repairing power of
nature, or to that “stupendous alchemy ” ever at work transmitting inorganic
matter into living tissues. Nay, as a physical wonder, what is resuscitation of
a single life, whilst in the birth of Human infants (to speak only of this
Planet) the new creation of living souls takes place by thousands every hour ?
But to resume our former argument. Science can never touch the ground
of Theism ; for it knows nothing of efficient causes. The mind ranges in vain
through nature for any original source of power. We find, as Reid puts it,
wheel turned by wheel in endless succession, but never reach the origin of
motion. For Matter (whatever it may be) we must needs conceive of as inert;
that is its very definition ; and of Force, in its essence, science must remain
for ever ignorant.
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88
Tt is beside my present purpose greatly to enlarge on the mental process
by which the philosophic Theist supplies the blank thus left by science.
Beyond the point we have now reached, the great contending sects of
metaphysical thinkers have no common ground. I can no longer vouch the
authority of the great Scottish sceptic and his followers, nor avoid collision
with the Positivist sect. Yet I do not assent to the suggestion that the
attempt to handle these great subjects, on intellectual grounds, yet, in a
popular way, is an unwise one, merely because philosophers are not agreed about
them. They are people’s questions, for they concern the springs of human
action in daily life, and must be settled by appeal to the broad experience of
our common nature. There are some subjects on which men whose walk is in
the beaten tracks of life—who have experienced the ordinary lot—acting,
suffering, feeling, thinking, in the way of all mankind; may have a surer
vision of the truth than is accorded to the calm and pure, yet frigid, formal,
unimaginative intellect of the closeted Philosopher. Be it far from me to pass
a moral judgment on these exceptional natures ; or to conclude that their lives
must be vicious and unholy, because I deem their principles unsound !
Judging men by their actions, it will appear, plainly enough, that some have
found a way to reconcile what seems a barren and repulsive creed of mere
negations with a life of strenuous effort and noble aspiration. Such have
become, and are an illustration to their country, and an honour to mankind.
Let it be left to the great Taskmaster to judge His servants. To him they
stand or fall.
One word to some to whom the argument may be distasteful on another
ground. Faith, I concede, has her experiments as well as Science; and they
are happy, who by wholly other ways than those which we are trying, may
have “ felt after” and found Him who is “not far from every one of us.” To
some such, I anticipate, discussion like the present may seem superfluous, or
worse. The Supreme certainty will appear to them too true and real for
elaborate proof, if not too sacred for metaphysical discussion. Yet let me urge,
that all men are not in this happy case. The intellect has its demands ;
demands which, at the present time, it is unwise, unsafe, and wrong, to over-
look. The reassuring faculty, ‘sounding on its dim and perilous way,” can
never, I am well convinced, beget assurance on this great subject ; but it may
remove unpediments which are stumbling blocks to many; it may confirm
conclusions based on surer ground; above all, it may rouse men from that
mental torpor which is a disease far commoner than positive unbelief.
Eschewing, so far as [am able, the refinements of metaphysical discus-
sion, I shall, then, briefly state the grounds on which my own intellect arrives
at its conclusion. I accept, as satisfactory, the doctrine that we derive the
idea of “ Force” from our own experience of the action of the “ Will,” In
volition, we have, I think, the sense of intellectual effort ; of force put out,
and resistance overcome ; of strain kept up in spite of weariness. Having
conceived a mental purpose we are conscious of putting forth a power whereby
the thing conceived of may be effected, I speak here of purely mental
experiences ; and in this sphere, it seems to me, I say, that our wills appear to
us to be efficient causes.* ‘ Force,” then, in our experience, is as Dr.
Carpenter has put it, —‘‘ the direct expression, or manifestation, of that mental
* As regards our bodily motions, it may be granted to Hume, Brown, and J. S. Mill,
that our will really causes them ‘‘in the same sense,” (to quote the last-named writer)
‘‘and in no other, in which cold causes ice, or a spark causes an explosion of gunpowder.
The volition, a state of our mind, is the antecedent ; [not cause ;] the motion of our limbs,
in conformity to the volition, is the consequent; [not effect.]’ This much, I say, may be
granted as to the connection of the two events, viz., the volition and ensuing bodily move-
ment, Our sense of power is in the volition itself apart from any physical result,
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state which we call Will.” It is the name we give to our own self-conscious
exercise of power. We know, and can conceive of, no other form of Force.
Constrained by a law of our nature, (that law which, uncorrected by our
higher reason, suggests to us the notion of physical causation ); to refer every
phenomenon to a cause, we can do no otherwise than suppose, in the back-
ground of Nature, a power producing her appearances. This power we must
needs conceive of as cognate with the only form of power of which we have
experience. Thus it comes to pass, that the unsophisticated intellect must see
in Nature the expression of a Mind; and suppose beneath the veil of fleeting
phenomena the enduring force of a living Will. force is but the meta-
physical idea of Wi// transferred to the field of physics. orce is will supposed
in action upon matter. The conception is the indispensable sub-stratum of all
physical speculation ; yet the origin of the idea, as of those of Substance,
Space, and Time, is hyper-physical. Ido not say that there is logjcal ground
for the belief that all phenomena must bear the same kind of efficient cause
with one type of Force which our narrow human experience makes known to
us ; or even for the belief that all phenomena must have a cause. These beliefs
lie deeper than logic. They are laws of that mental constitution on which
Logic itself depends.
How mind can act on Matter must remain to us an impenetrable mystery.
But, when called upon to choose between Mind and Matter for the origin and
motive power of the universe, we can be at noloss; for Matter we must think
of as inert ; Mind, on the other hand, we are conscious of as active. When,
however, we attempt to realize to ourselves the mode of the Divine action in the
Universe of matter, we at once encounter a great difficulty of conception.
Are we to suppose a distinct volition for every phenomenon ; and to call in
the Divine power to produce a spark, or form a rain-drop? We shrink from
the idea as irreverent, if not impossible. On the other hand, suppose His
volitions quarrel, and Himself, in Nature, regardless of particulars, and what
becomes of that Providence without which not a sparrow falls, and by which
the very hairs of our head are numbered? Nor can we escape the difficulty by
the denial of God’s immanency in Nature. It is idle to interpose between
Him and His universe the machinery of secondary causes. We have seen the
fallacy of imputing power to the temporary fictions of scientific generalization,
as if gravitation, or electricity, were capable of being regarded as real agents.
Driven from our refuge in the sophistry of so-called material causation, nothing
is left but the world of spirit. In former ages there was no difficulty in the
conception of intermedial agencies of a spiritual kind. In the Talmud a special
angel is assigned to every star, and to every element. But the day for such
fancies is gone by. In my judgment one difficulty is irremovable; for it
arises from the natural limitation of our faculties. We view all things as
existing in space or time. We know not that such is the mode of the
Almighty’s thought. Nay, rather, we believe that, to the great I AM, Past
and Future are merged in an eternal Present: that to Him there is, physically,
neither great nor small: neither far nor near: that, in the infinite sphere of
His Providence the centre is everywhere. But though our faith be that He
reconciles the claims of General and Particular in his boundless universe ; and,
whilst maintaining the grand and beautiful uniformities of Cosmical law, that
His tender mercies are over all His works, we needs must own, that to
comprehend, or even to imagine, how this can be, transcends our feeble
faculties.
The way is now open for us to consider more precisely the modern aspect
of Physical Science, in its organic branches. This has appeared to many
leading scientific minds highly unfavourable to those arguments from particular
290
Design, on what the theologians of the last century were wont to lay the
greatest stress. As we have just seen, there are two ways in which the
human mind strives to represent to itself the divine activity in the universe of
matter. According to the one mode of thought, the general plan of Creation
is paramount ; according to the other, the particular creatures. Corresponding
with this division is the difference between the past and present aspects of
Organic science. The naturalist of last century separately examined each par-
ticular species of the Animal Kingdom, with reference to its external form, and
mode of life. Great stress was laid in classification upon such characters, as
the nature of food; whether it were a carnivorous, -herbivorous, or insec-
tivorous creature: or the habitat whether terrestrial, aerial, or aquatic ; or the
mode of progression, whether on hoofs, by wings, by fins or otherwise ; in
short, upon which it seemed fitted to attain.
This method of classification is known as T'eleological, or purposive, (from
“telos” an end, a purpose) being based on the apparent purpose of an organism
rather than on its structure, or course of development. But there are radical
objections to this method of arrangement. “It is frequently found that two
organs which are not unlike in external form, and which have corresponding
functions in the system, originate from elements entirely different, and are
therefore fundamentally dissimilar; while, and on the other hand, organs which
at first sight present little or no resemblance to each other, and are applied to
very different purposes in the economy, eel be really modifications of the
same fundamental component.”—Carp.
The wings of Insects, as compared te those of Birds, are a good instance
of the identity of function combined with fundamental diversity of structure.
In structure the wings of Insects really are analogous, or, as the phrase now is,
homologous, with certain structures, which in other articulated animals
constitute part of the breathing apparatus. Hence Oken calls the wings of
Insects “aerial gills.” The attempt to bring into comparison the wings of
insects with those of birds and bats can now, as Carpenter observes, only
excite a smile on the part of the philosophical anatomist. Again, the gills of
fishes correspond in function with the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates.
But, in structure, lungs are the homologues, nee of the gills, but of the air-
bladder in Fishes; an organ which has no respiratory function. Modern
classification no longer proceeds, therefore, upon analogy, that is resemblance
of function, but upon homology, that is identity, of structural type. With the
modern naturalist, the question is, not, what life the animal was meant to lead,
but, what is the formal plan on which it is constructed? Proceeding thus, he
finds, “‘that in the several tribes of organised beings, we have, not a mere
aggregation of individuals, each formed upon an independent model, and
presenting a type of structure peculiar to itself, but that we may trace through-
out each assemblage, a conformity to a general plan which may be expressed
in an ‘archetype,’ or ideal model.*” < ei * “ The typical
structure of any group being given, the different habits of its component
species, or minor groups, are provided for, not by the creation of new organs,
or the destruction of others, but by the modification in form, structure, or
place, of organs typically belonging to the group.t This method in natural
science is known as the Mor phological (from “ morphé”), “form ;” because it
regards community of form or type. The obvious defects in the "arrangement
of the mammalia, by the illustrious Cuvier, seems attributable to his partial
adherence to the teleological method. His great primary division into
Unguiculata (clawed), Ungulata (hoofed), and Mutilata (wanting the posterior
* Carpenter, ‘‘Comp. Physiol.,’
+ Ibid, § 77, (citing Bell on ‘* British Crustacea.’’)
29
limbs) has reference rather to the adaptation of the creature to its external life
than to the general plan of its structure. The division leads to a confusion
which has become manifest in the light of the more advanced science of the
present day. The whale tribe (Cetacea) with their high mammalian
organisation, appear unduly degraded to the very bottom of Cuvier’s table,
merely because the wants of a purely marine habitat have been met by a
development of the caudal extremity of the vertebral column, which supersedes
the necessity for a development of the posterior limbs. On the other hand
the Ornithorynchus (order Jonotremata), whose structure presents marked
analogies to the oviparous vertebrates, is elevated, merely in virtue of its clawed
extremites, to a place above the Hlephant and Horse. Yet, as Owen remarks,
“no one has proposed to associate the unguiculate Bird or Lizard with the
unguiculate Ape ; andit is but a little less violation of natural affinities to
associate the Monotrenes with the Quadrumanes in the same primary (unguicu-
late) division of the mammalian class.” Again Cuvier’s secondary division
according to the structure of the teeth is open to the same objection, and leads
through, in a less degree, to the same inversion of Natural order, and con-
fusion of Natural affinity. The possession by the Kangaroo of three kinds of
teeth, elevated the genus, in Cuvier’s list, to a place intermediate between the
Carnivora and Rodentia, removing it from its true association with that other
strange Australian already mentioned, the Ornithorynchus ; which as wanting
canine teeth and incisors, was ranked with South American types, the Armadillo,
Sloth, and Ant-eater. The superiority of the more modern method, as a
ground of classification, is best made evident in the case of the rudimentary
organs. These would seem to the Teleologist but as “ freaks of nature ;” whilst
to the eye of Morphology they are characters of the utmost significance. Thus
Dr. Carpenter writes :—“ We find, as might have been expected, * * that
if the plan of structure in a particular tribe involves the non-development of
some organ which is possessed by neighbouring groups, its conformity to
archetypal regularity is generally manifested by the presence of that organ in
a rudimentary, or undeveloped condition. Thus, we find some rudiment of
the lung in most Fishes, even where it is not sufficiently developed to serve as
an ‘air-bladder’ in regulating the specific gravity of the body. In the
abdominal muscles of Mammals, again, we find the abdominal sternum and
ribs of Saurian Reptiles indicated by white fibrous bands; and in those
Mammals which do not possess a clavicle, that bone is usually represented by
a ligament, just as the stylo-hyoid ligaments in Man represents a portion of
the hyoidean arch which is elsewhere [i.e., in others of the Mammalia] com-
pletely ossified. Such rudimentary structures, however, often display them-
selves only at an early period of development, and are subsequently lost sight
of. Thus the rudiments of teeth, which are never developed, and which, at a
later period cannot be detected, are found in the embryo of the Whale, both in
the upper and under jaws; and Professor Goodsir has ascertained that the
rudiments of canine teeth, and of the incisors of the upper jaw, which are not
subsequently developed, exist in the embryos of Ruminating Mammals. The
most remarkable example of the kind, however, is the existence of branchial
arches, resembling those of the Fish, in the early embryo of ali air-breathing
Mammalia.” In the Vegetable kingdom the same conformity to a common
type is manifested by the presence of rudimentary organs. In the common
Sage, for example, “we find only two stamens where the general plan of the
flower would lead us to expect five ; but upon looking attentively at the
interior of the corolla, two little scales are often to be seen growing in the
place where two of the deficient stamens should have been ; these two scales
are frequently developed as perfect stamens in flowers which are otherwise
constructed precisely like the sage ; and even the fifth makes its appearance in
QQ
292
some instances, exactly where it should be regularly found.”—(Carp. 2b.) In
these and many like cases, parts which we are perhaps justified in saying are
perfectly useless to the individual creature, seem to exist purely in conformity
with the great law of the unity of Organic type.
To the Natural Theologian following in the track of the older school of
Naturalists, rudimentary organs were as great a stumbling block as to his
leaders. The scarcely perceptible eyes of the mole may deserve the special
praise accorded by Paley, in this instance, to Divine “skill ;” but on his view
of things, what can we make of that species in which the aborted organ is
completely covered from the light? What, again, of the teeth of the fetal
whale, or of the undeveloped air-bladder of some Fishes, or of the redundant
provision of gills and lungs in some of the Batrachians, or of the caudal
vertebre in Man? A yet more serious difficulty beset the utilitarian Divine
in this department of his work. ‘ Adaptation” was a word as much in vogue
with him as now is “ Correlation” with the Darwinians. In Paley’s pages
one reads perpetually of the Divine “contrivances.” It is obvious to ask
“Wherefore all this painful adaptation of means to ends?’ Why should
Omnipotence resort to contrivance to attain particular purposes? As Paley
himself perceives ‘‘ contrivance by its very definition and nature is the refuge
of imperfection.” Besides, after all that can be said on the admirable structure
of the Hye, and its adaptation to the light, the intervention of Almighty power
still appears needful to enable us to see. How otherwise can the inverted
image on the retina raise in the Mind a visual idea? How can any mechanism
bridge over the chasm between the material image and the immaterial Mind ?
Then why should God devise complex machinery, which, after all, does not
dispense with his direct volition? ‘ What fitness,” it is well demanded, “is
there in one mechanism more than in another, or in any than in none at all,
to produce its appended perception ?”
Now in these, and kindred questions, Morphological Science comes in to
relieve, though, it may be, not wholly to remove our difficulties. Discarding
the mechanical idea, it calls on us to regard the Universe, not as a piece-meal
product in which God, by a series of contrivances, has managed to adapt
particular creations, one by one, to pre-established general laws, but as a mighty
whole, whereof the parts are mutually related, and cohere in one all-compre-
hensive system. From this point of view, the eye seems adapted to the light,
neither more nor less than the light to the eye. The great optical laws
extending over tracts of time and space where vision cannot be, yet have relation
to that wondrous little structure no less than it to them. The old idea of
adaptation merges in the wider one of correlation ; and all the forces of the
Universe are seen to be cdoperant. Symmetry and Beauty, in and for them-
selves, appear to be creative ends which the Divine Artist has not thought
fit to disregard ; and we are at liberty to think that many things are as they
are, not because He could not otherwise have reached some special purpose,
but because he never violates that Order of thought, and Harmony of design,
by which His mind expresses itselt in Matter. Nor can we fail to see that
one beneficial result, at least, in relation to God’s intelligent creatures has
been attained by this inflexible regard to order ; for had he condescended to
no method in His Universe, Science itself would have been impossible. The
physical world have been an undecipherable Enigma, differmg from the
wonderful reality as does an incoherent scrawl from an intelligible writing.
This wider view of Nature leaves unshaken in the older argument all
that is really sound. The moral proof of beneficent design cannot be weakened
by observing, that the fitness of every part for its peculiar function is attained
without departure from the grander principle of Organic symmetry. The two ends
are reached concurrently. I again cite from Dr. Carpenter the following passage :—
293
“We can scarcely select any example of diversity of external conforma-
tion and of function, swperinduced upon an essential unity of organisation, so
appropriate as that which is afforded by the comparison of those different
modifications of the limbs or members, and especially of the anterior pair, by
which the several species of Vertebrated animals are adapted to the most
diversified modes of life. No Comparative Anatomist has the slightest hesita-
tion in admitting that the pectoral fin of a Fish, the wing of a Bird, the paddle
of a Dolphin, the fore-leg of a Deer, the wing of a Bat, and the arm of a Man,
are the same organs ; notwithstanding that their forms are so varied, the uses
to which they are applied so unlike each other. For all these organs not only
occupy the same position in the fabric, but are developed after the same manner ;
and when their osseous frame-work is examined, it is found to be composed of
parts which are strictly comparable one with another, although varying in
number and in relative proportion.
“Thus, commencing from the shoulder-joint, we can almost everywhere
[i.e., in the anterior limbs of all the creatures just named] recognize without
difficulty the Humerus, it being only in Fishes that this is so little developed
as not to intervene between the scapula and the bones of the fore-arm ; next
we have the radius and ulna, whose presence 1s always distinguishable, although
one of them may be in only a rudimentary condition; then, beneath the
wrist-joint, we find the bones of the carpus, which are normally ten in num-
ber, forming two rows, but which may be reduced by non-development to
any smaller number—three, two, or even one; next we find the metacarpal
bones, which are normally five, but are sometimes reduced among the higher
Vertebrata to four, three, two, or one ; while in Fishes they may be multiplied
to the number of twenty or more ; and lastly we have the digital bones, of
which there are normally five sets, each consisting of three or more phalanges,
but which are subject to the same reduction or multiplication as the meta-
carpal. It is entirely from the differences of conformation which these osseous
elements gradually come to present in the course of their development, that
those special adaptations arise, which fit their combination in each case for the
wants of the particular species that possesses it; enabling it to be used as an
instrument for terrestrial, aquatic, or aerial progression ; for swimming and
diving, for walking and running, for climbing and flying, for burrowing
and tearing; or for that combination of refined and varied manifestations
which renders the hand of Man capable of serving as an instrument where-
with to execute the conceptions of his fertile intellect.”
As further illustrations, the proboscis of the Elephant, which constitutes
so wonderful an instrument of prehension, is, properly, no special organ but
an extended nose ; and an approach to a like extension is presented by the
Tapirs among existing Mammals, as well as by various extinct animals of the
same order. ‘So, turning to the Vegetable Kingdom, we find that [apparently |
special organs, such as tendrils, pitchers, fly-traps, etc., are evolved out of the
more general type of the leaf, and are not introduced as additional to the
ordinary fabric.”
To me, I confess, it seems unsound and dangerous to rest the proof of design
upon the existence of supposed anomalies introduced into the general plan for
a special purpose. Sooner or later the supposed anomaly is sure to be explained
away. It is well to take warning on this head from the mistakes of the last gene-
ration. To illustrate my meaning—Paley, in reference to the compensation of
certain supposed deficiencies in the organisation of the Bat, writes thus :—“ These
inabilities are made up to her by the contrivance in her wing, and in placing
a claw on that part the Creator has deviated from the analogy observed in
winged animals. A singular defect required a singular substitute.” But, in
Nature, we have learnt, by this time, nothing is singular. The Bat’s supposed
294
“claw,” “the contrivance in her wing,” turns out, we see, to be a thumb!
The supposed deviation from Universal order proves to be perfect uniformity.
The narrow notion of quasi-miraculous adaptation disappears in the perception
of the harmonious plan which answers every end at once. Yet, shall we say
the view is false which sees in the provision for the dusky little creature a
purpose as dear to God, as plain a revelation, as in that boundless plan of
Nature which fills and masters the Imagination of Philosophers? Are these
humble, beneficent utilities indeed beneath His scope? Surely there is a wiser
way than this of looking at it. Just as, in some masterpiece of Literature,
sense and sound, aiding each other, are alike complete and satisfying, and use
and beauty, in perfection, are attained together ; so is it in the Universe of
things, though on a transcendent scale which beggars all comparison. None
can say which is there supreme, Utility or Beauty ; for both seem ends, and
both seem perfectly achieved. They are, indeed, but different aspects of the
same perfection. In the work of human art, one mind prefers to dwell on the
harmony and grandeur of the language, another on the pregnant meaning of
this or that particular verse or sentence. Both estimates, in their way, are
just, and both inadequate. And thus it is with those diverse views of Nature
which we have been considering. Some men are wholly taken up with admira-
tion of the majestic uniformity of Natural law; others, taking a view at
once humbler and higher, simpler and more devout, rather delight to trace the
apparent purpose in some particular portion of God’s works ; but none can
reach the meaning of the whole. Yet seeing, as we do, how He, in Nature,
seems to combine harmoniously His general and particular purposes, are we
not encouraged to believe, that in the higher region of His spiritual action,
(however dark to us the method,) the like consistency obtains; and that the
wide design which enchains Ages and Nations, and conducts the Education of
the World, yet leaves room for special dealing, adapted to its wants, with the
humblest human soul that turns towards him ?
To return once more to Physics ; no one can fail to see, that in putting a
new face on Science, the great resource has been the study of Development.
Following this path, the modern Naturalist has solved a host of questions,
having reference not merely to the nature of particular organs, but to the true
relation between different groups of living beings. This fruitful method was
first applied in Botany. In this department the gradual metamorphosis of all
the organs from a common form is most distinctly traceable in the life of indi-
vidual plants ; and here, accordingly, was made the earliest application of the
modern principle. Goethe showed that the various parts of plants are trans-
formations of the axis and its appendages: the axis consisting, in its upward
development, of the stem and branches ; in its downward development of the
root: the axial appendages, in their simple form, being leaves. All organs
not parts of the axis itself, whether bracts, sepals, petals, stamens, or pistils,
are now known to be modified leaves. The gradational passage from leaf to
bract, from bract to sepal, from sepal to petal, from petal to stamen, is traceable
in various plants. The same principle of research was soon extended to the
Animal Kingdom. The metamorphosis of some creatures, Insects, for example,
and ‘Tadpoles, to the forms of maturity, takes place after birth. Amongst the
higher animals each creature goes through its most striking transformations
before it enters on a separate existence. Embryology, therefore, is the science
which has thrown most light on Animal metamorphosis. It is the astonishing
revelation of this department of enquiry that every organ of every animal is
evolved from a common starting point—the simple cell—by a gradual passage
from that primal integer of life to forms more special and complex. Pursuing
the same line of thought and observation, in reference to the bony structure of
ae)
the Vertebrata, Oken and Owen have shown the development of the entire
skeleton from the vertebral axis and its appendages ; thus disclosing a series
of phenomena parallel with those of the Vegetable world, and demonstrating
the absolute unity in this respect of archetypal plan in the highest sub-division
of the Animal Kingdom.
Last of all, Darwin and his followers propose to elucidate the develop-
ment of Species by the same procedure which has revealed the mysteries of
individual growth. It is plain that in this attempt they are in entire accord-
ance with the spirit and tendency of modern Science. If the Darwinians are
in the right—and I know not why we should desire to see their theory refuted
—not only the birth of idividuals, but the evolution of species is now proceeding
as surely as at any former period ; and we must henceforth speak of Creation
in the present tense. It is matter of regret, though not of wonder, that the
able and judicious author of so great a speculation should himself appear at
times to misinterpret the theological bearing of his own ideas ; writing as if
his theory tended to supersede the notion of intelligent design. That this isa
great error I trust I have made clear, and have succeeded in convincing you
that such speculations do but open out upon us grander notions of the universal
method. He whom we worship “ worketh hitherto ;” immanent in His universe,
and active, now, aS when the fiat first went forth “ Let there be Light :”—
‘*For was, and is, and will be, are but is;
And all creation is one act at once
The birth of light : but we that are not all,
As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that,
And live, perforce, from thought to thought and make
One act a phantom of succession :’—
The theist, therefore, needs not fear to see these impressions of symmetry,
which arise on contemplation of the laws of the Inorganic world, rapidly
extending themselves to include Organic nature. The singular limitation of
Paley’s view, and that of his age, to special utilities and quasi-mechanical
adjustments, caused him to underrate some of the sublimest testimony which
Nature bears to her Maker’s power and wisdom. In the stomach of a grub he
could find the traces of a purpose which he vainly sought for in the solar
system. To him the harmony of the spheres spoke of no musician, for of
Order and Beauty as ends in themselves he was unable to conceive. Loving
to view the Universe, not as a whole, but as made up of parts, ‘‘the glory of
the sum of things” had never flashed upon him. For he looked on Nature
with the mechanician’s eye, not with the artist’s; and unless he fancied he
could guess an ulterior purpose her symmetry and beauty were almost whelly
lost upon him. But once seize the conception that order, ratio, symmetry,
beauty, do in themselves bespeak designing mind as clearly as utility itself,
and Inorganic Nature will be seen to bear its testimony to the Creative
Intellect as plainly as the Animated World.
It would detain us too long were I to treat in detail this branch of the
subject : I must content myself with a few words. The ideas of ‘“ Space,”
“Time,” and ‘‘ Number,” form the foundation of the pure sciences of Geometry,
Algebra, and Arithmetic. The truths of these Sciences are abstract and
necessary. They are abstract as having essentially no relation to the external
world. No one ever consdered the line or circle, conceived of in the mathematics,
as necessary, because, when understood, we perceive not only that they are true,
but that they must be true. We can, by no effort, imagine that two and two
make five ; that two parallel straight lines when produced can meet ; that the
three angles of a triangle are, together, greater or less, than two right angles ;
neither can we conzeive that these things ever were, or ever will be, here or
elsewhere, otherwise than as we now conceive of them. These Sciences, then,
296
deal with abstract and necessary forms of Human thought. They disclose to
us an infinity of ratios, or relations, subsisting between the various ideas of
number and magnitude with which they deal ; comprising the properties of
geometrical figures, plane and solid, triangles, squares, circles, ellipses, prisms,
cylinders, cones, spheres, etc. Now, on coming to the examination of external
Nature, Man finds to his amazement that Nature “ geometrizes” in all her
departments. There is a definite apportionment of Space and Time, there are
definite relations of Number and Magnitude, underlying, as it were, all Natural
operations. The geometrical webs spun by man in his own brain, with ideal
lines, turn out to be the ground-plans of Nature herself. The planets, to take
a familiar instance, move round the sun in elliptical orbits, having the sun for
a common focus. Their speed in different parts of their orbits 1s governed by
a law capable of precise geometrical expression ; for every planet moves in
such a way tliat the line drawn from it to the sun sweeps over equal areas in
equal times. An exact arithmetical relation subsists between the periods of
revolution of the several planets and their respective distances from the Sun ;
the squares of the period being proportional to the cubes of the mean distances.
Again Bode’s law discloses a rather remarkable numerical harmony in the
progression of the distances of the planets from the Sun.
The general regularity of this series (a series in duple progression), was
early observed: but the rule seemed to be broken in the case of the wide
interval between Mars and Jupiter, where a member of the system seemed
wanting. Bode argued that a planet must exist to fill up this gap; and
towards the close of the last century there began a search for it. This has
resulted in the discovery of a whole family of comparatively minute bodies,
which may have been fragments of a larger one. Collectively, at all events,
these planetoids fulfil the expectation of Science, for they revolve in orbits at
a mean distance from the sun almost exactly corresponding with that indicated
by Bode’s law, as the proper distance of the missing member of the system.*
Chemistry gives limits of the mathematical groundwork of Nature as
distinct, almost, as those conveyed by the queenly science of Astronomy.
The supposed primitive elements of bodies, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen,
Carbon, and the rest, in whatever quantities they are mixed, combine with one
another only in constant numerical proportions. When, as is commonly the
case, one substance combines with another in several different proportions, the
higher proportions are multiples of the lowest. This gives to the formule of
Chemistry the very aspect of an algebraic series. Even the laws of musical
concord depend upon the ratio subsisting between the numbers, in a given time,
of the vibrations which produce the notes. In the simple chord of three notes,
or harmonic triad, the Donwnant performs four vibrations, whilst the Z7hird
performs five, and the /7/th six ; and the superior, because more readily perceived,
harmony of the combination is dependent upon the simplicity of this ratio.
I believe there is little doubt that harmony of colour depends on a similar
* Even more striking than these instances, is the fact, that the law of gravity itself
may be regarded as the simple expression of an @ priori truth dependent upon the abstract
conception of Force, and on the geometrical relation subsisting between the superficial
areas of spheres of different magnitudes. Suppose a force emanating from the centre of
several concentric spheres, and diffusing itself through space. Taking it for an axiom,
that Force is never lost, the supposed Force will become attenuated in proportion to the
distance from the seat of power (the common centre), but will remain, in sum, undi-
minished. The sum of the force exerted on the surface of each sphere will then be the
same. But these surfaces are in direct proportion to the squares of the radii of the
spheres. The force, therefore, on any given part of any of these surfaces must, in its
intensity, be in the inverse ratio of the radius—i.e., inversely as the distance. The
undulations of light, heat, and sound, follow the same law. ‘The first law of motion is
also deducible, @ priori, from the abstract idea of Force.
297
mathematical proportion in the rates of vibration of the different rays. What
then should be the inference from the mass of data I have so hastily thrown
together? Surely this; there is a correspondence between the plan of Nature
and the mind of Man, which plainly indicates their common origin: and more,
their common origin in a Mind cognate with that of Man ; which has impressed
its image on our little mental world as on the mighty Universe around us.
I do not say, indeed, that this is proved as against any who maintain the origin
of things in blind material force; the pattern and impress of whose action
would be identical in both its products, Man and Nature. But such con-
siderations are, in their way, as forcible, by way of illustration, as Paley’s
argument, based on mere utility.
Should Maphological Science at any time succeed in effacing the destinc-
tion between the organic and inorganic world, (no inconceivable result, when
we remember that the phenomena of crystallization suggest an analogy between
the two,) enlightened Faith will only find the very thing she was prepared for,
and behind the study of form, chemistry begins to think of the ultimate
revelation of a single substance of all created things. The modern doctrine,
already glanced at, that all Force is of a single type, carries still further these
notions of absolute cosmical unity ; it being (as I have said) already ascertained
that Heat, Electricity, Galvanism, Chemical affinity, and others of the physical
Forces, can exchange effects with one another, and with Mechanical Force.
No scientific mind, on which this doctrine of the unity and conservation of
physical Force has taken hold, will ever part from it again. There is a growing
conviction that Gravity, at one end of the scale, Vital Force at the other, will,
in the end, appear reducible to a common form. Nature thus proving a very
Proteus ; and the varied forms of Force so many masks of a Dynamic Unity,
Strange, after all, it is, that in this grand convergence of Scientific thought
upon the one idea of perfect Unity, in form and substance, power and purpose,
any man can fail to find increased assurance of that undying hope, that
indestructible belief in,—
“*That God, which ever lives and loves,
One God, one hand, one element,
And one far-off divine event,
To which the whole creation moves.”
Seis
an,
oho
aad
ON THE CHANGES EFFECTED IN THE NatTuRAL FeraturEsS oF A NEw
CounTRY BY THE INTRODUCTION OF CIVILIZED RACES. By
Weel DrAvErs, ys:
(PART I.)
[Lecture delivered at the Colonial Museum, Wellington, August 7, 1869.]
In attempting to compress within the limits of a lecture so broad a subject as
the character and extent of the changes effected by civilized man in the physical
features and organic life of new countries, I am aware that I have undertaken
no ordinary task, and on this ground alone I should have to crave your
indulgence ; but when, added to its inherent difficulties, I venture to state
that my usual avocations are not akin to such investigations, I trust I
may have a still further claim upon your good nature. In discussing
the subject which I propose to bring under your notice, 1b is necessary
that I should call your attention to the position which, so far as investi-
gation has yet afforded light upon it, man has occupied on this globe
from the most ancient times, for it must be manifest that although man, in his
rudest stages of life, must long be dependent upon spontaneous productions for
his means of subsistence, and that it is not until the arts of civilization have
been considerably advanced, that he is able to bring under his dominion, more
than a very limited number of the varied productions which are made to minister
to his wants, or to his luxuries, yet nevertheless, in an enquiry like the present,
we must take into account his primitive condition of existence. It has been well
observed by a modern writer of great power, that “there are few scientific
questions exciting so much interest as the origin and antiquity of man, and
that, nevertheless, general as the interest is, there is no subject so furtively
studied, and so unfairly dealt with.” The same writer then shows that
the influence of theological ideas has induced the great mass of enquirers
to approach the subject with doubt and hesitation, and that even the
learned societies of Hurope exhibit an “uneasy tenderness” in dealing
with it ; and yet he points out how infinitely more important it is to acquire
a knowledge of the origin, present condition, and probable future of man, than
it is to possess the most intimate acquaintance with any of the other biological
problems presented for our solution. And he argues that ‘if there be any
irreverence in dealing with such questions as man’s origin, antiquity, and
destiny, that irreverence must rest with those who would circumscribe the
range of reason, and seek by unworthy clamour to deter the human intellect
from arriving at some conception, however faint, of those laws by which the
Creator has chosen to sustain the phenomena of this marvellous universe.
That man’s relations to external nature, his relations to his God, and his
relations to his fellow men, determine at once the range of his knowledge and
the sum of his obligations ; and that unless these relations be understood (and
this is what science is always striving after), there never can be a complete
fulfilment of the duties they involve. That it thus becomes truly pitiable to
hear from certain quarters their misrepresentations of scientific aims and
scientific conclusions. That, in fact, it is easier to bear than to hear them ;
and that one can scarcely avoid the conviction, that those who can misrepresent
the opinions of others, in order to strengthen their own arguments, would have
RR
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little hesitation in falsifying facts to subserve a similar purpose. They talk of
religion and infidelity ! . There is no profession of religion more offensive than
that which, under the assumption of superior piety, attempts to vilify the
honest convictions of others ; the ‘stand aside because I am holier than thou
art’ is, in general, void of reality, as it is wanting in Christian humility and
charity. They talk of reconciliation between the utterances of science and
religious beliefs, as if true religion and sound science ever have been or can be
at variance. If religion means belief in certain dogmas and adherence to
certain ritualistic forms, science and religion may often be in conflict ; but,
if, on the other hand, the exercise of religion consists in search after truth,
regard to the relations in which we are placed to the universe, and devotion to
the Great Author of all, then science and religion ‘are at one, and need no
reconciliation.’ ”
Agreeing entirely with these sentiments, I wish it to be borne in mind,
that in the enquiries I propose to make in this lecture, I hold myself free from
those theological dogmas which attempt to put arbitrary limits of time to man’s
presence upon earth, and to dictate the character in which he first appeared,
and that I intend to deal with this part of the question under the light which
the investigations of scientific men have recently thrown upon it.
Now we are told, by a late writer upon this part of our subject, that “ the
first appearance of man in Europe dates back to a period so remote, that neither
history, nor even tradition can throw any light on his origin or mode of life,”
and we accordingly find that Prehistoric Archeologists are driven to acquire
a knowledge of the character and habits of these early races, by examination
of the remains they have left behind them.
Adopting this test, careful enquiry has enabled Archeeologists to divide
(by way of ad interim classification) the prehistoric period of Europe into
four epochs.
Ist. The “ Paleolithic,” in which man shared the possession of Europe,
including England itself, with the Mammoth, the Cave Bear, the woolly-haired
Rhinoceros and other now extinct animals.
2nd. The “Neolithic,” in which men used beautiful polished stone
weapons and other instruments, but did not until nearly the close of this age,
possess any knowledge of metals except gold.
3rd. The “ Bronze Age,” in which bronze was used in the manufacture of
arms and instruments of all kinds.
4th. The “Iron Age,” in which iron had superseded bronze for many
uses, though the latter metal was still used for ornamental purposes.
During the first of these periods we shall find that even in England man
was the contemporary of the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, the Cave Bear, the
Reindeer and the Hyena. Mr. Lubbock in his recent work on “ Prehistoric
Times ” tells us as follows :—
“In the year 1840, Mr. Godwin Austin communicated to the Geological
Society a memoir on the Geology of the south-east of Devonshire, and in his
description of Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, he says that ‘human remains and works
of art, such as arrow heads and knives of flint, occur in all parts of the cave,
and throughout the entire thickness of the clay ; and no distinction founded on
condition, distribution, or relative position, can be observed, whereby the
human can be separated from the other reliquize, which included bones of the
Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ox, Deer, Horse, Bear, Hyzena, and a feline animal of
large size.
“The value,” he truly adds, “of such a statement must rest on the care
with which a collector may have explored; I must therefore state that my own
researches were constantly conducted in parts of the cave which had never
been disturbed, and in every instance the bones were procured from beneath
301
a thick covering of stalagmite ; so far, then, the bones and works of man must
have been introduced into the cave before the flooring of stalagmite had been
formed.
“These statements, however, attracted little attention ; and the very
similar assertions made by Mr. Vivian, in a paper read before the Geological
Society, were considered so improbable, that the memoir containing them was
not published.
“In May, 1858, Dr. Falconer called the attention of the Geological
Society to a newly-discovered cave at Brixham, near Torquay, and a committee
was appointed to assist him in examining it. Grants of money were obtained
for the same object from the Royal Society and Miss Burdett Coutts. In
addition to Dr. Falconer, Mr. Pengelly, My. Prestwich, and Professor Ramsay
were intrusted with the investigations. In September, 1858, a preliminary
report was made to the Geological Society, but it is very much to be regretted
that the results have not yet been published in extenso.
“The deposits in the cave were, in descending order :—
1. Stalagmite of irregular thickness,
2. Ochreous cave earth with limestone breccia,
3. Ochreous cave earth with comminuted shale,
4. Rounded gravel.
“The organic remains belonged to the following species :—
1. Rhinoceros tichorhinus. Teeth in considerable numbers and an
astragalus.
Bos sp. Teeth, jaws, and other bones.
Equus sp. A few remains.
Cervus tarandus. The Reindeer, skull and bones.
Cervus sp. Horns.
Ursus speleus. The Cave Bear ; lower jaws, teeth, and the bones
of a hind leg.
Hyena spelea. “Lower jaws, teeth, fragments of skulls, and other
bones.
“Several flint fakes were also found indiscriminately mixed with these
bones, and according to all appearance, of the same antiquity. They occurred at
various depths, from ten inches to eleven feet, and some of them were in the
gravel, below the whole of the ochreous cave earth. One of them was found
close to the bones of the left hind leg of a cave bear. The remains comprised
not only the femur, tibia, and fibula, but even the knee-pan and astragalus
were in their respective places. It is evident, therefore, that the limb must
have been imbedded while in a fresh condition, or at least while the bones were
held together by the ligaments. As, then, they must have been deposited soon
after che death of the animal, it follows that, if man and the’ cave bear were
not contemporaneous, the latter was the more recent of the two.”
Tt is impossible, within the limits I have assigned to myself, even to enter
upon the mass of evidence of a similar kind which has been adduced by number-
less writers and enquirers in support of the great antiquity of man in Europe,
and the foregoing extracts must be taken as only examples of the cases which
have been investigated; but it is certainly impossible for us to resist the convic-
tion that a length of time, enormous beyond all ordinary ideas on the subject,
must have elapsed, since England and the western parts of Europe were inhabited
by the elephant and the rhinoceros, animals of which no account 1s preserved even
in the oldest known traditions or monuments. But although the circumstances,
that many of the bones of each of these animals exhibit marks of having been cut
and broken by man in order to extract the marrow, and that many of the imple-
ments which have been found associated with his remains, were made from such
bones, may satisfy us that, even at that remote period, man had attained to a
SO SM oe Soo)
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position of power over the lower animals, we are nevertheless justified in sup-
posing that these early men were greatly limited in number, and were living Ina
state of much degradation and barbarism. We may conclude, therefore, that
nothing was done by people in such a condition to modify, in any material degree,
the physical character of the country they inhabited, or which was calculated
to subvert or even materially to affect the balance then existing amongst the
various forms of contemporary organic life.
In the next age (the Neolithic) a great advance was made, for we find,
(at all events during the later periods of this age), that man must have increased
largely in numbers, and have made considerable strides in civilization. The
principal monuments of the polished stone age in Kurope are “Tumuli”
ancient burial mounds, the “ Lake dwellings” of Switzerland, and the “ Shell
mounds” of Denmark, each of which is characterized by peculiarities which
can only be glanced at here.
There are also other remains of great interest which have been investi-
gated by archzeologists, such as the ancient “ castles” and “ camps ” which crown
so many of the hills in England ; the great lines of embankment which cross
many of the downs; the so-called Druidical circles, and the vestiges of apparently
contemporary habitations, and the ‘“‘ Hut circles ” and “ Picts’ houses ” found in
various places, but it is not my purpose to do more than refer to them.
With regard to the Tumuli, Mr. Lubbock tells us as follows :—‘“ All over
Europe wherever they have not been destroyed by the plough or the hammer,
we find relics of prehistoric times, such as camps, fortifications, dykes, temples,
tumuli, ete., many of which astonish us by their magnitude, while all of them
excite our interest by the antiquity of which they remind us, and the mystery
by which they are surrounded. Some few indeed, there are, such, for instance,
as the Roman Wall in England, the Dannevirke, and Queen Thyra’s tumulus,
in Denmark, of which the date and origin are known to us, but by far the
greater number, such as the Wansdyke, the ‘temple’ of Carnac in Brittany,
the tumuli supposed to be those of Thor, Odin, and Freya at Upsala, and the
great tumuli near Drogheda, are entirely prehistoric. Some of them doubtless,
belong to the metallic period, some to that of stone, but it very rarely happens
that we can attribute any of them, with reasonable probability, to one period
rather than to another. This is particularly the case with ancient earthworks
and megalithic temples or circles. The barrows, or Lows, on the other hand,
frequently contain objects from which some idea of relative antiquity may be
obtained. These ancient burial mounds, of which several typical examples are
represented, are extremely numerous. In our own island they may be seen on
almost every down ; in the Orkneys alone it is estimated that more than two
thousand remain ; and in Denmark they are even more abundant; they are
found all over Europe, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Oural mountains;
in Asia they are scattered over the great steppes, from the borders of Russia
to the Pacific Ocean, and from the plains of Siberia to those of Hindostan ; in
America we are told that they are to be numbered by thousands and tens of
thousands, nor are they wanting in Africa, where the Pyramids themselves
exhibit the most magnificent development of the same idea ; so that the whole
world is studded with these burial places of the dead. The Cromlechs, Dol-
mens, Cistvaens, are now generally regarded as sepuichral, and the great number
in which these ancient burial places occur is very suggestive of their antiquity,
since the labour involved in the construction of a tumulus would not be under-
taken except in honour of chiefs and great men. Many of them are small, but
some are very large; Silbury Hill, the highest in Great Britain, has a height
of one hundred and seventy feet; but though evidently artificial, there is
great doubt whether it is sepulchr: al.
‘My, Bateman, in the Preface to his second work, has collected together
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the most ancient allusions to burial ceremonies, and we see that ‘Mound
burial’ was prevalent in the earliest times of which we have any historical
record. Achan and his whole family were stoned with stones and burned with
fire, after which we are told that Israel ‘raised over him a great heap of stones
unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger.’ Again,
the king of Ai was buried under a heap of stones.
“ According to Diodorus, Semiramis, the widow of Nirius, buried her
husband within the precincts of the palace, and raised over him a large mound
of earth. Some of the tumuli in Greece were old, even in the time of Homer,
and were considered by him to be the burial places of the heroes. Pausanias
mentions that stones were collected together, and heaped up over the tomb of
Laius, the father of Gidipuvs. In the time of the Trojan war, Tydeus and
Lycus are mentioned as having been buried under two earthen barrows.
Hector’s barrow was of stones and earth. Achilles erected a tumulus
upwards of one hundred feet in diameter, over the remains of his friend
Patroclus. The mound supposed by Xenophen to contain the remains of
Alyattes, father of Croesus, king of Lydia, was of stone and earth, and more
than a quarter of a league in circumference. In later times, Alexander the
Great caused a tumulus to be heaped over his friend Hepheestion, at the
cost of 1200 talents, no mean sum, even for a conqueror like Alexander, it
being £232,500 sterling. Virgil tells us that Dercennus, King of Latium, was
buried under an earthen mound ; and, according to the earliest historians,
whose statements are confirmed by the researches of archeologists, mound
burial was practised in ancient times by the Scytheans, Greeks, Htruscans,
Germans, and many other nations. The size of the tumulus may be taken as
a rude indication of the estimation in which the deceased was held ; the Scotch
Highlanders have still a complimentary proverb, ‘ Curri mi clach er do cuirn,’
i.e., ‘I will add a stone to your cairn.’
“ What Schoolcraft says of the North American Indians is applicable to
many savage tribes. ‘Nothing that the dead possessed was deemed too
valuable to be interred with the body. The most costly dress, arms, ornaments
and implements, are deposited in the grave; ‘which is always placed in
the choicest scenic situations, on some crowning hill or gentle eminence in a
secluded valley.’ And the North American Indians are said, even until
within the last few years, to have cherished a friendly feeling for the French,
because, in the time of their supremacy, they had at least this one great merit,
that they never disturbed the resting-places of the dead.”
Now it is somewhat remarkable, (and parenthetically I may say the fact
speaks strongly for the more extreme antiquity of the cave men,) that although
in these ancient burial monuments the bones of animals are constantly found asso-
ciated with those of men, yet most of the species to which such bones belonged had
then undoubtedly been domesticated, and we no longer find the bones of the
elephant or rhinoceros, of the bear, hyena, or reindeer, with which the remains
of the earlier men were constantly associated. These animals had evidently
all disappeared, and in the meantime great advances had been made in
various branches of art and civilization. No longer dependent upon spon-
taneous animal and vegetable growth for food and clothing, we find the
people of this age protecting and propagating numerous forms of animal life,
and we may assume that they warred upon such rival organisms as might have
preyed upon these objects of their care, or might have obstructed the increase
of their numbers. We may suppose too that these people carried on consider-
able agricultural pursuits, and that in doing so they encroached upon the
forests which had covered the greater part of the surface of the countries they
inhabited. We have, therefore, in our investigations of these early monuments,
evidence of the first great modifications effected in the physical character and
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organic life of our own mother country, and we are entitled fairly to assume
that the consequences which ordinarily result from the felling of the woods,
‘namely, changes in local climate, changes in the drainage of the soil, and
changes in the external configuration of the ground, followed the action of these
people, and rendered England a fitter abode for man, as a civilized being, than it
had been during the earlier period I have referred to. We are, as I think I
before observed, fairly justified in assuming, on the one hand, that during the
age of the cave men, the population was extremely limited, and confined to
localities easily accessible, while the country at large was ranged over by animals
analogous to those which now occupy the jungles of India, and on the other, that
during the later Neolithic period the population was large, extending over every
part of the country, and that the earlier fauna and flora had given place to one
more-suited to the wants and uses of a semi-civilized people. How this change
was brought about it is difficult to say, but that a very large period of time
must have been concerned in producing it, is beyond all doubt.
The Neolithic age passes, by insensible gradations, into the age of Bronze.
Of the latter age Mr. Lubbock tells us as follows :—‘ There are four
principal theories as to the Bronze age. According to some Archzologists, the
discovery, or introduction of bronze was unattended by any great or sudden
change in the condition of the people ; but was the result, and is the evidence
of a gradual and peaceable development. Some attribute the bronze arms and
implements, found in Northern Europe, to the Roman armies, some to the
Pheenician merchants ; whilst others, again, consider that the men of the Stone
age were replaced by a new and more civilized people of Indo-European race
coming from the East ; who, bringing with them a knowledge of bronze, over-
ran Europe, and dispossessed—in some places entirely destroying—the original,
or rather the earlier inhabitants.
‘“‘ Tt is not, indeed, necessary to suppose that the introduction, of bronze
should have been effected everywhere in the same manner ; so far, for instance,
as Switzerland and Ireland are concerned, Dr. Keller and Sir W. R. Wilde
may be quite right in considering that the so-called ‘ primitive’ population did
not belong to a different race from that subsequently characterized by the use
of bronze.
“Still, though it is evident that the knowledge of bronze must necessarily
have been preceded by the separate use of copper and of tin ; yet no single
implement of the latter metal has been hitherto found in Hurope, while those
of copper are extremely rare. Hungary and Ireland, indeed, have been
supposed to form partial exceptions to this rule. The geographical position of
the former country is probably a sufficient explanation ; and as far as Ireland
is concerned, it may perhaps be worth while to examine how far that country
really forms an exception. In the great Museum at Dublin, there are 725
celts and celt-like chisels, 282 swords and daggers, and 276 lances, javelins, and
arrow heads ; yet out of these 1283 weapons, only 30 celts and one. sword
blade are said to be of pure copper. I say ‘are said to be,’ because they have
not been analyzed, but are supposed to be copper only from the ‘physical
properties and ostensible colour of the metal ;’ indeed, one of these very celts,
which was analyzed by Mr. Mallet, was found to contain a small percentage of
tin. It is possible that for some of the purposes to which celts were applied,
copper may have been nearly as useful as bronze, and at any rate it might
sometimes have happened that from a deficiency of tin, some implements would
be made of copper only.
“Taking these facts into consideration, Ireland certainly does not appear
to present any strong evidence of an age of copper, while no one has ever
pretended to find either there, or anywhere else in Europe, a trace of any
separate use of tin.
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“Sir W. R. Wilde himself admits it to be remarkable, that so few
antique copper implements have been found, although a knowledge of that
metal must have been the preliminary stage in the manufacture of bronze.”
He thinks, however, that ‘the circumstance may be accounted for either
by supposing that but a short time elapsed between the knowledge of
smelting and casting copper ore, and the introduction of tin and subsequent
manufacture and use of bronze; or from the probability of nearly all such
articles having been recast and converted into bronze subsequent to the
introduction of tin, which renders them harder, sharper, and more valuable.
“There is, however, another circumstance which strongly militates
against this theory of a gradual and independent development of metallurgical
knowledge in different countries, and that is the fact which has been broadly
stated by Mr. Wright, and which I may, perhaps, repeat here, that whenever
we find the bronze swords or celts, whether in Ireland in the far west, in
Scotland, in distant Scandinavia, in Germany, or, still further east, in the
Sclavonic countries, they are the same—not similar in character, but identical.
The great resemblance of stone implements found in different parts of the
world may be satisfactorily accounted for by the similarity of the material, and
the simplicity of the forms. But this argument cannot be applied to the
bronze arms and implements. Not only are several varieties of celts found
throughout Europe, but some of the swords, knives, daggers, etc., are so
similar, that they seem as if they must have been cast by the same maker. It
would have been easy to multiply examples of this similarity, and it is not
going too far to say that these resemblances cannot be the result of accident.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that each country has certain minor
peculiarities. Neither the forms nor the ornaments are exactly similar. In
Denmark and Mecklenburg, spiral ornaments are most common; farther
south, these are replaced by ring ornaments and lines. The Danish swords
generally have solid, and richly decorated handles, while those found in Great
Britain terminate in a plate which was riveted to pieces of wood or bone.
Again, the British lance heads frequently have loops at the side of the shaft-
hole, which is never the case with Danish specimens. The discovery of
moulds in Ireland, Scotland, and England, Switzerland, Denmark, and else-
where, shows that the art of casting in bronze was known and practised in
many countries. Under these circumstances, it appears most probable that
the knowledge of metal is one of those great discoveries which Hurope owes to
the East, and that the use of Copper was not introduced into our Continent,
until it had been observed, that by the addition of a small quantity of tin it
was rendered harder and more valuable.”
At whatever period the people of the Western countries of Europe may
have acquired their first knowledge of bronze, it is clear that it must have
been long anterior to any of which we have historical knowledge, nor does it
much concern our enquiry except as regards the very great antiquity of the
march of civilization. In the opinion “of Professor Wilson (as we are told
by Mr. Lubbock), “the ornamentation characteristic of the Bronze age, -
is decidedly Semitic rather than Indo-European. He lays considerable
stress on two curious vase-carriages, one found in Sweden and the other in
Mecklenburg, which certainly appear to have been very like the ‘vases’ made
for Solomon’s temple, and described in the first Book of Kings. Finally he
believes that the use of war chariots, the practice of reaping close to the ear,
and a certain mode of fishing, are all evidences of Phcenician intercourse.”
We find, then, that the close of the Bronze age brings us to the dawn of
historic times, and we are able, by examination of a variety of remains, to trace
the progress of change in the physical character and organic life of the older
countries of Hurope, a subject full of interest, and one which is found to march,
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hand in hand, with increasing civilization. But whilst I have thought it
necessary thus to call your attention to this subject, I have done so chiefly for
the purpose of suggesting a comparison between the rapid changes which are
effected in new countries, as the result of their sudden occupation by civilized
man, on the one hand, and the wonderfully slow process by which the physical
character and organic life of our own country (for example), has been changed
from the condition in which it appears to have existed at the time of the cave
men, to that in which we now find it.
Let us now turn to the special subject upon which I propose to address
you.
It is manifest that a subject so broad can, consistently with what is due
to your patience, be only partially dealt with, and therefore, whilst I propose
to offer some general reflections on the questions involved in it, I intend to
confine myself, by way of example, chiefly to a consideration of the effect which
has been produced upon these Islands.
In looking into the history of the discovery of these Islands, we are led to
believe that the impressions made upon early voyagers were somewhat
erroneous, for whilst it is true that the general aspect of a country, as regards
its fertilty, may as a rule, afford an idea of its capacity for sustaining a popu-
lation, yet that capacity may be very different from what the immediate confor-
mation and appearance of the country would lead the traveller to expect ; height
above sea level, exposure to special winds, and a variety of other causes, giving
rise to the anomaly. Captain Cook (as you are aware) sailed round both of these
islands, determining their size and figure, as well as their character and appear-
ance, and the general opinion he arrived at was, that the whole country was
one long chain of mountains with fertile valleys near the shores, and that it
was chiefly covered with dense and in many places impenetrable woods. But
even then our great navigator appreciated the advantages which these islands
might, at some future time, offer as a field for settlement, and we have no reason
to suppose that the most sanguine opinions which have since been formed on
that subject, are not open to realization.
Except, however, by the Maoris, these islands remained entirely un-
occupied until the year 1818, when the first missionary settlements were
formed at the Bay of Islands, and until a short period before that, the only
animals which had been introduced were the dog and the pig, and the only
vegetables the kumera, the taro, and the gourd. How the Maoris obtained the
dog is doubtful, but they owed the pig to Captain Cook, whilst the kumera,
the taro, and the gourd, had cer tainly been brought with them upon their
original migration to this countr y. It isa singular fact (so far at least as I know),
that these islands produce no indigenous ‘edible fruit or vegetable capable of
being improved into value by cultivation, and, therefore, although the Maoris
used a considerable variety of indigenous vegetable substances as food, these were
quite insufficient for their ordinary purposes, and they were therefore compelled
to devote a large portion of their time and attention to the cultivation of the
few introduced plants to which I have before referred. But the population
was not sufficiently numerous, and their cultivations were not sufficiently
extensive to effect any great changes in the aspect or organic life of the country.
It is true that for a long, but remote period, during the latter part of which
man was certainly an actor on the scene, these islands had been the habitat of
large struthious birds, of which the osseous remains are to be found distributed
all over the country. What were the actual circumstances under which they
disappeared we cannot say, although analogy leads us to suppose that the birds
themselves, as well as their eggs, were diligently sought for as food in a eountry
otherwise destitute of large animal life, and that they were gradually driven
away from those grounds which alone afforded them the means of sustenance,
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Taken on the whole, then, notwithstanding the cultivations of the Maoris, we
may treat these islands as having been a virgin country, but little modified by
the hand of man until the arrival of the Huropean settlers.
Let us then enquire into the changes which have already been effected,
and into the probable further changes which will in time be effected as the
result of our colonization. This subject is necessarily twofold in its bearing,
firstly, as regards the effect of colonization upon the native race, and secondly
as regards its effect upon the indigenous fauna and flora.
In considering this subject [am tempted to draw your attention to the
difference in the character of ancient and modern colonization, for it must not
he supposed that the art of colonization is of purely modern invention, although,
as you will find, the mode in which it is now carried out differs greatly from
that which was practised by older civilized nations.
It has been urged by some political writers, that although the great
nations of Europe have, within the last three centuries, sent colonies into
almost every part of the habitable world, and have by this means subjected
countries infinitely surpassing in extent those they have left, yet that we cannot
compare the colonies of the ancients with those of the moderns, without being
at once impressed with the conviction that the former renewed the human race,
tempering it afresh, and beginning existence with all the advantages of youth,
whilst the latter are born old, with all the jealousies, all the troubles, and
many of the vices of the States from which they spring. That the colonies of
the ancients, in every point of civilization, constantly rose above those who
had given birth to them, whilst ours as constantly tend to fall below their
founders ; that the European colonies already large, are destined to become
larger, but that in vain will be sought for in them, the virtues, the patriotism
and the vigour which belonged to the first age of the world. They urge that
the Greeks, and before them the Egyptians, founded a colony that it might be
complete in itself, whilst we (speaking of existing European nations) design it
to become part of another empire. They had constantly in view the welfare
of the colonists ; we, the advantage of the mother country. They wished the
colony to depend upon itself with respect to its subsistence, defence, internal
government, and all the principles of its development; we wish it to be
dependent in every way, to subsist by commerce, and that this commerce
should enrich the mother country ; that it sbould be obedient to her orders,
governed by her lieutenants, and that its citizens should receive even their
education, in its highest branches, from their elder brothers. It is added,
moreover, that whilst the colonies of the Egyptians, of the Phcenicians, of
the Greeks, and even of the Romans, brought benefits to the people in whose
countries they were established, ours bring calamities. That the first, by their
contact, civilized the barbarians, whilst the modern Huropeans have, wherever
they have settled, barbarised the races they call barbarous, and in turn have
become barbarised themselves. And it is urged, with much force and truth,
that in their transactions with the aborigines, recent colonists have frequently
sullied themselves by deceit and by abuse of force ; that they go back in their
agriculture and other arts, and that the general level of intelligence descends
instead of rising.
Such writers further show that the first care of the ancient colonists was
the choice of a site to build their city, for it was in cities they wished to live ;
and it was by means of cities that they spread the arts of the life of towns or
civilization, and that the colonists, usually few in number as compared with
the aborigines, and completely abandoned to themselves (for the mother
country did not think of defending them), took care to build all their houses
within the enclosure of the city, from which they went forth daily to cultivate
the fields in their vicinity. Of course, the progress of such colonies in wealth
SS
308
and numbers was slow as compared with modern ones, but their advance in
the arts of civilization and of social life was never checked. In modern colonies,
on the other hand, an immense extent of fertile land is sought for, and when
obtained, is abandoned to the first occupier, who, relying upon the protection
of the mother country, takes up a portion out of all proportion to his strength
to cultivate, his capital to improve, or his wants to consume the produce.
Masters at once of large tracts of country, which they hold, either by force or
by purchase, they do not husband any of the benefits of nature. They clear
the forests by fire, or by barking the trees, leaving them to decay where they
stand ; they abandon every system of manuring, of improvement, and of the
rotation of crops. They apply themselves to benefit by the natural advantages
of the soil, to which they sacrifice all others ; they exhaust it by a succession of
the same crops, and soon reduce the richest land to comparative sterility.
In the old colonies the different conditions of the citizens did not act as
with us, or in our colonies, by a universal rivalry of one another, but, on the
contrary, all felt a common interest, which had relation also to the aborigines.
Intercourse with them could alone feed the colony at its commencement, and
the means of gaining their friendship, of obtaining their confidence, and of
establishing between them and the colonists common signs, or a conventional
language, was the business of all and the urgent interest of all, At the same
time it was from these aborigines that all danger arose, and watchfulness of them
and defence against them, in the case of any sudden quarrel, were also interests
felt by all. Now, on the contrary, wherever European colonization takes
place, the colonists preserve all the incidents annexed to the different conditions
of the citizens, both in relation to themselves and to the aborigines ; all engage
in rivalry as to rank and wealth, the latter frequently securing the former,
with but little relation to those higher grounds upon which alone superiority
of position ought to be admitted. Intercourse with the aborigines is main-
tained on a footing of friendship only until the colonists are strong enough to
be independent of them, and then we see the former rapidly become degraded,
those who had previously held high rank amongst them, first losing their
status, whilst the race itself soon dies out. It is indeed a fact, which does not
admit of doubt, which is even presented to us as a law of nature,—as a necessity,
—that wherever a white race comes into contact with an indigenous dark race,
on ground suitable to the former, the latter must disappear in a few generations.
It will be said that the parallel I have drawn offers but a gloomy picture, but
in its main features I think its truth is indisputable. However, I will now
deal with my subject in those respects in which it may offer us more pleasing
grounds of thought.
The general effects of human action in altering the surface of the earth
and its natural productions have been thus eloquently described by Mr. George
P. Marsh, an American author of great research and intelligence :—
“Tt is certain that man has done much to mould the form of the earth’s
surface, though we cannot always distinguish between the results of his action,
and the effects of purely geological causes ; that the destruction of the forests,
the drainage of lakes and marshes, and the operations of rural husbandry and
industrial art have tended to produce great changes in the hygrometric, thermo-
metric, electric, and chemical condition of the atmosphere, though we are not
yet able to measure the force of the different elements of disturbance, or to say
how far they have been compensated by each other, or by still obscurer
influences ; and, finally, that the myriad forms of animal and vegetable life,
which covered the earth when man first entered upon the theatre of a nature,
whose harmonies he was destined to derange, have been, through his action,
greatly changed in numerical proportion, sometimes much modified in form
and product, and sometimes entirely extirpated.
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“The physical revolutions thus wrought by man have not all been
destructive to human interests. Soils to which no nutritious vegetable was
indigenous, countries which once brought forth but the fewest products suited
for the sustenance and comfort of man, while the severity of their climate
created and stimulated the greatest number, and the most imperious urgency
of physical wants—surfaces the most rugged and intractable, and least blessed
with natural facilities of communication, have been made in modern times to
yield and contribute to the sensuous enjoyments and conveniences of civilized
life. The Scythia, the Thule, the Britain, the Germany, and the Gaul, which
the Roman writers describe in such forbidding terms, have been brought
almost to rival the native luxuriance and easily-won plenty of Southern Italy ;
and, while the fountains of oil and wine that refreshed old Greece and Syria
and Northern Africa, have almost ceased to flow, and the soils of those fair
lands are turned to thirsty and inhospitable deserts, hyperborean regions of
Europe have conquered, or rather compensated, the rigours of climate, and
attained to a material wealth and variety of product that, with all their natural
advantages, the granaries of the ancient world can hardly have been said
to have enjoyed.
“These changes for evil and for good have not been caused by great natural
revolutions of the “globe, nor are they by any means attributable wholly to the
moral and physical action or inaction of the peoples, or, in all cases, even of
the races that now inhabit these respective regions. They are products of a
complication of conflicting or coincident forces, acting through a long series of
generations ; here improvidence, wastefulness and wanton violence ; there,
foresight and wisely guided persevering industry. So far as they are the
purely calculated and desired results of those simple and familiar operations of
agriculture and of social life, which are as universal as civilization—the removal
of the forests which covered the soil required for the cultivation of edible fruits,
the drying of here and there a few acres too moist for profitable husbandry, by
draining off the surface waters, the substitution of domesticated and nutritious
for wild and unprofitable vegetable growths, the construction of roads and
canals and artificial harbours—they belong to the sphere of rural, commercial,
and political economy more properly than to geography, and hence are but
incidentally embraced within the range of our present enquiries, which concern
physical, not financial balances. I propose to examine only the greater, more
permanent, and more comprehensive mutations which man has produced, and
is producing, in earth, sea, and sky, sometimes, indeed, with a conscious
purpose, but for the most part, as unforeseen though natural consequences of
acts performed for narrower and more immediate ends.
“The exact measurement of the geographical changes hitherto thus
effected is, as I have hinted, impracticable, and we possess, in relation to them,
the means only of qualitative, not quantitative analysis. The fact of such
revolutions is established partly by historical evidence, partly by analogical
deduction from effects produced in our own time by operations similar in
character to those which must have taken place in more or less remote ages of
human action. Both sources of information are alike defective in precision ;
the latter, for general reasons too obvious to require specification ; the former,
because the facts to which it bears testimony occurred before the habit or the
means of rigorously scientific observation upon any branch of physical research,
and especially upon climatic changes, existed.”
Bearing these general views in mind let us apply them to the case of
New Zealand. Before the settlement of these Islands by the Europeans they
were inhabited by a race of savages, barbarous beyond conception, and
practising rites of so foul a kind, that the very existence of such rites was often
doubted by modern writers. And yet these people possessed characteristics
310
which were calculated to redeem them even in the eyes of civilized man.
Brave to a fault, having a clear perception of the distinctions of rank, and
therefore proud in character, they also possessed a large amount of intellectual
capacity, and even of latent moral character. Acute in their understanding
and comprehension, they rapidly fell in with many of the arts and habits of
the colonists, but, unaccustomed to the restraints of civilized life, and in the
habit of indulging with little check their natural impulses, they have found it
difficult to adopt as fully, as their own appreciation of them would otherwise
lead them to do, the social habits of the Europeans. Unfortunately too we
have shown too little regard to their feelings of pride and nationality, and by
the ridicule with which we have treated their habits and manners, we have
driven them to adopt, as individuals as well as collectively, a position of
isolation, if not of hostile feeling towards us. Without having introduced
amongst them any form of government more suited to promote and foster our
intercourse with them, we have broken down the power and influence of the
greater chiefs, and have induced a consequent disorganization of their own
social condition, which is producing unfortunate results. I wish, however, not
to be misunderstood in this matter. It has been admitted by foreign political
economists that the English are the only nation which, of late years, have felt
any true sympathy for the people amongst whom they have sent their colonists,
who have acknowledged their rights, and who have seriously proposed to
civilize them, to protect them, and to make them happy. But in their efforts
to effect these objects from a distance, and with the imperfect knowledge they
necessarily possessed of the original character of the native races, and of the
changes which contact with civilization would produce upon them, they have
constantly overlooked many important considerations. They have forgotten
that those to whom the task of protection was entrusted, would naturally place
themselves in antagonism to the advance of the colonists, whilst the latter
would certainly view with distrust and dislike, those who stood in the way of
their efforts to acquire wealth ; and thus, between the two, the natives would
come to grief. Our colony (as it appears to me) has exhibited to some extent,
this unfortunate phase of English philanthropy, and yet elements of hope
present themselves to our view. It is not, however, my purpose to pursue
any further this enquiry, which belongs rather to the political economist and the
legislator, than to the student of geography and natural history, and I will
proceed at once to call your attention to the general physical appearance of
these Islands, and the character of their fauna and flora before the introduction
of European civilization, and to the changes which have since been effected
and are now in progress. In doing this, however, I propose to disregard such
alterations as had resulted from their occupation by the native race.
- Stretching from the thirty-fourth to the forty-seventh degree of south latitude,
in a general north and south direction, with an average breadth in the Middle
Island not exceeding 120 miles, and in the North Island (except above
Auckland) of about 150 miles, the whole extent may be treated as a great
mountain chain divided by Cook’s Strait. In the North Island there are, in
the western and north-western sides of this chain, several large volcanic cones,
some of the mountains of which rise to altitudes varying from 4000 to 9000
feet above sea level, and of which Tongariro, nearly in the centre of the
greater mass of the island, is still active. In the Middle Island the great
mountain chain extends from the north (in the form of spurs radiating from the
Spencer mountains on the west side, and from the Kaikoura mountains on
the east) to the extreme south, attaining its greatest elevation in Mount Cook,
whilst in many places it reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet, and has a general
elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet. In the Middle Island, with the exception
of the Canterbury plains and the undulating country to the north and south of
311
them, stretching on the one side to the Waiau river, and on the other to the
south of Otago, there is little in the general appearance of the country to
induce any high idea of its capacity for sustaining a large agricultural popula-
tion ; nor does the North Island present, at first sight, any better field,
although on the eastern side it also possesses plains, in the Hawke’s Bay and
Wairarapa districts, and the country on the West Coast from Otaki to
the Manukau probably contains some of the most fertile land in the world.
The eastern sides of both islands, including the slopes of the mountain chains,
contain large tracts of grassy country available for pastoral purposes, but, as a
rule, the whole of the western sides are clothed with dense and, in many parts,
impenetrable forest. It is found, however, that the slopes of the mountain
chains contain excellent soil, and that when cleared of the forest growth, they
are capable, under proper cultivation, of being converted into valuable pasture
land. The whole country may be said to be well, and in many places,
profusely watered, and the native growth is usually luxuriant to a degree.
It must be manifest that in islands having so large a range of latitude,
there must be a corresponding range in climate, and accordingly we find that
whilst in the extreme north the climate is sufficiently warm to ripen freely
many of the fruits of the tropics, and that, even in the neighbourhood of
Auckland, the citron, the orange, and the guava mature their fruit, so, as we
pass to the South, we find it eminently suited to the production of all the
varied fruits and vegetables which make the luxury of temperate climates. It
would lead me too far (nor indeed is it necessary in addressing a New Zealand
audience), were I to attempt any very detailed description of the physical aspect
of the country or its climate, and the general outline I have given will be
sufficient for my purpose. To the first colonists it undoubtedly presented the
appearance of a country in an almost untouched condition, covered, in its forest
lands, with the growth of untold centuries, and in its open lands with grasses,
ferns, and swamp-loving plants to which their eyes were totally unused, and
which differed in all important respects from the wild growth of Europe. I had
intended to describe, in some detail, the organic natural productions of the
country, but I began to find that this lecture would stretch to an inconvenient
length, and I must leave your local knowledge on this point to fill up the void.
This is perhaps the less important, for with the exception of grasses, made
available in their uncultivated state for depasturing purposes, and of timber
used for building and farm purposes, it may be said, that little has been done
towards utilizing them, and still less towards ascertaining their properties and
value. Within the last two years the fibre of the Phormiwm tenax has been
prepared as an article of export, and, if properly managed, it will probably
yield an excellent return, but I know of no other natural vegetable production
of the country (unless we can give that name to Kauri gum) which has yet
been turned to account for purposes of foreign export. You are all aware that
the mineral resources of these islands are very large and very varied, but it is
clear that the natives had no knowledge which would enable them to turn those
resources to account, before the arrival of the Europeans, for we found them
still using stone and wooden weapons, similar to those which, in Europe,
characterize the middle epoch of the Neolithic age.
Such, in brief, was the condition of the country when civilized man under the
impulses which ordinarily inspire modern colonists, was poured upon it—and
now how changed has it all become? Instead of the miserable “pahs” and
“kaingas” of an uncivilized and utterly barbarous race, we have, in most of
the great ports of the country, flourishing towns, each inhabited by thousands
of Kuropeans, and many of them possessing buildings which present all the
characters of wealth and durability. Instead of the solitary canoe of the native
fisherman, or the fleet of a war party intent upon murder and rapine, our
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waters teem with ships busily engaged in the peaceful work of commerce,
whilst large and valuable works in our various ports give facilities for the
carrying on and development of that commerce. Instead of our great tracts
of native pasture lying idle, and yielding sustenance to no useful living thing,
they are now roamed over by and maintain large herds of cattle and flocks of
sheep. Instead of the desolate, but luxuriant vegetation of the swampy ground
along many parts of our sea board, and the impenetrable forests of many of
our v valleys, we have rich fields, producing the grain and other crops of tempe-
rate Europe. Instead of the narrow bush track, along which the savage
travelled on his mission of revenge, we have roads penetrating the country in
all directions, facilitating the maintenance of that intercourse, which is essential
to the progress of the community in wealth and civilization. Instead of the
mineral resources of the country lying idle, we have thousands of men busily
engaged in extracting them from the soil, and thus, whilst enriching themselves,
contributing by their labours to the wealth of others. We have, indeed, on
all sides of us abundant evidence that the energies of a European race are
rapidly converting a country which in its natural state scarcely afforded means
for the sustenance of man, into one capable not only of maintaining a con-
tented population, but of affording the materials for an extended foreign
commerce.
But it is not merely these more material and directly apparent effects that
concern us. Many,if not all of you, have heard of the Darwinian theory as applied
to the origin of species. This theory teaches us that a struggle for existence
is constantly going on between all the varied organisms, both ‘animal and vege-
table, which occupy any particular Zoological or Botanical province, and that
only such organisms can ultimately succeed in maintaining a place, as may happen,
for the time being, to possess some point of vantage beyond the rest. Of course
time is an important factor in this theory, and in order to appreciate its bearmg
upon the origin of species, the observer must be prepared to admit millions of
years for the work. In a country like New Zealand, placed at such a distance
from other countries as to preclude the risk of invasion, except through the
agency of man, it must be manifest that this struggle would be carried on under
peculiarities little likely to be observed in other places, and the results already
caused by the introduction of new and rival organisms satisfies me that the
indigenous flora and fauna even on their own ground, are unable to cope with
the intruders. I cannot but think that the former had reached a point at which,
like a house built of incoherent materials, a blow struck anywhere shakes and
damages the whole fabric. The “‘ Kiore” has been replaced, if not destroyed, by
the European rat ; the Huropean honey bee now swarms in our forests, taking
the food of the meliphagous birds, which are already diminishing palpably in
numbers, whilst the facility afforded by the immense epiphytical growth upon
the forest trees enables the rat also to aid in this destruction by devouring the
eggs and young birds. The forests too contain large numbers of wild pigs,
cattle, and goats. The former root up the ground, destroying the seedling
trees, whilst the latter browse wpon the young shoots and foliage, and even eat
the bark of the smaller trees in a manner tending greatly to limit their growth.
Following in their wake come many of the hardy vegetable organisms of
Europe which spring up on all sides as rivals to the remaining indigenous
plants, and thus the latter are exposed to a contest under circumstances in
which defeat is almost certain. Such in effect, is the activity with which the
introduced plants are doing their work, that I believe if every human
being were at once removed from the Islands for even a limited number of
years, looking at the matter from a geological point of view, the introduced
would succeed in displacing the indigenous fauna and flora.
I must now bring my task to a close, and in doing so again apologize to
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you for the imperfect manner in which it has been performed. I know that I
have left untouched a huge mass of matters bearing upon the question, under
consideration to which | ought, in justice to you, to have referred; but the
haste with which, and the difficulties under which this lecture has been written,
must be my excuse both for sins of omission and of commission. I will only
add, that in all which is taking place around us, we see the energies of our
race forming a new and vigorous state. The face of the country, the life native
to its soil, and the aboriginal race which claimed it, are all being modified,
effaced, and displaced. The intrusive race has indeed wrought mightier
changes in the third part of a century than the aborigines would have effected
had they remained for another thousand years unvisited by civilized man.
The rapidity of such changes, too, strikes the on-looker with astonishment,
and is inconceivable to those who have not witnessed it for themselves. In 1839
the “Tory” first visited Cook’s Straits on a colonizing mission, and then
found the natives engaged in a bloody feud at Waikanae, and exhibiting the
most forbidding habits, natural to savage life. All was strange, wild, and
savage. Thirty years have elapsed since then, and already large cities have
risen in many parts of the Islands. Everywhere the broad sheets of the press
are engaged in diffusing information, and in discussing the politics and wants
of a civilized people, where so recently the hut of the savage was the only
evidence of the presence of man. ‘The clearing, the farm, the industrious
settlement have displaced the scanty cultivation of the Maori, and his ephemeral
hut. The progress of a single year outspeeds the work of past centuries, and
amid the charred stumps of our hill-side forests, and the rough clearings of our
farms, fancy may trace the handsome villas, and luxurious plantations of
wealthy landed proprietors. Already we have seen the iron horse doing its
work in the colony, whilst the mind of the people is intent on extending the
range of its work to the immense tracts of rich country, still too distant, for
full value, from the centres of population. If, by the intrusion of the vigorous
races of Europe, smiling farms and busy marts are to take the place of the
rough clearing and hut of the savage, and the millions of a populous country,
with the arts and letters, the matured policy, and the ennobling impulses of a
free people, are to replace the few thousands of the scattered tribes now living
in an apparently aimless and unprogressive state, even the most sensitive
philanthropist may learn to look with resignation, if not with complacency, on
the extinction of a people which, in the past had accomplished so imperfectly
every object of man’s being. Ifthe Maoris can, so far as wise policy and a
generous statesmanship can accomplish it, be admitted to an equal share with
the intending colonizer in all the advantages of a progressive civilization ; then
we may look with satisfaction at the close of that long night time during which
this country gave birth to no science, no philosophy, no moral teaching, and
hail the dawn of centuries in which it is to claim a place in the common-
wealth of nations, and bear a part in the accelerated progress of the human
race.
(PART I.)
[Lecture delivered October 16, 1869.]
I will now proceed to discuss, at greater length, that part of the
subject which more especially referred to the effects likely to be produced upon
the fauna and flora of this country, by the introduction of competing foreign
organisms. In order that you may be able satisfactorily to follow my obser-
vations, it will be necessary that I should, in the first place, call your attention
shortly to the divisions and classification of the organic world, and the laws
which govern its distribution; and, somewhat more fully, to the views
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originated by Mr. Darwin, and now generally entertained by naturalists, in
regard to the “ Origin of Species,” for (as you will find in the sequel) I have
assumed that many of the principles of action which his theory is intended to
elucidate, are directly engaged in producing the changes which I propose to
notice, both as having been already effected, and as being likely to ensue in
the course of time.
You are all doubtless aware, that organic nature is broadly divisible into
two great branches, namely, animal and vegetable life, the study of the former
being termed Zoology, and-of the latter Botany. It is true, that at the
extreme confines of each of these two kingdoms, as we descend from the higher
to the lower forms, even this broad distinction is apparently obliterated, and
we find, in effect, that naturalists were long in doubt to which of the two
kingdoms some of the lowest observed organisms, ought properly to be assigned.
This, however, is a matter which little concerns our present enquiry, though
it certainly helps to demonstrate the accuracy of that admirable analysis of the
organic world, which has lately been exhibited to us by our great physiological
writers, and from which we have learnt, not only that the infinite diversity
both of animal and vegetable life which peoples the globe, may all be brought
down to the primordial form of a single cell, but also that both may be reduced
into, and are, in fact, composed of the same elementary constituents.
It had, however, been known long before reaching this more advanced
analysis, that the enormous multiplicity both of animal and vegetable life,
could, in each case, be reduced to a few types of construction, and, indeed, the
types thus established have constituted the bases of all those systems of
classification by the elaboration of which we have been enabled to study the
organic world in detail.
Looking to the probability that the vegetable kingdom yielded to man his
earliest means both of sustenance and shelter, it has been assumed by every
writer on Natural History, that it was the first to engage his attention, and
become his study, and that the necessity of distinguishing between such forms
as were useful and such as were injurious, led to the first rude classifications of
vegetable life. ‘ By placing together individuals apparently identical in form
(says Dr. Lindley), and having regard to the uses they could be applied to,
species were distinguished, and by applying a similar process to the species
themselves, groups analagous to what we now call genera were obtained. The
last step was to constitute classes, which were recognized under the well
known names of ‘grass and herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding
feub.) 7
It will not be necessary for me to point out how, step by step, the more
complete systems of classitication now adopted by naturalists were arrived at,
how the artificial system of Linnzeus was replaced by the natural systems of
succeeding enquirers, until we ave gradually reaching a more exact knowledge
of the plan of nature, it being sufficient for my purpose to call your attention
broadly to those systems, and to the circumstance that, in every case, they
virtually terminate with what is called “ species.”
The animal kingdom has been primarily divided into two great Sub-
kingdoms or Provinces, namely, the Vertebrata and the Invertebrata, each of
which has been again subdivided into classes, orders, families, and species.
The vegetable kingdom has also been primarily divided into two sub-
kingdoms, namely, into asexual or flowerless, and sexual or flowering plants,
each comprising a number of distinct classes, orders, genera, and species.
With the latter term indeed, whether in the Animal or Vegetable Kingdoms,
classification proper has been supposed to end, although all systematists have
recognized the existence of varieties, even in a state of nature.
Now it might be supposed, looking more particularly to our recent
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great advance in knowledge of the physiology and anatomy both of animals
and plants, that, for purposes of classification, there would be little difficulty
in defining the term “species” as applied to any particular class or group of
organisms, but this is far from being the case, for we find, that the most acute
and diligent enquirers, after careful study of the question, have acknowledged
that this term can only be applied arbitrarily and for the sake of convenience
merely, to some set of individuals closely resembling each other, and that in its
necessary application by systematists it does not essentially differ from the
term ‘“ variety” which, in comparison with mere individual differences, is
usually given quite as arbitrarily to forms somewhat less distinct and more
fluctuating.
This point has been made the subject of most elaborate investigation by
Mr. Darwin, in his volume on the “Origin of Species,” in which he has
brought together a great mass of facts to prove that all classes of organisms
exhibit a greater or less degree of variability, and to show the consequent
difficulty of giving any conclusive or satisfactory definition of the term
“species, ’—the general conclusions he arrived at being thus stated,—“ Finally,
then, varieties have the same general character as species, for they cannot be
distinguished from species—except, firstly, by the discovery of intermediate
linking forms, and the occurrence of such links cannot affect the actual char-
acters of the forms which they connect; and except, secondly, by a certain
amount of difference, for two forms, if differing very little, are generally
ranked as varieties, notwithstanding that intermediate linking forms have not
been discovered ; but the amount of difference considered necessary to give to
two forms the rank of species, is quite indefinite. In genera having more than
the average number of species, in any country, the species of these genera have
more than the average number of varieties. In large genera the species are
apt to be closely, but unequally allied together, forming little clusters round
certain species. Species very closely allied to other species, apparently have
restricted ranges. In all these several respects the species of large genera
present a strong analogy with varieties. And we can clearly understand these
analogies, if species have once existed as varieties, and have thus originated :
whereas, these analogies are utterly inexplicable if each spesies has been
independently created.
“We have, also, seen, that it is the most flourishing or dominant species of
the larger genera which, on an average vary most; and varieties, as we shall
hereafter see, tend to become converted into new and distinct species. The
larger genera thus tend to become larger ; and, throughout nature, the forms
of life which are now dominant, tend to become still more dominant by leaving
many modified and dominant descendants. But, by steps hereafter to be
explained, the larger genera also tend to break up into smaller genera. And
thus, the forms of life, throughout the Universe, become divided into groups
subordinate to groups.”
Flourens, in his paper on “ La Quantité de vie sur le Globe,” also tells us,
“that every species manifests two tendencies, namely, a tendency to vary and
a tendency to transmit to succeeding generations the acquired modifications ;”
and he, properly, observes, “that if the acquired variations and modifications of
each generation could not be transmitted to its descendants, such variations
and modifications would remain mere individual traits, and. would never
become the characteristics of a race.” Flourens, however, does not appear to
have seen the full effect of these views as to the variability of species, for he
assumes that such variations only affect what he terms ‘superficial character-
istics,” and that they are at all times easily detected, whilst he urges that ‘the
unity, identity, and reality of a species is always determinable by the presence
or absence of the more deep seated characteristic of continuous fecundity.”
TaD
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In order to illustrate the difficulty referred to by Mr. Darwin, I will call
your attention to some instances in nature.
Experiment has shown that the Zebra, the Hemionus, the Ass, and the
Horse, can mutually produce young, but that their produce, notwithstanding
certain exceptional instances of further fertility which have been sufficiently
well authenticated, cannot perpetuate themselves, and yet no naturalist holding
a position of eminence at the present day, would venture to deny that these
four races of animals have all descended from common ancestors.
Here, then, we have an example of very limited divergence in outward
form, accompanied by great limitation in fecundity, and naturalists may,
notwithstanding their admitted descent from common ancestors fairly claim to
treat each of these animals as having reached the position of a separate
species.
With the dog, on the other hand, although the external differences
between many forms, as, for example, the Bull dog, the Turnspit, and the
Greyhound, are far greater and more striking than those which we observe
between the Horse, the Ass, and the Hemionus, yet the former are always
perfectly fertile in interbreeding, and the cross-breeds perpetuate themselves.
Here then we have an example of considerable divergence in outward form,
in the “ superficial characteristics” of Flourens, without any apparent inter-
ference with fecundity, and, yet, in this case, although naturalists have also
arrived at the conclusion that all existing varieties of the dog are descended
from common ancestors, they also treat each of these animals as a separate
species.
Tf, therefore, continuous fecundity were the essential characteristic in the
determination of ‘“ species,” then the Horse, the Ass, and the Hemionus ought
to be treated as separate species, whilst the Bull dog, and the Greyhound, and
all the other innumerable and peculiar forms of Dog found in every corner of
the globe, ought only to be ranked as varieties of one species.
Such an adherence to any arbitrary rule is, however, unnecessary for
purposes of classification, though it bears strongly upon other points in the
theory propounded by Mr. Darwin to which I propose hereafter to call your
attention. But itis not only to animal life that the foregoing observations
extend. Although more difficult to understand in their application, the same
rules must be adopted in dealing with the classification of vegetable organisms.
Take, for example, plants belonging to the natural order Composite which
includes the Daisy, the Groundsel, and other allied forms. Here on the table
you have four specimens, very similar in outward form, and at least as closely
allied in essential points of structure as the Horse and his congeners.
Now, although we have not yet attempted to ascertain experimentally
whether these four forms would produce cross-breeds, I think few naturalists
would for one moment suppose that they would. If this be so, then we have
here an example of still greater divergence in fecundity, whilst we have no
difficulty in believing that these several forms, as well as all other plants
belonging to the same order, had a common origin. Indeed it would be easy
to bring together numberless examples from the book of nature, of incomplete
fecundity with slight divergence in outward form or general structure; of
complete fecundity with great divergence in outward form; and complete
sterility with great similarity in most of those characteristics, which are used
by naturalists for purposes of classification, while, at the same time, we should
have little hesitation in admitting the descent of all the species of each. class,
from common ancestors. I will merely add further, that whilst all great
naturalists admit that it is quite chimerical to suppose that we can construct
any arrangement which shall be an absolutely correct expression of the plan of
nature, yet they also allow that we can, by carrying into effect with care and
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skill certain well recognized principles, construct what may fairly be tern ed @
natural system.
In such a system groups of species are collected into genera, groups of genera
into orders, and groups of orders into classes ; each order comprising a number
of genera distinct from those of the others, but which, nevertheless, are distin-
guished by certain general characters different from those of any other orders
of plants, characters, too, which are preserved through every existing
modification of form.
I have thus shown you that the organic world is primarily divided into
two great kingdoms; that each of these is subdivided into classes, orders,
genera, and so-called species ; and that every species is held to possess two
leading tendencies, the one to vary, and the other to accumulate such variations
where profitable, by transmitting to its descendants the modifications resulting
from variation. I now purpose, in the next place, to call your attention shortly
to certain observed facts in relation to the geographical distribution of animals
and plants.
The Abbé Domenech has observed that “if Eden were the birthplace
of mankind, it certainly was not the birthplace of the whole animal and
vegetable creation, for,” he says, “‘the works of God invariably bear the witness
of Divine Wisdom, and to have created in Eden the Reindeer of Lapland,
the Lama of Peru, the Kangaroo of Australia, and the Ostrich of the Sahara,
would have been as useless as to people the coasts of Tyre and Sidon with
the Whale of Greenland, the Tortoise of the Gulf of Mexico, and with fishes
which only live in Intertropical and Hyperborean regions.”
“In considering the distribution of organic life over the globe,” says Mr.
Darwin, ‘the first great fact which strikes us is, that neither the similarity
nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions can be accounted for
by their climatal and other physical conditions. Of late, almost every author
who has studied the subject, has come to this conclusion. The case of America
alone would suffice to prove its truth ; for, if we exclude the northern parts
where the circumpolar land is almost continuous, all authors agree that one of
the most fundamental divisions in geographical distribution is that between
the New and Old Worlds ; yet if we travel over the vast American Continent,
from the central parts of the United States to its extreme southern point, we
meet with most diversified conditions ; the most humid districts, arid deserts,
lofty mountains, grassy plains, forests, marshes, lakes, and great rivers, under
almost every temperature. There is hardly a climate or condition in the Old
World which cannot be paralleled in the New, at least as closely as the same
species generally require; for it is a most rare case to find a group of organisms
confined to any small spot, having conditions peculiar in only a slight degree ;
for instance, small areas in the Old World could be pointed out hotter than
any in the New World, yet these are not inhabited by a peculiar fauna or
flora. Notwithstandsng this parallelism in the conditions of the Old and New
Worlds, how widely different are their living productions !
“Tn the Southern Hemisphere, if we compare large tracts of land in
Australia, South Africa, and Western South America, between latitudes 25°
and 35°, we shall find parts extremely similar in all their conditions; yet it
would not be possible to point out three faunas and floras more utterly
dissimilar. Or again, we may compare the productions of South America,
south of latitude 35° with those north of 25°, which consequently inhabit a
considerably different climate, and they will be found incomparably more
closely related to each other, than they are to the productions of Australia or
Africa under nearly the same climate. Analagous facts could be given with
respect to the inhabitants of the sea.”
The author from whom If have just quoted, then points to certain facts
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which bear, in a close and important manner, upon the differences between the
productions of various regions, and shows how barriers of any kind which
prevent free migration, favour,—under the operation of the laws which he
proceeds to point out and elucidate—the production of organisms presenting
marked differences from each other, without destruction of those general
affinities, which the same species (using this term in the sense now applied to it
by advanced systematists) present at different points and stations.
In like manner, Sir Charles Lyell, in the last edition of his “ Principles
of Geology” calls special attention to the geographical distribution of species,
and to the causes which aftect it, and I cannot do better than quote some
passages from that work also. And here I may say, that I have the less
hesitation in using extracts from the writings of such authors as Darwin and
Lyell, because it would be impossible for me to convey in more clear and
apposite language, the matters involved in these extracts.
Sir C. Lyell says, “ Although in speculating on ‘philosophical possibilities,’
said Buffon, writing in 1755, the same temperature might have been expected,
all other circumstances being equal, to produce the same beings in different parts
of the globe, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, yet it is an undoubted
fact, that when America was discovered, its indigenous quadrupeds were all
dissimilar to those previously known in the Old World. The elephant, the
rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the cameleopard, the camel, the dromedary, the
buffalo, the horse, the ass, the lion, the tiger, the apes, the baboons, and a
number of other mammalia, were nowhere to be met with on the new con-
tinent ; while in the old, the American species, of the same great class, were
nowhere to be seen—the tapir, the lama, the pacari, the jaguar, the couguar, the
agouti, the paca, the coati, and the sloth.
“These phenomena, although few in number, relatively to the whole
animate creation, were so striking and so positive in their nature, that the
great French naturalist caught sight at once of a general law in the geographical
distribution of organic beings, namely, the limitation of groups of distinct
species to regions separated from the rest of the globe by certain natural
barriers. It was, therefore, in a truly philosophical spirit that, relying on the
clearness of the evidence obtained respecting the larger quadrupeds, he ventured
to call in question the identifications announced by some contemporary natural-
ists, of species of animals said to be common to the southern extremities of
America and Africa.
“In order to appreciate the importance and novelty of the doctrine, that
separate areas of land and water were the abodes of distinct species of animals
and plants, we must look back to the times of Buffon and see in what crude
conjectures even so great a naturalist as his illustrious contemporary Linnzeus
indulged, when speculating on the manner in which the earth may first have
become peopled with its present inhabitants. The habitable world was imagined
by the Swedish philosopher to have been for a certain time limited to one small
tract, the only portion of the earth’s surface that was as yet laid bare by the
subsidence of the primeval ocean. In this fertile spot the originals of all the
species of plants which exist on this globe were congregated together with the
first ancestors of all animals and of the human race. ‘In qua commodé
habitaveurit animalia omnia, et vegetabilia loete germinaveruit.’ In order to
accommodate the various habits of so many creatures, and to provide a diversity
of climate suited to their several natures, the tract in which the creation took
place was supposed to have been situated in some warm region of the earth,
but to have contained a lofty mountain range, on the heights and in the
declivities cf which were found to be all temperatures and every climate, from
that of the torrid to that of the frozen zone. There are still perhaps some
geologists who adhere to a notion once very popular, that there are signs of a
Jl9
universal ocean at a remote period after the planet had become the abode of
living creatures. But few will now deny that the proportion of sea and land
approached very nearly to that now established long before the present species
of plants and animals had come into being.
“The reader must bear in mind that the language of Buffon, in 1755,
respecting ‘natural barriers’ which has since been so popular, would be wholly
without meaning had not the geographical distribution of organic beings led
naturalists to adopt very generally the doctrine of specific centres, or, in other
words, to believe that each species, whether of plant or animal, originated in a
single birthplace. Reject this view, and the fact that not a single native quad-
ruped is common to Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and South America,
can in no ways be explained by adverting to the wide extent of intervening
ocean, or to the sterile deserts, or the great heat or cold of the climates, through
which each species must have passed, before it could migrate from one of those
distant regions to another. It might fairly be asked of one who talked of
impassable barriers, why the same kangaroos, rhinoceroses, or Jamas, should
not have been created simultaneously in Australia, Africa, and South America?
The horse, the ox, and the dog, although foreign to these countries until
introduced by man, are now able to support themselves there in a wild state ;
and we can scarcely doubt that many of the quadrupeds at present peculiar to
Australia, Africa, and South America, might have continued in like manner
- to inhabit all the three continents, had they been indigenous in each, or
could they once have got a footing there as new colonists.”
I might multiply quotations from these and other authors occupying the
foremost rank in the scientific world, in order to show that both sea and land
may, in the present condition of organic nature in every part of the globe be
properly divided into what have been termed distinct Zoological and Botanical
Provinces, each occupied by special groups of animals and plants which,
however, have been found to exhibit, in each case, a certain amount of
coincidence in range of species ; and, indeed, it is urged, that no hypothesis
respecting the origin of species can possibly be satisfactory, which does not
show, in the first place, how species and genera, and ofter larger groups, now
range in space in such a manner as to lead to the implication that they have
spread from a limited area termed a “ centre of creation,” until their progress
has been stopped either by some physical barrier or other condition hostile to
further extension ; and which does not account, in the next place, for the
restriction of peculiar generic forms to certain parts of the globe.
There is nothing more striking to the naturalist, moreover, than the fact,
now well determined, that the rules established by observation in regard to the
distribution of living organisms are those which have also been found to obtain
in regard to fossil forms, and it has thence been fairly argued, and as I believe
sufficiently well proved, that the intimate connection observed between the
existing and the fossil forms within each particular province points to the
certainty that the former are of derivative origin, and are not primordial or
independent creations. JI am compelled, having vegard to the length of a
lecture, arbitrarily to limit my observations upon this part of the subject, but
I think that even without going into the reasons urged by Mr. Darwin and
others, as to the improbability of our being able to identify the actual fossil
ancestor of any living species, or to trace its descent through past geological
epochs, I have sufficiently shown to you the probability that the forms of life
now occupying any particular Zoological or Botanical Province may be looked
upon as the descendants of those which have occupied it during past geological
periods, and that the differences between the existing and fossil forms are due
to the operation of the laws so clearly expounded by Mr. Darwin. Of course
in assuming such a probability, time becomes an important factor, and those
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who have been accustomed to trust to Usher’s chronology, and to look upon
our globe, at least, as having been created within a few thousand years, will be
utterly unable to accept, because they cannot comprehend, such a hypothesis.
But whilst each particular province presents, as I have explained to you, its
own peculiar generic forms, we constantly find a large degree of affinity existing
between the organic life occupying more extended areas comprising frequently
several of such provinces. Upon this point (in special connection with the
affinities of the flora of New Zealand) I quote as follows from Dr. Hooker's
“Introductory Essay” to his “Flora of New Zealand,” as published in 1853 :—
‘“‘Of all the branches of Botany, there is none whose elucidation demands
so much preparatory study, or so extensive an acquaintance with plants and
their affinities, as that of their geographical distribution. Nothing is easier
than to explain away all obscure phenomena of dispersion by several specula-
tions on the origin of species, so plausible that the superficial naturalist may
accept any of them ; and to test their soundness demands a comprehensive
knowledge of facts, which, moreover, run great risk of distortion in the hands
of those who do not know the value of the evidence they afford. I have
endeavoured to enumerate the principal facts that appear to militate against
the probability of the same species having originated in more places (or centres)
than one ; but in so doing I have only partially met the strongest argument of
all in favour of a plurality of centres, viz., the ditticulty of otherwise accounting
for the presence of two widely sundered localities of rare local species, whose
seeds cannot have been transported from one to the other by natural causes now
in operation. To take an instance, how does it happen that Edwardsia grandiflora
inhabits both New Zealand and South America? or Oxalis Magellanica both
these localities and Tasmania? The idea of transportation by aerial or oceanic
currents cannot be entertained, as the seeds of neither could stand exposure to
the salt water, and they are too heavy to be borne in the air.
“Were these the only plants common to these widely sundered localities,
the possibility of some exceptional mode of transport might be admitted by
those disinclined to receive the doctrine of double centres ; but the elucidation
of the New Zealand Flora has brought up many similar instances equally
difficult to account for, and has developed innumerable collateral phenomena
of equal importance, though not of so evident appreciation. These, which all
bear upon the same point, may be arranged as follows :—
“1, Seventy-seven plants are common to the three great south temperate
masses of land, Tasmania, New Zealand and South America.
“2. Comparatively few of these are universally distributed species, the
greater part being peculiar to the south temperate zone.
“There are upwards of 100 genera, sub-genera, or other well marked
groups of plants entirely or nearly confined to New Zealand, Australia and
extra-tropical South America. These are represented by one or more species in
two or more of these countries, and they thus effect a botanical relationship or
affinity between them all, which every botanist appreciates.
“4. These three peculiarities are shared by all the islands in the south
temperate zone (including even Tristan d’Achuna, though placed so close to
Africa), between which islands the transportation of seeds is even more unlikely
than between the larger masses of land.
“The plants of the Antarctic islands which are equally natives of New
Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia, are almost invariably found only on the
lofty mountains of these countries.”
The author then points out certain conclusions, to which he was at that
time forced by a consideration of the facts involved in the distribution of the
plants composing the New Zealand Flora, and proceeds as follows :—
“Tt was with these conclusions before me, that I was led to speculate on
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the possibility of the plants of the Southern Ocean being the remains of a flora
that had once spread over a larger and more continuous tract of land than now
exists in that ocean ; and that the peculiar Antarctic genera and species may
be vestiges of a flora characterized by the predominance of plants which are
now scattered throughout the southern islands. An allusion to these specula-
tions was made in the ‘ Flora Antarctica,’ where some circumstances connected
with the distribution of the Antarctic islands were dwelt upon, and their
resemblance to the summits of a submerged mountain chain was pointed out ;
but beyond the facts that the general features of the flora favoured such a view,
that the difficulties in the way of transport appeared to admit of no other
solution, and that there are no limits assignable to the age of the species that
would make their creation posterior to such a series of geological changes as
should remove the intervening land, there was nothing in the shape of evidence
by which my speculation could be supported. I am indebted to the invaluable
labours of Lyell and Darwin, for facts that could alone have given countenance
to such an hypothesis ; the one showing that the necessary time and elevations
and depressions of land need not be denied; and the other, that such risings
and sinkings are in active progress over large portions of the continents and
islands of the Southern Hemisphere. It is to the works of Lyell that I must
refer for all the necessary data as to influence of climate being dependent on
geological change. In the ‘ Principles of Geology’ these laws are proved to
be of universal application, and amply illustrated by their being applied to the
elucidation of difficult problems in geographical distribution. It follows from
what is there shown, that a change in the relative positions of sea and land has
occurred to such an extent since the creation of still existing species, that we
have no right to assume that the plants and animals of two given areas,
however isolated by ocean, may not have migrated over pre-existing land
between them. This was illustrated by an examination of the natural history
of Sicily (where land-shells, still existing in Italy, and which could not have
crossed the Straits of Messina, are found imbedded on the flanks of Etna, high
above the sea-level), regarding which Sir Charles Lyell states that most of the
plants and animals of that island are older than the mountains, plains, and
rivers they now inhabit.”
You will, then, observe that although New Zealand presents all the
characteristics of, and is properly treated as a distinct province for the purposes
of a description and classification of its animal and vegetable life (for the
remarks [ have. quoted in regard to its Flora apply also to its Fauna,) yet it must
also be considered as forming a part only of a greatly larger area, within which
the Fauna and Flora exhibit such a degree of affinity, as can only be accounted
for by the former existence of means of inter-communication, of which all
visible traces are now lost. In this connection, for example, it is highly
interesting to know that except one or two plants not found in New Zealand,
the whole Flora of the Chatham Islands, four hundred miles to the eastward
of Banks’ Peninsula, is absolutely identical with that of these islands, although
some of the forms (as for example, Lomaria discolor, a common fern in our forests)
have been somewhat modified in outward appearance, a fact itself of great and
striking significance in connection with the views of Mr. Darwin. The same
remarks also apply to the Flora of Raoul or Sunday Island, a small island some
six or seven hundred miles to the north-east of the northern part of New Zealand,
with this increased difficulty in accounting for the general identity between the
two Floras (except on the supposition of a former extension of the land of New
Zealand, as to include the several islands referred to) that the prevalent winds and
the ocean currents between this country and Raoul Island, would drive us to the
conclusion, that the former had been colonized from the latter, a supposition op-
posed to all our present knowledge in regard to the origin and distribution of life.
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1 will now proceed to offer a few remarks upon the distribution, in its
leading characteristics, of the flora and fauna of these islands, which, however,
I must do with great briefness, in order not to weary you. But first, let me
repeat a remark made in my former lecture, as to the peculiar physical
character of the surface of these islands, namely, that they present all the
appearance of rugged mountain chains, which originally formed part of an
immensely larger area, the greater part of the lower and more level tracts of
which have since been submerged. Looked at broadly, in connection with the
Flora, and exclusive of alpine and sub-alpine tracts, we may treat the surface
of the Islands generally as divisible into bush or forest land, fern land, grass
land, and swamp land. I apply the words “swamp land,” in the local sense of
the term, to tracts usually found near the coasts, and covered with a rich
growth of Phormium tenax, and other plants requiring a considerable depth of
vegetable soil and much moisture, and by no means in the sense in which the
same words would be used in England. Our swampy lands are easily drained,
and become very fertile under cultivation, and then yield, in this mild climate,
immense and continuous crops of grass. Such tracts generally indicate the site
of former forest growth, for, in every instance that I am aware of, at a
moderate depth below the surface, large quantities of timber are found. The
area occupied by land of this class is not extensive, but it possesses considerable
importance in an economical point of view, not merely on account of the
fertility of the land itself, but also as yielding a large supply of one of the most
valuable fibre plants in the world.
The grass lands occur chiefly, if not exclusively, on the eastern sides of
both islands, and now afford pasture to millions of sheep and to great numbers
of cattle and horses, thus, in their mere natural condition, adding largely to the
wealth of the colony.
Whether these pasture lands were ever covered with forest I very much
doubt, although many great naturalists are of opinion, that every part of the
surface of the habitable earth, in all climates and regions, was covered with
forest growth before it first became the home of man. Nor is enquiry into
this question material to the subject under consideration, for it is clear that
little, if anything, had been done before these Islands became the abode of
civilized man to alter or modify the character or distribution of its vegeta-
tion. I have never travelled over the pastoral tracts of the North Island, and
am therefore unable to point out what general differences exist (if any do exist)
between the grasses there, and those which cover the pastoral lands of the
Middle Island. The latter until used as sheep and cactle runs, consisted chiefly
of tussock grasses, growing with more or less luxuriance according to the nature
of the soil, but presenting only slight differences in character, in their alti-
tudinal range.
When these Islands were first colonized by us, very large tracts were covered
with Fern, chiefly “ Pteris aquilina.” J have little doubt that the greater part of
such lands had originally been occupied by forest, destroyed by fire after the occu-
pation of the country by the present native inhabitants. The soil occupied by
this growth is usually friable and easily worked, and wherever the fern grew
luxuriantly, has turned out valuable for agricultural purposes. The ‘“ Bush”
or Forest may be roughly divided into three classes, namely, Ist, That which
occupies the lower parts of our larger valleys and other low lying tracts near
the sea coast,—2nd, That which occupies the upper or higher parts of our
valleys, and hills of moderate elevation, within a few miles from the coast line, —
and 3rd, That which occupies the greater mass of the mountain districts on the
western sides of both islands, up to sub-alpine elevations.
The first class comprises a varied growth, the timber trees belonging, for
the most part to certain peculiar genera of Conifer, whilst the undergrowth
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is usually very luxuriant and dense, more particularly in the deep alluvial
deposits at the lower parts of the valleys, where. we also find the Laurelia
Nove Zelandie and other trees affecting: rich moist soils. The small remnant
of forest still seen at the entrance of the Hutt valley affords us an example of
this class of bush land, and although it is fast being destroyed, it even now
gives us an excellent idea of its original variety and density of growth. We
still find there living specimens of most of the forest trees, covered with
remarkable epiphytes, whilst amongst the undergrowth, the Tree Fern, the
Nikau Palm, the Cordyline, and the Freycinetia, and a variety of shrubs
delighting in shade and moisture, are closely interlaced with the Supple-jack,
the Clematis, and other creeping plants. The second class also comprises a
varied growth, but here we find, in addition to forms of Coniferse occurring in
the lower grounds, many species of Metrosideros, Hleeocarpus and other timber
trees, whilst the undergrowth is also extremely dense and impenetrable, more ~
particularly in the innumerable gullies which have been furrowed in
every direction out of the hill sides. Those, however, who can be tempted to
explore these dense gullies, are amply repaid for their toil by the extreme
beauty and variety of the ferns and mosses with which the ground is carpeted,
and the trunks of the trees are covered, whilst the appearance of many of the
more gigantic forest trees, is rendered singularly beautiful, by the enormous
mass of epiphytes with which they are covered. ‘The third class consists
almost exclusively of species of Fagus, with a very sparse undergrowth of Aralia,
Coprosma, Rubus, etc. These enormous beech forests will, no doubt, become
valuable as the country becomes more thickly peopied, for the timber is well
adapted for shipbuilding, and for a large variety of other useful purposes, and the
bark yields a considerable quantity of tannin. The great difference in appear-
ance which these Beech forests present, as compared with the other classes of
bush to which I have referred, is very striking. Asa rule they are open and
easily traversed, but the eye becomes fatigued, and the mind oppressed by
their monotony, and by the general absence of life which characterises them.
To the North of the Isthmus between Auckland and the head of the Manu-
kau occur extensive forests of kauri, the only true coniferous tree found in these
Islands. It does not now occur as a.common tree south of the above line, though
I am informed that single specimens have been observed as far south as Kawhia ;
but the bituminous shales associated with some of the coals of Otago, present
numerous impressions of formsof Dammara closely allied to the living tree, leading
us to the conclusion that the latter is the modified descendant and representative
of forms which flourished abundantly during those far distant periods. A fossil
gum, chemically undistinguishable from the kauri gum of the north, is also
found in the brown coals throughout these Islands, and even in the Chatham
Islands, from which we may also infer that these coals are in part derived from
altered wood of trees belonging to the same germs, which formed part of the
earlier vegetation of that larger area, of which New Zealand is assumed to be
only a remnant.
With the Fauna of these Islands I must deal even more sketchily than I
have done with the Flora, for, with the exception of its birds, very little has
been attempted towards illustrating this branch of their Natural History, The
only mammal (exclusive of two or three species of Bat) which was known te
be indigenous to these Islands, was the Kiore, or so-called Native rat, It has
been the fashion to assume that before the arrival of Europeans in this Colony,
this creature was common, and to attribute its destruction to the European
rat, and, indeed, the natives have been credited with a proverb in relation to
this point. It is notin effect impossible, that the ultimate destruction of those
which still existed when trade was first opened between Europeans and the
Natives, long after the colonization of New South Wales, may have been
UU
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hastened by the introduction of the European rat; but I am satisfied that
before that time they had become very scarce, and indeed I have been told by
gentlemen who have lived in the northern part of this Island for upwards of
forty years, that they never saw a specimen.
The Birds of New Zealand have been collected and investigated by Mr.
Walter Buller, who has long promised a more extensive work on the subject,
than the pamphlet published in the first volume of our Transactions.
The number of species of land birds is not large in itself, though, as Mr.
Buller remarks, the ornithology of these islands does not compare unfavourably
in this respect with that of temporate conntries in the Northern hemisphere,
but although in regard to number of species it may not be important, our
birds present many peculiarities interesting to zoologists.
We have, for example, the wingless Apteryx (or Kiwi), the present repre-
sentative of gigantic races of birds which formerly roamed over our plains and
open lands ; the Kakapo, or Ground Parrot, inhabiting excavations in the
ground, and strictly nocturnal in its habits. Both of these species are confined
to our forest-clad ranges, and the latter has not, so far as I am aware, been
found in the North Island. We have also, though now very rare, the beautiful
Notornis Mantelli, a large Rail, the plumage of which is extremely rich and
varied in colour. This bird is known to exist in both islands, but whether
the species is in each case strictly identical, I am unable tosay. Species of the
Wood hen (Ocydromus) are found in both islands, and this bird is still
abundant, if not actually increasing in the Middle Island.
Amongst the other land birds more familiar to us are the Kaka or Nestor
meridionalis, the Pigeon, the Tui or Parson bird; and several species of
small perching birds found in every wood. Many of the New Zealand
perching birds are honey-feeders, and, the great majority are insect-feeders.
The Kaka feeds largely upon the honey of the phormium tenax, and upon the
flowers of the rata. Of ducks there are several species, for example, the
Paradise duck (more properly speaking a goose), the Grey duck, the Blue
or Mountain duck, and some varieties of Teal. The Paradise duck is a
remarkably handsome bird, the female differing completely from the male in
plumage.
Of wading birds we have many, amongst others, a magnificent white
Crane (Ardea flavirostris), a handsome blue Crane (Ardea matuku), a Bittern
(Botaurus poicilopterus), the Pukeko (Porphyrio melanotus), and several smaller
birds. The Crane and Bittern are scarce, but the Pukeko is to be found in
large numbers in every swamp, and more particularly in those which abut
upon cultivations. This bird is indeed more inclined by appetite to cereal
grains and plants than to aquatic herbs, and frequents the land more than it
does the water. It is handsome and graceful, and active in its movements.
It is easily tamed, and mingles readily with ordinary domestic poultry. As
these birds are also found in the eastern and southern provinces of Europe, we
may accept their presence in this Colony as some indication of the adaptability
of our climate to animals, birds, and plants indigenous to mild latitudes.
Of the poultry tribe, except the Pigeon referred to before, I only know
the Quail, a delicious eating bird, which, unfortunately, is rapidly disappearing,
but which formerly existed on the plains and in all the river valleys in con-
siderable numbers. It has indeed been said that as many as forty brace and
upwards sometimes fell to a pair of guns in a single day’s shooting.
Of rapacious birds we have several species. A small Hawk, distinguished
like its European congener for its daring ; a large Kite, and two or three
species of Owls. These birds kill vast numbers of rats and mice, and thus
more than compensate for the loss of a few chickens and ducklings. I was
once told by a German settler that his young chickens, etc., were never
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molested by these birds, (although they existed in great numbers in his neigh-
bourhood), when under the charge of a turkey mother.
From noxious reptiles this country is happily free, and we shall scarcely
require to import boa constrictors from St. Lucia (as recommended by Sir
Charles Darling, to the Acclimatization Society of Victoria), for the purpose
of devouring them.
With the indigenous sea fish, and the marine crustacea and testacea we
are but little acquainted. The Hapuka, Baracouta, Ling, Snapper, Kawai,
and Moki, a species of Flounder, and a few varieties of Rock fish, are the
sea fish chiefly obtained and used, and of most of these, as indeed of a large
number of the New Zealand sea fish, it may be said, that they are poor in
flavour and coarse in flesh, affording a most striking contrast in this respect to
the many delicious species found in English waters: There are two species of
salt-water Crayfish, both coarse ; some excellent Oysters, and a few of the
commoner shell fish, such as Mussels, Cockles, Limpets, ete. ; but until lately
nothing has been done to extend the knowledge obtained by the very earliest
colonists in respect to our marine fauna.
Of fresh water fish, we have Eels of several kinds, all extremely good
eating ; Lampreys, said by the natives to be delicious, and the fry of a fish
as yet unascertained, which ascends the rivers in the months of October and
November, and is used as whitebait.
In the Province of Nelson, during the month of April, shoals of a small
fish from a quarter to half a pound i in weight, and of delicious flavour, ascend
the rivers, and are then eagerly sought for by epicures, but I am not aware
that any attempt has been made to ascertain the ordinary habits of this fish.
Of the invertebrata, we have great numbers, but no great variety, in species
of the spider. Moths, and consequently their larve, are extremely numerous,
and the latter, as well as the larve of certain species of beetles, frequently do
great damage to the grain and other crops.
There are several varieties of indigenous flesh, and other flies, which are
found to be great pests, and they, as well as the imported house and cattle flies,
are increasing to an extent which threatens to prove a serious source of damage
and discomfort. My own opportunities of observation have been too limited
to enable me to point out the checks now in operation to the further and more
destructive increase of these insects, but I am convinced that it is of great
importance that we should speedily add to the number of those checks, unless
we are willing to submit to severe injury and loss. It has been said by a great
author, in reference to the injuries which insects can do us, “that the
Almighty ordains various instruments for the punishment of offending nations;
sometimes he breaks them to pieces with the iron rod of war; at others the
elements are let loose against them ; earthquakes and floods of fire at his word
bring sudden destruction upon them ; seasons unfriendly to vegetation threaten
them with famine ; the blight and mildew realize these threats ; and often, the
more to manifest and glorify his power, he employs means, at first sight,
apparently the most insignificant and inadequate, to effect their ruin; the
numerous tribes of insects are his armies, marshalled by him, and by
his irresistible commands impelled to the work of destruction; where he
directs them, they lay waste the earth, and famine and the pestilence often
follow in their train.
“The generality of mankind overlook or disregard these powerful, because
minute, dispensers of punishment ; seldom considering in how many ways their
welfare is affected by them, but the fact is certain, that should it please God to
give them a general commission against us, and should he excite them to attack,
at the same time, our bodies, our clothing, our houses, our cattle, and the produce
of our fields and gardens, we should soon be reduced, in every possible respect,
to a state of extreme wretchedness, the prey of the most filthy and disgusting
diseases, divested of a covering, unsheltered, except by caves and dungeons,
from the inclemency of the seasons, exposed to all the extremities of want and
famine ;” and in the end, as Sir Joseph Banks, speaking on this subject, has
well observed, “driven with all the larger animals from the face of the earth.”
You may smile, perhaps, and think this a highly coloured picture, but you will
recollect, I am not stating the mischiefs that insects commonly do, but what
they would do, according to all probability, if certain counter. checks, restraining
them within due limits had not been put in action; and which they actually
do, as you will see, in particular cases, when those counter-checks are
diminished or removed.
It might, indeed, be supposed, that the injuries which can be inflicted upon
man by insects have often been exaggerated, but our own experience during
the last few years completely justifies these ideas. You may, for example,
remember the nearly total annihilation of the cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, and
other vegetables belonging to the large cruciferz in the year 1862, caused by an
aphis which had not previously appeared in this country. Our apple trees are the
prey of another insect of the same kind—the aphis lanifera—commonly called
the American blight, which has put a stop to the cultivation of orchards on a
large scale. The rapidity with which these creatures increase is something
marvellous, though less so when we find that the ordinary laws of generation
are suspended in regard to them, the production of young without fecundation,
being common to the whole family. Bounet long ago demonstrated, by a series
of most carefully conducted experiments, that at least five generations of the aphis
sambuci may succeed each other, the females never pairing. The oak aphis
carried this to the ninth generation, and, strange to state, he found that
whilst, after pairing, the aphides produced ova, in other cases they produced
their young alive. Reaumur computes that each aphis may produce about
ninety young, and that in consequence, in five generations the descendants from
a single insect would amount to the astonishing number of 5,904,900,000.
“ Were it not,” says Mr. Swainson, ‘that these immense multitudes are called
into being to furnish food for other races, they would be sufficient to destroy
vegetation and annihilate the empire of Flora.”
Having thus (I am afraid, however, in a very off-hand manner) pointed
out to you the leading characteristics and distribution of the Flora and Fauna
of these islands, I will now call your attention to what has aptly been termed
the ‘ Struggle for Existence” which living organisms of all kinds, are exposed
to in a state of nature, and point out in what manner variation lends its aid im
protecting both animals and plants from extinction under that struggle. In
doing this I shall not hesitate to borrow largely from Mr. Darwin’s work.
After adverting to the acknowledged variability of organic beings in a state of
nature (to which I have called your attention in an earlier part of this lecture)
he asks, “‘ How all those exquisite adaptations of one part of the organization
to another part, and to the conditions of life, and of one distinct organic being
to another, have been perfected? How it is that varieties, (which by the way, he
has called ‘incipient species’), became ultimately converted into good and
distinct species, which, in most cases, obviously differ from each other far more
than do the varieties of the same species? How those groups of species which
constitute what are called distinct genera, and which differ from each other
more than do the species of the same genus, have arisen?’ And he proceeds
to answer these questions by saying, that the results referred to all follow from
the “Struggle for Life,” in which all the members of the organic world are engaged.
‘“‘ Owing to this struggle,” he observes, “‘any variation, however slight, and
from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an
individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic
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beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual,
and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus
have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species
which are periodically born, but a small number can survive.
“This struggle for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which
all organic beings tend to increase. Hvery being which during its natural
lifetime produces several eggs or seeds, must suffer destruction during some period
of its life, and during some season or occasional year, otherwise, on the principle
of geometrical increase, its numbers would quickly become so inordinately
great, that no country could support the product. Hence, as more individuals
are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle
for existence, either one individual with another of the same species, or with
individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life. It is the
doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and
vegetable kingdoms ; for in this case there can be no artificial increase of food,
and no prudential restraint from marriage. Although some species may be
now increasing, more or less rapidly, in numbers, all cannot do so, for the
world would not hold them.
“There is no exception to the rule that every organic being naturally
increases at so high a rate, that if not destroyed, the earth would soon be
covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow breeding man has doubled
in twenty-five years, and at this rate in a few thousand years there would
literally not be standing room for his progeny. lLinneus has calculated
that if an annual plant produced only two seeds—and there is no plant
so unproductive as this—and their seedlings next year produced two, and
so on, then in twenty years there would be a million plants. The elephant
is reckoned the slowest breeder of all known animals, and I have taken
some pains to estimate its probable minimum rate of natural increase ; it
will be under the mark to assume that it breeds when thirty years old, and
goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing forth three pair of young in
this interval ; if this be so, at the end of the fifth century there would be alive
fifteen millions of elephants, descended from the first pair.
“ But we have better evidence on this subject than mere theoretical
calculations, namely, the numerous recorded cases of the astonishingly rapid
increase of various animals in a state of nature, when circumstances have been
favourable to them during two or three following seasons. Still more striking
is the evidence from our domestic animals of many kinds which have run wild
in several parts of the world ; if the statements of the rate of increase of slow
breeding cattle and horses in South America, and latterly in Australia, had
not been well authenticated, they would have been incredible. So it is with
plants : cases could be given of introduced plants which have become common
throughout whole islands in a period of less than ten years. Several of the
plants, such as the cardoon and a tall thistle, now most numerous over the
wide plains of La Plata, clothing square leagues of surface almost to the
exclusion of all other plants, have been introduced from Europe ; and there are
plants which now range in India, as I hear from Dr. Falconer, from Cape Comorin
to the Himalaya, which have been imported from America since its discovery.
In such cases, and endless instances could be given, no one supposes that the
fertility of these animals or plants has been suddenly and temporarily increased
in any sensible degree. The obvious explanation is that the conditions of life
have been very favourable, and there has consequently been less destruction of
the old and young, and that nearly all the young have been enabled to breed.
In such cases the geometrical ratio of increase, the result of which never fails
to be surprising, simply explains the extraordinarily rapid increase and wide
diffusion of naturalized productions in their new homes.
328
“Tn a state of nature almost every plant produces seed, and amongst
anunals there are very few which do not annually paw. Hence we may
confidently assert, that all plants and animals are tending to increase in a
geometrical ratio, that all would most rapidly stock every station in which
they could any how exist, and that the geometrical tendency to increase must
be checked by destruction at some period of life. Our familiarity with the
larger domestic animals tends, I think, to mislead us ; we see no great destruc-
tion falling on them, and we forget that thousands are annually slaughtered
for food, and that in a state of nature an equal number would have somehow
to be disposed of.
“The only difference between organisms which annually produce eggs or
seeds by the thousand, and those which produce extremely few, is, that the slow
breeders would require a few more years to people, under favourable conditions,
a whole district, let it be ever so large. The condor lays a couple of eggs, and
the ostrich a score, and yet in the same country the condor may be the more
numerous of the two: the Fulmar petrel lays but one egg, yet it is believed to
be the most numerous bird in the world. One fly deposits hundreds of eggs,
and another, like the hippobosca, a single one; but this difference does not
determine how many individuals of the two species can be supported in a
district. A large number of eggs is of some importance to those species which
depends on a rapidly fluctuating amount of food, for it allows them rapidly to
increase in number. But the real importance of a large number of eggs or
seeds is to make up for much destruction at some period of life; and this
period in the great majority of cases is an early one. If an animal can in any
way protect its own eggs or young, a small number may be produced, and yet
the average stock be fully kept up; but if many eggs or young are destroyed,
many must be produced, or the species will become extinct. It would suffice
to keep up fully the numbers of a tree, which lived on an average for a thousand
years, if a single seed were produced once in a thousand years, supposing that
this seed were never destroyed, and could be ensured to germinate in a fitting
place. So that in all cases, the average number of any animal or plant depends
only indirectly on the number of its eggs or seeds.”
The author then proceeds to comment upon the causes which check the
natural tendency of each species to increase in number, and points out not only
the extreme obscurity of these causes, but also that even when at all ascertain-
able, they are found to be very complex and unexpected. Of this he gives
several striking instances, as, for example :—
‘“‘ In Staffordshire, on the estate of a relation, where I had ample means
of investigation, there was a large and extremely barren heath, which had
never been touched by the hand of man ; but several hundred acres of exactly
the same nature had been enclosed twenty-five years previously, and planted
with Scotch fir. The change in the native vegetation of the planted part of
the heath was most remarkable, more than is generally seen in passing from
one quite different soil to another ; not only the proportional numbers of the
heath plants were wholly changed, but twelve species of plants (not counting
grasses and carices) flourished in the plantations, which could not be found on
the heath. The effects on the insects must have been still greater, for six
insectiverous birds were very common in the plantations, which could not be
found on the heath ; and the heath was frequented by two or three distinct
insectiverous birds. Here we see how potent has been the effect of the intro-
duction of a single tree, nothing whatever else having been done, with the
exception that the land had been enclosed, so that cattle could not enter. But
how important an element enclosure is, I plainly saw near Farnham, in Surrey.
Here there are extensive heaths, with a few clumps of old Scotch firs on the
distant hill-tops: within the last ten years large spaces have been enclosed,
329
and self-sown firs are now springing up in multitudes, so close together that
all cannot live. When I ascertained that these young trees had not been sown
or planted, I was so much surprised at their numbers that I went to several
points of view, whence I could examine hundreds of acres of the unenclosed
heath, and literally I could not see a single Scotch fir, except the old planted
clumps. But on looking closely between the stems of the heath, I found a
multitude of seedlings and little trees, which had been perpetually browsed down
by cattle. In one square yard, at a point some hundred yards distant from
one of the old clumps, I counted thirty-two little trees ; and one of them, with
twenty-six rings of growth, had during many years tried to raise its head, and
had failed. No wonder that, as soon as the land was enclosed, it became
thickly clothed with vigorously growing young firs. Yet the heath was so ex-
tremely barren and so extensive, that no one would ever have imagined that
cattle would have so closely and effectually searched it for food.
“Here we see that cattle absolutely determined the existence of the
Scotch fir in this particular locality and under the conditions indicated ;
but in several parts of the world insects determine the existence of cattle.
Perhaps Paraguay offers the most curious instance of this ; for here neither
horses, nor cattle, nor dogs, have ever run wild, though they swarm northward
and southward in a feral state ; and Azara and Rengger have shown that this
is caused by the great number in Paraguay of a certain fly, which lays its eggs
in the navels of these animals when first born. The increase of these flies,
numerous as they are, must be habitually checked by some means, probably by
birds. Hence, if certain insectivorous birds (whose numbers are probably
regulated by hawks or beasts of prey) were to increase in Paraguay, the flies
would decrease—then cattle and horses would become feral, and this would
certainly greatly alter (as indeed I have observed in parts of South America)
the vegetation ; this again would largely affect the insects; and this, as we
have just seen in Staffordshire, the insectivorous birds, and so onwards in ever
increasing circles of complexity. We began this series by insectivorous birds,
and we have ended with them. Not that in nature the relations can ever be
as simple as this. Battle within battle must ever be recurring with varying
success ; and yet in the long run the forces are so nicely balanced, that the face
of nature remains uniform for long periods of time, though assuredly the
merest trifle would often give the victory to one organic being over another,
nevertheless so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that
we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do
not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws
on the duration of the forms of life!” The same author further adds :—
“‘T am tempted to give one more instance showing how plants and animals,
most remote in the scale of nature, are bound together by a web of complex
relations. I shall hereafter have occasion to show that the exotic Lobelia
fulgens, in this part of England, is never visited by insects, and consequently,
from its peculiar structure, never can setaseed. Many of our orchidaceous plants
absolutely require the visit of moths to remove their pollen-masses, and thus to
fertilize them. I have, also, reason to believe that humble-bees are indispen-
sable to the fertilization of the heartsease (Viola tricolor), for other bees do not
visit this flower. From experiments which I have lately tried, I have found
that the visits of bees are necessary for the fertilization of some kinds of clover ;
but humble-bees alone visit the red clover (Trifolium pratense), as other bees
cannot reach the nectar. Hence I have very little doubt, that if the whole
genus of humble-bees became extinct or very rare in England, the heartsease
and red clover would become very rare, or wholly disappear. The number of
humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree on the number of field
mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Mr. H. Newman, who has
330
long attended to the habits of humble-bees, believes that ‘more than two-thirds
of them are thus destroyed all over England.’ Now the number of mice is
largely dependent, as every one knows, on the number of cats; and Mr.
Newman says, ‘Near villages and small towns I have found the nests of
humble-bees more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the number
of cats that destroy the mice.’ Hence it is quite credible that the presence of
a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the
intervention first of mice, and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers
in that district !”
In summing up the results of his enquiries, Mr. Darwin has applied the
term ‘ Natural selection” to the principle or operative agency, which the
foregoing extracts are intended to illustrate, viz., that principle under which
slight variations in any species tend, if useful, to be accumulated and to be
preserved to succeeding generations. The term “ Natural selection” was
adopted by Mr. Darwin in order to mark the relation of the principle or
agency in question, to the power which man exercises over domestic animals,
for, as you are aware, man by taking advantage of variations in character
amongst domesticated animals has been able to produce a large number of
breeds and varieties, more or less useful to himself. It must not, however, be
supposed that nature operates as rapidly or necessarily in the same direction as
man in assimilating such variations.
“Man,” says Mr. Darwin in his work on “ Animals and Plants under
Domestication,” ‘selects varying individuals, sows their seeds, and again
selects their varying offspring. He may be said to be trying an experiment on
a gigantic scale, but the initial variation on which he works, and without
which he can do nothing, is caused by slight changes in the conditions of life
which must often have ‘occur red under nature. The experiment which man
has been making is one which nature, during the long lapse of time, has
incessantly tried.” ;
To sum up again: I have now briefly shown you — by reviewing
the investigations of modern writers on such subjects, and chiefly those
of Hooker, Lindley, Darwin, Lyell, and Marsh,—the divisions and sub-
divisions of the organic world; the laws which regulate the geographical
distribution of plants and animals ; ; the tendency to vary which characterises
living organisms ; the principles under which any variation, however slight,
and fi om whatever cause proceeding, if it be profitable, tends to the preserva-
tion of the individual ; the transmissibility of acquired variations in character ;
and the struggle for existence which all life is engaged in.
And I hee also shortly called your airention i the distribution, affinities,
and general characteristics of the Flora and Fauna of these Islands—sketchily
it is true—but sufficiently for the purposes of my further observations, if, as I
have a right to suppose, you have made any reasonable use of the opportunities
you enjoy in common with myself, of acquiring more detailed knowledge in
regard to them.
It was my intention originally to have dealt with the whole of my subject
in this lecture, but I have found it impossible to do so, and I am compelled to
defer to a future occasion a consideration of the position, (relatively to the
questions discussed in this and in my last lecture), in which our Flora and
Fauna stood immediately before the systematic colonization of these islands,
and the effects already produced, and likely to follow, from the introduction of
competing foreign organisms. ‘This, of course, I can only do broadly and
‘briefly, but I hope to satisfy you, that the operations now going on are calcu-
lated to produce all the results which I have suggested as probable in the future.
ON CERTAIN MoDERN PROJECTS OF INTER-COMMUNICATION, AND THEIR
RELATION TO New Zeauanp. By F. Waxkerietp, F.L.S8.
[Lecture delivered at the Colonial Museum, Wellington, September 4, 1869.]
THERE never was a time in the history of the world when such vast schemes
were in progress or projected for the extension of rapid and easy communica-
tion between different parts of the earth ; indeed, it appears to be the feature
of the age, that nations, in whatever else they should differ, would cordially
agree in forwarding every plan having for its object the shortening of time and
space, and lowering the cost of transit between the most distant points of the
globe ; and from what has taken place, it may be safely affirmed that the results
will far exceed even the dreams of the first inventors of the means employed.
Electricity and steam communication appear as the appointed agents of
an All-wise Providence for building up the comity of nations ;—for obliterating
prejudices and antipathies ;—for throwing down restrictions upon free inter-
course in trade, science, literature, and all the generous amenities that should
bind man to man.
As the liquid fire flies along the metal carrying with it the thoughts of
men ; or as travellers stretch across whole continents in a few days, one lan-
guage will have to be adopted ; the gibberish of the savage will die out before
a flexible and more polished form of expression ; money must bear one sove-
reign efligy ; bad forms of government will be so keenly felt and discussed that
they must give way to better ; and the result will be a state of freedom and
healthy progress unknown in the history of mankind. Nor is it too much to-
suppose that as the future of America will see one language spoken from
Canada to Cape Horn; and our government of India and England’s other
dependencies will be made so attractive that our fellow-subjects will be num-
bered by hundreds of millions, “the well of English undefiled” will be the
source from whence the common language of the line and rail will be drawn.
The magnificent store of literature, which is the noble heritage and common
property of all who speak the English language, will keep the peace, whilst
the extended comfort and well-being of mankind are our common object ; for
should discord arise between us, the pioneers of the world’s civilization, the
historians, geographers, men of science, poets and orators, on each side of the
Atlantic, cherishing a common idiom as their mother tongue, with Shakespeare
aS Marshal of the Lists, would forbid so unnatural a contention. No better
instance could be adduced of the influence I fondly hope to see prevail than
the appointment of a genial man of letters, like Motley, as American Minister
at the Court of St. James’, who is more likely to settle the Alabama claims
than the most practised diplomatist, for all England enjoys his writings.
Taking England as one centre, and our Southern England, New Zealand,
as the other, upon the earth’s surface, the projects in progress or under con-
sideration may be classed as follows :—
I. West oF ENGLAND.
The Ocean Steam Navigation Companies connecting England with
America.
The Atlantic Cable connecting Ireland with Boston, and other cables
being laid.
2 IK
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The Panama Railroad, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Canadian Canals and the St Lawrence, connecting Chicago and the Lakes
with London.
The Pacific Railway, connecting New York with San Francisco.
If. East of ENGLAND.
The Indian Telegraph by Constantinople to Bombay.
The Overland Route by Peninsular and Oriental Company’s Steam
vessels through Egypt to Galle, China, Japan, and Australasia.
The Maritime Canal of Suez.
The Messageries Imperiales, a company subsidized by France on the same
line as that worked by the Peninsular and Oriental Company.
The proposed Overland Route to India, from Belgrade to Constantinople,
and Bussorah to Kurrachee.
The line of large ocean steamers by the Cape of Good Hope to
Melbourne.
III. West or New ZEALAND.
The steam navigation companies connecting us with Melbourne, and the
P. and O. Company to England.
Telegraphic communication from South Australia to Brisbane.
The line of cable laid between Victoria and Tasmania.
IV. East or New ZEALAND.
The probable extension of a line of steamers from San Francisco to the
Sandwich Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Sydney.
Every one of these projects having for its object the increase of rapid,
cheap, and convenient communication, is of great importance to us, possessing
as we do, taking it for all in all, one of the best fields for emigration in the
world. ©
Our goldfields can only enrich the country by attracting population ; for
no country was ever great or prosperous through its mines of gold and silver
alone. Our unoccupied millions of acres are of no more value than so much
cloud or sea, without population to reclaim them from the waste; and the
accounts one reads in the English papers of the masses of people receiving
public relief are the more painful to peruse, when at our own doors there is
bread for all. Therefore, a cheap, humane, and well-regulated system of immi-
gration would be a mutual benefit to England and ourselves ; and every project
similar to those I have enumerated, is a step in the right direction.
Out of the different plans either completed, in progress or under considera-
tion, I have selected three, the particulars of which I have endeavoured to put
together as clearly and briefly as I could, and trust that the subjects will prove
worthy of your attention :—
I. The Maritime Canal of Suez.
Il. The proposed Overland Routes to India.
III. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, connecting New York and San
Francisco.
THe Maritime CANAL OF SUEZ.
Before the Cape of Good Hope was doubled, nearly 400 years ago, and a
new sea-way found to India, the trade of the East being principally carried on
by caravans, a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, connecting the Red Sea
with the Mediterranean, was not so important to the whole world, as an
improved civilization, a vastly increased population, and a far-extended com-
merce render it in our own time. Yet this modern project is not without
ancient example, though with a less object, on part of the same land.
333
About the middle of the seventh century before the Christian era,
aceording to Herodotus, a line of canal for fresh water was commenced at
Rhoda on the Nile, near the modern Cairo, and continued by the margin of
the extreme eastern desert to Bubastis—thence by the Wadi Tombat, or Valley
of the Seven Wells, skirting the Bitter Lakes—it reached Suez, which was
then known as Clysma. It was commenced by Necho, son of Psammetichua,
and completed by Darius, the son of Hystaspes. A period of one hundred years
was occupied in the work, and 120,000 Egyptians perished in the labour, which
was so hard, that an oracle admonished the taskmasters to desist, and for a
time it ceased. The remains of this work are still to be seen ; but I am not
aware—though I have made diligent search amongst the authorities—that an
attempt was ever made in ancient times to connect the two seas by means of a
canal. The wants of the day, 2400 years ago, were met by the river Nile, 180
miles from the sea to Rhoda, and 105 miles of fresh water canal to the
Red Sea.
A good deal may have been due to French influence in the East that the
maritime canal at Suez has become a great public question, but I still think
that the project by an English engineer, Mr. Lionel Gisborne, of cutting
through the Isthmus of Darien, in 1852, brought the subject of removing such
obstacles to navigation more prominently before the world; and many think
that it will always be a matter of regret that Mr. Gisborne’s plan was not
taken up by the merchants of Europe and America. Though Mr. Gisborne
was not permitted to live to carry out his plan, his labours were not thrown
away, and the facts which I have gathered from his report are curious. He
found that the tide on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Darien rose twenty-
three feet, whilst on the Atlantic side it was scarcely appreciable—that at
mid-tide the two oceans would be nearly level, and that therefore the ebb
and flow of the Pacific would cause a current both ways, not exceeding
a rate of three miles an hour, acting as a scour to prevent deposit, and
an assistance in the transit of vessels. This would also secure the passage
being effected in one tide, and prevent the passing of vessels going different
ways, as the direction of the trade would be alone influenced by the ebb and
flow of the Pacific tide. Mr. Gisborne also found that the material to be
excavated would be chiefly rock, so that the current or the wash of passing
steamers would not tear away the banks, thus reducing the cost of mainten-
ance toa nominal sum. ‘The canal was to be 30 feet deep at low water, 140
feet wide at bottom, widening to 160 feet at low-water surface. The rivers
Savana and Lara were to be made use of for eighteen miles on the Darien side,
leaving the actual breadth of the Isthmus between the tidal effect of the two
oceans at thirty miles. The summit level of this lowest ridge of the Andes
was found not to exceed 150 feet, formed by a narrow range of hills, having a
gradually rising plain on each side. The report does not state if any prevailing
winds were likely to render the two entrances periodically unsafe, so I presume
that the canal would have been always easy of access and egress.
Messrs. Fox and Henderson, the contractors for the great Exhibition
Building in 1851, employed Mr. Gisborne, and the position they held enabled
them to make that gentleman’s report well-known throughout the world, par-
ticularly as they were to get up the company for the performance of the work.
There can be but little doubt, as the above information became public,
that Monsieur de Lesseps, in inaugurating his plan of making a canal through
the Isthmus of Suez, and before he finally enlisted the late Ismail Pasha, then
Viceroy of Egypt, heartily in the project, in 1854, made himself certain as to
the relative height of the water at the same time in the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean, where he intended to connect their waters by an open cutting
without locks. Unfortunately an opinion of weight had gone forth that pre-
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vailed for nearly fifty years, being the result of an investigation ordered by
Napoleon when in Egypt in 1798. His chief civil engineer was ordered to
report upon the practicability of a canal between the two seas; and the only
result was an apparent difference of thirty-two feet between the level of the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean. But, in 1846, a tripartite commission was set
at work to study the relative levels and tidal amplitudes of the two seas
and the Nile. In this commission Mr. Robert Stephenson represented
England ; France sent M. Talabot; and the Chevalier Negrelli acted for
Austria. The result showed that the difference in the levels of the two seas
was so slight as to be of no practical account.
Thus a great difficulty was removed in making an accurate calculation for
a work of such vast magnitude, as it was now made clear that if the 100 miles
of intervening land were intersected by an open channel of moderate width
and depth, the waters of the two seas would meet without the aid of locks or
any other artificial arrangement.
At the first sight of the map of Europe, the Mediterranean would appear
to be higher than the Red Sea, because the former, confined as it is at its
mouth, being scarcely nine miles in width between Ceuta and Gibraltar, is
only the last of a chain of lakes of which the Sea of Azof, fed by the River
Don, is the first. The current is strong into the Black Sea at the Straits of
Yenikale, near Kertch, and still more rapid where the Black Sea flows through
the Bosphorus, a distance of eighteen miles into the Sea of Marmora. There
is also a strong current through the narrow passage of the Dardanelles from
the Sea of Marmora into the Mediterranean. Besides this absolute fall, the
waters of the Danube, the Nile, the Po, and the Rhone are received into the
Mediterranean ; and as the swell of the Atlantic at Gibraltar is always inwards,
from the prevailing westerly winds, a head of water might be supposed to
exist, that a canal through the Isthmus of Suez would, as it were, tap and let
into the Red Sea. If this were the case, a current would be created useful for
the passage of ships going to the eastward, but likely to damage the banks of
the canal, excavated for half its length in the sand of the desert.
Again, the Red Sea, being an arm of the Indian Ocean, 1200 miles long,
confined at its entrance by the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, or the Gate of Tears
(so called by the Arabs from the frequency of shipwrecks in taking shelter
from the storms of the Indian Ocean), and the Island of Perim, would have its
tides disturbed from its narrowness, from the rapid growth of coral reefs, and
from the prevalence of the north-west wind, nine months out of the twelve,
that would keep back the water. But all this, as we shall see, however
ingenious in speculation, is not the case ; for the fact has been settled, to a
demonstration, that the waters of the two seas are almost level ; and that the
mass of water removed by evaporation under the almost constant hot sun in those
parallels of latitude accounts for a fact which would otherwise appear inexplicable.
The suggestion of the modern maritime Suez Canal is due to Ferdinand
de Lesseps, a man of the most indomitable perseverance and energy, with a
most suggestive mind, who has had to contend, and almost alone, with
difficulties that would have overwhelmed men not made after the fashion of
Christopher Columbus. England’s jealousy of France was the first obstacle ;
and when that was disposed of, engineering jealousies began, and these
effectually retarded M. de Lesseps’ object—the forming of a company with
whose funds the work might be commenced. Yet after almost as many years
waiting as Columbus passed in soliciting the slender means from his Sovereign
to add a new world to the Spanish Crown, M. de Lesseps has triumphed over
all ; and whether the canal ever pays or not, his name will always be connected
with one of the greatest public works ever attempted, contrived, begun, and
watched to its completion by the mind of one man.
335
The capital of the company is in round numbers, sixteen millions sterling.
The canal, with its ports at each end, was to be the property of the company
for ninety-nine years, after which it would belong to the Egyptian Govern-
ment, who, in the meantime, was to receive 15 per cent. of the traffic earnings.
The tolls charged for passage were always to be equal for ships of all nations ;
and, I think, at about the rate of £30 sterling for a vessel of 500 tons from
sea to sea.
The Maritime Canal extends from the newly-constructed artificial harbour
of Port Said on the Pelusian Coast of the Mediterranean, about midway
between Alexandria and Joppa, the port of Jerusalem, to the port of Suez at
the head of the Red Sea. The length of the canal is not quite 100 miles. Its
depth throughout is 26 feet; its general width is 246 feet at the base, and
328 feet at the top of the banks, except where in some places on the line it
has to be cut through high ground, there the width is reduced to 190 feet at
the lower part. There will be no locks in the Maritime Canal, and vessels
will be able to steam through, or be towed through, in about sixteen hours
from sea to sea.
The ancient Pelusium was selected for the Mediterranean entrance to the
canal, because at that spot, 2870 yards from the shore, there was a depth of
30 feet of water. This is now called Port Said. There a harbour has been
formed by running out into the sea two breakwaters or moles, which are
formed of huge blocks of concrete. Each block measures twelve cubic yards,
weighs twenty-two tons, and is composed of two-thirds sand and one-third
hydraulic lime. The lime is imported from France, the sand is dredged up in
the harbour, and each block costs £13 sterling. They are not laid in as
masonry, but thrown down loosely, and are intended to answer the double
purpose of protecting vessels from heavy seas, and of arresting the alluvium
brought down by the River Nile in its passage towards the Bay of Pelusus, so
as to prevent its choking up the channel. The western breakwater extends
from the shore 2400 yards i in a straight line, N.N.E. ; and then with a slight
angle towards the east extends 330 yards further. The eastern breakwater
leaves the shore at a poimt 1530 yards to the eastward of the commencement
of the western one, and extends nearly north for a distance of 2070 yards, at
which point it is 760 yards from the western breakwater, and this distance
constitutes the width of the entrance. The portion of the harbour affording
shelter to vessels is nearly 500 acres in extent; and although the depth of
water is not sufficient for the largest men-of-war, it is quite sufficient for
ordinary merchantmen, if the present depth be maintained. The prevailing
winds being from the north-west, large quantities of mud are constantly brought
along the shore from the Nile ; and this has been one of the main objections to
the probable success of M. Lesseps’ scheme.
Whilst at this point, with the map of the world before us, might I be
allowed to point out why the Nile, after leaving upon all the soil of Egypt
that is affected by the annual inundation, a sufficient coating of mud to render
the country proverbially the most fertile in the world, can yet discharge a
torrent of mud by its two mouths likely to endanger the success of a harbour
50 miles to the eastward of where the Nile meets the sea. Now that we
know from Baker, Speke, Grant and others, that the Bahr al Abiad, or White
Nile, has such a slight inclination from the Lake Victoria Nyanza, that if
there were any deposit in the overflow of the lake, it could not proceed far ; it
is no longer a matter of speculation from whence the Nile proper receives the
alluvium with which its waters are charged during the inundation every July,
August, and September. It comes from the Bahr al Azreck, or Blue Nile,
which is swollen to a resistless torrent as it rushes from the mountains of
Abyssinia during the rainy season, bringing with it the rich humus formed from
336
the yearly decaying leaves of a rank tropical vegetation. The Blue Nile enters
the Nile proper at Khartoum ; and though the White Nile contributes a much
larger quantity of water than the Blue tributary, it only dilutes the mud and
gives the whole body of the river force to reach the sea. The quantity must
be enormous ; for being discharged by two mouths, a larger volume of muddy
water reaches the sea than if the discharge were effected by seven small ones as
in ancient times. Since visiting Egypt, and reading all I could upon the subject,
Tam quite confirmed in the opinion that the river finding the seven small mouths
insufficient, formed the two present ones as the only means of ridding itself of
the wall of water coming from the South. And, again, when Egypt was
governed by enlightened and beneficent monarchs, millions of acres which are
now desert swarmed with people making the most of every drop of the
inundation, and thus retaining perhaps all the alluvium to fertilize the land,
that is now annually discharged into the sea, and threatens to block up the
harbour of Port Said.
On leaving Port Said, the canal enters Lake Menzaleh, through which the
channel is excavated for 29 miles to Kantara, a station on the desert route of
the caravans from Cairo to Syria. The course of the canal then lies through
low sand-hills to Lake Ballah, which it traverses for a distance of 8 miles, and
then enters a deep cutting extending from El Ferdane to Lake Timsah. Near
El Guisr, 4 miles south of El Ferdane, the deepest cutting throughout the
whole line occurs, and it had to be excavated varying from 60 feet to 70 feet
in depth.
The characteristics of the first half of the maritime canal are, that about
34 miles of the course lie through lakes, and the remainder through elevated
plateaux and low sand hills.
The town of Ismailia has been founded on the northern side of Lake
Timsah.
The second half of the canal divides into two portions: in the first the
canal skirts the eastern shore of Lake Timsah, and enters the cuttings at
Toussoum and Serapeum; in the second, on emerging from the Serapeum
cutting, the canal pursues a central course through the Bitter Lakes for
24 miles, going through the last cutting at Chalouf, and enters the Red Sea
a mile to the south-east of Suez, the last twelve miles to the Red Sea
being through a continuous level plain slightly above the level of the sea.
The fresh water of the Nile is brought by a canal to Ismailia from Cairo
and thence to Suez, which used to be wretchedly supplied with water, giving
the administration of the canal the power of growing anything under such
a sun.
The question of tolls can only be decided when the canal is fairly opened,
for it is questionable if any vessels without at least auxiliary steam power could
take advantage of the Suez Canal, on account of the baffling winds in the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea, as by this line all the advantages of the trade
winds, the monsoons, and great circle sailing must be lost.
The three objections urged by the late Robert Stephenson, after walking
twice over the whole ground, and thoroughly examining the project, are still
in the opinion of most practical men as patent as ever. These were—
1. The difficulty of keeping the entrance open at Port Said, for two
reasons, the first of which was the shallowness of the sea for a long distance
from the shore ; the second was the constant flow of the sea, driven by the
almost continual N.W. wind from west to east, carrying with it the mud of
the Nile, from its two mouths at Damietta and Rosetta. This objection M. de
Lesseps proposed to obviate in his first plan by making the piers or breakwaters
six miles long. Mr. Stephenson still objected that the flow of the water
heavily charged with mud would soon render the sea so shallow on the
337
western side of the piers, that they would have to be lengthened beyond the
money power of any company to support.
2. The wash of passing steamers and the force of the wind would wear
away the sides, and involve the expense of lining the bank with worked stone,
while the nearest place from whence it could be obtained would be Cyprus.
This expense would ruin any company however rich.
3. The sand of the desert raised by the high wind would be deposited in
the canal, and a constant expense of dredging to keep the channel open would
again tax the resources of the company to the utmost.
An engineer, a Mr. Fowler, has lately been sent to examine the whole
project, and he already recommends the large blocks of stone that M. Lesseps
has thrown loosely into the sea to form the western breakwater, to be laid solid
to prevent the Nile mud from choking up the channel between the two piers.
Powerful dredges are also at work keeping that part of the canal open most
likely to be obstructed by the drifting sand; and lastly, the practice of other
canals where steam power is used as a means of traction, is in favour of Mr.
Stephenson’s objection that the wash of passing vessels will degrade the banks
and cause endless expense in lining them with stone.
It is my sincere desire that the Suez Canal may yet come up to the most
confident hopes of its projectors ; for if it answered it would benefit the whole
world: but I cannot set my doubts at rest, however much I may wish it to
succeed, when I consider the disadvantages under which nature has placed that
part of the earth for successfully carrying out such an undertaking.
THE OvERLAND Routes to INDIA.
There have been several routes to India proposed within the last thirty
years, partly by land and partly by sea, arising from the greatly increasing
importance of the trade between Europe and the East ; but more particularly
from the rapidly developed system of railways which now brings every part of
India within an easy distance of London.
The first was the present route through Egypt, proposed by Lord
Ellenborough, when Governor-General of India, and carried out, against much
opposition, by Lieut. Waghorn in 1845.
The second was the line proposed by Colonel Chesney, from the Bay of
Iskanderoon, due east 100 miles to Bir on the Euphrates, and thence by that
river to Bussorah, in 1850.
The third was that proposed by Sir Macdonald Stephenson in his pamphlet
called “The World’s Highway,” in 1857. I had a good opportunity of knowing
his views upon the subject when employed by him in Asia Minor; and but
for the Ministry of the day being displaced who supported the plan, I was
named to organize a party to explore the line in its whole length. The pro-
posed line was to start from Belgrade on the Danube, which even at that time
was connected with Vienna and the rest of Europe. It was to run from
Belgrade to Constantinople through a pass in the Balkan, by Philipolis and
Adrianople, a distance of 500 miles, thus making it possible when the line
should be properly organized to reach Constantinople in sixty hours from
London. The line was to cross the Bosphorous about four miles above Con-
stantinople from the Castles of Europe to the Castles of Asia ; and from thence
to Bussorah at the head of the Persian Gulf, a distance of 1400 miles. In
this 1900 miles there was comparatively speaking no engineering difficulty to
be contended with to be compared with those of the Pyrenees on the line con-
necting Spain and Portugal with France. The first 200 miles through Asia
Minor, would cross the elevated plateau of Phrygia near Lake Van, and
descend upon the great Assyrian plain watered by the Tigris and Euphrates.
From Bussorah the course was to lie along the coast of Persia and Belloochistan
338
to Kurrachee, and on to Lahore, a distance of 1500 miles. Of course, the
longest and last part of the line was anything but plain sailing. Some arrange-
ment was proposed to be made with the government of Persia, by which an
armed party could proceed with safety from Bussorah to the Indus; but Sir
Macdonald Stephenson depended more than anything upon the material advan-
tages conferred upon the country by a well-managed railroad from Belgrade,
than on all the diplomacy in the world, even in a country governed by Turks.
New ideas would penetrate where a somnolent despotism has prevailed for
ages. Fertile land for hundreds of miles would be reclaimed from the waste,
and the blessings of a popular government would be sure to follow the material
improvement of the country. It was to this that he looked as a means of
getting over the danger arising from the wild tribes inhabiting the countries
between Bussorah and Scinde ; and in support of what I say I could not cite a
more apposite instance than that of Hungary at the present hour. That
country was prepared for a perfectly free government through Count Secheyny
devoting his useful life to the introduction of roads and steam boats on the
Danube ; as by these appliances the production of the country was greatly
stimulated ; the comfort of the people was increased ; and the confines of the
Austrian Dominions were brought in contact with Pesth and Vienna, by which
a public opinion was created that has saved the Empire.
The result of this third line was to bring Lahore within a fortnight of
London ; and the whole strength of Sir Macdonald’s argument lay in the
superiority of rail over sea passage, or in other words, of forty or fifty miles
over ten or fifteen miles an hour.
From the information received from the best possible sources at that time,
I am not aware that there is a serious engineering difficulty between Calais
and the Indus ; and I therefore look upon the adoption of this line as perfectly
certain if once Belgrade and Bussorah are connected by rail.
The last line lately proposed was to start from Hamburgh to Warsaw, and
thence to Odessa, Poti on the Black Sea to Tiflis and Teheran. But I cannot
see the advantage of a more northerly line through a worse climate, and through
the defiles of the Caucasus, because it is straighter. Constantinople is made by
nature as the centre of trade with the East. Within the same area there is no
spot in the world which commands so easy a communication with the most
productive parts of the earth, both by sea and land, and any line of telegraph
or railroad that avoids the Bosphorus throws away the most remunerative
portion of the road between Europe and India.
THe Paciric RAILWAY.
The origin of the Pacific Railway may be traced to the increase of terri-
tory by the United States at the close of the war with Mexico, and the finding
of gold in California rather more than twenty years ago.
By an Act of Congress, passed in March, 1853, the War Department was
directed to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad
from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Jefferson Davis was then Secre-
tary at War, and the results of the explorations and surveys made under his
directions between 1854 and 1857, are comprised in the eleven volumes of
Pacific Railway Reports, which are as well known to botanists, naturalists,
and geologists, as to geographers and engineers.
Five different lines were surveyed and reported upon, Mr. Davis deciding
upon that marked red upon the map, and strongly recommended its adoption
by Congress. But between 1853 and 1860 the political horizon gradually
assumed a lowering aspect. The pro-slavery question being defeated in the
West, with Southern influence paramount at Washington, civil war followed
as a direct consequence ; and the almost matured project of constructing a
339
Southern Pacific Railroad by the thirty-second parallel of latitude fell through
as a matter of course.
In 1862, the isolated position of the Pacific States was keenly felt by
statesmen at Washington, and the question was first mooted that California
and her neighbours might waver in their loyalty to the Union. An iron-road
should bind them to New York, and the question of a through Pacific Railroad
again came prominently before Congress.
In the meantime the production of gold in California had been enormous ;
corn was raised far in excess of the local demand ; Southern California was
striving to export wine, hides, and tallow ; trade had sprung up with Oregon,
the Sandwich Islands, and most important of all with China; quicksilver was
almost flowing from the mines of Almaden ; and the strong desire felt by the
Californians for a Pacific railroad was brought to a climax by the discovery
that a practicable route across the snow-clad Sierra did exist through Donner
Pass, midway between San Francisco and Virginia City. Nevada gave a
helping hand to California by the discovery of the Comstock silver mine, and
the wealth that poured in from it, raised that territory into the Council of the
States.
Even amidst the horrors of civil war, when Washington itself was
threatened, and £500,000 were leaving the Treasury daily for the support of
the northern armies, still the Pacific Railroad Bill was triumphantly carried,
and grants of land and subsidies were agreed upen, increasing in amount as the
line advanced westward; but no definite conclusion was arrived at as to the
Eastern starting point of the route. The great precedent was however
established—that government aid to the extent of about half the total amount
necessary would be provided out of the national treasury to assist a Pacific
Railway enterprise. Finally, the following programme was adopted, and the
work actually commenced: the main line was to extend from Omaha on the
Missouri river, to Sacramento in California, 1721 miles. St. Louis was to be
provided for by a subsidised branch line to connect with the main line on or
about the hundredth meridian of longitude, east of the Rocky Mountains.
Three companies were to prosecute these works, and to stand on an equal
footing as regards land grants, loans, ete. Firstly, the Union Pacific Railway _
Company constructing the line westward from Omaha. Secondly, the Central
Pacific Railway of California proceeding eastward from Sacramento. These
companies were to make their lines as quickly as possible from either end, and
to meet at an intermediate point not fixed. Thus it was the interest of each
company to lay as much track as possible, for the amount of Government sub-
sidy, as well as the share of influence in the management, depended on the
proportion of the line laid. Immense parliamentary excitement took place, and
the contest was between St. Louis and Chicago. Money was spent like water,
in the Legislature, but not under its ordinary name, being called by an
American journal of the period, “the element of influence.” Thirdly, the
Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division, obtained the Government
subsidy for a distance of 400 miles west of Kansas city. Thus it is evident
that Chicago had gained the day.
If the civil war had not intervened, it is more than probable that, although
the year 1869 might not have seen a locomotive plying between New York and
the Pacific, we should never have seen the iron road laid across the Black
Hills. Chicago would have built the branch line, and the main line would
have been laid further South, below the barrier of winter snows ; it would
have passed round the Rocky Mountains, not over them; across productive
valleys, mstead of through worthless deserts, and along the rich central trough
of California, in the place of climbing an Alpine pass more than 7000 feet
above the Pacific.
NOX
340
The chief clauses of the Government grant are these, and worthy of notice
in the future of New Zealand :—Congress confers upon the three companies
mentioned the right of way through all their territories ; an absolute grant of
12,800 acres per mile of the public lands through which the lines run, ie.,
alternate sections of one by twenty miles on each side of the line ; the right to
use the coal, iron, timber, etc., thereon ; and authorises a special issue of
United States bonds bearing 6 per cent. interest, proportionate in amount to
the length and difficulty of the lines, to be delivered to the companies as the
works progress, and as short sections of the road (usually twenty miles in
length) are passed by the Government inspector. The cost of the railroad west
of Chicago, a distance of 2000 miles, may be said to have amounted in round
numbers to £35,000,000 sterling, besides the 14,080,000 acres of land lying
contiguous to the line in its whole length, worth six millions more.
The description of the whole line would perhaps be tedious ; but there is
one portion of it, 721 miles long, that is worthy ofattention. This is the inland
or great basin region of North America, extending from the dividing ridge
of the Wahsatch mountains to the summit of the Sierra Nevada. It is a vast
desert considerably larger than France, covered with short volcanic mountain
ranges ; it possesses a fertile soil, but suffers from an insufficient rainfall ; none
of its scanty streams enter the sea, but each discharges its waters into a little
lake, and remains shut up within its own independent basin. Rich silver
mines are being discovered year by year all over the basin region, and the yield
from them already equals in value that of the goldfields of California.
The difficulties of the construction of such a railroad can only be imagined
by those who have never seen a similar country. The Central Pacific Rail-
way, starting from Sacramento, fifty-six feet above the level of the sea, reaches
the summit of a mountain ridge exceeding 7000 feet in height, im 105 miles.
Here the engineering difficulties of the line centre.
Most of the heavy grading averages 95 feet per mile; but for only
three and a half miles is 116 feet (or what in England we should call 453 to 1),
the maximum grade allowed by Congress, resorted to.
There are thirteen short tunnels, the longest being 1700 feet in length.
It is a very hard strain upon two powerful engines to drag ten passenger cars
with luggage up so steep an ascent, and the carriage of heavy freight is neces-
sarily costly. During the whole of the summer of 1868, 3000 teams and 10,000
Chinamen were employed to grade and lay the track across the basin region.
During the previous winter long lines of sledges were used for transporting
iron rails and ties across the summit to the valleys of the Truckee and the
Humboldt. When the snow had sufficiently thawed to allow of the tunnels
being completed, an average of 500 tons of ties, spikes, bolts, and chairs, were
carried over the Sierra in fifty cars, drawn by ten locomotives every day, and
were sent from 300 to 400 miles to the scene of operations. Here two miles,
and sometimes more, were laid in a day, each two miles requiring 500 tons of
materials for their construction. The rails used weighed from fifty-six to
sixty-four pounds per yard.
For thirty miles across the mountain the snows of winter appeared insur-
mountable ; but by the Ist of January in this year the Californians had
roofed in twenty miles with strong wooden sheds wherever the snow was likely
to impede the tratiic.
During 1868, 866 miles were added to the railway by the united
companies, being an average of two and two-thirds of a mile a day, Sunday
excepted. In the history of railway construction this rapidity has no precedent ;
and when it is remembered that for 1600 miles, wood for ties could only be
obtained at three points accessible to the road, and that the country is mostly
an uninhabited desert, the result appears still more marvellous.
341
Whilst abundance of coal sufficiently good for locomotives has been found
in several localities near the railroad, none has been found between the Great
Salt Lake and the Pacific coast.
- To enumerate the subjects of great interest connected with this marvellous
undertaking, would occupy more time than can now be spared. Suflice it to
say that the net of railways, to which the Pacific railroad will be a backbone,
may have considerable influence on New Zealand. By the railroad London
could. be reached from Wellington in thirty-seven days; as San Francisco is
600 miles nearer Wellington than Wellington to Panama: thus, London to
New York, ten days; New York to San Francisco, six days; San Francisco
to Wellington, twenty-one days. It is but a question of time when our mails
will be carried along that line. The cost, first-class from New York to San
Francisco, is £28 sterling.
I beg leave to close this brief account of the Pacific railway with an
extract from a report of the Senate Committee on Pacific Railroads, dated 19th
February, 1869 ; and I presume that no better authority could be obtained.
By its text we learn that whilst immigration is actually being opposed in some of
our colonies, the Americans are demanding with greater force than ever mor
hands and more brains.
“Tt can be shown by official records,” says this report, “that Kansas
Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Central Pacific, have been instrumental in
adding hundreds of thousands to the population of the states of Kansas, Colorado,
Towa, Nebraska, California and Nevada. Minnesota owes to the rapidity and
cheapness of transportation by rail, her best immigrants—over 100,000 Germans,
Norwegians, and Swedes. Every foreign labourer landed on our shores is
economically valued at 1500 dollars. He rarely comes empty handed. The
Superintendent of the Castle Garden Emigration Depot in New York has
stated that a careful enquiry gave an average of 100 dollars, almost entirely in
coin, as the money property of each man, woman, and child landed in New
York. From 1830, the commencement of our railway building, to 1860, the
number of foreign immigrants was 4,787,924. At that ratio of coin wealth
possessed by each, the total addition to the stock of money in the United
States made by this increase to its population, was 478,792,400 dollars.” Well
might Dr. Engel, the Prussian statistician, say :—“ Estimated in money the
Prussian state has lost during sixteen years, by emigrants, a sum of more than
180,000,000 of thalers. It must be added that those who are resolved to try
their strength abroad are by no means our weakest elements ; their continuous
stream may be compared to a well-equipped army, which, leaving the country
annually, is lost to it for ever. A ship loaded with emigrants is often looked
upon as an object of compassion ; it is nevertheless in a political economical
point of view generally more valuable than the richest cargo of gold dust.”
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On THE GEOLOGY OF THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.”
By J. C. Crawrorp, F.G.8,
[Lecture delivercd at the Colonial Musewm, Wellington, October 2, 1869.}
Tue following notes were made during a geological survey of the Province of
Wellington, undertaken for the Provincial Government, between 1861 and
1864, The original Reportst are now searce, and I have been requested to
draw up the following abstract of them for re-publication as a preface to the
description of the district between Wanganui and Lake Taupo, which formed
the subject of my lecture before the Institute.
Since the original publication cf my Reports, our knowledge of the geology
of the country has largely increased: Hochstetter’s work has appeared,
the Government Geological Survey has been in progress, and the New
Zealand Institute has been established, and im its “Transactions and Pro-
ceedings” are numerous reports on tke geology of the Colony. Of these new
sources of knowledge I cannot take advantage, without entering into discus-
sion, and thereby too much enlarging the limits of this paper ; I will therefore
confine myself to original observations.
In the classification of the strata I adhere as much as possible to the views
adopted by Professor von Hochstetter.
TABULAR VIEW OF THE STRATA IN THE WELLINGTON PROVINCE:
Recent. 1. Travertin—found at Te Pura Pura, Hautotara, and other parts on
the eastern side of the Wairarapa valley.
2. Raised beaches—extending round the coast.
3. Gravels—Wairarapa plains, Otaki, Manawatu, Rangitikei, Whanganui, etc.
Tertiary. 4. Gravels of high levels.
5. Sandstones and limestones—on east side at Hautotara, Maungaraki, and
generally skirting the eastern side of the Wairarapa plain. On west side,
covering the whole of the great tertiary field.
6. Blue clay—on east side, exposed at Wangaimoana, and very extensively
found in the Hast Coast ranges. On west side, Whanganui and Rangi-
tikei basin, and probably that of Manawatu.
Probable Mesozoic. 7. Limestones and sandstones of the Hast Coast.
Mesozoic and Paleozoic. 8. Slates and sandstones of Rimutaka and Tararua
ranges, including all the mountainous country between the Wairarapa
valley and the west coast at Porirua; and at Cape Palliser, and Kai-
manawa range.
Plutonic. 9. Hornblendic rock—found in the upper tributaries of the Pahaua,
as boulders: found wa sit at Waikekino, not far from Flat Point.
Volcanic. 10. Rocks of Ruapehu and Tongariro, and boulders derived from
them, pumice included.
* For the localities mentioned, the reader is referred to the Map of the Province,
accompanying Mr. Stewart’s paper on ‘‘the River Systems of Wellington.” See page 198
of this volume.— ED.
+ See Provincial Government Gazettes ; also, Geol. Map and Sections (Ward and
Reeves, 1864).
344
As it is not intended to give a systematic account of the geology, but
rather a detailed narrative of the facts obtained by actual survey, I am
compelled to adhere to the natural order in which the observations were made
in the course of numerous journeys.
I will therefore divide my journeys into three sections.
lst. To embrace the main range, and its immediate vicinity.
2nd. The Wairarapa and Hast Coast.
3rd. The Whanganui, Rangitikei, and Manawatu rivers, with Taupo
inclusive.
1. Main RANGE.
By the term main range is to be understood, all the mountainous part of
the province which is bounded by the Wairarapa and the Forty-mile Bush on
the east, by the flat country of the basins of the Waikanae, the Otaki, the
Manawatu, and the Rangitikei on the west, and by the sea on the south and
south-west. This district includes the ranges of Rimutaka, Tararua and
Ruahine, with all their spurs and offshoots.
My explorations in the main range were performed in a series of traverses,
which it is proposed to describe separately. The first on the list will be :—
JOURNEY FROM THE HUTT, BY THE AKATAREWA RIVER, TO WAIKANAE, AND
THENCE BY BELMONT HILL TO WELLINGTON,
From the junction of the Mungaroa river, the Hutt takes a large bend to
the west. At the extremity of this bend a considerable stream, called the
Akatarewa, falls into its right bank from the westward.
Having forded the Hutt, I proceeded up the course of the Akatarewa.
Two days journey of pretty constantly wading, brought us near the sources of
the river. On the third day we crossed a dividing range about 2000 feet high,
and descended upon a branch of the Waikanae. On the fourth day we reached
the village of Waikanae.
The rocks traversed throughout the journey were of the usual character of
those round Wellington—slates and sandstones highly inclined. Some plant
impressions were found in the sandstones, similar to those at Porirua. A
handsome agate pebble was found in the Hutt river, which, considering also
certain igneous boulders which I found in the gorges of the Waiohine and the
Ruamahunga, leads me to expect that igneous dykes may be found in the heart
of the ranges.
The valley of the Akatarewa contains a considerable quantity of level
terrace land, but from the dense nature of the forest, it is difficult to estimate
the actual amount.
It is probable that a line of road will eventually be formed by crossing
from the valley of the Akatarewa to that of the Otaki, and so connecting the
Hutt and the West Coast.
On my return from Waikanae to Wellington, I took the track from
Paoatahanui to the Hutt, apparently passing over a line of strike of soft
sandstone and slate rocks, and finding plant beds.
THE HUTT VALLEY, GORGES OF WAIOHINE AND RUAMAHUNGA, FORTY-MILE BUSH,
CROSSING OF TARARUA NEAR GORGE OF MANAWATU, AND ASCENT OF
TARARUA BY THE OTAKI VALLEY.
In February, 1863, I organised a party to endeavour to find gold in the
main range. My plan was to examine the different river basins within the
ranges, and should gold even in small quantities be found in them, to bottom
the plains, or basins lying outside the ranges on both sides,
345
I looked upon the Hutt valley, however, as almost a decisive test, for it
is the great valley of Tararua, and should no gold be found in it, I felt little
expectation of finding it elsewhere in these districts. We proceeded to sink a
hole in a gully behind Mr. Brown’s house, in the Upper Hutt, where some
small scales of gold were previously reported to have been found. This hole
was sunk through clay and debris, bottoming on hard sandstone, at a depth of
eleven feet, without finding the “colour” of gold. In this hole, as in every
other which we sunk, we obtained a small quantity of iron sand.
Our next endeavour was to bottom the gravel flats of the Upper Hutt in
several places, but from the influx of water we found this to be impracticable ;
the river evidently percolates through the gravel right across the valley and
the quantity of water was quite beyond the power of ordinary pumps. As,
however, the bed rock of slate, etc., crops out in many places above this, both
in the bed and on the banks of the Hutt, we were enabled to try the gravel
where it rests upon the old rocks, but still without success.
We devoted a day to the hills above the Mungaroa swamp without
success. We next examined the valley of the Pakuratahi and the gullies in
the neighbourhood of Featherston, with similar results.
Passing the Tauherenikau, we proceeded to the Waiohine, which we
prospected and washed at every available place for a distance of six or seven
miles from the entrance of the gorge. As in the Hutt, it is impossible to
bottom the gravel bed of any of these streams below the water level, but
there is plenty of bed rock above the water level, with thick beds of drift
resting on it. No appearance of gold was found. The rocks were similar to
those found on the Rimutaka hill, including large quantities of soft pyritous
slates with carbonate of lime veins, and veins of a black mineral, graphite.
Boulders of amygdaloidal trap were found here, and also in the stream behind
Featherston.
In the upper part of the Wairarapa valley, at the gorge of the Ruamahunga,
the formation is gravel of large size, resting upon the blue clay, and in the river
bed below may be seen the point of junction, where these tertiaries abut on
the old and highly inclined rocks. The rise from Masterton is tolerably rapid,
and on the Opaki plain, and the adjoining hills, are very palpable marks of the
earthquake of 1855 and perhaps of other shocks; at one point there being a
lift in the plain of perhaps thirty feet, and a tertiary hill having been split in
two, and the western part having slipped down towards the river bed.
In the upper part of the valley of the Ruamahunga river, there is an
appearance of a valley of some extent within the hills, but the bush is so dense
that I will not venture to guess at the extent of terrace land which may be
there. It lies, however, at a height of over 1000 feet above the sea. After
rather stiff wading up the river for about six miles, we found the water become
so deep from the compression of the bed of the river between perpendicular
cliffs, about 150 feet high, that we were obliged to abandon the river bed and
take to the forest above, We had by this time, after repeated trials, given up
all hopes of finding gold, and were on the look out for a point from whence to
ascend the central range ; when, after we had proceeded for a mile or two
through the bush, the weather suddenly changed, and it secon rained
so hard as to force us to a precipitate retreat. My experience of the Ruama-
hunga was this, that one day’s rain raised the river, on the following day it
was in full flood, on the third day the stream was fit to travel, and on the
fourth day it began to rain again.
Jaspar and green serpentinous rock are characteristic of the Ruamahnnga
valley. There is not much appearance of quartz. To a person desirous of
reaching the top of the central range, the valley of the Ruamahunga offers the
advantage of starting from an elevation of over 900 feet above the sea before
346
leaving the open plains, and the distance to the open country above the forest
is comparatively small.
From the Ruamahunga I proceeded northward through the Forty-mile
Bush. Our road descended to the Ruamahunga by the Maori track, crossed the
river, ascended a terrace, and then passed over a hill called Kotukutuku, of no
great altitude. This hill, however, I believe may be avoided altogether, by
taking the line of road lower down on the Ruamahunga. In three hours we
reached the Maungawhinau stream, said by our guide, Hemi Paraone te Ua,
to be a tributary of the Ruamahunga, but my impression is that he is wrong,
and that it runs towards the Manawatu basin. The road frequently crosses
this stream, a disadvantage which might probably be easily obviated. After
crossing the before described hill, the road was nearly level excepting an
occasional ascent of a terrace bank. We encamped on the banks of the
Makakahi, on an undoubted northern fall. It is a rapid stream, much
encumbered with drift wood.
The weather was very rainy, and it took us two half days travelling
through bush and upon terraces and alluvium to reach the Tutaekara pa,
situated on an open flat on the banks of the Maungatuinoko river. Here we
found a population of about one dozen very miserable Maoris, under a chief
called Mikara.
The Puketoi range may be estimated as five miles distant to the eastward,
and the nearest ranges of Tararua appearing to be about five miles to the west-
ward would give a breadth to the valley of about ten miles.
From Tutaekara we proceeded across the plain to the banks of the
Maungawha, where that river makes some great bends through cliffs of blue
clay and gravel.
The next stream which we crossed is called the Ka-uki, near the junction
of the tertiary sandstones and limestones with the vertical rocks of the main
range.
The terraces of the Forty-mile Bush are in geological character similar to
those of the Wairarapa. The rocks observed are tertiary sandstones, and
some limestone, blue clay, and gravels. The rocks of the main range con-
tinue of the same character as further south.
Soon after leaving the Kauki we ascended abruptly the main range which
here thins out to a comparatively narrow ridge ; we crossed it without passing
into any valley. The distance from level land to level land on each side does not
exceed four or five miles. From the ridge most extensive views can be obtained.
The Puketoi range les opposite—a scarped tertiary formation; over its
northern shoulder open country is visible to the eastward. To the southward
may be seen the hills beyond Masterton ; on the western side the view extends
over an immense area of level country. The view from this range gives a
strong impression of the ultimate resources of the district. The rocks of the
main range here show no change from those further south: the height of the
range here is perhaps 2000 feet above the sea.
We descended upon Raukawa ; thence we proceeded down the right bank
of the River Manawatu, travelling upon a rich alluvium, but observing occa-
sionally the scarp of gravel terraces.
The mouth of the Oroua at Puketotara seems to mark the line of demar-
cation between the rich land of the interior plains, and the poorer sand tracts
towards the coast, and as the aneroid marked exactly the same height at Puke-
totara as at Te Awahou, I would suggest that the principal township of the
Manawatu, ought perhaps to be at, or near Puketotara, and the river naviga-
tion improved up to that point, in which case the main trunk line of road
from Wellington to the North, would pass through and open fertile lands
instead of traversing sand hills.
347
From the Manawatu we proceeded to ascend the Otaki river.
I was rather surprised at the breadth of fertile land between Otaki and
the hills. It took us two hours hard walking (with packs), to reach the
Wairarapa pa, and then we had not reached the hills. At the Wairarapa pa
the question of the ascent of the river was discussed by the Maoris, and it was
settled that a deputation of two was to accompany us to see that we did not
carry away too much gold.
The valley of the Otaki river is remarkably similar to those of the Waio-
hine and Ruamahunga, but it is less wild and the cliffs are not so high. The
river winds between cliffs about seventy feet high, composed of highly inclined
slates, sandstones, etc., capped by gravel terraces, the latter formation of
various thicknesses, from six to thirty feet. Mamaku and other tree ferns
abound. The stream is rapid and quite deep enough for wading, indeed it was
sometimes difficult to keep one’s feet. As we approached the central range the
Waitatapia was passed, falling into the right bank. Up this stream lies the
road to the Ohau river. A short distance higher up, and we may say at the
base of the central range, the Otaki divides into two branches, that from the
northward retaining the name of the Otaki, while the southern branch is called
the Waiotaueru. The northern branch is said to be full of deep holes and
very inaccessible. We ascended the Waiotaueru for some miles, and encamped
near where a stream falls into the right bank.
We were now in the midst of soft vertical slate rocks, which had been
described to me as full of quartz veins, but the said quartz veins turned out to
be carbonate of lime. The same pyritous slates with carbonate of lime veins
which I had found in the Wairarapa rivers and elsewhere, were here very
largely developed. In the neighbourhood I found the black mineral found
elsewhere, viz., graphite, but no metal except iron pyrites is visible in the
carbonate of lime veins themselves.
Ascending from Otaki we soon looked down upon the range above Wai-
kanae, which I find the natives call Rimutaka, so that name is not confined to
the range adjoining the southern part of Wairarapa. It now appeared to me
that only one ridge separates the Waiotaueru from the Akatarewa, and that by
turning to the right in the ascent of the latter river, and crossing one range,
the Waiotaueru would be reached with ease. After about five hours climbing
we found the trees become Alpine in character and covered with moss, and in
five and a half hours we emerged from the forest upon the open ridges above at
a height of about 4000 feet above the sea. The Alpine trees were mostly
totara and black birch. The vegetation above the forest, shrubs of veronica,
tarata, a sort of broom, moss, flax, toi and a little grass.
Here we were surrounded by snowy ridges and commanded a most exten-
Slve view. ‘The Kaikouras were very distinct, and also the Bluff, and the
land about Cape Campbell, with that part of Cook’s Straits lying between the
latter and the land about Wellington. The mountains surrounding us were
broken into long and very steep ridges, separated by ravines some 2000 feet
deep, all forest except the line over 4000 feet, which is open, but in which
bushes are found, often as difficult to pass through as the bush.
There was no appearance of any level land within the mountains.
We looked down upon the Ohau valley, a deep ravine, but the view
towards the far N.W. was shut out.
KARORI, MAKARA, AND TERAWITI.
The following remarks were made on those districts in December, 1861 :—
In November, 1861, I visited the Karori and Waiariki valleys, near
Cape Terawiti, and although the men who had been at work at the diggings
there were absent, and I was therefore unable to obtain various details, yet I
ZZ
348
found an inspection of the valleys highly suggestive as to the direction in which
a search for gold should be prosecuted.
There is nothing new in the mineral character of the rocks in the
Terawiti district—they seem to consist of a slaty rock, laminated with veins of
quartz; of the usual hard green crystalline sandstone, veined with thin threads
of quartz, and some hornscone or chert, and some serpentinous rocks, All the
above named rocks are repeated at various points of the Rimutaka and Tararua
ranges, and, therefore, if gold be found at one point, the inference is that it
may be expected in others. The same rocks, or some of them, may be seen
near the Printer’s Flat in Makara; at various points on the Karori Road ;
between Ngahauranga and Pitone ; on the Rimutaka Road ; and elsewhere.
It is evident that the slate range, which here constitutes the main range
of the Island, does contain some gold. Gold is found in it at Terawiti, and in
various other quarters, and therefore, after all, it may be an auriferous range
—discovery also may soon show that it answers Sir Roderick Murchison’s
description of gold constants, viz, silurian rocks broken up by granites, por-
phyries or greenstones, inasmuch as I have found the eruptive rocks in the
East Coast country, and I hope before long to find them in the main range
itself ; added to this we find serpentine in many parts of the range, and
although few, if any, well-defined quartz reefs or lodes are found, yet irregular
veins of quartz, large and small, are very common. On the other hand the
quantities of gold yet found are small.
In considering the geological aspect of the district one enquires where is
the most likely place to look for gold in quantity, and one naturally turns to
the enormous development of gravel on both sides of the range, and in some of
the valleys within it. It is found in small and irregular quantities in the
different narrow valleys, including those of Waiariki, and the Karori stream,
but denuded in places by the action of the streams. The Upper Hutt and
Pakuratahi valleys have their deposits of drift, and probably in the Lower
Hutt it will be found below the alluvium of the river ; and in the Wairarapa
this deposit is of great extent and uncertain depth.
PORIRUA.
On the shores of the Porirua harbour, between the Peninsula of Tutae
Manu and Duck Creek, I discovered, in 1863, a series of strata, standing
nearly vertical, and containing impressions of plants and carbonized substances.
It was hoped that the finding of these fossil plants might have led to some
scientific results, in establishing the age of the rocks ; but the organisms have
proved too indistinct and obscure to give any definite information. Taking
the line of strike, I looked for, and found, similar organic substances at Oriental
Bay, within the limits of the City of Wellington.
2—WAIRARAPA AND East Coast.
(Summary of Report.)
After returning from the exploration of the valleys of the Akatarewa
and the Waikanae rivers, I again started with the view of gaining an insight
into the geology of the N.E. part of the Province, more particularly in the
direction of the Puketoe range, and the country generally, lying between the
Tararua range and the East Coast.
Leaving the gravel of the Wairarapa behind me at Masterton, I found on
rising the hills towards the Taueru station, that I had entered upon the tertiary
sandstone. This rock I found extending over the whole of the interior of the
North-Eastern district, resting upon the blue clay except where some gravel
: 349
intervened between the two, but the gravel is by no means largely developed
in this district.
This sandstone consists of a series of soft fine-grained sandstones, fossili-
ferous, and alternated with fossil beds approaching limestone, and is sometimes
of great thickness in this district, seldom less than 500 feet, and in some places
I think it must measure 1000 feet.
Some of its fossils are Z’wrritella, Venus, Dentalium, Pecten, Struthiolaria.
I have no doubt that it is of the same age and character as the upper sandstone
of the Whanganui river.
This formation, where found undisturbed, seems to lie nearly horizontal ;
but numerous hill sides have slipped into the valleys, there giving the strata
the appearance to the casua! observer, of dipping in various directions and at
high angles.
From the vertical nature of the sections in which this series is found
exposed, it has been impossible for me to make any but a partial investigation
of its different beds, and the same difficulty is felt in the examination of the
cliffs of the Whanganui and other western rivers,—they are so vertical as to
be inaccessible.
The blue clay throughout this district does not show much of its thickness
above the river levels.
Crossing the Manuka range, the road drops down to the Valley of the
Taueru, and thence on to the Taueru station.
Here I visited a very beautiful waterfall, formed by the waters of the
Mangarei, a tributary of the Taueru. The stream falls over a ledge of the
tertiary sandstone to a depth of about fifty feet, into a large circular pool.
Hard fossiliferous beds of this sandstone form the rocks at the -fall, the softer
overlying beds, which are found in an adjacent cliff, having been denuded.
I may here state that there is a remarkable parallelism between the effects
produced in this district and in that of the country inland on the Whanganui
and Rangitikei rivers, inclusive. In both districts are the tertiary sandstones
largely developed, and in both have these nearly horizontal strata been broken
up by denudation, into very rugged surfaces.
Many of the beds of the tertiary sandstone are extremely soft, and there-
fore liable to be rapidly worn away ; some of them, indeed, on being struck
by a hammer, instead of breaking into fragments, crumble and run down into
pure sand.
Proceeding up the valley of that river, the Forty-mile Bush lay about
three or four miles on my left, covering a very broken country.
Ascending the ridge on the eastern side of that river, one looks down on
the valley of the Whareama, with its level flats and swamps, while to the
northward may be seen the country drained by the Matai kuna, the Oahanga,
perhaps also the Akiteo, and here I could see plainly enough that all within
view was of tertiary age, the blue ridges of Tararua in the far distance excepted.
Crossing to the Puketoi range, which has an extreme altitude of only 2500
feet, I found the blue clay, and on the ridges above, tertiary sandstone beds,
with the usual fossil shells.
Retracing my route to the Kast Coast, I crossed the Whareama river, passed
over a hill and descended upon the Tinui station, situated upon the flats of
that stream, a tributary of the Whareama.
immediately above the station is one of those remarkable hills called
“Taipo.” These hills have an extremely fantastic, picturesque, and rugged
outline, and at first give the impression of volcanic peaks, but on examination
prove to be tertiary sandstones, tilted at an angle of about 70°, and here
dipping to the westward ; the harder parts of the strata sticking out in peaks,
while the softer parts have been worn away.
350
On the top of the Tinui Taipo I obtained Turritella, Venus, Dentalium,
etc. Here also I found that the Matai kona Taipo bore N. 50° E., Buxton’s
Taipo 8. 20° to 30° W., and what I supposed to be Moore’s Taipo 8. 15° W.
Tt will thus be seen that the several peaks run nearly, but not quite, in a
straight line.
Proceeding on the 22nd towards the coast, the road passes for a short
distance up the valley of the Tinui, where I found the blue clay. Crossing
that stream I ascended a ridge, where a fresh geological series is found, con-
sisting of white limestone and calcareous grits, and in their midst, a fine
grained green sandstone.
Descending from the calcareous ridge to the valley of the Whakatake the
road follows that stream to the sea, and thence south to Castle Point. We
now find a series of thin and soft beds of sandstones and mudstones, cropping
out on the beach and in the valleys, sometimes nearly horizontal, and some-
times inclined at high angles. What relation these rocks have to the lime-
stones and calcareous grits, [am at a loss to determine, for I could not here find
a section which would throw light upon the subject. My impression is that they
overlie the calcareous rocks.
In these sandstones and mudstones I found small seams of coal and
numerous impressions of vegetation, but none clear enough to be enabled to
judge of their age, but as the coal seams appear to be lignite, or brown coal,
we may put them down as of tertiary age.
The reef at Castle Point is a peninsula, forming the shelter to the
anchorage. Both it and the rock called the Castle are composed of calcareous
sandstone, resting unconformably on the sandstones and mudstones just men-
tioned. In it I found the usual tertiary fossils. The reef, which is a ridge
perhaps fifty feet high, is penetrated by a cave, through which the tide passes,
and in which the roar of the wind and waves is very striking. Between the
reef and the Castle Rock, the sea has another passage through the rocks into
a basin. The Castle Rock is of similar formation to the reef.
In the mudstones and sandstones on the shore I found plant impressions,
and in consequence proceeded up the bed of the stream behind Castle Point in
the hopes of falling in with some seams of coal. I went on as far as I could
penetrate, perhaps three miles, finding plenty of plant impressions, but no
actual coal seams.
Mr. Guthrie informs me, that some years ago one of his shepherds, who
has since returned to Australia, brought in a handkerchief full of coal (stating
that there was plenty more where he found it), which burnt well and seemed
of good quality, and which must have been found within three miles of the
Castle ; but unfortunately he had neglected to ask him where he got it.
My impression is that the mudstones and sandstones of the coast are of
tertiary age, and therefore if any workable coal seams are found in them, that
the mineral will be of inferior quality.
On the beach here is some iron sand, whence derived it is difficult to say.
Near the Nakaua river I found soft sandstones containing plant impres-
sions and some coal seams about two inches thick. They were not continuous,
but thinned out in a yard or two. The rocks are the same as those at Castle
Point, and dip slightly to the westward.
Ascending from the beach, in about a mile, I again came upon the calca-
reous grits and sandstones, both of which prevail in crossing the Trooper, the
ridge separating the Whareama from the sea.
From this range the Puketoi is visible, its tertiary character being evident
even from this distance.
Descending from the Trooper, I crossed the alluvium of the Whareama
valley, and ascended the hill next to Buxton’s Taipo, composed of calcareous
351
grit. The Taipo has a singular family resemblance to that at Tinui, and also
dips to the westward.
From Telford’s station the calcareous grits continue for about a mile, when
the tertiary sandstone and limestone rocks again appeared, and continue all the
way to Collins’ bush, resting on the blue clay.
In this journey I settled the character of a large block of country, viz.,—
the whole of the island within this Province lying to the N.E. of the Waira-
rapa, and between the Tararua and the East Coast. It will of course be
desirable to complete a traverse which I propose to make, from the gorge of
the Manawatu to the Akitio river and the East Coast, but as I have been
through the gorge of the Manawatu, and as I have also been on the Rua
Taniwha plains, and at Porongahau, I may very safely venture to predict that
in the above named traverse, we shall find nothing but the above described
tertiary rocks, with the underlying sandstones and limestones.
I should state that at a distance of about ten miles from the east coast
an older series of rocks crop out, and extend to the sea ; they are composed of
sandstones and limestones. They are often inclined at a high angle, and are
doubtless of Mesozoic age.
The streams which flow from the limestone ranges towards the Ruama-
hunga, deposit travertin in considerable quantities. I observed this particularly
at Te Pura Pura and Hautotara. At the former place I found many beautiful
impressions of ferns, possibly encrusted only a short time before.
A raised beach may be observed all round the coast except at the foot of
the Wairarapa valley, where the sea encroaches on the soft rocks.
Igneous rocks are found in situ in the district. At Waikekino, near
- Flat Point, I found reefs of diallage on the beach, traversing Mesozoic lime-
stone. In the valley of the Upoko Ngaruru, a tributary of the Pahaou, I
found fragments of a similar rock, not actually im situ, but in a position where
I think they must have come from a rock in the immediate vicinity.
At Cape Palliser the old rocks appear, and rising toa height of several
thousand feet, are lost beneath the tertiaries at about the line of the Pahaou
river, with the exception of some small ridges which are found further north—
as between Huangaroa and Hildebrand’s.
3. THE WHANGANUI, RANGITIKEI, AND Manawatu RIVERS, INCLUDING A
JOURNEY TO TAUPO.
Having been requested by the Superintendent to examine the rocks of the
Whanganui river, and particularly the coal seams of the Tangarakau, a tribu-
tary of that stream, and having procured the services of Mr. Samuel Deighton,
as Interpreter, and an efficient crew of Maoris, under the command of Topia
Turoa, an influential chief, and son of Pehi, the great chief of the Middle
Whanganui, I proceeded up the Whanganui in the end of the year 1861,
accompanied also by Dr. Tuke and Mr. Walter Jowett.
In consequence of detention by bad weather and holidays, we did not
reach Utapu, the residence of the owners of Tangarakau, until six days after-
wards. A runanga was then held to deliberate as to whether we should be
allowed to proceed to the coal seams or not, and the result arrived at was that
we could not be permitted to ascend the Tangarakau.
As the Taranaki war had only finished a short time previously, not by
victory on either side but simply by sessation of hostilities, and as many of
the Whanganui natives had been engaged in the fight, it was perhaps not to
be wondered at that there was some jealousy of the pakeha in the interior.
It was proposed to us that we might proceed as far as the mouth of the
Tangarakau, returning on the same day, but as afterwards a demand was made
352
of a payment of thirty shillings to the king, for passing beyond our present
limits, I declined the alternative, and, in consequence, we returned down
stream.
I found the strata entirely tertiary. The surface of the country gave me
the idea that it had originally formed a succession of terraces, rising by steps
from the coast to the interior, but that the denudation of the soft strata, by
the action of running water in the present lines of drainage, had so cut up the
former level land, as to make it a very broken country.
There is a general horizontality of the upper strata, at least—the valleys °
are valleys of denudation ; there are no valleys of undulation.
The distance of Utapa from the Whanganui township is estimated at
about eighty miles by the river. Fron the hill above I obtained a bearing of
Ruapehu, with a pocket compass, viz., N. 70° to 75° E., (the northern and
southern peaks respectively.) This bearing would appear to make the distance
in a straight line, thirty-four miles only.
The gravel in the bed of the Whanganui gives a good idea of the rocks
which are to be found at its sources. I found the gravel to be principally com-
posed of igneous rocks, viz., traps, tuffs, basalt, etc, but with a proportion,
say one-tenth, of hard sandstone and indurated slate rocks, similar to the usual
rocks of the main range. As we proceed from Wellington to the N.W., we
find in the Manawatu gravel, no igneous rock—in the Rangitikei, a small
proportion—in the Wangaehu and Whanganui, the chief part is derived from
these rocks.
The slate pebbles in the bed of the Whanganui no doubt indicate slate
rock at its sources.
In the ascent of the river we had passed numerous villages and found a
large population. Parekino, Atene (Athens), Koroniti (Corinth), Ranana
(London), Karatia (Galatia), Pipiriki, Ohinemutu, are some of the names of
these villages. They are surrounded by cultivations of fruit trees and of maize,
potatoes, wheat, tobacco, etc. The vine grows luxuriantly, peaches are in over-
whelming abundance, although at the time not quite ripe. At Ohinemutu I
found a lemon tree in full bearing, with excellent ripe fruit. Each village had
generally an immense church, but, almost invariably, the church was in a
ruinous state.
Pipiriki is the capital of the district. It contains a considerable population
and a large extent of cultivation. It also possesses some charms of scenery,
and is rather more open than other parts of the river. The Whanganui runs
in a deep cutting far below the level of the surrounding country. Its imme-
diate banks are generally perpendicular cliffs. On the summit of these cliffs
is often a sufficient quantity of level, or of undulating land, on which lie the
cultivations of the village. In many places the access to the top of the cliff is
by ladders, the villages are entirely hidden from view, which on ascending the
ladders are found large and populous. The country beyond rises to a height
of perhaps 700 or 800 feet above the river, and is always densely timbered.
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dotted line A to B, has been carried over a higher range of mountains than
actually occurs in this line, for the purpose of showing the manner in which
the glaciers have excavated the valleys, and rather represents a former than
the present condition of that particular part of the range. The dark patches
on the map represent a few only of the moraines that are shown on the original
map which is in the Otago Museum, and which gives the full details of the Pleis-
tocene geology of this interesting district.
The Wakatipu lake, which is fifty-two miles in length and two to three
miles in width, lies, in its upper part, between the Schistose rocks on the east,
and the upper Palzozoic rocks on the west, so that it marks the junction of two
formations. Its surface is 1070 feet above the sea level, which is exceeded by
its depth, for it has been found by soundings to vary from 1170 to 1296 feet,
the bottom of the lake being nearly level from side to side, and from end to
end. The waters of the lake, at the present time, escape over a rocky fall at
Frankton, which is almost the middle of its eastern side, but from the lower
_ end of the lake, at Kingston, a broad valley can be traced to the south, joining
that of the Mataura river, which, at first sight, appears to have been the
former outlet. The lake is fringed by terraces showing the gradual shrinking
of its area, as the level of its outfall has been lowered. The only apparent
barriers, in the direction of the Mataura valley, is a great moraine accumula-
tion at Kingston, elevated 270 feet above the level of the lake; but on
following down the Mataura river it is found to run over a rocky channel, and
to cut its way through a gorge at an altitude of 700 feet above the sea, so that
even were the Kingston barrier removed, the lake would not be completely
drained in that direction. The lake is therefore contained in a rock basin, and
not formed by the simple damming up of a valley.
On the western side of the range, within a distance of thirty to forty miles,
we have, on the other hand, a series of arms of the sea occupying exactly similar
excavations, frequently 1800 feet beneath the sea level. McKerrow lake is an
example of one of these, the exit of which has been barred by coast drift
covering a moraine like that barring the lower end of the Wakatipu lake,
at Kingston. The outlet of McKerrow lake is by the Kaduku river,
which is a tidal river, so that the surface of the lake is at the sea level ; yet
its waters, which are quite fresh, have a depth of at least 470 feet. Milford
Sound, which is also shown on the map, twelve miles further south, has a
depth, at its upper part, of 1270 feet, but across its entrance the depth is only
130 feet, while the mountains surrounding it rise to 6000 and 9000 feet.
All the valleys on both slopes of the range are occupied by glacier
moraines, and although it is only in the higher cluster of mountains that we
now find glaciers to exist, there is no want of evidence of their former greater
extension.
The section will explain the operation of glaciers In excavating valleys:
@ @ represents an area of the mountain top, which is above the altitude of per-
petual congelation, and from which therefore the snow deposited can only
escape by assuming the form of ice, descending by its weight as a glacier 6
through the valleys to the point at which it melts, owing to the increased
temperature counterbalancing the supply of ice. At this point it deposits its
moraine or rubbish heaps ¢, and moraines found further down the valleys are
sure indications of the glacier having had formerly a greater extent. At the
point where the ice descends from the plateau a to the glacier 6, it is generally
an abrupt fall, known as the “ice cascade,” and it is at this point that the
chief amount of erosion takes place, by which the valleys are eaten back into
374
the plateau in the lines of least resistance, so that the plateau is at last cut
up into sharp ridges and peaks, on which snow can no longer rest in quantity
to maintain the glaciers, which consequently disappear, leaving only the
moraines to mark the successive steps of the process. This is however quite
insufficient to explain the origin of the deep excavations in the hard rock, as
above described, and the difference in the amount of the excavation on the
opposite sides of the axis, irrespective of the character of the rock excavated,
(which is in fact the most resisting in its character on that side where the
excavation has been apparently the deepest) points to an unequal subsidence as
the origin of these basins. This subsidence has been most rapid in the central
and western part of the range, so that in the case of a long valley, like that
occupied by the Wakatipu lake, the slope became gradually reversed, and
what was at first the higher part of a glacier-excavated valley, has become a
depression without an outlet. Gradually this depression is being filled up,
by the material brought down by the streams, and carried from the moraines
higher up the valleys, as represented by d in the section ; but this material
cannot, especially where resting on the rocky floor of the valley, have
been subjected to the action of running water after it has been deposited
in the still waters of the lake, and therefore fails in one of the essential
processes for the formation of auriferous leads, namely, the concentration of
the gold from the lighter particles of the detritus.
From these considerations it is evident that it is only round the margins
of rock basins, or in positions above the level of the notch in the margin
over which the water escapes, that we can expect to find auriferous leads.
High on the eastern slopes of the mountains, in the position marked e on
the section, are found patches of gravels belonging to the newer system which
drained the mountain range previous to this unequal subsidence, and before
the excavation of the deep gorges by the extended glaciers of the Pleistocene
period ; and the gold in most of the alluvial workings in Otago, can be traced
‘to such patches of older drift.
I will now describe briefly the mines which have been worked in New
Zealand for the less precious metals, and mention the localities where “ lodes”
have been discovered.
The Island of Kawau, where the earliest opened mine is situated,
was first purchased by the North British Investment Company, about
1841, as a cattle run. It hes four miles from the main land, thirty-
seven miles north of Auckland, is about three and a half, by three and a_
quarter miles in extent, and, from the Admiralty survey, appears to have an
extent of about 5200 acres. The island consists of slate rocks which form two
principal masses of high land, separated by an EH. and W. depression, partly
occupied by Bon Accord harbour, and continued eastward by several valleys
with wide alluvial bottoms. In each of these masses hills rise from 500 feet
to 600 feet altitude, the summits marking the outcrop of mineral veins in
most cases. The strike of the older rocks is very varied in direction, but
ranges between N.E. and N.W. The dip has a prevailing westerly direction,
generally at a high angle. All these rocks are, however, cut by cleavage veins
and faults, that give them a false trend to N. 320° E. In this line le the
mineral lodes, and ‘ belts” of mineralized rock, four of which are known.
The first discovery was made at Manganese Point, where the lode shows
as follows :—
a. Soft decomposing slate.
6. Red jasparoid slate, encircled with iron and manganese.
ce. Soft red rock containing the same ores.
d. Hornstone.
e. Blue slates.
375
From the beds 0. and ¢. a quantity of ore was excavated and shipped to
London, where it was sold for £7 per ton.
Within a few months a copper lode was accidentally found cropping out,
a large sample of which, taken at random, realized £15 to £20 per ton. This
led to regular mining operations, and in 1846 a well-defined lode of copper ore
was opened up, twelve feet in width, running N.E. and 8.W., with a dip or
underlay, of three feet to the fathom. The ore consisted of blue and yellow
sulphurets, containing an average of twelve per cent. of copper. Several
shipments of the ore were made, in the raw state, but had to be abandoned on
account of the danger of fire, from the heat generated by the decomposition
which the ore underwent in the holds of the vessels.
Works were then erected for the reduction of the crude ore to the state
of regulus, by roasting, in which condition it was a safe article for shipment.
The situation of the smelting works, which were most expensively con-
structed, was in Bon Accord harbour, where there is deep water close to the
wharves.
The first four years workings realized upwards of £60,000, but the
pumping machinery was deficient, so that the mine had to be abandoned for
eighteen months, till a large Cornish engine was obtained. This effectually
kept the water down, and the mine was extended to a vertical depth of
39 fathoms, with a horizontal extent of 150 fathoms, on a lode averaging
6 feet in width, and consisting of a massive gangue that contained thirty per
cent. of copper ore, and the same of iron ore, intermixed with dark green
chloritic clay. The lode lies between green slates, containing grains of
metallic copper, and stained with salts of copper, and a hanging wall of
indurated chert.
The mine appears never to have been worked out, but was abandoned,
partly owing to complications respecting the proprietorship, but mainly owing
to the superior attractions of the Californian and Australian gold fields at that
time. The particular lode that was worked is on a headland on the south side
of the island. It was lost in tracing it inland, to the north, but there is good
reason to believe that this headland is only a dislocated mass, formed more in
the manner of a landslip than a structural fault, and that there may have been
a displacement of the lode.*
The Great Barrier Island, on which have been the most extensive copper
mining works in New Zealand, is about twenty-four miles long.
2
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381
which is a very small outlay, considering that it is the only heavy expenditure
required to secure the regular supply of coal.
Provided that no fault occurs in the strata, I see no reason for doubting
that on the most moderate computation the portion of the field already
leased should yield 5,000,000 tons of coal.
The expenses of working the mine are so small that the coal should be
delivered at Greymouth at a very moderate price, if the working were carried
on more extensively, and a steady market for the coal established.
The seam of coal is pure and homogeneous, and possesses the property of
caking with such facility that the whole quantity excavated can be utilized, so
that no labour is unproductive, as is the case in mines where stone bands,
shales, and other worthless matter have to be excavated along with the coal.
In the south-west of Otago coal seams occur at the base of a chalk
marl and sandstone formation, at Preservation Inlet, which formation appears
to he of the same age as that which extends through Southland, and runs out
on the coast in the south-east district of Otago, but there the marls are
replaced by sandstones and shales, in the same manner as in the Pakawau
field. The value of the coal varies in quality in different localities, but
is, on the whole, good fuel. An attempt has been made to open a mine at
Preservation Inlet, but not much progress has yet been made. At Morley
Creek, Waikawa, and other places, the coal is mined, but chiefly for local use.
In the interior of Otago province, lignite is found almost everywhere, except
in the Wakatipu Lake district, and mined for the supply of the diggers, who could
not carry on their mining operations in the treeless uplands of the Otago gold
fields, were it not for mineral fuel being thus widely distributed. On the East
Coast several very extensive areas of Brown coal formation occur, from which
Dunedin is largely supplied. The largest of these is at Coal Point, near the
Clutha river, where the seams have an aggregate thickness of fifty-six feet, and
the formation extends over about thirty square miles.
Forty miles north of Dunedin the Upper Secondary coal formation again
commences, and, running north, skirts the eastern slope of the mountains in
broken patches, being found at several points in the Province of Canterbury,
and re-emerging on the coast at Motanau in the Amuri country.
At the Malvern hills coal seams of different qualities, including Anthra-
cite, Bituminous coal, and common Brown coal, have been worked, and the
whole series of the Upper Secondary and Tertiary coal formation appear, from
the fossils, to be represented. The most extensive mine is in the Brown coal,
of which there are several thin seams, that yield about 800 tons a year. The
proximity of this coal field to Christchurch, and the fact of coal of very superior
quality being found in different parts of it, gives it considerable importance.
Newer basins containing inferior coal also occur along the Canterbury and
Nelson mountains as in Otago.
From the foregoing brief outline I think that New Zealand must be con-
sidered as, on the whole, well supplied with mineral fuel. Certainly, coal of
the most valuable description is confined to limited and not very accessible
areas, but still there is nothing to prevent its being profitably worked for
the supply of our steam service ; but the great point for congratulation is, that
throughout almost every part of these Islands, coal of a practically useful
description is to be found within a short distance.*
Before concluding this review of the mines of the Colony, I will make a
few remarks on the building materials. The number of kinds of stone already
*See ‘‘ Report on Coals of New Zealand, 1866 ;” ‘‘Abstract Progress Report of Geolo-
gical Survey of New Zealand, 1867 ;” ‘‘Supplement to Jurors’ Report, New Zealand
Exhibition, 1865, Art. ‘Coals,’” by Author.
382
worked in New Zealand is very large. They are generally divided into
granites, limestones, and sandstones. Of the former, the only quarry is at
Adele Island in Blind Bay; but this valuable stone exists in unbounded
quantities on the West Coast of Otago, under the most favourable cireum-
stances for excavation and shipment. The variety in colour and grain is also
very great. It is not necessary to say anything regarding the quality of
granite as a building stone, as it is well-known, and no large erection,
especially of a marine character, should be undertaken without employing it.
Although not properly belonging to this group, but still allied to it in the
manner of quarrying, we have syenites from the Bluff, and Nelson Boulder
bank ; dolerites and basalts from Port Chalmers, Dunedin, and Lyttelton, and
lavas from Auckland.
Of Sandstones—pure siliceous varieties occur with the coal formations.
Flagstones are largely used in Nelson, being obtained from the Dun Moun-
tain ; they are very applicable to construction in earthquake countries, but the
particular kind found at Nelson is defective from its steatitie character pre-
venting the proper adhesion of mortar.
Freestones—abound in the tertiary formation of New Zealand, including
sandstone, clay sandstones, and argillaceous sandy limestones and pure limestone.
The finest is the now famous Oamaru stone, which possesses characters that
excel most ordinary building stones used in other parts of the world, on
account of its durability and facility of working, as it is moulded and cut by
machinery with even greater ease than wood. The same formation is very exten-
sive, and beds of equal quality will no doubt be found in other localities. It
is very easily excavated by making openings in the low round hills near
Oamaru. The absence of a good shipping port limits the extensive use of this
stone, which would without any doubt become a valuable export. There are
no roofing slate mines in New Zealand, but from hand specimens obtained in
various parts of the upper Paleozoic rocks, there is no reason to doubt that
they exist in several localities, especially in the neighbourhood of Queen
Charlotte Sound, and the Wakatipu Lake.
Limestones abound in the tertiary rocks, having sufficient purity and com-
pactness to fit them for burning, and in the older slate rocks there are a few
developments of what in a quarryman’s sense may be described as mountain
limestone, blue compact, sub-crystalline or flaggy. The most accessible places
where this limestone occurs is on the north side of Shag valley in Otago, and
near the Dun Mountain in Nelson; while at Collingwood massive marbles
occur, that might be used for ornamental purposes ; cement stones abound in
the middle tertiary clays underlying the limestone, and also in more recent
clays concretions are found in definite layers which contain almost sufficient
lime in their composition to enable them to rank as cements. The Moeraki
boulders,—the wonderful size and spherical form of which has attracted the
attention of all travellers along the Otago coast—are examples of such con-
cretions which have been formed round a nucleus of organic matter.
Having thus in a very condensed form explained the different mining
operations which have been commenced in this country, with the object of
showing the extent to which they have been successful, I would remark that
all mining involves a certain amount of speculation; and if, so far, the
adventures in this colony have not been invariably successful, yet when
we consider how very limited and fitful the attempts have been, and the
few localities that have been tested, it must be admitted that there is good
evidence that New Zealand is endowed with a fair share of mineral wealth.
At the same time we should not forget that unless we have a thriving popula-
tion, minerals will not increase the real progress of the country. Many of the
richest mineral producing countries in the world occupy a very inferior position
383
among nations, and it is only when the development of mineral wealth coimes
as an accessory to other productive industries, that it is a real advantage to the
country, by affording employment for labour and manufacturing ingenuity.
I append two Tables, compiled from official returns ; the first showing
the amount of Coal which has been imported into the colony, chiefly from
New South Wales. This return shows that there is a very large annual
expenditure for this item, part of which, at least, might be directed to the
development of our own coal fields, if the difficulties of access to the coal
seams could be surmounted ; and also if the very unfounded prejudice which
prevails against the use of the better kinds of Brown coal, for domestic pur-
poses, was overcome.
On the important utility of these coals I will quote the opinion of Pro-
fessor Hochstetter, who says :—‘‘ That those Brown coals,—hbeing as they are,
of a nature and quality, far different from English coals,—should, in many
instances, be deemed, in New Zealand, far inferior to what they are, is
easily accounted for ; and years will pass away before the prejudices will be
overcome with a people that hitherto have only known and used the excellent
coal of their mother country. Time and experience, however, will show, that
the Brown coal in New Zealand can be used for the same purposes, for which
just the same coal, and sometimes of a far inferior quality, is used on a most
extensive scale in various parts of Germany and especially in Austria, in whole
provinces of which (Styria, Krain and Northern Bohemia) it constitutes the
almost exclusive fuel for manufacturing and railroad, as well as for domestic
purposes.” —“ New Zealand,” by Dr. F. von Hochstetter, p. 90.
The second Table shows the quantity of the different metallic ores which
has been exported from the colony during each year. This return is neces-
sarily imperfect, especially for the years prior to 1853, at which date the regular
publication of the statistics of the colony was commenced. They are how-
ever approximately correct, and show the total value of exported minerals,
during the past twenty-five years to be £19,652,201.
TABLE I.—Quantity and Value of Coat Imported into New Zealand,
from 1853 to 1869, inclusive.
uantit;
‘ad 1853 | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | 1859 | 1860 | 1861 | 1862
Tons. | 1253 | 2361 | 4085 | 3361 | 3112 | 5350 |20140|16728)25995|/34308
£. | 4365 | 8454 |10730) 7329 | 8023 |13854/43240 37554'59236\84401
Quantity
and | 1863 | 1864 | 1865 | 1866 | 1867 | 1868 | 1869 | Totals.
Value.
Tons. | 61192) 80618) 86172/101469| 76330) 87854) 91874; 702,202
£. |133241)166255)159160/183846)134705)154628)139941) 1,348,962
YEAR.
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
zm 1858
ea 1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
Approximate return
for period prior to
EEE 50-00 oo
COAL.
Amount. | Value.
Tons. £,
4] 114
o4e G6
Sie ; Bar ;
2 4
oat se ;
261 | 400
973 1,228
1,027 1,210
756 800
3,158 4,033
TABLE It.—Exrorts from 1853 to 1869, inclusive.
CopPER.
Amount.| Value.
Tons. amy
170 1,750
302 3,450
1403 3,800
514 | 11,418
13 70
39014 5,000
245 2,605
137 1,590
110 1,300
51 1,024
"246 | 2,700
84 977
7 179
2,3594 35,863
2,400 | 70,000
CHROME ORE.
Tron.
Amount.| Value.
Tons. £.
18 254
94 137
1] 4 20
653 520
105 | 52
1 3
2074 1,066
Amount.
Value.
SILVER. GOLD.
Amount. | Value. Amount. Value.
OZ, £. OZ. a8
is a 10,297 39,904
a = 13,533 52,443
ane wets 7,336 28,427
Sen ies 24 DOS 17,585
ues oe home 4 234. 752,657
Ane sete 410,862 1591389
ears Sats 628,646 2,432,479
ee Sas 479,914 1,855,830
Abe are 574,574 2,252,689
aoe ae 735,376 2,897,412
ea ss 686,753 2,724,276
a oh 637,474 2,492,793
11,063 2,993 614,281 2,362,995
11,063 2,993 4,997,818 19,500,879
—_—<—
NovEeS ON THE ORNITHOLOGY oF NEW ZEALAND.
By Water Buuier, F.LS., F.G.S8.
[THE extract from the “Ibis,” to which the following paper refers, was com-
municated to the Wellington Philosophical Society on the 19th June, last ;
the discussion is a continuation of that commenced in Vol. i. of the “‘ New
Zealand Institute Transactions,” p. 105. The communication was received
too late for insertion in its proper place, in the first section of the
“Transactions.” —Ep. |
Professor Newton, the editor of “The Ibis,” has kindly favoured me with
corrected proofs of a paper on New Zealand Birds, forwarded to him by Dr.
Otto Finsch, of Bremen, for publication in that journal.
Anything from the pen of so accomplished an ornithologist as Dr. Finsch,
cannot fail to be read with delight, and as the paper in question deals particu-
larly with species described by myself as new, it naturally possesses for me a
more than ordinary interest.
No one can appreciate more fully than I do the labour and research
which Dr. Finsch has bestowed on Polynesian Ornithology generally, contrast-
ing, as it does, with the indifference and neglect with which collections from
New Zealand are usually treated by both English and Continental zoologists.
Any recognition of their labours, whether in the nature of approval or criticism,
is encouraging to local naturalists, who, far removed from the great centres of
civilization and learning, and wanting the aid of Libraries and Museums of
Natural History, work always at a great disadvantage.
The free discussion of doubtful or disputed points cannot fail to be useful,
and [ am therefore glad that Dr. Finsch has afforded me an opportunity of
further elucidating the subjects treated of in a former paper.
In the article under notice, Dr. Finsch condemns several of my new
species, having, as he believes, identified them with forms already known to
science. J am quite ready to disclaim the credit of authorship, if it can be
conclusively shown that any of my so-called new species are invalid, for I have,
in common with Dr. Finsch, but one object in view, namely, the advancement
of Ornithological Science. But I have a right to examine the data on which
any adverse opinions are founded ; and, lest it should appear presumptious in
me to combat some of the conclusions of an ornithologist of far greater
experience than myself, and one possessing, in the Continental Museums,
better opportunities for comparison and research, I would here mention that I
enjoy at least one important advantage over the best closet naturalist,—that of
being able to make field observations and to study the objects themselves in a
state of nature. Dr. Finsch has himself remarked in a former paper (Journal
fiir Ornith., 1867, p. 342) when treating of my Gerygone assimilis, “it is
difficult, and scarcely safe to decide on this new species from skins alone,” and
it is moreover probable that in one or two instances he has been unconsciously
misled by specimens forwarded to him wrongly named, and purporting to be
typical examples of my new species.
I beg to submit the following remarks on Dr. Finsch’s paper, which will
be found appended hereto, together with the original article (from ‘“‘The Ibis”)
which evoked it.
386
J.—PLATYCERCUS ALPINUS, Buller.
Dr. Finsch disallows this species on the ground that the differences which
characterize it are ‘‘ by no means specific, and only indicate the young bird.”
Here,,at once, we have an illustration of the mistakes into which even the
most careful closet naturalists are apt to fall, from a mere comparison of dried
specimens. I have obtained the young of Platycercus auriceps from the nest,
and caged it to maturity. From the first the frontal band and thigh spots
were crimson, and the only perceptible change was in the general tints of the
plumage. On the other hand, I have known a caged specimen, coloured as in
my P. alpinus, which was, to my certain knowledge, more than five years old,
and in which there was no indication of a change from orange to crimson. It
is clear, therefore, that the peculiarities in the coloration of my bird are not
attributable to immaturity. But, as already pointed out, there is also a very
manifest difference in the size: P. alpinus being much smaller than P. auriceps,
as the latter is less than P. pacificus. Apart from this, Dr. Haast (to whom I
am indebted for my first examples) writes thus on the habits of the bird :—“TI
send specimens of both (ie., the crimson-fronted and the orange-fronted).
These two kinds occur always together, but in some localities the first, and in
others the second is predominant. You find both kinds in all seasons ; therefore we
cannot suppose that the orange-fronted is the young of the other. In its habits
it is not so bold as the crimson-fronted bird ;’ and in a subsequent letter he
remarks, ‘the last named species is a much smaller bird than the two former
[P. pacificus and P. auriceps|, and its habits are also different.”
Admitting that the differences which characterize this bird are constant,
and that they are sufficiently obvious to mark a distinct race, my position. is
established. Whether the aberrant form is to be regarded as a “species” or
as a well-defined “variety” in which the distinguishing characters are constant,
need not be here discussed, for it at once raises that guestio vexata, ‘‘ What is
a species?” On what I take to be the true definition of a species, P. alpinus
is clearly entitled to rank as specifically distinct from the other members of the
roup.
. is the date of my notice in “The Ibis,” I have discovered that this
bird is not restricted to the South Island exclusively, the caged specimen
referred to above having been obtained in the Wellington province. Never-
theless it is extremely rare in the North Island. Nor does it appear to be
confined in its range to the higher elevations, and the specific name I have
given is perhaps not quite appropriate. It was suggested by the following
note from my excellent friend Dr. Haast, who has the credit of the discovery :
—‘ We shot this pretty bird in the Oxford Ranges, and among the forest
vegetation in our Alps, at an elevation of 2500 feet.
Dr. Haast’s remarks on the peculiar local distribution of P. auriceps and
P. alpinus apply also to the two species that are common in the North Island.
Platycercus auriceps largely predominates in the northern portions of the
Island, and P. pacificus in the southern, although both species are to be met
with in every district.
II.—NEsToR OCCIDENTALIS, Buller.
Dr- Finsch remarks of two specimens forwarded to him by Dr. Haast,
and identified as Nestor meridionalis, that they ‘‘ most probably” represent my
new species, because they were obtained from the ‘same locality,” viz.,—the
West Coast of the South Island, but Dr. Finsch is perhaps not aware that the
region thus indicated is very extensive, ranging through 7 degs. in latitude,
for a distance of five hundred miles, and that in limited areas of this district,
without doubt, are several birds which have never been found elsewhere.
387
The only two specimens of this Nestor that I know of (both of which are in
my own collection) were obtained in 1863 by Dr. Hector, ina remote part of the
West Coast country to which probably no other explorer has ever penetrated.
I submit, therefore, that Dr. Finsch’s opinion resting on such insuflicient data
is by no means conclusive.
The following notes from so accurate an observer as Dr. Hector are far
more to the purpose, for they contain the evidence of a field naturalist on a
very material point :—
“The range of this bird is very limited. It frequents the precipitous
wooded cliffs in the neighbourhood, of George Sound. I never met with it in
the forests of the low lands. It is more active in its habits and more hawk-
like in its flight than the common Nestor. It often sweeps suddenly to the
ground ; and its cry differs from that of the common Kaka, in beimg more
shrill and wild.”
Dr. Haast forwarded me specimens of a large Nestor from the West
Coast which he considered new, as it differed consideraby from the typical
Nestor meridionalis.
After examining these specimens very carefully, I abstained from charac-
terizing the bird as new till I could obtain the opinion of an eminent ornitho-
logist in England, to whom I forwarded examples. His reply has not yet
been received, but if Dr. Finsch’s remarks apply to this bird, we may consider
that it is identical with Vestor meridionalis.
Dr. Haast was nevertheless fully impressed with the belief that this bird
was distinct from the common species, as will appear from the following
interesting notes which accompanied one of his specimens :—‘“I send you
another skin of our Alpine Parrot. Even judging from its habits alone, it is
quite distinct from the Common Kaka. It is never found in the Fagus forest,
whilst the other never goes above it into the sub-alpine vegetation. Near the
glacier sources of the Waimakariri, where I was in the latter part of March, I
saw them frequently in the Alpine meadows—4000 to 5000 feet high—feeding
on the large red berries of Coprosma pumila and nivalis, two dwarf plants
lying close to the ground.- We found these berries in the gullets of those we
opened. They evidently had their nests with young ones among the crags of
the nearly perpendicular rocky walls (about 6000 feet above the sea), and I
repeatedly observed them flying backwards and forwards, as if feeding their
young. After the first day’s shooting they got exceedingly shy, and could not
be approached within gun shot.” Mr. Fuller, the taxidermist to the Canter-
bury Museum, also states, as the result of very careful observation, “that the .
manner of flight is quite different from that of the common Kaka, for they
soar after the manner of the Kea (Vestor notabilis).
III.—GERYGONE ASSIMILIS, Buller.
Dr. Finsch condemns this species, because a specimen received from Dr.
Haast, and labelled “ G. asstimilis,” agrees in every respect with “ G flavi-
ventris.”
- Tam not aware that I ever met with Gerygone assimilis in the South
Island. At any rate I demur to being held responsible for wrongly named
specimens, which I have never had an opportunity of identifying. I am not
surprised that Dr. Finsch, on receiving the swpposed example of G. assimilis,
was “at once convinced that the skin of this species is not distinguishable from
that of the true G. flaviventris,” especially, as he adds that the specimen agrees
in every respect with the description and figure given by Mr. Gray—(“ Voy.
Erebus and Terror ”).
There is an appreciable difference in size between the two species.
EEE
388
IV .—Tournacra Hector, Buller.
Dr. Finsch is no doubt right in his identification of my bird with Otagon
tanagra, Schlegel. The description of the species appeared in a German. work,
in 1865, but without any habitat bemg assigned to it; and it was noticed in
Dr. Giinther’s ‘ Zoological Record” for the same year ; but I believe T am
right in stating that no description of it had appeared in English before the
publication of my article in “ The Ibis.” :
The genus Turnagra was established by M. Lesson, in 1837. Our oldest
known species was originally placed by Mr. Gray in his genus Keropia, and
was distinguished as K. crasstrostris. The generic title was afterwards altered
to Tanagra, and again to Otagon. But ultimately Mr. Gray referred the
species to the genus Twurnagra (Gen. of Birds, 1841”), and I have deemed it
right to follow his classification. The names Vanagra capensis, Sparrm, 7’.
macularia, Quoy. and Gaim., and Otagon turdus, Bonap., are all synonyms of
our well known 7’ crassirostris, the Piopio of the South Island.
Prof. Schlegel has retained Bonaparte’s genus OTAGoN, and adopted the
rejected generic title of Zanagra, specifically to distinguish the new form.
According to our nomenclature this would of course be Zwrnagra tanagra,
which appears to me a very objectionable combination.
The merit, however, of being the first to notice the existence of this new
species belongs to Prof. Schlegel, although he was apparently unaware that it
came from New Zealand. Iam quite satisfied in having been instrumental
in adding it to our List of Native Birds.
V.—ANAS GIBBERIFRONS—Miller.
Tam under an obligation to Dr. Finsch for setting me right with this
species. It is remarkable, however, that a bird known to inhabit Australia,
and having so wide a distribution should have been entirely omitted in the
recent handbook edition of Mr. Gould’s great work on the Birds of Australia.
My Anas gracilis sinks into a synonym of A. gibberifrons which is now added
to the list of New Zealand birds.
While on the subject of Ducks I would add that a further addition has
been made to our Avifauna in a species from Waikato, sent to me by Captain
Hutton, which I have identified as the Vyroca australis, Gould. (See ante, p. 78.)
VI.—PopiIcEPs CRISTATUS—Linn.
The example from which I took my original description of P. Hectori, did
not disclose the white on the secundaries and scapularies, owing probably to
the condition of the dried skin ; but specimens which I have since received
agree with Dr. Finsch’s description. My P. Heciori, like Gould’s P. australis,
must therefore be held synonymous with P. cristatus, Linn. But it is probable
that we still have in this country a distinct race of the Crested Grebe, distin-
guishable by the under parts being of a uniform dark rufous grey, instead of
silvery white, stained on the sides with chestnut, as in P. cristatus.
I treated this bird as P. Hectori in another state of plumage, but I cannot
discover that P. cristatus, in any condition, presents this peculiarity, which is
constant in all specimens from certain localities. Dr. Hector considers this
dark-breasted Grebe (of which there are specimens in the Colonial Museum, at
Wellington), a distinct bird, and states that it is found on the Wakatipu Lake,
accompanied by young, and possessing the double crest and red ruff which
characterizes the adult bird; while in brackish lakes by the coast, where old
and young birds, and also eggs were obtained, none but white-crested birds
were ever shot.
If this dark-breasted bird should hereafter prove to be a distinct species, I
must claim from naturalists its recognition as the true Podiceps Hectorv.
389
[Hxtract from ‘Tue ets,’ for SeprempBer, 1869. ]
Remarks on some Species of Birds from New Zealand. By Dy. O. Friyscn,
C.M.Z.S., &e.
In a large collection of birds which I lately received from Dr. Julius Haast, the well-
known explorer of New Zealand, I was very much pleased to find some of the species
lately described as new by Mr. Walter Buller, in his ‘Essay on the Ornithology of New
Zealayd*,’ or in his paper in ‘The Ibis’ for the present year (anted, p.p. 37—48). .
A careful examination showed me at once that some of those so-called new species are by
no means new to science ; therefore it will, perhaps, be a matter of some interest to the
readers of this Journal, as well as to ornithologists im general, to become acquainted with
the results of my studies.
PLATYCERCUS ALPINUS, Buller, Ibis, 1869, p. 39.
Two specimens, male and female, from the Southern Alps, and marked as types of
Mr. Buller’s supposed species, are not distinguishable from the old known P. auriceps,
Kuhl., either in size or colouring. Mr. Buller characterizes the new species by the
orange frontal band, and by the orpiment-orange (instead of crimson) thigh-spots ; but
these shght differences are by no means specific, and only indicate the young bird. In
my Monograph of the family Psittacidae (vol. ii. p. 286) I described such a younger bird,
from a specimen in the Bremen Museum, which corresponds in every respect with
P. alpinus, Buller.
NESTOR MERIDIONALIS, (Gmel. )
Two specimens from the west coast of the South Island, the same locality from
which Mr Buller described his new JN. occidentalis (supra, pp. 40, 41), and most probably
belonging to this species, I cannot distinguish from the true N. meridionalis. There are
slight differences in the shade of their colouring, as well as in their size, but it must be
remembered that all the species of Nestor vary very much, as I have already remarked
in my Monograph, wherein everybody will find a full account of this subject. In any
case, NV. occidentalis needs a more minute description of its distinctive characters before
it can be enumerated in the list of so-called good species.
I take this opportunity of adding an interesting notice respecting the systematic
place of the genus Nestor, which Dr. Haast was kind enough to send me. He writes to
me, “‘ Your arrangement of the genus Nestor in the system is quite right. These birds
are indeed honey-eaters ; their tongues are armed on the point with papille as in the
Trichoglossine.” It is.of great value to receive a positive statement as to the structure
of the tongue in Nestor, the subject having hitherto been doubtful. Mr. Gould (Handb.
B. Austral. 11. p. 551) declared that the tongue was not ‘‘furnished with a brush-like
termination,” whereas the correct figure of VV. norfolcensis, given by Herr A. von Pelzeln
(Sitzungsb. kk. Acad. Wissench. Wien, xli. 1860, p. 322, cum. tab. capit.),, shows the
papille very exactly. This new fact given by Dr. Haast sets all doubt at rest, and the
position of the genus Nestor among the T'richoglossine now becomes evident.
GERYGONE ASSIMILIS, Buller, Essay, p. 9.
Mr. Buller separated this new species from G. flaviventris, more on account of the
difference in the construction of their nests than from any shown by the birds
themselves. I therefore expressed my doubts (Journ. f. Orn. 1867, p. 342) whether it
was possible to distinguish the bird exactly. A specimen of G. assimilis, from Dr. Haast,
convinced me at once that the skin of this species is not distinguishable from that of the
true G. flaviventris. The specimen agrees in every respect with the description and figure
given by Mr. Gray (Voy. ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror,’ Birds, p. 5, pl. iv. fig. 1), except that .
the yellow tinge on the belly is paler ; but the specimen is marked as a female.
TURNAGRA HECTORI, Buller, Ibis, 1869, p. 39.
The editor of ‘The Ibis’ has already suggested that this species is probably identical
with Otagon tanagra, Schlegel (Nederl. Tijdschr. voor de Dierk. iii. 1865, p. 190). Iagree
with this supposition ; for a careful comparison of the descriptions cannot admit of the
slightest doubt as to their referring to the same species.
ANAS GRACILIS, Buller, Ibis, 1869, p. 41.
This is undoubtedly identical with Anas (Querquedula ) gibberifrons, Salomon Miiller
(Verhandelingen, Land en volkenkunde, 1839-41, p. 159), as the comparison of a typical
specimen of A. gracilis received from Dr. Haast with specimens from Timor in the Bremen
Museum shows. The species has a wide geographical distribution. Timor (Sal. Miiller,
Wallace), Flores (Wallace), Celebes (Forster), Northern Australia (Leyden Mus.), South
Australia (Leyden Mus., Haast), New Caledonia (Leyden Mus.).
* Translated by me in the ‘Journal fur Ornithologie’ for 1867, pp. 305—347.
390
PODICEPS HECTORI, Buller, Essay, p. 19; Finsch, Journ. f. Orn. 1867, p. 345.
The distinctive character of this species, from our P. cristatus (Linn.), was declared
by Mr. Buller to be the absence of white on the wings and shoulders. The collection
contains a Grebe, which Dr. Haast mentions im his letter as a typical P. hectori. This
specimen is partially moulting, as is especially shown by the fact that all the remiges
are not fully grown, but are almost hidden by the tectrices. By unfolding the wings
carefully, one can see the white distributed in the same style as in our P. cristatus, with
which the specimen agrees in every respect. I therefore cannot regard P. hectori as
distinct from our P. cristatus (P. australis, Gould). ”
Larus (BRUCHIGAVIA) MELANORHYNCHA, Buller, Ibis, 1869, p. 43.
If this species is not identical with the badly described Larus anderssoni, Bruch
(Journ. f. Orn. 1853, p. 102), from New Zealand, which Professor Blasius (op. cit. 1865,
p. 384), declared to be nothing else than L. scopulinus, it certainly will be a good species.
I, at least, cannot refer the fine specimen, received from Dr. Haast under the name last
mentioned, to any of the known species, and take it for a good species, distinguishable
by the slender black bill, tmged with a reddish tinge at the basal portion, and by the
great extent of white on the remiges.
On some New Species of New-Zealand Birds. By Waurer Butier, F.L.S., C.M-Z.S8., &e.
[From ‘Tur Ixts,’ for JANUARY 1869.]
Fam. CERTHIIDA.
1. XENICUS HAASTI, sp. nov.
Upper surface pale olivaceous-brown, darkest on the crown ; tinged on the back and
on the outer margin of the quills with olivaceous-green ; wing-coverts black, forming a
conspicuous triangular spot ; under parts pale fulvous ; bill and feet dark brown ; irides
yellow.
Length 3°5 in. ; wing from flexure 2; tail ‘75; tarsus 1; middle toe and claw 1;
hind toe and claw 1; bill, along the ridge ‘375, along the edge of lower mandible ‘625.
In structure this species approaches X. longipes ; but the claw of the hind toe is
more strongly developed, exceeding the toe in length. It is an inhabitant of the Alpime
heights of the South Island ; and I have named it in honour of its discoverer, Dr. Julius
Haast, F.R.S., who forwarded me specimens for examination.
; Dr. Hector found it frequenting the stunted vegetation growing among the loose
mountain débris in the interior of the Otago Province: and Mr. Buchanan, the artist to
the Geological Survey, met with it on the Black Peak, at an elevation of 8000 feet.
There, where the vegetation is reduced to a height of only a few inches, it was constantly
to be seen, fluttering over the loose rocks, or upon the ground, in its assiduous search for
minute insects and their larve. Dr. Haast has favoured me with the following interest-
ing notes on its habits :—‘‘ It lives exclusively amongst the large taluses of débris high on
the mountain-sides, Instead of flying away when frightened, or when stones are thrown
at it, or even when shot at, it hides itself among the angular débris of which these large »
taluses are composed. We tried several times in vain to catch one alive by surrounding
it and removing these blocks. It reminded me strongly of the habits and movements of
the lizards which live in the same regions and in similar localities.”
Fam. LUSCINITD A.
2. SPHENGACUS RUFESCENS, sp. nov
Upper parts, sides, and tail dark rufous-brown, brightest on the crown and hind
neck ; the feathers of the shoulders and sides centred with black. Quills dusky-black,
margined with rufous-brown. Streak over the eye, throat, breast, and abdomen pale
fawn-colour ; sides of the head and ear-coverts marked with black. Bill light brown,
with the ridge black ; feet dark brown.
Length 7°25 in. ; expanse 7; wing from flexure 2°5; tail 4:25; tarsus 1 ; middle toe
and claw °875 ; hind toe and claw ‘75; bill, along the ridge ‘5, along the edge of the lower
mandible °625.
This species is larger than S. punctatus, more strongly built, and of handsomer
plumage. The specimen from which the description is taken was forwarded to me by
Mr. Charles Traill, a gentleman greatly devoted to conchology. He obtained it on a
small rocky isle, a satellite of Chatham Island, during an expedition there in pursuit of
his favourite science, but was unable to give me any information respecting its habits or
economy, though he stated that he obsered it flitting about among the grass and stunted
vegetation, and succeeded in knocking it over with a stone.
391
Fam. TURDID.
3. TURNAGRA HECTORI,* sp. noy.
Upper surface olivaceous-brown ; tail and coverts bright rufous, with an olivaceous
tinge on the two middle rectrices ; throat pure white ; breast and abdomen ashy-grey,
darkest on the former ; abdomen and under tail-coverts tinged with yellow ; sides oliva-
ceous-brown, washed with yellow. Bull and feet dark brown ; irides yellow.
Length 11 in. ; wing from flexure 5°25; tail 5; tarsus 1:25; middle toe and claw
1:25 ; hind toe and claw 1; bill, along the ridge 875, along the edge of lower mandible, 1.
I have honoured this fine species with the name of my esteemed friend Dr. James
Hector, F.R.S., Director of Geological Surveys, who has done much to advance the
cause of science in New Zealand.
It differs from 7’. crassirostris, not only in plumage, but in its superior size and more
strongly-developed bill. Its notes also are far more varied and musical. Its range is
confined to the North, while 7’. crassirostris is found only in the South Island. They are
in fact the representatives of each other in the two islands, and furnish another example
of a remarkable law in the local distribution of the birds of New Zealand, many of those
inhabiting one island being represented by closely-allied forms im the other, each, how-
ever, being specifically distinct. Cook’s Straits, a neck of sea only eighteen miles in
width, completely divides the range of one set of species from that of the other.
Fam. PSITTACID A.
4, PLATYCERCUS ALPINUS, sp. nov.
This Alpine form differs from its near ally, Platycercus auriceps, both in size and in
the tints of its plumage. Our three species of Platycercus present a distinct gradation in
size and colouring. In P. pacificus the frontal spot, ear-coverts, and thigh-spots are deep
crimson, while the general plumage is dark green. In the smaller species, P. auriceps,
the frontal band is crimson, and the vertex golden, while the general plumage is a warm
yellowish-green. In P. alpinus, which is smaller again than the last-named species, the
frontal band is orange, and the vertex pale yellow, while there is an absence of the yellow
element in the plumage, which is of a cold pure green, much paler on the under parts.
The thigh-spots moreover are much smaller than in P. auriceps, and are orpiment-crange
instead of crimson. On comparmg the bills of the two species the difference is very
manifest, that of P. alpinus being fully one-third less than that of P. auriceps.
Length 8°5 in. ; wing from flexure 4:25 ; tail 4°5; tarsus 625; longest fore toe and
claw ‘875: bill, following curvature ‘5, along edge of lower mandible -25.
Dr. Haast, from whom I received several specimens of this bird, met with it in the
forests of the Southern Alps, at an elevation of from 2000 to 2500 feet; and Mr. Travers
sent me for examination other examples obtained by him in the high wooded country of
the Nelson Province.
5. NESTOR OCCIDENTALIS, sp. nov.
Upper surface dark olivaceous-brown, tinged with yellow on the wing-coverts, each
feather margined with dusky black; feathers of the nape dull red, margined
with yellow and black, and forming a narrow nuchal collar; uropygium, tail-
coverts, and abdomen dark arterial-red, the feathers of the latter banded with a
brighter tint ; ear-coverts pale orpiment-orange; feathers projecting over the lower
mandible tinged with red; throat, neck, and breast dark olivaceous-brown ; lining of
wings and axillary plumes bright scarlet, obscurely barred with black, and tipped with
golden-yellow ; quills and tail-feathers russet-brown, the former toothed with yellow on
their inner vane ; bill and feet dark olivaceous-gray.
Length 16°5 in.; wing from flexure 10°5; tail 6; tarsus 1; longest fore toe
2°25; longest hind toe 2°125; bill, following curvature 2:25, along edge of lower man-
dible 1°5.
Apart from the difference of plumage, this species is appreciably smaller than the
common one, while the bill is more slender and has the upper mandible produced to a
finer point.
Dr. Hector discovered this bird in the densely wooded country on the west coast of
the South Island, and he generously gave me the only two specimens which his collection
contained. These differ very slightly in the details of their colouring, and there is
scarcely any perceptible difference in their size.
Fam. SCOLOPACID i.
6. GALLINAGO PUSILLA, sp. nov.
Upper surface dark rufous-brown, variegated with irregular spots of fulvous and
black. These markings are most conspicuous on the back and scapulars, the feathers on
* [May not this species be identical with that described in 1865, by Professor Schlegel (Nederl. Tijdschr,
voor de Dierk, iii. p. 190) under the name of Oragon TANAGRA?—Eb, “Ibis.” ]
392
these parts being margined outwardly with pale fulvous, and marked with a large
subterminal spot of black. Under parts fulvous. Sides of the head and breast with
numerous spots of rufous brown, of which there is also an irregular line from the base of
the upper mandible to the anterior edge of the eyes; sides and flanks variegated with
erescentic marks of rufous brown. Bill greyish brown; feet pale brown.
Length 8 inches ; expanse 13; wing from flexure 4; tail 1'5; tarsus ‘75; middle toe
and claw 1:125; hind toe and claw ‘3125; bill, along the ridge 1°75, along the edge of
lower mandible 1°5.
The example from which the description is taken, was forwarded to me by Mr.
Charles Traill, with the following note :—‘‘ Found on a small rocky islet off Chatham
Island.”
Fam. ANATIDAL.
7. ANAS GRACILIS, sp. nov.
Upper surface dusky-brown, with greenish reflections ; the feathers of the back and
scapulars narrowly margined with fulvous-white ; the outer portion of the upper wing-
coverts pure white, forming a conspicuous bar across the wing; the secondaries velvety
black, narrowly tipped with fulvous, and a speculum of shining green occupying the outer
vane of the three middle ones. Crown and nape blackish-brown, minutely marked with
fulvous-white ; throat, fore neck, and sides of the head fulvous-white, the latter marked
with sagittate spots of brown. Under parts hght fulvous-brown, with obscure spots of a
darker shade, especially on the breast and sides, each feather having a broad central
mark of blackish-brown. Throat and abdomen move or less tinged with bright ferruginous.
Bill dark brown ; outer portion of the lower mandible yellow. Feet pale brown.
Male.—Length 17 inches ; expanse 25°5; wing from flexure 8; tail 4; tarsus 1:25;
middle toe and claw 1°75; bill, along the ridge 1:5, along the edge of lower mandible
1°75.
Female.—Length 15:5 inches ; expanse 23°5; wing from flexure 7°5; tail 3°5.
As will be apparent from the above measurements, the female is somewhat smaller
than the male. The general tints of the plumage are paler; but in other respects the
sexes are precisely alike.
The form of this Duck is remarkably slender and graceful, the contour of the body
being almost as elongate as that of a Gannet. On dissection I found the skin very tender,
and the flesh extremely delicate, with fat of a bright yellow colour.
I obtained my first specimens (male and female) in the Oroua Stream, near its
junction with the Manawatu River, in the Province of Wellington. I observed that on
being disturbed from the marsh, where they were apparently feeding, they rose high in
the air, and came down suddenly into the creek with a rapid, oblique, and rather
awkward flight. On the water they kept near to each other, and I killed both at one
shot. I afterwards saw a pair on the wing, in one of the freshwater lagoons of the Upper
Manawatu, the white bar being very conspicuous ; and more recently I obtained a fresh
specimen from Hawke’s-Bay Province.* The species is evidently rare. °
Fam. LARID#.
8. BRUCHIGAVIA MELANORHYNCHA, Sp. Nov.
Pure white ; back and upper surface of wings delicate ash-grey. First four primaries
white, variegated with black, the first primary narrowly margined on its outer and
marked diagonally on its inner vane ; on the next the black increases, and forms a broad
subterminal bar, which is enlarged on the two next, and decreases on the two succeeding
ones, all being tipped with white. The fifth quill, which is ashy, has merely a sub-
terminal interrupted bar of black. Bill black ; feet blackish-brown.
Length 14 inches ; wing from flexure 11°5; tail 5; tarsus 1°5; middle toe and claw -
1°75; bill, along the ridge 1°5, along the edge of lower mandible 1°75.
This bird may be readily distinguished from B. scopulina by its black bill and dark
feet, those parts being blood-red in the other—and, on near inspection, by the different
character of the markings on the primaries. All my specimens were obtained in the
South Island.
Wanganui, New Zealand,
June 10, 1868.
* P.S. Oct. 3, 1868.—Referring to this species I have recently received the following interesting note
from Dr. Haast :—“In a collection of Australian skins just arrived from South Australia, and collected by
Mr. A. Fuller, there is & specimen of your ANAS @RACILIS. I looked at once in ‘Gould,’ but could not find
any mention of it ; consequently this bird, so far as Australia also is concerned, is new to science. I com-
pared the skins very carefully, and there is not the slightest difference ; in fact it is almost impossible to say
which is which. You can state this fact upon my authority.”
Erratum.—Page 386, for ‘‘ Platycercus pacificus” read ‘‘P. Nove Zelandic.”
EAR oe en
WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
SESSION OF 1869.
PROCEEDINGS.
Srconp AnnuaL Merrine. February 9, 1869.
J. C. Crawford, F.G.S:, Vice President, in the chair.
ABSTRACT OF REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE ANNUAL MEETING.
‘¢There are now 117 members, from whom subscriptions to the amount of £133 7s.
have been received. In accordance with a resolution of the council the subscriptions of
eight members residing in other provinces have been returned to them at their request,
or more strictly speaking, have been paid over to the treasurers of societies similar to this,
in those provinces.
‘The expenditure of the Society during the past year (and since its commencement
under the name of the New Zealand Society, in November, 1867) has amounted to
£54 18s. 2d., the details of which are shown in the accounts laid on the table.
‘* During the past year there have been six general meetings of the Society, of which
an account will appear in the ‘ Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute,’ now in course
of publication. * * In future only those persons who join the Society before the Ist of
October, will be entitled to receive a copy of the ‘Proceedings’ of the year, as subscrip-
tions paid after the Ist of October are considered as being paid in advance for the following
year, in accordance with rule 9.
‘«There have been seven meetings of the council during the year. Of these, and of
the general meetings, minutes have been kept by the Secretary as required by the rules.
These are at any time open to the inspection of members,”
Report agreed to by the Council, January 29, 1869.
Ropert PHARAZYN;
Hon. Sec.
Tn reply to questions, the Secretary stated that the balance in hand from last year
amounted to the sum of £48 8s. 10d., and that only a few small accounts for advertising
were outstanding, while, as would be seen from the accounts, all the larger items, with
the exception of the contribution of one-sixth of the income of the Society to the Institute
would not be annual charges.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS FoR 1869: President—Sir George Grey, K.C.B.; Vice Prez
sidents—His Honor I. HE. Featherston, M.D., Superintendent of Wellington, J. C.
Crawford, F.G.S. ; Couneil—W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S., J. Hector, M.D., F.R.S., W. B:
Mantell, F.G.S., J. Kebbell, R. Pharazyn, F.R.G.S. ; Hon. Secretary—R. Pharazyn.
Dr. Hector laid on the table the third annual report of the Colonial Museum and
Laboratory, also a ‘‘ Notice of an egg of the great Moa (Dinornis gigantea) containing
remains of an embryo chick,” communicated by himself to the Zoological Scciety of
London.
Dr. Hector then gave an account of several recent additions made to the collection in
the Museum, and called attention to the fact that the nests of New Zealand birds, of which
a collection had been received from Mr. T. H. Potts, were very imperfectly known, that
of the Huia not having yet been discovered.
Some interesting extracts were read by Dr. Hector from a letter of Captain Hutton’s,
describing the present state of the Thames Gold Fields.
Attention was also directed to a very fine collection of corals dredged by Captain
Fairchild, of the steamer ‘‘Sturt,” some of which appear to be of considerable importance
FRE
396
in a scientific point of view, from the fact of their being apparently identical with corals
hitherto only found as fossils in the older Tertiary rocks.
Papers read :—(1.) ‘‘ On the Sand-worn Stones of Evans’ Bay,” by W. T. L. Travers,
F.L.S. (See ante, p. 247.)
In this the author gave an account of the mode in which certain curiously shaped
stones, which appeared to be ‘‘ flint implements,” were formed by the cutting action of
sand blown by the wind across a line of boulders between Evans’ and Lyall’s Bays.
(2.) Mr. J. C. Crawford read a short notice on the preservation of meat by bi-sulphite of
lime, as proposed by Messrs Medlock and Bailey. The only objection to the process
seems to be that the meat is too nasty to eat after being subject to the process described.
A remedy may however be found for this, and the subject is of such importance as to be
well worthy of careful investigation. He considered it desirable that we should carefully
consider all plans and inventions which may be brought forward, having for their object
the preservation of meat in these colonies, where it is superabundant, so that it may be
transmitted in a marketable state to Great Britain, or other parts of the world, where the
supply may be deficient.
As the bisulphite of lime is not an expensive article, the price named being 3s. 6d.
per gallon, it will be easy for those who wish to try the experiment of preparimg meat
for shipment by this process, to do so without having to incur a large outlay.
(3.) An instrument for dusting vines and fruit trees affected with blight, with flour of
sulphur, etc., was then described by My. Crawford. It is much used in France, and
would no doubt be useful here, and any tinman can make it ; but as Mr. Travers and Mr.
Richmond remarked, the true remedy for blight and creeping things of all kinds is the
judicious importation of birds, bearing constantly in mind the complex way in which the
law of ‘‘natural selection” operates on every kind of animal life. As an illustration Mr.
J. C. Richmond stated that the honey-eating birds had almost disappeared In some
districts, owing to the bees having deprived them of their natural food.
(4.) A paper by Mr. Skey ‘‘On the Production of certain Crystalline Phosphates and
Arseniates was read by Dr. Hector. (See ante, p. 146.)
Mr. Richmond exhibited some native curiosities taken from Ngatapa, given to him -
by the East Coast friendlies ; some Raupo bread, prepared from the pollen of the
swamp flag, Zypha angustifolia, being amongst them.
SeconD Mrerine. June 19, 1869.
J. C, Crawford, F.G.8., Vice President, in the chair.
The Secretary laid on the table eleven publications which have been presented to the
Society since the previous meeting.
There were also several scientific works and periodicals placed on the table for the
use of members of the Society, and eight volumes of the Catalogue of Fishes in the British
Museum, presented to the Institute by the Trustees.
The election of the following new members was then announced by the Secretary :—
Messrs. W. Best, J. Martin, N. Marchant, T. M. Stewart, H. Willcox, and the Rev. H.
W. Ewald.
The Chairman, Mr. J. C. Crawford, then stated that as was the case last year, during
the session of the Assembly the meetings of the Society would be at more frequent
intervals, and that the next meeting would be held on the 17th of July. He then delivered
the following
ADDRESS.
In opening the proceedings of the Wellington Philosophical Society for the session of
1869, it has fallen to my lot to make a few introductory remarks, and to glance at the
events which have occurred since our meetings of last year.
I will first congratulate the members of the Society on the receipt of the first volume
of ‘‘ Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute,” which has lately been
put into our hands. It appears to me in every respect a most creditable production for a
colony of an age of less than thirty years, and although its bulk has been materially
increased by the incorporation of Essays, which were originally written for the New
Zealand Exhibition, yet the mass of matter contained in the ordinary ‘‘Transactions and
Proceedings” is ample, and full of information of more than ordinary interest.
With regard to the Essays contained in this volume, I have been particularly struck
with the care which has been bestowed upon those contributed by Mr. Colenso; and that,
by him, on the ‘‘ Maori Races,” I consider particularly interesting.
As it appears to me that the usually received theory to account for the peopling of
the Polynesian Islands (New Zealand inclusive) by the brown-coloured, Maori-speaking
race, 1s quite untenable, I had commenced a paper on the subject, which I proposed to
read at some meeting of this Society, but I find much that I had to say has been fore-
397
stalled by Colenso. I may perhaps still continue my paper, so as to bring on discussion
and further consideration of the subject, for it appears to me one of very great interest.
Taken in its narrowest limits, the Polynesian race extends from New Zealand to the
Sandwich Islands, occupying a larger area of the earth’s surface than any other unmixed
race on the face of the globe. Over the whole of this area the language spoken,
although composed of many dialects, is obviously, even to a casual observer, one language.
Moreover, the race has certain physical peculiarities particularly distinguishing it. The
people are large-limbed, and muscular, well featured in general, and possessed of great
natural intelligence.
To talk of this race as an Asiatic one, is to mislead entirely. The people are ob-
stinate and determined to a degree, and differ from ordinary Asiatics both physically and
mentally.
That a race, spread over such an enormous area, and speaking one language, should
have peopled the Polynesian Islands by derivation from the crews of some wandering Malay
vessels, seems to me an effect, produced by a cause so inadequate, that it cannot be
supported.
Would it not also, prima facie, be more reasonable to trace the Malay from the
Maori—the somewhat higher civilization from the lower—if, as I suppose, the Maori race
to be a very ancient race, than the newer race from the older?
Excepting the extent of the globe over which the English language has spread by
colonisation during the last century or two, and that over which Spanish is spoken—
brought about by similar causes—the Maori tongue is used over by far a larger surface of
the earth than any other language.
Although the effects of earthquakes are undoubtedly disagreeable, yet they are ex-
tremely interesting to science, and during the past year we have had considerable experi-
ence of them. It will hardly be necessary to remind you of the remarkable earthquake
wave which visited our shores in August last, for a full description of the phenomenon
appears in our ‘‘'Transactions,” from the pen of Dr. Hector; and no doubt he will,
during the present session, give us full details of the earthquakes of October 18th of last
year, which were so generally felt throughout the colony.
It seems probable that from the numerous points of observation in the Pacific which
are now occupied by the restless and inquisitive colonists, whether of Great Britain or of
the United States, the phenomena of earthquakes will be carefully watched, and possibly
the laws which determine their recurrence may be arrived at. The earthquake which
lately damaged Christchurch appears to have been extremely local. It conveys a hint to
all towns in New Zealand, that buildings which may stand in London will not do for this
colony. I have always expressed the opinion that, prima facie, one part of New Zealand.
was as likely to suffer from earthquakes as another, and, therefore, that the inhabitants
should build their houses with reference to that risk, wherever they might happen to be
situated, It may be as well again to suggest that a more durable material than timber is
desirable for building your houses, even in earthquake countries, and I would call atten-
tion to my paper upon concrete.
During the past year the Thames Gold Fields have continued to be developed in a
wonderful manner, and there is every reason to hope that when the country is open to
*“prospecting,”’ the area of the gold field will be largely extended. I hear also, from good
authority, that auriferous quartz has positively been found in the Kaimanawa range, part
of which range lies within the boundaries of this province. Lately some pyritous stone
from the Wainuiomata Valley has proved auriferous; and although the percentage of
gold is small, it tempts to further search and investigation. Quartz, showing a few specks
of gold, has also been brought into town from Makara.
It has also been reported that gold has been found in that part of the Ruahine range
which lies near the Rangitikei river, but as reports of this character have been so frequent
and so fallacious, it may be as well to suspend our judgment until we see the specimens.
I am glad to find that the search is now for veins instead of for alluvial ‘‘ diggings.”
I was convinced years ago that the “‘alluvium ” in this vicinity has been pretty well tried
and found barren, or too poor to pay, and that the prospects of finding gold, if it was to be
found, lay in the development of auriferous veins.
The discovery of large quantities of Saurian bones at the Waipara river, in the
Province of Canterbury, is an event of great importance, in a scientific point of view.
I have to congratulate my old friend Mr. Hood, both on the original discovery of these
fossils some years ago, and on his now having secured, at considerable trouble to himself,
a number of valuabie specimens which he has transmitted to England for examination by
Professor Owen.
Other specimens have lately been procured by Mr. R. L. Holmes, who was specially
sent for that purpose, and which may now be seen in this Museum. ;
I think it will be desirable for me to confine my remarks to subjects of colonial
interest, although there are matters of science and discovery, which have cropped up
during the year, and which might be noticed with advantage were it not that it would
398
swell the dimensions of the address too much. I would particularly refer to one
subject, the measurement of an arc at the Cape of Good Hope, the result of which
measurement is to show that the Southern Hemisphere bulges as it were, or ‘‘ has the
mumps” as I have heard it graphically expressed. Thus the comparative low barometer
in the Southern to that in the Northern Hemisphere is accounted for. The boundary of
the atmospherical envelope being supposed to be in regular spheroidal gradation from the
centre of the earth, if the surface of the globe is irregular that part which is furthest from
the centre will of course have the least atmospheric pressure. I will mention, asa tribute
to the sagacity of Dr. Hector, that some-five years ago, in Dunedin, he explained to me
the reason of the low barometer in the Southern Hemisphere, and his theory, then
expressed, has now been proved correct by observation.
In conclusion, [ would particularly impress on the members of this Society, the
necessity for striving to keep up its scientific tone, and for this purpose ta provide as
many goad papers as possible to be read at the meetings. I would particularly call their
attention to the ‘‘Transactions” of the Auckland Institute. Let us enter into a noble
rivalry with them, or with any others of the affiliated societies. One advantage in a
warfare of this kind is that no one is the loser. Supposing that we are beaten we have
the advantage of the information supplied by our antagonist, if we can apply such a term
to a member of the affiliated society. Let us then do our best.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘*On the Anatomy of the Swordfish of the Southern Seas,” by F. J. Knox,
L.R.C.S.E. (See ante, p, 13). The author stated that Huropean naturalists were very
imperfectly informed about this species ; he made frequent reference to a specimen on the
table which has been presented by him to the Museum, and the points to which he drew
especial attention were the following :—
The existence of well-marked incurved teeth of small size, covering the interior
surface of the jaws, and the sword-like prolongation.
This circumstance is particularly noted, as characteristic of the genus Histiophorous,
by Gunther, but has not been recognised as a structure essential to the method by which
the swordfish captures its food.
Dr. Hector stated that he understood from Dr. Knox that the whaler’s account of
the conflicts between the whale and the swordfish were only due to their rivalry for the
purpose of obtaining the same food, which he believed to be the cuttle-fish or squid. He
pointed out the great development of the eye and optic nerve, far in excess of all other
similar sensory apparatus, also the contrivance by which the dorsal fin has both a lateral
and longitudinal motion, no doubt for the purpose of enabling it to direct its aim with
certainty when using its sword for impaling its prey.
(2.) ‘*Prelimimary notice on the Effects of the Application of the Hot Blast to Blow-
pipe purposes,” by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 148.) The result of the author’s experiments
has shown that, by a very simple and inexpensive contrivance, platinum and other
infusible substances can be melted, and the Bude light produced, and that the process
could not fail to replace the dangerous and expensive oxy-hydrogen flame.
The author promised, if possible, to demonstrate the process by experiments at the
next meeting of the Society.
(3.) ‘‘Remarks on the Coast Line between Kai Iwi and Waitotara, on the West
Coast of the Province of Wellington,” by R. Pharazyn (the Hon. Sec.) (See ante, p. 158.)
Several diagrams and sections explaining the author’s views with regard to the origin of
the great sandhill formation which surmount high cliffs overhanging the coast, were laid
en the-table.
Dr. Hector, in the absence of Dr. Grace, exhibited a sample of the extract of beef
prepared by Mr. Roberts, of Wanganui, on a new principle, by which many of the
objections to the well-known Tooth’s extract are considered to beavoided. The essential
feature in the process is the extraction of the juice of the raw meat by direct pressure,
after which it is evaporated to an extract. The sample appeared to be generally
approved. of. :
Tuirp Mertine. July 17, 1869.
J, C. Crawford, F.G.8., Vice President, in the chair.
The election of the following new members was announced, viz. :—Messrs. T.
Buchanan, E. Gillon, and W. Luxford.
The Honorary Secretary read a list of valuable scientific works, which have been
presented to the Society by Mr. W. Lyon, F.G.S., to whom a vote of thanks was passed
for his valuable donation. A communication was read from the Hon. the Colonial Secre-
tary relative to the scholarships which were formed last year by Mr. Whitworth, whose
name is so familiar in connection with the modern improvement in the manufacture of
399
fire-arms. These scholarships, thirty in number, of the annual value of £100 each, are
for the purpose of assisting the study of the theory and practice of mechanics. The
scholarships are now open to competition to all British subjects, and it appears that
application has been made to ascertain whether colonial youths who compete may be
examined by a Board locally appointed. The reply is in the negative, but with an
assurance that the importance of making some such provision for the future will not be
lost sight of.
Dr. Hector directed attention to the skeleton of the clephant in the Museum, for
which munificent donation the Institution is indebted to the Hon. John M‘Lean, M.L.C.,
who secured the carcase and had the bones cleaned at very considerable expense, and
with such care that the articulation of the skeleton was easily effected on its arrival at
the Museum without further preparation.
He also read the following extract from the February number of the ‘‘ Student,”
which gives an account of how this elephant met its death, on the authority of Dr.
Haast :—
“The most remarkable instance of the poisonous properties of the Coriaria is men-
tioned in a letter from Dr. Haast, of Canterbury, New Zealand. It occurred to an
elephant which, after being landed in Otago, was marched inland by its owner for a
considerable distance. Arriving at a suitable halting place, where the vegetation was
abundant, the owner determined to give the animal a spell of a few days’ feeding. The
grass, which had been burnt off during the previous season, had shot up again with
renewed vigour, and amongst it was a very fine crop of succulent young plants of Coriaria.
The elephant fed amongst this herbage for four hours, and afterwards went to a neigh-
bouring creek and had a long drink. In turning back, the animal began to reel, fell on
the ground, and died after three hours ; so that it took only seven hours from the time
the beast began to feed amongst the plants, until he died. It would seem from this
instance that the poison must be very virulent. It is, moreover, remarkable that the
elephant should, like sheep and cattle, eat the plant, while the horse will not touch it.”
A Report on, and Maps of the Gympie Gold Field in Queensland, by T. R. Hacket,
a member of the Society, communicated for the information of members by Dr. Hector,
_ who drew attention to the striking similarity of the geology of the Gympie gold fields to
the Thames district.
Mr. Skey informed the meeting that owing to the incompletion of the gas fittings he
was unable to fulfil his promise of demonstrating the action of his hot blast blow-pipe.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘‘On the Habits and Nidification of some of the Birds of New Zealand,” by T.
H. Potts. (See ante, p. 40.) Only extracts from this communication could be read. In
the introductory portion the author discusses the necessity for the practical study of
natural history m a country where there is no game, as it afforded that great necessity for
bodily and mental health—outdoor pastime. The observations made by himself and sons
during a long residence in the Province of Canterbury, where he acquired favourable
opportunities for pursuing this study, were embodied in the paper in the hope that others
might be attracted to devote some of their time to the same pursuit. The author then
described the different forms of nests which occur in New Zealand, and drew inferences
as to the objects of the various modifications. Referring to the habits of the birds, he
discussed the many causes that have led almost to the extinction of so many species ; and
gave a graphic description of a locality which not many years ago was a favourite
breeding ground for upwards of thirty species, but where now hardly any are to be met
with. ‘The remainder of the paper gives a detailed description of the habits, nidification,
and eggs of forty-two specimens of New Zealand birds, from original ebservations.
Dr. Hector mentioned that most of the eggs and nests referred to in the paper had
been presented to the Museum by Mr. Potts.
(2.) ‘On the Alkalinity of Carbonate of Lime,” by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 150.)
This paper showed by experiment that contrary to the usual epinion the above substance
is always alkaline in its reaction, whether prepared chemically, pure, or existing in
natural crystals.
(8.) ‘*On the Absorptive Properties of Silica and its direct Hydration by contact
with Water,” by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 151.) This gave the results of experiments in
continuation of those mentioned in No. 157 of the ‘‘ London Chemical News.” The
practical bearing of the paper was to prove that the so-called mechanical absorption of
soils was a purely chemical reaction.
(4.) ‘‘On the Results of the Examination of the Bark of Coprosma grandifolia for
Alkaloids,” by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 152.) A careful examination has failed as yet to
trace the powerful bitter of this substance to the presence of an Alkaloid.
(5.) ‘‘On Silver Ore from Stewart’s Island,” by W. Skey. Being the result of the
analysis of a specimen of quartz gangue containing six ounces of silver to the ton, associated
with iron pyrites,—no gold was found, ‘The vein is from the junction of fine grained
400
granite with blue slate, and has been discovered by a prospecting party fitted out by Mr
Daniels, of Riverton.
(6.) ‘On the Anatomy of the Tuatara (Hatteria punctata),” by F. J. Knox,
L.R.C.S.E. (See ante, p. 16.) This paper gives, as the result of the dissection and
preparation of two specimens which were exhibited, the points in the anatomy of this
interesting lizard, where the author had found it necessary to differ from the memoir by
Dr. Giinther on the same subject. Both the specimens examined by the author were,
however, females, while the single specimen dissected by Dr. Giinther was a male. Some
of the differences the author was almost inclined to regard as characteristic of a different
species.
(7.) ‘‘Comparative Review of the mode in which Gold occurs in the North and South
Islands of New Zealand,” by Dr, Hector, The author rapidly reviewed the evidence
of the nature of the matrix of the gold in Otago, Westland, and Nelson, and showed that
in the North Island the essential conditions for the presence of gold are found in lines of
dislocation, which by creating vertical bands of metamorphic rock, render auriferous,
formations that never yield gold in the unaltered state. In the case of the Thames gold
fields this vertical metamorphism had been accompanied by the eruption of igneous rocks
of mesozoic age, and the metallic deposits have been still further concentrated by the eruption
of tertiary volcanic rocks and thermal waters in the same district. Around Wellington
there were no igneous rocks, and the gold that has as yet been found in the neighbourhood
was derived from bands of slaty rock, in lines of dislocation that run in a north and south
* direction. With the assistance of coloured sections he explained the geological structure
of the country around Wellington, and compared it with the Thames district, showing
the absence of the most characteristic rocks which are associated with the gold there.
He warned miners from expecting too much from the hard compact quartz reefs that
traverse the indurated sandstone in the neighbourhood of Wellington, as most at least of
them were of higher antiquity than the dislocations by which the gold has escaped from
the deep seated rocks,
In answer to Mr. Marchant, the author stated that at Taranaki similar volcanic rocks
occur as at the Thames, but no slate rocks had yet been found associated with them,
which, he believed was one essential required to complete the similarity of conditions ; at
the same time he had seen very likely-looking specimens from the Kaitaki ranges, but
they had not yielded gold on analysis.
The most marked junction of the trachytic rocks with the slates he had met with
was on the west side of the Kaimanawa Range, south of Taupo Lake, and to which he
had referred in a recent report.
(8.) ‘*On the Alluvial Gold in the Province of Wellington,” by J. C. Crawford,
F.G.S. (See ante, p. 160.) The author described the probable distribution of alluvial
gold, if any quantity exists in this province, and directed attention to the higher levels
in the old terraces which skirt the ranges on the west, and also are found in patches in
the wider valleys.
FourtH Mererine. August 14, 1869.
J.C. Crawford, F.G.8., Vice President, in the chair.
The election of the following new members was announced :—Sir David Monro, Mr.
F. A. Krull, and Dr. Knight.
Dr. Hector gave an account of some interesting results obtained in the Laboratory
during the past month. He stated that the Urinui clay, which is being used in
the reduction of the iron sand at Taranaki, had been found to possess no special pro-
perties either as a means of binding the sand mechanically, or as a flux, in both of which
respects it is inferior to many other clays, as it only contains 30 per cent of clay, mixed
with 65 per cent. of sand, and only 3 per cent. of lime. The specimens analysed had been
forwarded by Mr. T. Kelly, the Provincial Secretary. A concretionary mass from the
same clay had been found to contain 30 per cent. of lime.
A vesicular rock which had been brought to the Museum by some diggers from
Makara as a volcanic tufa or scoria, had proved to be a porous form of silica that
had a very similar composition to the scinter deposited by the hot springs. It however
in no respect resembles the auriferous tufa from the Thames District.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘*On the Extraction of the Poisonous Principles of the Tutu Plant (Coriaria
ruscifolia),” by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 153.) By a process which he described he has
discovered the poison to be a greenish oil, five minims of which administered to a cat
produced, in the course of half an hour, a succession of violent convulsions, following at
intervals of twenty minutes, accompanied by twitchings and contraction of the extremi-
ties, and dilation of the pupils. A large proportion of the dose was vomited within a few
401
minutes after it was administered, so that the poison must be extremely powerful. The
quantity of the poison contained in the seed is 12 per cent. of the weight. Sir David
Monro stated that he had seen the cat while under the influence of the poison, and that
the symptoms exactly resembled those of a sheep that had eaten the Tutu plant, except
that the hind legs of the cat seemed to be paralysed, while a 7'uted sheep stood erect and
had free use of its extremities, although unable to direct its movements. Specimens of
the poisonous oil in different stages of its production were exhibited, and also the oil of
the Karaka seed.
(2.) **On two Seals of the genus Stenorhyncus, captured on the East Coast of
Otago,” by J. S. Webb. (See ante, p. 28.) This paper described two specimens of seals
which are in the Otago Museum. The author considered these to be a new species
belonging to the genus Stenorhyncus which he proposed to name S. Crassicollus, his
principal argument being that it is not Stenorhyncus Weddellii. The paper was
illustrated by photographs of both specimens.
Dr. Hector said that Mr. Webb had been misinformed as to this seal having been seen
by him on the West Coast of Otago; the only one he had ever seen was at Moeraki,
forty miles north of Dunedin. He pointed out that having had access to works which
Mr. Webb had not been able to refer to, he had been able to determine the specimens
described to be the young male and female of Stenorhyncus leptonyx, a species originally
confounded with Leptonyx Weddell. Mr. Webb is thus right in distinguishing it from
that seal, which has not yet been found in New Zealand. Dr. Gray first distinguished
these seals from specimens of two skins and skeletons, accompanied by a minute anatomical
description of one captured in Wellington Harbour, and sent to the British Museum by
Dr. Knox many years ago. Mr. Webb’s description, measurements, and photographs all
compared with that specimen. Dr. Hector exhibited a skull of one of the seals in
question, prepared by Dr. Knox, and also the coloured drawings of specimens of both
species of the seals referred to.
(3.) ‘‘Cn the Anatomy of Naultinus punctatus,” by F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S.E. (See
ante, p. 20.) This paper gave a minute description of the anatomy of the green lizard, in
the course of which the author discussed the theory that the lizards have the power of
reproducing the tails when they are broken off. He showed that the tail broke at a
definite place marked both in the skeleton and on the cuticle, and expressed an opinion
that no reproduction could take place.
Mr. Buller remarked that Dr. Knox was mistaken in the species, and that the lizard
he had described was Naultmus Greyii and not Naultinus punctatus. He further pointed
out that in the Museum there were two specimens of lizards, in one of which the tail was
forked, and in another, a small appendage had evidently been reproduced from a broken
stump. Dr. Knox not being present, no explanation was afforded to account for these
specimens.
(4.) ‘‘ Description of a new species of Ophisurus, found on the Coast of New Zealand,”
by Dr. Hector, with ‘‘ Anatomical Observations,” by F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S.E. (See ante,
p. 34.) This paper described a species of serpent eel found in a tidal creek near
Poverty Bay, and forwarded to the Museum by Mr. Campbell, R.M.
Mr. Buller said he had never heard of this curious fish among the natives, and
thought it must be very rare.
Sir David Monro suggested that the specimen should be dissected, in order to deter-
mine the structure of the breathing apparatus, as there might be in this genus, the
anatomy of which was imperfectly shown, an intermediate form of respiratory apparatus
between the reptile and the fish, as had already been detected in the Protius, Axylotyl,
and Syren.
(5.) ‘On the Physical Features of the River Basins of the Wellington Province,” by
J. T. Stewart. (See ante, p. 198.) This paper contaimed a minute description, and gave
comprehensive details of the topography of the southern and eastern districts of the
province, classifying the different water-sheds of the principal rivers and streams, and
the relative drainage area of each, with comments on the valleys affected by floods
from various quarters, and suggestions as to the districts in which it will be necessary to
conserve the forest, in order to prevent alternations of droughts and floods in some of the
valuable districts of the province.
Mr. Crawford and Dr. Hector made comments on this paper, especially with regard
to the distribution of the alluvial terraces, and the relative levels to which river terraces
extend, which seem to be about 800 feet above the level of the sea, all over the province.
(6.) ‘‘On Irrigation, as applied to the Culture of New Zealand Flax,” by J. C.
Crawford, F.G.S. (See ante, p. 129.) The author pointed out the importance of irriga-
tion to produce abundant crops of the flax plant, and described the different methods of
applying it, and the districts in this province where they could be employed in a
penueraive manner. He indicated the sandy tracts on the West Coast as being most
available.
402
Firra Meerine. September 18, 1869.
J. ©. Crawford, F.G.S., Vice President, in the chair.
In accordance with clause 7 of the New Zealand Institute Act, it was necessary for
the Society to appoint one of its members to vote in the election of Governors of the New
Zealand Institute for the ensuing year, and Mr. J. C. Crawford was unanimously selected
for this office.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘‘On Thorough Drainage,” by Mr. Crawford. (See ante, p: 211.)
Mr. Travers quite agreed with the Suggestions made by Mr. ‘Crawford, but thought
there would be some difficulty i in carrying out the system of thorough drainage in New
Zealand, as he was afraid the proprietors of land would not work harmoniously in the
matter. There should be an Act passed on the subject.
Mr. Hamilton thought there would be a difficulty in draining the clay hills effectually,
so as to produce percolation, as the superficial layer of soil is the most tenacious, and the
water runs off the surface.
(2.) ‘On the Mysticetus, or Right Whale,” by F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S.E. (See
ante, p. 21.) A specimen of the head of Balena mar ginata, Gray, was exhibited at the
meeting, to illustrate this paper. The author gave a most interesting account of the
habits of whales in general, and pointed out particularly the difference between the
Mysticetus and the Rorquals, a drawing of which latter he exhibited. The use of the
baleen was graphically described, especially as there were some fine specimens with the
head above mentioned.
(3.) ‘*On the Upper Tertiary Fossils of New Zealand; with Lists of the Species,” by
J. Buchanan. (See ante, p. 163.)
(4.) ‘*On the Tertiary Series of Oamaru and Moeraki, Otago,” by C. Traill, communi-
cated by Dr. Hector. (See ante, p. 166.)
SixtH Merrtine. November 13, 1869.
W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S., in the chair.
The Honorary Secretary, Mr. R. Pharazyn, intimated resolutions received from the
Governors of the Institute to the effect that papers intended for the ‘‘ Transactions,” will
in future require to be forwarded in the form in which they are read before the Society,
and that authors will be entitled to receive twelve copies of their papers in a separate
form.
Dr. Hector called attention to two live specimens of the mud fish from Hokitika,
Neochanna apoda of Giimther. The specimens were swimming actively in clear water,
and had perfect vision, although their eyes are small, so that the undeveloped state of
the eye in the specimen previously received, and described by Dr. Giinther, must have
been exceptional.
The Hon. W. Fox remarked that these mud fish were not peculiar to Hokitika, as
five years ago he remembered seeing a fish dug up from a gravelly clay ten feet below
the surface, at Rangitikei, and he believed that it was identical with the fish exhibited.
A remarkable meteor observed in Wellington on the 8th inst., at 11.30 p.m., -
was described in a paper by the Rev. A. Stock. It appeared suddenly in H.8.E., at an
altitude of about 20°. It fell with a very rapid motion, vertically. When it was first seen
it appeared about ae ee times as large as Venus, and shone with a yellow light. It
suddenly appeared to diminish to a point of light, each diminution being accompanied
with a shower of sparks falling verticaily. It as suddenly increased to its old brilliancy,
as suddenly dimimished, then increased. Thus there were three brightnesses, and two
darker intervals. Another pecuharity was that it showed all the prismatic colours.
There was no train of light left after its disappearance.
Mr. J. Kebbell and Mr. Gillon corroborated Mr, Stock’s observations,
eee read :—
(1.) ‘‘On some New Species of New Zealand Plants,” by J. Buchanan. Specimens
were laid on the table. (See ante, p. 88.)
(2.) Dr. Hector gave a short abstract of an elaborate report by Mr. T. Kirk, of ~
Auckland, ‘‘On the Botany of Cape Colville Peninsula.” (See ante, p. 89.) This paper
gave the results of a surve y that had been made for the Geological Department, with the
view of obtaining an accurate record of the original vegetation, as the flora of the district
is undergoing rapid modification by the gold diggers. “In this paper several new species
of Dane were described, of which specimens were exhibited.
3.) ‘* Description of the Mechanical Apparatus employed in raising the s.s. Taranaki,”
by J. T. Stewart. (See ante, p. 203.)
403
Mr. W. Allen criticised the paper, and regretted that it did not give information on
many interesting points that had been observed in the course of this important under-
taking, with which he had been connected from the commencement.
He understood that Mr. Stewart had not been a personal observer of the operations,
and therefore had relied on information suppled by others. He attributed the success
very greatly to the cage described by Mr. Stewart, which had been contrived to afford a
working stage to contain the divers and their tools. One of the great difficulties the company
had to contend with was want of information on the subject ; for instance, they could not
find out whether divers could conduct operations at so great a depth. The first attempt,
it might be remembered, had cost the life of a diver, but this he believed was due to the
physical weakness of the man. Subsequently the divers had experienced no ill-effects
from remaining as long even as 110 minutes at the more moderate depths, but when at the
greatest depth, 100 feet, they rarely stayed down longer than fifteen minutes. He
trusted that no facts that had been noted respecting this mteresting, but he feared not
remunerative undertaking, would fail to be recorded.
Dr. Hector directed attention to a collection of the marine animals that were found
on the vessel, among which are three species of Anomia, two of Mytilus, Ostrea, Pecten,
Serpula, Balanus, and J'eredo. Heremarked that some of these animals are usually found
only slightly below low-water mark; and their occurring so well-grown within a year at
the depth of 100 feet, seemed to indicate that depth of water did not so much control
their existence, as a supply of nourishment, and that this was probably abundant near
the wreck.
Some discussion, in which the Chairman, Mr. Mantell, and Mr. Marchant joined,
ensued as to the evidence afforded by the wreck that marine animals require access of
light for their development, but the observations made did not appear to settle the point.
(4.) ‘On the Effects of the Application of the Hot Blast to Blow-pipe Purposes, etc.,”
by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 148.) Mr. Skey showed that the temperature obtained by
the common blow-pipe, with proper precautions against conduction of heat, was at least
5100° Fahrenheit, as it is capable of fusing fine poimts of platimum.
(5.) ‘*On the application of Iodine and Brorine for the detection of Gold when in
minute quantities,” by W. Skey. (See ante, p. 156.) The author described a new
process which had been recently adopted im the laboratory, to facilitate the analysis of
supposed auriferous quartz; when sulphides were present in large quantities, iodine or
bromine is used as the solvent, and a vapid test is obtained by dipping filter paper in the
solution, and burning it with due care, when if gold be present a very characteristic
purple hue is imparted to the ash. By this test the presence of gold, in the proportion of
one dwt. in the ton, can be detected with great economy and certainty.
(6.) ‘‘ Preliminary Notes on the Bones of a Fossil Penguin,” recently discovered on the
West Coast of Nelson, and presented to the Museum by Mr. Dingan, by Dr. Hector.
The discovery is interesting, as a fossil bone discovered by Mr. Mantell in the Oamaru
limestone of Otago, in 1849, was pronounced by Professor Huxley to belong to a gigantic
penguin five feet in height. The fossil bones found by Mr. Dingan appeared to be those
of a bird about four feet high, and therefore not larger than penguins that still exist in
the antarctic regions. The fossil shells, sent from the same formation as the bones,
indicate that they belong to the lower pliocene period.
(7.) ‘On the General Principles of an Education Scheme for New Zealand,” by
W.S. Hamilton. (See ante, p.196.) The chief object of this paper was to show that sound
education of youth is of vital importance to the success of the colony—that it can only be
obtained by a careful selection of teachers through a system of licensing, and by general
examinations of the scholars’ certificates being granted, that would be generally accepted.
as a criterion of proficiency, and afford a standard for the schools to work up to. Mr.
Hamilton, in the course of his paper, criticised the relations of the Government in the
existing schools.
Mr. Mantell, in discussing his remarks on this subject, did not see that any Govern-
ment could improve or originate any system unless the movement was in accordance with
the general wish of the people. He pointed out that where the inhabitants appreciated
the benefits of education, as in Otago, there a good system existed.
Mr. Pharazyn thought that nothing would be done towards improving the present
state of things unless the educated members of the community led the way, he therefore
agreed with the object of Mr. Hamilton’s suggestions.
The Chairman then stated that two papers remained on the list, but it was so late
that they could only be briefly noticed.
(8.) One was a most elaborate series of ‘‘Tables for facilitating the use of the
Aneroid Barometer in Mountainous Countries, with explanations,” by E. Dobson, C.E.
(See ante, p. 223.) This paper was intended to supply a practical want which had been
felt by Mr. Dobson when making engineering surveys in New Zealand mountains, and
no one could be more qualified than he to produce a valuable and accurate work of the
kind,
GGG
404
(9.) The other paper was an account by Dr. Hector of ‘‘ The Geology of the Outlying
Islands of the New Zealand group.” (See ante, p. 176.) From various reports, accompanied
by specimens of the rocks obtained from the islands during the last few years.
Several additions to the Museum were exhibited, including a beautifully prepared
skeleton of a dolphin, and specimens from the supposed auriferous reefs in Canterbury,
Wellington, and Kaimanawa ranges.
A series of photographs by Mr, Igglesden, showing the progress of the works on the
Cape Campbell lighthouse, were also exhibited from the Marine department.
AUCKBAND INSTIVU Pk
SESSION OF 1869.
PROCEEDINGS.
AnnuaL Meetinc. February 15, 1869.
Captain Hutton, F.G.S., in the chair.
The Secretary, Mr. T. Kirk, read the report of the last year and the balance sheet.
ABSTRACT OF REPORT.
The Auckland Institute was formed at a meeting held November 6th, 1867, and, in
pursuance of a unanimous resolution passed at the first monthly meeting, was formally
incorporated with the New Zealand Institute on June 10th, 1868.
During the past year monthly meetings of the members were held in the Museum, at
which fifteen papers were read, which are now in course of publication in the ‘‘ Proceed-
ings of the New Zealand Institute.” (See Vol. i., p. 135, et. seq.)
Field excursions of the members have been made to the Tufa craters of Waitomokia,
the North Head of the Manukau, and to the caves at the Three Kings, during which much
interesting information was collected respecting the geology and natural history of the
districts visited.
Sixty-nine donations have been received by the Council for the Library and Museum
of the Institute.
The increasing interest evinced in the objects of the Institute impels the Council to
point out that largely increased funds are necessary before they can be carried out to any
extent, to express its earnest hope that the members will use their influence to induce
new members to join, and as far as possible to give active assistance to the Institute in its
endeavours to diffuse a knowledge of the resources of the colony.
Fourteen scientific periodicals are in circulation amongst the members of the
Institute.
THE TREASURER IN ACCOUNT WITH THE AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.
Dr. £ s.d.
To subscriptions . 6 : é 68 5 0
», Balance from excursion fund : : 010 4
u £68 15 4
Cr. £ sid
By Periodicals. é 0 : c ll 5 4
», Black board : : : : 150 Om
», Curator : : 25 0 0
us Advertisements and printing © : : 10 16 8
>, Lamps : : C 414 0
», Stationery, postage, &e. : u 3 @)
»» Balance : ; ; 616 7
£68 15 4
February 15, 1869.
405
ELEecTIon oF Orrick BEARERS FoR 1869: President—T. B. Gillies; Council—
Rev. J. Kinder, T. Kirk, Dr. Stratford, F. Whitaker, F. W. Hutton, F.G.S., Dr. Purchas,
T. Peacock.
Mr. Owen was requested to audit the accounts of last year.
Second Mrrtine. June 7, 1869.
T. B. Gillies, President, in the chair.
A list of thirty-seven donations to the Library and Museum of the Institute,
received between 15th February and 5th June, was read by the Secretary. ‘
The President delivered the following
ADDRESS.
It is a remarkable fact in the statistics of mortality, that the large proportion of
deaths occur during infancy, childhood, aad youth. Every year that the child survives,
greatly increases its chance of attaming to maturity. Infancy is the season of the
greatest risks. With a physical frame undeveloped, vital energies weak, and wholly
dependent on external aid for nourishment and ‘protection, the chances are many against
the prolonged life of the infant. On its constitution, its internal vitality, it has mostly
to depend, so as to survive the carelessness of nurses, the foolish fondness of mothers, and
the dangerous attention of doctors. But even when infancy is over, the risks are only
reduced, not surmounted. Years must pass ere the physical and mental powers are
developed and consolidated—ere the man becomes a contributor to tke progress of
humanity.
As with the individual, so with schemes and societies. Infancy to vast numbers of
them is fatal—childhood scarcely less so. On this, the opening of the second year of the
existence of this Society, I have to congratulate you on having successfully survived the
infantile stage,—not from having a robust physical frame, for our numbers are but small
compared to what they ought to be in so large a community, and the number of our active
working members smaller still. Our comparative success has, I think, been owing much
to the internal vitality, the intense interest evinced by many whom I see around me, and
to the same cause I confidently look forward for a prolonged existence for our Society.
Our constitution, too, the excellence of the objects for which we are associated, give me
hopes for the future. As in all nature, atoms have a tendency to find their affinities and
combine with them, so I believe that the very existence of this Society, having for its
object the promotion of scientific knowledge, will draw towards it many an unknown and
humble worshipper at the shrine of science, whereby the Society will be strengthened,
and its usefulness increased. That such may be the case is, 1 am sure, your earnest:
desire, as it is mine.
And here, gentlemen, permit me, not for your sakes, but for the sake of some to
whom perchance these words of mine may reach, to endeavour to state clearly the position
which we, as a Society, assume, and to remove, if possible, some erroneous impressions
which have gone abroad and been propagated in regard to us. We assume to be a
scientific society, but this description seems to be greatly misunderstood. We do not
assume that each individual member of this Society should profess to be versed in science,
should be a man of scientific acquirements. All that is required or desired of members of
this Society is, that they should recognise the benefits which scientific knowledge confers
on the world, and may confer on this community ; that they should have a love for science
and a desire to see it progress, and that they should be willing to contribute, however
humbly they are able, to the advancement of scientific knowledge. This is all that I
and many others of this Society can pretend to, and although I see ‘before me some who
may fairly aspire to the title of scientific men, yet these I know are the very men, who,
with the true humility of science, undervalue their own attainments, who feel that what
they do know has only taught them how little they know, and has whetted their
appetite for an increase of knowledge. I fear, however, that the very terms science and
scientific knowledge convey to many nothing beyond a vague idea of something very
learned, something very abstruse, which it is hopeless for ordinary men to attempt to
have anything to do with. It is true that science in its more exalted sense means a
knowledge of the general laws which explain, and are deduced from, large bodies of isolated
physical facts. But it must ever be borne in mind that the facts must be determined
first ere the laws explanatory of or governing these facts can be deduced. ‘The same man
cannot (except in very rare cases) both ascertain for himself the facts, and generalise upon
them, so as to elucidate the laws governing their existence.
There must be in the field of science, as in all other branches of industry, workers as
well as masters—collectors of facts as well as generalisers upon the facts ascertained—and
the workers must come first, the facts first, the theories built upon them afterwards, other-
v
406
wise the theories are but of slight value. In other words (to follow the Duke of
Argyle’s formula in his definition of law) we must determine the ‘‘ what” first, ere we can
aspire to know the ‘‘how” or the ‘‘ why.” We, in this Society, can scarcely, perhaps,
profess to be more than mere fact-collectors—sometimes hazarding a theory or a specula-
tion, grasping, as the human mind ever tends to do, at the ‘‘how” and the ‘‘ why ;” but
endeavouring always to collect and verify facts of the physical world, which facts may
perhaps prove of value in the hands of some other member of this Society, or of some
other person of more extended scientific knowledge. And let no one depreciate the mere
fact-collector. One well authenticated fact, though it cannot alone sustain, may over-
throw a brilliant—it may be, even an accepted—theory. We ask, then, all to join us
who are willing to observe and record facts coming under their observation, accurate
observation being at the foundation of all scientific knowledge. And here, [ may remark,
that it seems to me too little attention is paid to the cultivation of the faculty of observa-
tion amongst our children. Were we to attend more to the cultivation of this faculty,
we should find that what is an effort to us, would soon become a habit with them, and
great results, would, I venture to say, flow from such a course, especially in a comm: nity
like our own, where rapid change seems to be an essential element of existence—where
the workman of to-day is the capitalist of to-morrow—where new faces are constantly
usurping the place of the old around us—where a very few years consign to privacy
or oblivion our public men, and supply their places, not by a succeeding generation, but
by a new race. I say, in such a community, it especially becomes us to cultivate the
habit of observation of facts as they pass before us, and to cultivate, moreover, the habit
of recording these facts for the assistance and guidance of our successors, who may never
have the opportunity of observing what we have observed.
Need I ask you to look at how little has been done during the nearly thirty years’
existence of our colony in the way of determining such patent facts as the geography, the
botany, the zoology, the geology of-our country—not that we need expect a few years—
no, not even a few lifetimes—to exhaust the stores which even in these respects are open
to our view. But had any number of our colonists during these thirty years devoted
themselves to observing and registering facts which have come under their observation, had
we each one in his own little circle done so, how great would now the mass of ascertained
facts be available to the world, to our fellow-colonists, and to those whose habits and
powers of mind could have reduced those facts into order, grouped them under their
appropriate laws of how they came thus to exist, or even aspired to the higher flight of
mind in pointing out why they have been so caused to exist, and how their existence
might be turned to beneficial account.
Youth, gentlemen, is especially the time for acquiring the habits of observation, as
well as all other habits, and I desire earnestly to impress upon you, and upon all who
have the traiming of the young, that, if ever scientitic knowledge is to take a proper
position in our midst, as it is doing in the rest of the world, it must be through traimimg
our youth to habits of correct, accurate, and minute observation. I call it a habit rather
than a power of mind, and I think that any of you who have been in the company o a
trained mind in any branch of science will readily admit the superiority—the vast
superiority—of the trained over the untrained, in this apparently simple matter of
observation. And let us, gentlemen, endeavour to disabuse our minds of the common
idea that a fact to be worth recording must be something new, great, important, or
peculiarly striking. The most important discoveries of science have had their origin in the
observation of common, simple, overlooked facts. The waifs of ocean have told of worlds
beyond, and of the winds and currents of the mighty deep ; the boiling tea-kettle was the
germ from which have resulted those mighty engines which have revolutionised industry
and locomotion ; and it was from the simple fall of an apple that Newton’s master mind
deduced the great law of gravitation. The apparent smallness of a fact is no criterion of
its value. The want of a single nail in the construction of a mighty ship—the absence of
a single stone in a great building—may endanger the safety of the whole structure. He
who records a previously unobserved or unregarded fact, however small, has contributed
one stone, which, in the hands of a master builder, may yet become the very keystone of
an arch in the great temple of knowledge, but which, we may be sure, will find its
appropriate place in that mighty building.
Let this thought, then, encourage some to contribute to our stores who might other-
wise fear to do so. For, whilst there is nothing in nature so great, no laws so hidden that
science dares not to grapple with and search after, still there is nothing so patent or so
insignificant as to be unworthy of her attention. I would, therefore, earnestly urge you
gentlemen, who have not yet taken an active part in our meetings by contributing the
results of your observations or experience, to do so. Your mite may not be the least
valuable of our stores. And, while directing your attention to the importance of
cultivating habits of observation, even of the most trivial facts, and of the importance of
recording them, I would also call your attention to the exceeding value of systematic.
observation—the observation of special classes of phenomena. In order to develope any
407
faculty to a high degree of perfection, it is necessary to apply it—not to everything that
comes within its range, but in the first instance to a certain limited sphere. Trained to
proficiency within that sphere it becomes capable of applying itself successfully to other
and wider spheres. So with the faculty of observation. He who attempts to observe
everything that comes within his range of vision, will, if he truly aspires to proficiency,
soon be disheartened by his failure—his little progress. With less ambition, or more
self- complacency, he may be a general observer, but he will be but a superficial one,an
inaccurate one, a mere smatterer in that branch of knowledge.
There cannot be in science an admirable Crichton—a man equally well versed in
every branch of scientific knowledge. Nature is too large, man’s life too small in its
present state. The duration of man’s life itself sets a limit to the comprehension of the
little that is known in all the departments of science, even to the most gigantic intellect.
We cannot conceive of a man combining in himself the knowledge of Herschel and Hooker,
Lyell and Faraday, Humboldt and Bunsen. To great minds alone it is given to be
proficient in one branch of science, and so to be able to seize and accept the results of
other labourers in other branches, but without being able to follow them in all their
processes. ‘To ordinary minds, even when trained, it is only given to have sound
knowledge, though neither extensive nor minute, in one branch, and a general knowledge
of the results attained to in other branches. But common minds untrained can attain to
_but a superficial smattering of scientific knowledge, sufficient for conversation perhaps,
but of little practical value, insufficient to enable them to be contributors to the great
onward march of science. To become accurate observers and correct recorders, you must
devote yourselves to some special class of phenomena. By so doing, you will soon find
that the faculty thus concentrated has increased in power, and may be applied—nay, will
involuntarily apply itseli—to a wider sphere, instead of bemg weakened by a diffusion
over too large a field at first.
But I feel the thought cross the mind of some of my hearers, ‘‘ Well, I should like to
contribute my quota, however small, to the objects of this Society ; but what can I do?
Worried with business, the cares of my office, or my shop, or my family, leave me no
time to devote to the active pursuits of science. I can only hope to read or hear the
results which others accomplish.” No doubt to some extent this is true, especially in
this community, where wealth, not wisdom, seems to be the grand desideratum. But, [
answer that, if you will but look on the fair face of nature with a loving eye, she will
soothe your worried brain, and unfold peeps of her treasures to you. Have you not
observed in walking home from your office or warehouse, how some plants flourish in this
locality, others in that? Have you noted that, as you looked at your barometer on a
cloudy morning, it was falling, and yet a fine day resulted; whilst sometimes it was
rising, but the rain came down? Did you observe that moth that came fluttering round
your lamp? It was a rare one not formerly known in this locality. Your field of rye
grass has failed,—have you noted the conditions of soil and season, and other matters ;
or have you not just put it down to bad seed? These few illustrations I give to point
out that even those with least opportunity may nevertheless be observers and contributors
to the stores of knowledge which we desire to accumulate. And you will, perhaps,
pardon me if [ detain you a little longer in pointing out somewhat in detail the
various subjects to which, especially m this country, you may profitably direct your
observations.
Each may select that branch most congenial to his tastes and circumstances, and
pursue that systematically, meanwhile seizing, as they pass, facts which in other branches
happen to take his attention. In astronomy, the most ancient of sciences, not much
may be accomplished without appliances, leisure, and training, such as, I fear, are not at
the command of many amongst us. Still, in the kindred branch of meteorology much
may be done in the way of observation and recording facts, and even in drawing deductions
from these facts. The differences of temperature and of climate in places but little distant
from each other, the causes of such differences, such as the proximity of the sea, the
intervention of ranges of hills, the exposure to a particular aspect, the existence or non-
existence of forest or swamp in the neighbourhood, the effects of such differences as
shown by the vegetation or peculiar phases of animal life,—these afford wide scope for
the exercise of careful observation, as well as of wide generalization. Practically useful,
too, they will be in guiding the settler in his choice of locality for settlement, as well as
in guiding him to the seasons, and to the crops which will best repay his exertions. In
this branch, also, the observation of the indications of the barometer, whether ordinary
or aneroid, in various localities, with relation to the direction or intensity of the winds,
the season of the year, and other circumstances, would be valuable as guides to the
traveller and the farmer.
In botany, though much has been accomplished by previous observers, still much
remains to be done. Isolated localities alone have been thoroughly explored, and the
discoveries during the past year by our worthy Secretary of so many new plants and new
forms of known plants, during the rare opportunities he has had of systematic search,
408
should convince any of you with botanic predilections, that sufficient remains to be
discovered to encourage you to devotion to that special line of investigation. Besides,
the conditions that determine the distribution of plants in different localities presents a
wide field for the exercise of thought, and none more practically important than that of
the cause of grassed lands existing in some portions of our country, whilst fern lands
predominate in others.
In chemistry, as in astronomy, I fear little can be hoped for ; although with sufficient
time, training, and appliances, I believe there is a wide field here open for the chemist in
developing the naturai wealth in our midst, in the way of dyestuffs, medicinal herbs, and
other vegetable products.
In regard to the geology of our country, much, very much remains to be done,
notwithstanding the valuable researches of Drs. Hector and Hochstetter, They have but
dealt with general outlines, with the larger aggregated facts of geological formation, but
in the details of every different locality, a vast work still remains to be done, a work
which I feel sure will amply repay every care bestowed upon it. A series of specimens
of the rocks found in every different locality, with a note of their positions in relation to
other rocks, and to the contour of the surface, would indeed be a most valuable
contribution to science and to our Museum, and would tend in no small degree to throw
light on many obscure questions as to the past of our colony, as well as to guide us to the
future capabilities of the various portions of it. In the observation, too, of facts in
mining, mineralogy, and metallurgy, I would invite the attention of some of you. With
such large mining interests as we now possess, and with so large a body of our population
engaged in mining pursuits, I think we might reasonably expect contributions on these
subjects. The depths of shafts in various localities, the direction of drives, the nature of
the strata passed through during these operations, the position in which gold is found, the
nature of the veins, leaders, or reefs in which it is found, their direction and inclination,
and specimens of the gold-bearing strata of their adjacent casings, would indeed be a
contribution to our knowledge, not only of scientific, but of great practical value. The
processes, too, adopted for the extraction of the ore, observations on the defects of
existing processes, suggestions for improvements, these would be of great value both
scientifically and practically.
In regard to mechanical science and engineering, it may at first be supposed that in
the face of the great mechanical knowledge, activity, and ingenuity of the old world, we
cannot hope here to aid. But with the example before us of what has been, and is being
accomplished in the young country of America, I see no reason to despair of our
’ producing mechanical and engineering adaptations suitable to our own circumstances,
which could not emanate from the older countries. ~And the discovery of a new adapta-
tion of a known principle, is almost equally valuable with the discovery of anew principle.
There are, I fancy, m this colony very many branches of industry in which the ingenious
application of mechanical powers would make that profitable which is now unprofitable.
IT am well aware that no amount of advice can create invention—necessity alone is
its mother—but when we look to the vast number of useful imventions, to which, in
America, that mother has given birth, and when we look to the necessity that in our
colony exists for labour-saving machines, I would fain indulge the hope that even the
stimulus of our Society may have some effect in finding a paternal ancestor for some
useful mechanical inventions. To one member of our Society, at least, belongs the honour
of having led the way in this department, in one prosperous and progressive branch of
industry—I may almost now say of national industry ; I mean in respect of machinery
for the preparation for market of our Phormium tenax. Are there not other branches of
industry which would be equally benefitted by the application of a little mechanical skill
and invention? In mining especially—in agricultural operations more especially, I
venture to say there is a wide field open for the application of mechanical and engineering
science. And this leads me to one of the most important branches of science for a colony
like our own. I mean agricultural science.
The most ancient of all operations, agriculture is one of the youngest of the sciences.
In this colony agriculture has been treated too much as it has been in past ages, rather
as a sort of operation to be performed by orthodox means with an uncertain result, than
as a scientific operation to be conducted on ascertained principles, and producing, when
so conducted, a definite result. From haphazard farming we have had even in this
province too many melancholy specimens of pecuniary ruin ; until agriculture takes its
legitimate place as a science we cannot hope it to be other than a record of manifest
failures and of unaccountable successes. It is true that your typical farmer is of the
most conservative type, and scouts the notion of science as applied to farming. He points
to this, that, and the other prosperous farmer, who, without an atom of scientific know-
ledge has been successful, and to this, that, and the other professedly scientific farmer,
who has gone to the dogs. But it is not so—the high farmer is not necessarily the
scientific farmer. The prosperous farmer, without scientific knowledge, is one who has
by intuitive perception seized and applied practically what science would teach the reason
409
of ; and our desire should be to reduce to law and order those things which have made
the one successful by accident, so that all engaged in the like pursuits may have the
benefit of that which has made the one successful. I do most earnestly ask our farming
friends to contribute to us, whether they jom us as members or no, the result of their
operations, whether successes or failures, and the processes and conditions which have led
to these results.
Tf I might be permitted to particularize on a subject of such importance, I would
specially ask for observations of facts in reference to the growth of, and substance afforded
to stock by the various grasses in our various soils. I would direct particular attention
to the alleged failure of perennial rye grass seed, so as to determine whether the failure
is owing to soil, climate, season, or other conditions. Only I would observe that what we
want are facts not opinions—the latter can be had abundantly—the former is what we
want. And so in regard to other crops. When a good one is grown of wheat, oats, or
potatoes, or a bad one, we shall ask a contribution of the facts and circumstances, the
soil, its previous culture, the subsoil, its nature and distance below, the season, and the
culture ; having these, we may, perhaps, be able to deduce general laws which would
prove valuable to our country settlers, and especially to new settlers ; not that we would
desire to trench on the domains of our cognate society, the New Zealand Agricultural
Society. Their business is more especially with results; ours is to work up from the
results to the effective cause, thus making the result, if successful, available to, if
unsuccessful, avoidable by, the mass of our settlers.
And here I cannot help adverting to the comparative apathy with which the liberal offer
of the Colonial Laboratery to analyse soils gratis has been responded to by our country
settlers. An hour or two’s labour would enable every farmer to know the composition of
his soil, a little more investigation would teach him wherein his soil was defective for
the growth of certain varieties of plants, and would guide him with considerable certainty,
not by rule of thumb, to apply stable manure, bone-dust, guano, phosphates, or other
manure to his land, so as to supply the missing or defective element in its composition.
Pardon me, gentlemen, if | have dwelt too long on agriculture, but I feel that the
products of the soil, whether in the shape of grain, wool, grass, meat, or minerals, are the
fundamental elements of our colonial prosperity, and as such deserve our most special
attention. And very nearly allied to agriculture, as a science,is the study of zoology.
A strange combination it may appear to some, and yet when we look at what our farmers
have suffered and will yet suffer, I venture to say, from the ravages of insects, it is not
such a strange combination of ideas as it seems. We have, indeed, endeavoured in a sort
of perfunctory manner, to cope with these insect enemies by the introduction through the
Acclimatisation Society of insectivorous birds. And yet how many questions has this
same action given rise to? What are the habits of our birds? First, of our native birds
—the morepork, the kingfisher, even the hawk. Then of our introduced birds, whose
habits in their native habitat we know, but what are their habits in the altered circum-
stances in which they are placed ; for instance, are our pheasants more insectivorous than
graminivorous? still an open question, I believe; and so, also, with regard to other
birds : and then comes the higher question of the adjustment of good and evil ; for what
seems good is not all good, and may become an evil, and what appears to be an evil
has good in it, too, and may be turned to good account. These only can be determined
by a series of accurate observations. :
In reference specially to the insect life of New Zealand we are comparatively ignorant,
and so we shall be till some one breeds from the caterpillar (the easiest obtainable form)
the chrysalis, and from thence the moth or butterfly ; and thence obtains the larve of
the caterpillar, and observing their habits in their various stages, enables us to determine
the appropriate remedy for their ravages. I specially commend this branch of scientific
enquiry to those whose position or habits enable them to indulge in a country or
suburban life.
But passing from those more apparently practical applications of scientific enquiry to
others but little less so, though less apparently so, I would point out to you that much
yet remains to be determined in New Zealand, even geographically. HEvenin this province,
extending as it does from lat. 39° to the North Cape, there is a large portion of 1¢ quite a
terra incognita save to afew. Might not those few, through our Society, make known
their knowledge to the many? And even in the well-known parts there are facts as to
the elevation and subsidence of the land, the creation of sandhills and their progress, and
conditions ; the occurrence of landslips and their conditions; the existence and_shift-
ing of sand-bars in or near our harbour, and their conditions ; the existence, temperature,
and qualities of hot springs in various localities ; these and many other geographical and
semi-geographical facts, would be well worth careful and systematic observation ; but
above all I would ask the members of this Society, and through them our settlers at large,
to devote some little attention to the history, mythology, ethnology, and archeology of
the native race. I do so specially, because they are rapidly passing away from under our
observation, as well as because I believe there still exists a rich mine for investigation and
410
record. Whence came they? and when came they to these islands? are questions wholly
undetermined, and we in this province have, I believe, alone the data for determining
them.
To do so satisfactorily will require a large collection of facts. Their true history, so
far as it can be ascertained; their mythical history, which is abundant if collected, as to
some extent it has been in the records of the Native Lands Court; their traditions and
poetry, which have been partially recorded by Sir George Grey and others ; the construc-
tion of their skulls ; the peculiarities of their language, which we may gain from Bishop
Williams, Archdeacon Maunsell, Mr. Colenso, Mr. Davis, and others ; the records of
their existence and works, exhibited in their enormous pip? beds, and in their hangis all
over the country ; their terraces on Mount Eden, and the other volcanic hills of this
isthmus ; their stone axes ; the shape and carving of their ornaments, their weapons and
canoes; all these would tend to throw light on the history of the race; but more
especially if any authentic account could yet be obtained of their ancient religion and
rites, it would be most valuable, and worthy of preservation. In this branch of enquiry,
we, —in this province—have advantages nowhere else possessed, and to us will belong the
disgrace of allowing the records of the native race to perish, if we fail to record them. I
ask you, therefore, gentlemen, to devote some part of your attention to this branch, and
to put on record every fact, every tale, every tradition, that you may happen to become
acquainted with.
There are various other branches of scientific enquiry to which I might direct atten-
tion, —biology, the science of animal life ; psychology, the science of mind; and many
others. But I fear I have already detained you too long with these discursive remarks
of mine. They will, I trust, be received as I have intended them—as aids or guides to
thought ; as germs, which, finding a resting place in some minds, one here, another there,
may produce fruit in the shape of contributions to our proceedings. And pardon me,
gentlemen, for reminding you that over and beyond the mere natural pleasure which is
to be obtained by the observation and contemplation of the wondrous records of nature,
and over and beyond the practical utilitarian advantages to be derived from the study,
there is the higher pleasure, the nobler advantage, of thereby bringing ourselves into
nearer communication with the great Creator of all. They are His works, His hand-
writing, to be read and studied by all men, and though they, like His written word, may
be misunderstood, or misrepresented, yet we believe that He will grant to the humble,
earnest student, a knowledge of the truth.
The fallacy is now well-nigh exploded that’ the study of physical science tends to
make men materialists, and to lead them to conclusions antagonistic to the teachings of
revelation. This fallacy or prejudice has arisen in great part from the foolish idolatry
with which we have long looked on the Bible as being the Word of God, instead of accepting
it as what it professes to be, only a Word of God. As a recent writer well puts it, there
in one only who is the Word. The records of nature are as truly His word as His written
revelation, and are His own fingers’ writing, not passed through the filter of human
language, uncorrupted by age or translations, and are not more liable to be misunderstood
or misinterpreted than what we have been accustomed to call the Word. Both being His
words, they are complementary of each other; their teachings cannot be antagonistic ;
they will throw mutual light on each other. The humble student of nature will as surely
be led up to a knowledge of, and communion with the great Father of all, as will the
student of theology.
That we may be enabled to cultivate humility in our pursuit of knowledge is, I feel
sure, your desire, as it is mine, that we may increase the numbers of our seekers after
knowledge ; that we may be able to contribute to the increase of knowledge is the object
of our Society. A truly noble object it is, and we may well say with the poet—
“* Knowledge is of things we see ;
And yet we trust it comes from Thee:
A beam in darkness let it grow :
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell:
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before,
But vaster.”
Gentlemen, I have much pleasure in now declaring the second session of the Institute
open for transaction of business. -
Papers read :—
(1.) **On the Puka (Meryta Sinclairii),” by T. Kirk. (See ante, p. 100.) The
author exhibited specimens obtained from the Taranga Island, where he had recently
discovered it.
Captain Hutton remarked that he had accompanied Mr. Kirk on his expedition to
the Hen and Chickens in search of these plants, and they had found eight on one of the
411
Chickens, but they were unable to find any on the Hen. He thought it not improbable
that those eight were the only plants of the kind in existence, and they were ‘situated in
such a position as to render them all liable to be destroyed by a fire, were such an accident
to arise in consequence of fishermen touching at the island.
(2.) ‘‘On the introduction of the English and Chinese Pheasants into the Province of
Auckland,” by Captain Hutton, F.G.S. (See ante, p. 80.)
The Rev. T. Bruce inquired whether any attempt had ever been made to introduce
the English pheasant into that part of the province lying south of Auckland, by conveying
birds from Mangonui and liberating them in the neighbourhood of Auckland.
The President could not answer the inquiry of Mr. Bruce from his own personal
knowledge, but he thought the subject was one which gave rise to several interesting
questions. For instance, they had found from experience that, although the English
pheasant bred much quicker than the Chinese when in confinement, when the birds were
set at liberty the reverse was the case. Possibly they might at some future time have
papers laid before them by other members which would deal with these questions.
(3.) ‘*On the decrease of Honey in the Auckland Province,” by R. Todd. Extract
from a letter to the President :—‘‘ The natives inform me that it is no use looking for
honey in the bush, that the nests contain no honey now-a-days. Can this be that the
nature of the bee is changed—that finding flowers can be had at all seasons they lay up
no store for the winter? The kakas, or parrots, and also the kakarikis, or small green
parrots, are now very scarce, and rarely seen. The natives tell me the bees are driving
them away by usurping their ruas, or habitats, and that consequently the kakas are
decreasing.”
Captain Hutton could not agree with the conclusions contained in the letter. He was
doubtful, in the first place, whether honey was becoming more scarce in the bush, but,
even were such the case, as the honey was stored for the young he did not think that
the bees would trust to so uncertain a supply as they would be able to obtain from the
flowers in winter. He was not quite sure whether the bees did not hybernate in winter.
With regard to the bird mentioned by Mr. Todd, he had known instances where the birds
mentioned were most plentiful during a season when honey was also abundant.
The President observed that bees certainly did not hybernate here during the winter,
as on fine days during that season he had seen them buzzing about as much as in the
middle of summer. He thought it was doubtful whether the bird spoken of by Mr. Todd
could be called a honey-eating bird, for although it certainly did eat honey he had known
in the South instances of whole fields of corn being stripped by it, and sometimes even
the straw thatch torn off barns by flocks of the birds.
(4.) ‘On Artificial Stone,” by Dr. Purchas. The author observed, that some time ago
he had written to the Company which had been started in England for the preparation of
artificial stone, making some inquiries regarding the solution required for the hardening
of the material. The stone was coming into great use, and had been found much more
durable and waterproof than brick. In reply he had received full information regarding
the process, and would like a sub-committee appointed to investigate the matter, in
conjunction with himself, with a view to bringing it under the notice of the Society. He
had at first written inquiring into the system for the purpose of adapting it to the iron
sand ; but as the question of working the sand had been practically settled, it was not of
much value for that purpose then. It might, however, be applied for the preservation of
some public buildings, such as the Supreme Court, where he understood the Bath stone
was crumbling away. The damp brick houses might also be improved by a coating of the
solution. He had applied some of the solution to asmall quantity of iron sand, a specimen
of which he had brought for the inspection of the members, and from which it would be
seen that the sand could be hardened. A
The President thought the matter was more one for the consideration of the council
of the Society than for a general meeting.
TuHirpD Mertine. July 5, 1869.
T. B. Gillies, President, in the chair.
The names of the following new members were announced :—Messrs. J. Roberton,
J. S. Macfarlane, EK. Wayte, F. E. Manning, D. O’Keefe, A. Lascelles, T. Morrin,
G. M. Mitford, J. A. Wilson, J. M‘Effer Shera, Major Mair.
A list of donations to the Museum was read by the Secretary.
Memoranda respecting the Tidal Phenomena observed in New Zealand in August
last, compiled by Mr. J. M. Wayland, were read by the Secretary. (See Vol, i. p. 101.)
Dr. Purchas remarked that shortly after the time it occurred some very interesting
accounts of the tidal wave appeared in the newspapers, and it would it be well if the
Secretary could obtain these also, and preserve them along with Mr. Wayland’s
memoranda,
HHH
412
Mr. J. A. Wilson said he had made many inquiries amongst the old inhabitants about
a wave that reached the Bay of Islands shortly after the great earthquake at Concepcion,
but he had not been able to glean many particulars.
The Chairman said they could easily ascertain the telegraphic times of the late tidal
wave’s impinging on New Zealand, as these were recorded at the time, and transmitted
to the General Government.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘‘On the Surface-fall of Water, as a guide for Under Drainage,” by J. Baber, C.E.
(See ante, p. 213.)
Mr. Stewart, C.E., said Mr. Baber’s plan was very good so long as the ground was
pretty regular, but it would not do for a rolling field where the drains could not be put
in. - In all cases he was of opinion the chains should be placed as nearly parallel as
possible, whether they were 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, or 22 feet apart, and so on, but not at
right angles to the contour, The smaller drains might be of one and a-half inch tiles, and
the larger of three inches, with a main drain also at right angles. The object of a drain
was not only to take water off the surface, but also to let water and air into it.
Captain Hutton was disposed to agree with Mr. Baber, for if the ground was steep
and the line of swiftest descent chosen, the drains would speedily choke.
Mr. Buckland said they might place their drains as they pleased, but water would
go downhill, and the steeper the quicker.
Mr. Baber: But suppose you have a hill?
Mr. Buckland: We take them round a hill, and then we must take off the water
slowly. One of the greatest difficulties was when they came to a land spring ; they must
tap that.
‘ Mr. David Hay said they would find a good guide to draining in the vegetation that
grew on the top of 1t. No general rule could be laid down, however, except for clay soils,
and for these only if of an equal medium. Sometimes they were placed 15 or 20 feet apart,
according to the quality of the soil. All drains should be angled where the ground was
steep, but those drains that were semi-circular had been found to draw better. The
ditches should also be well scoured out, and wells sunk at the mouth of each drain. It
was well known that drained ground was several degrees warmer than the undrained, and
where air and moisture got to the roots of plants vegetation proceeded better.
Mr. Buckland said he believed that deep drains, or any kind of drains, were of little
value unless they also subsoiled the‘ground. In the neighbourhood of Mangere it had
been observed that the drains did not carry off the water as before, and the cause, he
thought, was that the land had been ‘‘puddled” by the cattle. The effect of draining
on the potato crop was in some cases very remarkable. Immediately over the drain the
potatoes were saved, while all around they were lost with rot for want of proper drainage.
He doubted if Mr. Baber’s theory could be reduced to practice, for nothing, in his opinion,
could regulate drainage but the gravitation of the water.
Mr. Boardman said they had just heard two statements that he could not reconcile.
Mr. Buckland said the potatoes were saved by being over the drain, and yet Mr. Stewart
said they were required to put water into the ground. Now, there was no logical
sequence in the two statements, for on Mr. Buckland’s theory the potatoes supplied with
the additional water would rot.
Mr. Stewart: But when sub-soiling and deep-drainage are carried out, the sub-soil
becomes the right soil, and the surplus water is taken off by deep drains.
Captain Hutton said, with reference to the remark of Mr. Buckland that deep drains
did not carry off water now so quickly as formerly, he might observe that the surface of
the volcanic soil of New Zealand was not soil, but soil in the process of formation.
Volcanic soils do not decompose very rapidly, as we see at the Shortland diggings, where
the soil is a tenacious mud. Where the soil is light and porous, drainage is easy, but
light volcanic soils will get heavier; and he thought, if the drains alluded to by Mr.
Buckland were too far apart, that would account for the difference.
Mr. Baber said that drains should always be at right angles to the contour of the
land.
The Chairman said that no rule was applicable, but there were a few general rules
that might serve as a guide. Mr. Baber’s plan not to run the drain straight across had
not been well understood, but these drains would then lie in the line of steepest descent,
while, by placing them at right angles to the contour, Mr. Baber only stated what was in
harmony with a general law.
(2.) A communication from Mr. Hawkins, North Shore, relative to the decrease in
the quantity of honey found in beehives was read by the Secretary, in which the author
gave, as his opinion, that the reason was owing to the honey-producing shrubs being
destroyed by browsing, and that the honey-yielding districts had become overstocked
with bees.
Mr. Buckland said his son was a bee-man, and his experience corroborated the
observations that had been made this night, and at previous meetings. He had found
413
that the bees only produced as much honey as would keep the young bees alive, and
therefore when he found the bees were not making honey he removed it.
Dr. Horne said he did not think it was so much owing to the browsing of the cattle
as to certainty of food at all seasons. The very same thing had been observed in New
Plymouth, when he first settled there. The bees had plenty of clover, and when they
found that they could get honey in the winter as well as in the summer they did not lay
up any.
i (3.) ‘On the Latent Heat contained in the aqueous vapour in the Atmosphere,” by
J. A. Wilson.* This paper had appeared in the form of letters in the ‘‘ Daily Southern
Cross,” of November 19, 1864, and of December 24, 1864, under the heading, ‘‘ Remarks
on Australian and New Zealand Climatology, relative to our droughts, rains, and hot
winds.” In his introductory remarks, Mr. Wilson said that his opinions on the
subject were almost identical with those laid down by Professor Tyndall, in his famous
lectures on heat.
Dr. Purchas said he had observed one kind of rain upon the leaves of plants, in very
ae drops overhanging the edges of the leaves, and he could not say what was the reason
of it.
Mr. Stewart said there might be a difference in the leaves ; if there was any in the
rain it would show in analysis, and might depend on the atmospheric state at the time,
and it might have a different effect on different plants. Mr. Wilson’s paper had been
most admirably got up, and would require much time for discussion. With reference to
steam, the latent heat depends on the pressure of the steam, and it was ascertained by the
greater quantity of water that would be required to reduce the steam to a working
temperature, say of 100 degrees, and this even though the pressure of steam may be
reduced by expansion.
Dr. Purchas said that we must recollect that steam at high pressure was a different
thing from steam at low temperature. High-pressure steam dissolves silica in caustic
soda, but low-pressure steam will not. As for the rain on the leaves, kind has nothing
whatever to do with the leaf, it is a peculiar description of rain, almost always
accompanied by sickness. When it happened he always observed there was something
very peculiar about the condition of the atmosphere.
Mr. Peacock said it was a very valuable paper that Mr. Wilson had just read, and
would require consideration for some time. In reference to Mr. Stewart’s remarks upon
steam, he, Mr. Peacock, was of opinion that the latent heat was not solely due to the
pressure.
Mr. Stewart said his remarks had reference to steam produced in a partial vacuum,
where it could not flash like gunpowder into vapour at once. Ice would not immediately
dissolve when dropped into boiling water—latent heat requires some time to be reduced.
It was latent not so much in a partial vacuum, and conversely much more in a high-
pressure boiler.
Mr. Wilson said Professor Tyndall gives latent heat as equivalent to concealed heat,
and he speaks of potential heat, possible heat, possible energy, possible power, dynamical
energy, which is temperature, ete. In lifting a weight, for instance, a certain quantity of
heat was expended in the action of drawing the arm up. We might speak of the
difference between two substances, and the atoms in that substance. Weight has a power
—a possible power. And if we take water, heat is a potent power in that substance,
keeping apart the molecules, and expanding it. When the potential energy passes off,
the actual energy takes place. Steam, for mstance, can be evaporated at 32°, as well as
at any higher temperature. ’
Captain Hutton said the paper was a most valuable one, and it was certainly a
curious question how the rain drops were so large when they fell, and how they came to
grow so rapidly in falling.
After some further remarks the meeting adjourned.
FourtH MEgEtTinc. August 16, 1869.
T. B. Gillies, President, in the chair.
The names of the following new members were announced :—Dr. W. W. Watling,
Dr. B. C. Beale, Dr. S. H. Ford, Mr. F. H. Meinertzhagen.
A list of donations to the Museum was read by the Secretary.
Papers read :— :
(1.) ‘‘On the Geology of the North Head of Manukau Harbour,” by Captain
Hutton, F.G.S. (See ante, p. 161.) The paper described the formation of the locality
treated upon, which is composed chiefly of volcanic rocks. It contained an interesting
* Sent to author for revision, 26th January, 1869 ; not yet returned, March 25.—Ep.
414
account of the bearing of the lava streams and trachytic dykes, and treated of the
resemblance which a portion of the district bears to the formation upon which Shortland
and Grahamstown are built.
(2.) ‘‘ An account of a remarkable Phenomenon observed at a Hot Spring near Lake
Taupo,” by Captain J. G. Corbett. The phenomenon described occurred on the 3rd of
January, 1869, about eleven o’clock in the evening, when the writer was disturbed in a
whare near Lake Taupo by a sound resembling the rushing of a strong wind. On going
outside he observed a large column of vapour, which was being ejected from a hot spring
near at hand, to a height of 200 feet.
The President remarked that the natives assigned the rise and fall of the waters in
the chain of Rotorua Lakes to atmospheric causes.
Mr. Wilson observed that there was little doubt that the meteorological conditions
had a considerable influence on the hot springs, but it was difficult to define their exact
action. He questioned whether the greater density of the polar over the equatorial
winds would be sufficient to account for all the changes in the state of the springs. The
wind had a different effect on different springs at the same time. In some cases the
tendency of an equatorial wind was to depress and in others to expand the waters. The
condition of waters of the various springs, too, was not uniform, some being largely
charged with mineral matter, while in others it was almost totally absent. They were
also largely charged with gases, which he believed had a considerable influence on the
eruptions, and if a light were applied to the waters of some a flame would be observable
from the combustion of the gas emitted. A fire lighted near the springs would also at
times have the effect of causing an eruption, but whether the result was brought about
by the expansion of the steam or gases by the heat, he had not sufficient data to decide.
Within a few miles of the spot indicated by Mr. Corbett, he had before seen eruptions,
but he thought that the action of the geysers was subsiding.
(3.) ‘*On the Grasses and other Plants adapted for pasturage in the Province of
Auckland,” by T. Kirk. (See ante, p. 102.) In this paper the author described the
most suitable native and introduced grasses, which were carefully classified for the benefit
of the agriculturist and botanical student. The paper contained a mass of information on
the subject, which would prove most useful to those interested in pasturage,
Mr. May suggested that it would be most advantageous were the Acclimatisation
Society to plant various patches of different kinds of grasses to ascertain which sorts are
best adapted to the climate of the colony.
FirtH Meretine. September 20, 1869.
T. B. Gillies, President, in the chair.
The names of the following new members were announced :—Messrs. E. Maclean,
J. Gwynneth, H. Williams, and H. Campbell.
The list of donations to the Museum during the past month was read by the
Secretary.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘‘Description of Nyroca australis, Gould, and dstrelata Gouldii, Hutt., n.s.,
two Birds new to the Fauna of New Zealand,” by Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. (See
ante, p. 78.)
I epee of Astrelata Gouldii was exhibited.
Mr. Kirk remarked that it was barely possible the Mstrelata Gouldii might be
identical with the original Procellaria macroptera, the differences being those of age only.
The description in each case was drawn from a single specimen. It must, however, be
pointed out that this view was scarcely supported by the relative measurements of the
two forms.
(2.) ‘* On the occurrence of Orobanche, a genus new to the Flora of New Zealand,”
by T. Kirk. (See ante, p. 106.)
(3.) ‘Description of the Lava Caves at the ‘Three Kings,’ near Auckland,” by James
Stewart, C.E. (See ante, p. 162.)
(4.) ‘*On the Comparative Performances of certain River Steamers on the Waikato,”
by James Stewart, C.E. (See ante, p. 220.)
(5.) ‘‘Diary of a Canoe Voyage up the Waikato and Waipa Rivers, in September
and October, 1852,” by the late Dr. Sinclair,—read by the President. (Reserved. )
415
StxtH Mretine. October 18, 1869.
T. B. Gillies, President, in the chair.
The names of the following new members were announced :—Dr,. Nisbett, and Mr.
J. H. Upton.
Mr, Gillies said the first business they were called on to transact was the election of
one of the members to vote for the governors of the New Zealand Institute: when the
affiliated societies numbered only three, each elected a governor ; but when they exceeded
that number, each must nominate one of its own body.
Mr. Whitaker proposed ‘‘ That the President be nominated to vote on behalf of the
affiliated society, for a governor of the New Zealand Institute.” Major Heaphy seconded
the motion, which was unanimously agreed to.
A list of donations to the Institute during the last month, was read by the Secretary,
among which was, a magnificent specimen of auriferous quartz, from the claim of the Long
Drive Company ; also, very curious specimens of crystallised auriferous quartz, from the
claim of the Una Company—these were a blue casing, with white crystals, the gold bemg
scattered upon it like spangles. Also, specimens of auriferous quartz from the gold mines
of Hungary and Transylvania.
Captain Hutton said the specimens exhibited had been sent to him by Dr. Hector,
who, he believed, had received them from Dr. Haast. They corresponded very nearly
with the auriferous rock of the Thames, except that there was rather more silica in the
European specimens. Although there might be more valuable minerals in a specimen
from one place, more than was to be found in a specimen taken from a different place, yet
that did not alter the description under which the stone might be classed. There was more
lead and silver found with gold in the Hungarian mines than was found here, so much
that the silver mines had become more valuable than those which produced gold. The
stone exhibited was described as volcanic tufa, by the Imperial Survey of Austria. He
believed there was a good deal of controversy in reference to the subject, but he thought
the Survey Department of the Austrian Government had much better means of knowing,
and were more likely to be correct, than private individuals.
Papers read :—
(QL) Orn the Discovery of Isoétes, and other genera of Rhizocarpe, new to the Flora
of New Zealand,” by T. Kirk. (See ante, p. 107.)
(aye On Epacris purpurascens,” by T. Kirk, who exhibited several specimens of
this plant, which had been first observed by Dr. Sinclair, in the neighbourhood of
Papakura, to which locality it appeared to be confined. (See ante, p. 107.)
(3.) ‘*On the Structure of the Leaf of Phormium tenam,” by Captain Hutton, F.G.S.
(See ante, p. 111.)
(4.) “On the New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax),” by Major Heaphy, V.C. (See
ante, p. 116.)
Archdeacon Williams, Captain Hutton, Captain Heale, and Major Heaphy, V.C.,
took part in the discussion which followed the reading of these papers.
The President urged that more papers such as that by Captain Hutton were much
wanted. At present, there seemed to be no agreement as to even the names by which the
different varieties of flax were known to the natives.
Captain Hutton said that, whatever kind might be chosen for cultivation, whether
‘* tihore ” or some other, years must pass before it could be of commercial importance.
The common flax would have to be depended on for some time to come. The ‘‘tihore”
was so rare at present, that unless a very much higher price than ordinary could be
obtained for its fibre, it would not pay anybody to deal with that plant by itself. Was
‘‘tihore ” ever found wild?
Major Heaphy, V.C., said that he had found it in parts of the island which red not
been inhabited or cultivated for many generations. It was to be found in one part of the
Domain, on the left from Mechanics’ Bay, but he had found at the roots of the plants
the shells of edible fishes, showing that the natives had been there.
Captain Heale said that he believed it would be found that very much which was
known as to flax had been forgotten. In 1841, there was at Rugeley, in Staffordshire, a
factory specially for the manufacture of canvas, etc., from New Zealand flax. It happened
thar he became possessed of £100 worth of that canvas ; and a schooner which he had
was fitted with a complete set of sails out of that canvas. He was not sure that he did
not still possess, in England, some cambric handkerchiefs, made of flax ; and in France,
flax was at that time much used for covering the wood of tassels, because the fibre took
dye to perfection, and, at a short distance, when so used, could not be distinguished
from silk.
The Secretary thought it doubtful whether, for commercial purposes, the fibre of any
particular variety of flax would be found to have a decided superiority over that of the
common variety.
Specimens of the principal varieties of flax were exhibited by Captain Hutton.
416
SeventH Mretine. November 15, 1869.
The Rey. D. Bruce in the chair.
“The names of two new members were announced :—Messrs. Hugh Hart Lusk, and
George Thompson Chapman. :
A list of donations to the Museum was read by the Secretary.
_ Papers read :—
(1.) ‘*On the occurrence of the New Zealand Frog (Leiopelma Hochstetteri) at the
Puriri Creek, Thames ; with an Account of a peculiar feature in the habits of an Aus-
tralian Frog,” by Alexander Aitken, second officer of the late Victorian Hxploring
Expedition. (See ante, p. 87.)
A specimen of Leiopelma Hochsteiteri, from Puriri Creek, accompanied the paper.
(2.) ‘‘OGn Drainage Operations at the Remuera Swamp,” by J. Baber, C.E. (See
ante, p. 219.)
In the course of the discussion which ensued, Mr. Baber drew attention to the
numerous subterranean currents of water in the lava field of Mount Eden, and which
formed the source of supply to the swamps and streams having their outlet at Coxe’s
Creek. Certain wells in the Epsom district appear to tap these streams, as they are never
dry, while other wells, within a few yards even, and at much greater depths, are often
dry.
Dr. Purchas remarked that after the floods of Ash Wednesday last, when the traffic
was stopped at Penrose, new springs broke out in Onehunga, and continued in operation
for some time. Wells sunk through the scoria in Onehunga yielded at the same level ;
but there was a difference of ten or twelve feet in the height of the water during the
summer and winter seasons. A lava field was like a vast sponge, collecting the surplus
water of the winter and storing it for future use.
Mr. W. Buckland considered that the flood at Penrose was in all probability caused
by the discharge from the Ellerslie slaughter house having blocked up the usual outlet
from St. John’s Lake, and forced it to seek another channel.
Dr. Purchas said that Mr. Buckland’s statement at once explained what had been
a great puzzle to the inhabitants ef Onehunga ; their water supply, usually remarkable
for its extreme purity, had cf late been slightly tainted.
(3.) ‘On the Naturalized Piants of New Zealand, specially with regard to those
occurring in the Province of Auckland,” by T. Kirk. (See ante, p. 131.)
Mr. W. Buckland observed that he had lately observed the so-called Chilian
groundsel in great abundance, and of unusual luxuriance near Taupo. He should like to
know if Mr. Kirk considered the Rat’s-tail grass native or introduced.
Dr. Purchas remarked that he had listened to the reading of the paper with great
interest, and trusted the interesting questions it suggested would receive the attention
they merited from members of the Institute during the recess.
Mr. Kirk stated that the so-called Chilian groundsel was Hrigeron canadensis, a native
of North America, which, since the middle of the seventeenth century, had spread over
the world. The Rat’s-tail grass was Sporobolus elongatus, aud he believed it to be a true
native ; although an exotic grass, Selaria italica, which Mr. Bassett informed him had
been introduced within the last ten years was often growing with it in the Otahuhu
district. He pointed out the value of records of the first appearance of naturalized plants
in any district with regard to the important subject of their powers of diffusion, and
urged the members of the Institute to place facts of this kind upon record.
(4.) ‘‘On Improvements in the Processes for extracting and saving Gold,” by
T. Heale, C.E. (See ante, p. 174.)
Dr. Purchas remarked that he considered the mode of assay and separation, suggested
by the author of the paper, just read, not only feasible, but the best that had been
proposed ; it was, in fact, identical with the first process employed by Mr. Ransen, in
the production of his patent concrete, he dissolved flints in caustic potash under pressure ;
and auriferous quartz differed essentially from flint only in the presence of metals.
Mr. James Stewart spoke of the ease with which pressure could be applied by means
of steam ; the material to be operated upon being placed in iron retorts furnished with
safety valves, and surrounded by clay. He believed that specimen-crushings would
never take place if this plan were adopted.
Mr. W. Buckland considered that most of the gold lost in the process of extraction
was lost from its connection with pyrites, and therefore that the results of Mr. Heale’s
plan would be nil. He believed that twenty-five per cent. of the entire quantity of gold
in the quartz was lost from this cause. ;
Mr, Heale did not believe that so large a proportion of gold was lost at the Thames,
except under special conditions ; his impression was that with the general run of stuff the
gold was extracted fairly, perhaps not perfectly. It was at times difficult to ascertain
417
when low returns were to be referred to imperfect machinery, and when to inferior
qualities of material. He had seen gold which yielded fitty per cent. of silver.
The Chairman remarked upon the importance of the members of the Institute work-
ing, during the recess, for the furtherance of the objects for which it was formed, and
declared the second session of the Auckland Institute to be closed.
PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.
SESSION OF 1868-9.
PROCEEDINGS.
GENERAL Meetine. November 4, 1868.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
On the motion of Mr. Nottidge, it was resolved,—‘‘That in the opinion of this
meeting it is desirable that the rules be revised, and that the Rev. James Wilson, and
Messrs. Davie, Fereday, and the mover, be appointed to draw up new rules, and report
to the next meeting.”
Papers read :—
- (1.) “£On the removal of the left upper jaw, for Cancer,” illustrated by photographs,
by J. 8. Turnbull, M.D.
(2.) ‘‘On Delirium Tremens,” by J. 8. Turnbull, M.D. :
(3.) ‘On the earlier Harthquake Waves observed on the coast of New Zealand,” by
C. Davie, Chief Surveyor. (See ante, p. 222.)
Second Mretine. December 2, 1868.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
The President (Dr. Haast) laid before the meeting ‘‘ Maps of the World,” and
“‘Charts of the Stars,” by Colonel Sir Henry James, which had been presented to the
Institute by Mr. W. Packe.
The Secretary stated that a number of scientific works had been lent to the Institute
by Dr. Powell.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘On four fishes commonly found in the River Avon; with a consideration
of the question, What is Whitebait ?” by Ll. Powell, M.R.C.S.St.A. (See ante, p. 84.)
A discussion ensued, resulting in the following motion by Dr. Turnbull, being carried :—
“That Messrs. Davie, Fereday, and Nottidge be appointed a committee to watch over the
progress of the fishes mentioned in Dr. Powell’s paper, and also specially to carry out the
two suggestions with which the paper terminated.”
(2.) ‘‘On a new species of Seal,” by the Rev. C. Fraser, M.A., F.G.S., who identified
it with the genus Stenorhyncus leptonyx, but suspected it might ultimately be established
as a distinct genus. (See ante, p. 33.)
(3.) ‘‘On the Geographical Distribution of Plants in New Zealand,” by J. Haast,
Ph.D., F.R.S. This paper was introductory to one by Mr. J. F. Armstrong, ‘‘On the
Vegetation of the neighbourhood of Christchurch, including Riccarton, Dry Bush, and
Hoon Hay Bush,” which was next read. (See ante, p. 118.)
On the motion of the Honorary Secretary (Rev. C. Fraser), it was resolved to refer
to the Council, the consideration of how Mr. Armstrong might be induced to prepare and
publish an account of the Botany of the Christchurch District, and to what extent the
Institute should be prepared to contribute towards the expenses of the publication,
418
TutrpD Mretinec. March 17, 1869.
His Honor W. Rolleston in the chair.
Messrs. J. E. Fitzgerald, and L. C. Powell were elected honorary members of the
Institute.
Eight volumes of a Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, being a present
from that Museum to the Canterbury Museum, were laid on the table.
Paper read :—
*¢ An Enquiry into the applicability of the Doctrines of Political Economy to Colonies,”
(Introductory), by J. 8. Turnbull, M.D.
FourtH Merrtine. May 5, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
Mr. Edward Dobson, C.E. (late Vice President) was elected an honorary member of
the Society.
On the motion of the Honorary Secretary (Rev. C. Fraser), it was resolved,—‘‘ That
an address from the Council of the Institute should be sent to Mr. E. Dobson, on the
occasion of bis election as an honorary member.
On the motion of the Honorary Secretary, it was resolved, —‘‘ That it is desirable to
make the year of the Institute commence with January Ist, and terminate with December
31st, and that, in order to arrange this, members be requested to pay a subscription of
one guinea for the half year, ending 3lst December, of the current year.”
Paper read :—
‘On a specimen of Berardius Arnusxii, or Ziphid Whale, captured at New Brighton,”
by J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S. (See ante, p. 190.)
The Honorary Secretary (Rev. C. Fraser) drew attention to the improvements made
by Mr. G. Cawood upon the nautical compass ; and the following resolution was adopted:
—‘‘ That Messsrs. Jollie, Davie, Triphook, and G. W. Hall be appointed a Committee to
confer with Mr. Cawood respecting his alleged improvements upon the nautical compass.”
Firta Meretine. June 2, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
The President laid on the table a copy of the report of the Government Botanist and
Director of the Botanical Garden at Melbourne, for the year 1868.
Mr. E. Fereday exhibited some specimens of the Sesia Tipuliformis, a species of
what are commonly known as Clear-winged Moths, which are very destructive to currant
bushes.
The Secretary laid on the table copies of the ‘‘ Transactions and Proceedings of the
New Zealand Institute, Vol. i., 1868.”
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘‘On a Collection of Saurian Remains from the Waipara River,” by J. Haast,
Ph. D., F.R.S., who described the animal as belonging. to the Amphisulia, animals of a
more fish-like character than the existing crocodiles, and marine in their habits. In
addition to a drawing of certain remains sent to England by Mr. J. H. C. Hood, some
organic remains were exhibited, including a vertebra of a Plesiosaurus found near the
same place, with portions of femur, tibia, and paddle bones. (See ante, p. 186.)
(2.) ‘*On University Education, as adapted to the circumstances and prospects of
‘the Colony of New Zealand,” by the Rev. C. Fraser, M.A., F.G.S. (See ante, p. 192.)
A lengthy discussion ensued, in which the Rev. Canon Wilson, the Rey. C. Fraser,
Dr. Turnbull, Dr. Haast, and Messrs. Tancred and Davie took part.
Sixtu Merrrine. vuly 7, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
The report of the Council, for the year ending June 30, 1869, was read by the
Honorary Secretary (Rev. C. Fraser), and on the motion of Mr. F. E. Wright, was
adopted. The following is an abstract :—
419
The Council in presenting this report to the members of the Institute, feel that they
have just cause for congratulation in the marked success which has attended the meetings
of the lnstitute throughout the year, and in the increased number of members.
One of the most important events connected with the Institute has been its incorpo-
ration with the New Zealand Institute under the Act of the General Assembly, by which
that Society was established. Among the conditions of incorporation it is stipulated that
one-third of the annual income of the Institute shall be devoted either to a local Museum
or Public Library, or that one-sixth of the income shall be remitted to Wellington, to be
expended there upon the Colonial Museum by the Governors of the New Zealand Institute.
In accordance with this condition, one-third of the income of this Institute has been
appropriated to the Museum under the direction of the President (Dr. Haast). The
Council are persuaded that the members of the Institute made a wise selection in deter-
mining upon this object. They have helped to promote the efficiency of an institution
which must always be of the highest value in the prosecution of scientific researches, and
which is intimately connected with the immediate objects of the Institute itself.
The establishment of the New Zealand Institute, with which this Society is now
incorporated, must be regarded as of especial importance, as forming a bond of connection
between the various local scientific societies of the colony, and as introducing an element
of permanence, which has hitherto been wanting to their efforts. The publication of a
selection of the papers read before this and similar societies is a further benefit of which
the members have a valuable proof in the recently published volume of the Transactions
of the New Zealand Institute.
The efforts made by the President (Dr. Haast) to supplement the vote passed in the
Provincial Council for the erection of new buildings for the Museum, are deserving of
special notice in this place ; the subscriptions obtained by him, amounting to £463, have
secured the adoption of an enlarged plan with some additions of an ornamental character
in keeping with the purpose for which the building is intended.
Among the objects contemplated by the Institute, may be named the appointment of
two or more members to write the history of the colonizing and progress of Canterbury,
under the general direction and superintendence of the Council.
Also, the publication of a work on the Botany of the neighbourhood of Christchurch,
by Mr. J. F. Armstrong, Government Gardener,—under the auspices of the Institute.
Committees have also been appointed for the collection of information upon various
subjects of public interest, and from these, if re-appointed, useful reports may be expected
during the course of this session.
Since the Ist of July sixteen original papers have been read before the Institute.
Numerous gifts have been received by the Institute.
Copies of the first volume of the ‘‘ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute” have
been received for distribution among members, and application has been made for a further
supply.
In the volume of ‘‘Transactions” for next year, a selection from the papers read
before this Institute, will also appear, following up those which have been given in the
first volume.
It rests with the Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute to make the
selection, while it falls to the members of this Society to elect one of their members to a
place at the Board.
A sum of £36 18s. 6d. has been expended in providing suitable accommodation for
the members of the Institute, at their place of meeting, and also for the books and other
gifts deposited there. The room of the Institute is open to members at any time. A sum
of one hundred pounds sterling has been remitted to England, for the purchase of valuable
scientific works of reference ; a copy of the list forwarded lies open for the inspection of
members, and a suggestion book has been provided in which members may inscribe the
names of such additional works as they would recommend to the Council for purchase
during next year.
A change has been made in the commencement and termination of the annual pro-
ceedings of the Society, in order to bring them into full agreement with those of the New
Zealand Institute ; and for the purpose of effecting this alteration, members will be asked
to pay one guinea each as their subscription for the half-year ending December 31st of the
present year. Wor the future the yearly accounts and proceedings of the Institute will
date from the Ist of January to the 3lst of December of each year.
The progress which has been made during the past year encourages the Council to
hope that the Institute will become increasingly serviceable in promoting the interests of
science, as a depdt, where all recorded observations of natural phenomena will be received
and attended to, and where men of literary and scientific pursuits or tastes may meet for
the interchange of ideas. The number and character of the papers read before the Insti-
tute may be taken as a very satisfactory evidence of the importance attached to such
pursuits in a young colonial society.
Christchurch, July 8, 1869.
WT
420
On the motion of Dr. Turnbull, the Honorary Secretary was directed to have the
Report printed.
The Honorary Treasurer, J. W. S. Coward, L.S.A., read a statement of the receipts
and expenditure during the year, which was approved of, and ordered to be printed.
Dr. Haast, F.R.S., gave a verbal description of some moa remains, and specimens of
flint and stone implements, discovered in certain ovens of Moa-hunters’ encampments,
situated near the mouth of the Rakaia.
A lengthened discussion ensued on the probable age of these remains.
SEVENTH Meetine. August 4, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
The President (Dr. Haast) read a letter from W. H. Flower, F.R.S., Curator of the
Royal College of Surgeons, England, relative to contributions to the Canterbury Museum ;
also, letters from Professor Agassiz, on the same subject.
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘‘Sanitary Measures to be adopted for the prevention of Small Pox,” by
Dr. Frankish.
(2.) ‘On Sewage Irrigation and its results, with a sketch of the main drainage
systems of London and Paris,” by Selby Tancred, Assoc. Inst. C.E. (See ante,
p. 214.)
EieutH Merertine. September 1, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
Mr. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., was elected an honorary member.
The election of officers for the ensuing year was then proceeded with.
Dr. J. Haast, F.R.S., was re-elected President, and the Rev. Canon Wilson, and
T. Nottidge, were elected Vice-Presidents.
J. W. S. Coward, L.S8.A., was re-elected Honorary Treasurer, and the Rev. C. Fraser,
M.A., F.G.8., Honorary Secretary.
The following gentlemen were chosen members of the Council :—C. Davie, E. Fereday,
EK. Jollie, H. J. Tancred, W. Rolleston, and 8. Tancred.
On the motion of the Rev. C. Fraser, the following resolution was adopted :—‘‘ That
the Council be instructed to postpone the annual dinner of the members of the Institute
from the middle of September until the 8th of October next, that day being the hundredth
anniversary of the landing of Captain Cook in New Zealand.”
On the motion of Mr. Nottidge, it was resolved,—‘‘ That it is expedient a section
should be established for the prosecution of microscopical researches, in order that
members may have opportunities of meeting and working together with fewer formal
restraints than are necessary at the ordinary meetings of the Institute.”
On the motion of Mr. Nottidge, it was resolved, —‘‘ That the Council be requested to
purchase, for the Institute, a good microscope, and such accessory apparatus as they shall
deem advisable. And that for the above purpose the Council be authorised to expend a
sum not exceeding forty pounds sterling.”
Papers read :—
(1.) ‘On the Geology and Paleontology of the Waipara District,” by Dr. Haast,
F.R.S. The writer expressed his opinion that while the Saurian remains found in the
district were undoubtedly similar to those of the late Secondary, or Cretaceous strata, in
Europe, the shells and plants were as decidedly Tertiary, judging by the European
standard. [Printed with Reports of Geol. Survey N. Z., 1869-70. ]
A discussion followed, in which Messrs. Bowen, Nottidge, and the Rev. C. Fraser
took part.
(2.) ‘The earth of New Zealand a bad conductor of Electricity, as compared with
that of other countries,” by F. E. Wright. (See ante, p. 226.) ;
(3.) ‘‘On the structure and colour of the fibre of Phormiwm tenax,” by T. Nottidge.
(See ante, p. 108.)
Ninto Meetine. October 6, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
Two volumes of the ‘‘ Official Catalogue of the Exhibition of 1862,” presented by
Mr. Enys to the Institute, were laid upon the table. :
The Honorary Secretary (Rev. C. Fraser) stated that it was necessary, at this
421
meeting, to choose a member to take part in the election of Governors of the New Zealand
Institute, in accordance with the provisions of the New Zealand Institute Act.
On the motion of Mr. Fereday, it was resolved,—‘‘ That the President (Dr. Haast)
be appointed to vote in the election of Governors of the New Zealand Institute.”
On the motion of Mr. Nottidge, it was resolved,—‘‘ That the Honorary Secretary be
requested to write to Dr. Hector, to ascertain whether any, and if any, what provision
has been made to defray the expenses of the members appointed to vote for Governors of
the New Zealand Institute, and also for the expenses of Governors so appointed.”
Dr. J. Haast, F.R.S., exhibited a specimen of the Huplectella speciosa, a sponge,
sometimes called Venus’s Flower Basket, which had been obtained for the Museum from
Manilla.
Paper read :—
“*On a proposal to divert the Stream of the Avon to a new channel along the North
Town Belt, and to make the present river-bed a main drain for the town, occasionally
flushed from a sluice,” by J. S. Turnbull, M.D.
A discussion ensued on the practicability of this scheme, and of forming a second
channel for the storm waters along the North Belt, and drains on the two sides of the
river flushed by its waters.
The Rev. C. Fraser drew attention to the prediction of Lieutenant Saxby, respecting
certain remarkable effects likely to be produced upon the tides in consequence of the
peculiar relative positions of the sun, moon, and earth. Mr. Fraser expressed his opinion
that there was no ordinary conjunction of these bodies which could have an effect upon
the tides, as much greater than that produced at the spring tides as those spring tides
exceeded the ordinary daily tides.
ADDRESS,
Delivered October 8th, being the anniversary of Captain Cook’s first landing in New
Zealand, by Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President.
When, seven years ago, I had the honour, as first President of this Institution, to
address you at your first anniversary dinner, I offered you a short reswmé of the scientific
researches and results obtained in New Zealand since the time when the colony was
formed. An attempt to do so to-day for the past seven years would be a far greater, but
also still more gratifying task, owing to the wonderful advancement New Zealand has
made during that time in intellectual pursuits, and their results—a matter of great and
sincere congratulation to the members of this Society, and to the colony at large.
When, in 1862, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury was called into existence,
there was no other Society in New Zealand which had the ambition to aspire to such high
aims as we did, and although we failedin many respects to carry out our programme, we
may at least safely claim the merit of having formed a depository for scientific researches
in Canterbury, which did not at that time exist in any other part of New Zealand. It is
true there was an older Society, with similar aims to ours, in Wellington: but for many
years the members had not met, and, in consequence, some of them had their papers read
before you. But how different is it to-day? Not only have scientific societies been
created throughout the colony, but they have likewise found a centre inthe New Zealand
Institute in Wellington, the well-directed efforts of which will result in great advantages,
both in an intellectual and material point of view, to the inhabitants of the land of our
adoption.
Ethe first volume of the ‘‘Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute,”
embodying the labours of all the affiliated societies, which is in our hands, gives palpable
proof both of the value of that body, even in the first year of its existence, and of the
marked attention which has been paid to scientific matters, even amidst the absorbing
occupations incidental to founding a colony. And from year to year the value of the
Institute will be enhanced by its evoking in many quarters scientific research, often of
great utility in promoting the advancement of the colony, which otherwise would have
Jain dormant, either from the want of example and encouragement, or of a proper organ
for publication. Whatever may be the political tenets of those who are friends of
science, literature, and art, in New Zealand, in one thing I am sure they will agree with
me—that in any circumstances a centre for the maintenance of intellectual life amongst
the inhabitants of New Zealand is of incalculable importance to us all, and that the
creation of a depository where the results, whether small or great, of all labourers in the
domain of the mind, can be collected and published, is an important step towards the
advancement of this colony to that position which it deserves to occupy. These labours,
after becoming at once accessible to the present inhabitants, will be preserved for coming
generations, forming, as it were, the foundation stone of future research.
Viewed, however, from another point of view, the encouragement of intellectual, and
in this instance I may say, physical research, will be of the highest benefit to the colony,
422
~
as it will most probably lead us to pay more attention to the study of physical science in
our schools, high and low, than has hitherto been the case. Unless this be done, our
colonial youths, when they come into competition with new arrivals from the Northern
hemisphere, will have no chance in the struggle of life. I think the time is long since
past when the education of a young man who does not intend to follow any of the
so-called learned professions, should be considered finished when he has acquired some
knowledge of Latin, a little less of Greek, with the rudiments of Mathematics, all of
which, as soon as he enters active life, he usually tries to forget as fast as possible, owing
to his having, as a general rule, by always being overworked, been bored to death by
them. But the things he ought to have learnt, which he would treasure in his mind,
which would give him intellectual enjoyment and invest him with great advantages, both
intellectual and practical over these who had not followed the same course of study, he
has never been taught, and any allusions made to them have often been of a disparaging
character.
The Universe, the sublime laws by which the innumerable suns, planets, and their
satellites around him are governed ; the earth, which is his home, with all its wonderful
treasures, animate and inanimate, and their relations to each other, are totally unknown
to him. He wanders, as it were, blindfolded over this beautiful earth, a stranger in his
own domain—Heaven and Earth a sealed book to him. And is it possible that any other
study, however sublime, can be compared with that of the works of God, which certainly
must elevate the mind far higher than that of the works of men, however excellent they
may be? But, in order that I may not be misunderstood, I wish to assure you that I
should be very sorry indeed to see classical languages and Mathematics removed from the
curriculum of our schools. Such a proceeding would also be suicidal to the aims of
Physical Science. The study of any language, whether ancient or modern, and of its
best authors, will always enlarge and elevate the mind, exercise the memory, and evoke
or cherish noble feelings and actions in the learner, whilst the study of Mathematics will
teach him to think logically and accurately, without which, Physical Science would be
above his comprehension.
The acquisitions of the natural philosopher, of the astronomer, of the chemist, or of
the geologist, obtained by actual research or by induction, can only be considered of
lasting value if they have been corroborated or proved by strictly mathematical reasoning,
in having, as it were, been reduced to mathematical formule. But here, again, I may
once more point out that only those young men will reap the full benefit of the wisdom
of the ancients and of mathematical investigations who intend to continue their philological
and mathematical studies, while those who, after leaving school, enter into a walk of lite
in which such knowledge is not required, will shortly have forgotten all that was drummed.
into them during a number of years, and, at the same time, will have cause to regret at
every step they take, both their ignorance of Physical Science, and their want of
acquaintance with the laws and treasures of nature around them.
The question naturally arises, why, since Physical Science has made such wonderful
strides during the last three centuries, that mankind has advanced more during that time
than in any similar period before in the history of the world, the education of youth, even
of the higher classes, has been almost stationary; so that we can truly say it still
resembles in many respects the course of teaching in those times when the native
language of the country was despised as unworthy of being taught ; when old women
were burnt as witches ; when the stars in the firmament were only thought to be placed
in the heavens to form constellations by which the life or fate of man was guided ; when
chemistry was alchemy, and its chief use considered to be the making of gold from
baser metals, or the brewing of the Elixir of Life; and when the little knowledge of
Physical Science (Natural History included) possessed in these days was mixed up with
superstition and scholastic axioms? The answer to this question seems to me to be very
simple. The only exact knowledge possessed at that time was Mathematics, principally
their higher branches, together with the philosophical, poetical, and prose writings of the
eminent men who had shed a bright lustre over the periods in which they lived. These
writings were the precious heirloom which antiquity had bequeathed to the middle ages.
As such learning was then considered to be the only kind of knowledge worth
possessing, all intellectual energy was directed to its acquisition, and the professors of the
day despised the ignorance and superstition of those to whom the treasures of antiquity
were not accessible. They also, and naturally, showed contempt for alchemists, astrologers,
and others pursuing knowledge in a similar manner, and while unable to refute the latter,
their mathematical knowledge made them feel that the doctrines of those men were
erroneous. A remnant of this feeling of contempt for the study of physical science still
lingers in some countries amongst the teachers of the so-called classical schools ; although
they do not like to confess it even to themselves ; and being desirous of continuing the
teaching of their predecessors, they consider it as the invasion of an upstart into the holy
precincts of their educational temple when physical science wishes to enter the schoolroom.
Unfortunately, many of these teachers, however eminent in other respects, know very
423
little of physical science, and this may be-an additional reason why they resist its intro-
duction into the curriculum, since they are not able to understand its value ; while it
must also be allowed that they have just cause to look with pride wpon many distinguished
men who, educated at their schools, have without such knowledge, brought great credit
to those institutions. Here human nature simply comes into play.
On the Continent of Hurope and the United States, this defect has already been
partially remedied, and in Great Britain powerful advocates, even from the ranks of the
most eminent classical scholars, have come forth to break their lances for the introduc-
tion of such studies into all schools. In your mother country they are mostly men who
have travelled, who have seen the advantages conferred by such studies upon a whole
generation in other countries. They have witnessed the delight of the pupils when, after
the study of languages and mathematics, natural history, geology, mineralogy, and
chemistry, had their turn, and refreshed the scholars for the drier work. They have seen
what a treasure the pupils carry with them when they leave school by possessing some
knowledge of the laws by which the Universe, from our central sun down to the smallest
atom upon earth, is governed, and experiencing that delight which a contemplation of
Nature affords—how it ennobles their daily occupation, fills their leisure hours, and
teaches them to observe and think. Bnt what intellectual resources of this kind has a
young man who leaves a schcol conducted on our present system? Is he not nearly as
much a stranger on this beautiful earth as when he first came upon it, and where will he
find time, amid the turmoil of life, to gain that knowledge so necessary to him now-a-days,
but which, during the many years of his school-life, was withheld ?
I trust you will not think I am overstepping my privileges in thus openly expressing
my opinion about the present mode of teaching the rising generation, but I should neither
be dog my duty, nor deserve the honourable position in which you have placed me, did
TI not state fearlessly, and without restraint, my convictions on the subject. But, I
repeat, that should not some attention be soon paid in our schools to the study of physical
science, the time is not distant when in the race of life and in competition with young
men from other countries, our colonial youth will be left far behind. However, I have
no doubt that many years will not elapse before the people of Great Britain which, of all
nations, has the most practical national sense, will thoroughly remedy the evil, and that
there will be no country on the face of the earth where the study of physical science is
more fostered, so as to preserve to that empire its pre-eminence in the great race of
nations, in which, after all, the arts of peace, civilization, and industry will give the
nitimate decision. I have detained you too long upon a subject, which, during the last
few years, has been treated by such able and distinguished men, that perhaps I could
have left it in their hands had J not thought it my duty to allude to it. :
In order to honour more fully the memory of that illustrious navigator who was the
real discoverer of New Zealand, we have fixed the day of our anniversary dinner upon
the day when, one hundred years ago, Captain Cook landed officially in New Zealand,
and it is from that day that the blessings of civilization have been bestowed upon these
beautiful islands. Captain Cook was forty-one years old when he reached our coasts, he
being born on the 27th August, 1728. He was in every respect a son of the people,
having raised himself from the ranks by his knowledge, honesty of purpose, and courage
—one of the most remarkable men which the eighteenth century produced. He not only
advanced far into the Arctic, but also explored three times the Antarctic zone, which had
never been visited before. It is from him that we not only obtain the earliest reliable
accounts of most of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, of the north-west coast of America,
of Behring’s Straits, and of the Antarctic regions; but he also fixed astronomically,
innumerabie points on the coasts visited by him, generally with such admirable accuracy,
that we still look upon them as reliable authorities. His accounts of the geographical
features of the countries visited by him, and of the manners and customs of their inhabi-
tants are also among the most reliable and valuable we possess. He died in the cause of
science—an irreparable loss not only to his country, but to the world at large. Truly he
may claim to be called the Columbus of the Pacific Ocean, and the inhabitants of the
Australian Colonies and New Zealand owe him a great debt of gratitude, because it was
his foresight, and his excellent judgment of the natural capabilities of the countries
visited, which principally directed the attention of the statesmen of the mother country
to these distant lands, where now a branch of the Anglo-Saxon race is occupied in laying
the foundations of an empire which, in centuries not far distant from our own, will be
ranked amongst the first of the earth. ~
Although every intelligent inhabitant of this country honours the name of Captain
Cook, would it not be possible to show this by another mark of our respect? and I there-
fore do not hesitate to offer a suggestion which I hope will be taken up and acted upon
by our legislators. Hitherto great confusion has prevailed relative to the name of this
island, which is called both the Middle and South Island. The appellation Middle
Island is a mistake, as the size of Stewart’s Island precludes it from bemg ranked with
the two others. The most eminent geographers of Great Britain and of the Continent of
424
Europe—such men as Arrowsmith, Keith Johnston, Petermann, Hochstetter, ete.—call
it always the South Island, while in New Zealand, even in official documents, it is called
sometimes by the one, sometimes by the other name. In order to avoid further
misunderstanding, would it not be appropriate to give this island the name of Cookland ?
for, so far as [am aware, no country visited by that illustrious navigator has been so
designated ; or in the case of the Northern Island claiming that name, on the ground of
it being the first part of the country where Captain Cook landed, might not another
distinct name be given to it, D’Urville Land, Antipodea, and Alexandra Land, having
already been proposed. I should have suggested its being called Tasman Land, had not
the inhabitants of Tasmania rightly appropriated the name to their island. However, I
am quite content to have mooted the subject, and leave it in the hands of our legislators
to move in the matter, which, as I believe, deserves some consideration at their hands.
I have to congratulate you upon the near completion of the new museum building,
where it will be possible to find the necessary room for the proper arrangement of the
collections belonging to the province, and to which the public has so liberally contributed,
and J am proud to say that our Institute may claim some little credit in the work of
bringing about this desirable result, it having for several years urged the erection of a
proper building upon the Provincial Government, and those of our members who also hold
seats in the Provincial Council having likewise laboured in the same direction.
The report of your Council, laid before you on the Sth of July in this year, justly
points out that we all have cause to be satisfied with the advance made by the Society
during the past year with the accession of new members, and its general prospects in the
future. Our principal aim being to promote the intellectual and material progress of
Canterbury, a great deal still remains to be done towards accomplishing so desirable an
object. At the same time, I may claim the sympathy and assistance of the inhabitants of the
province for our Society, which can only progress when the province at large takes an
interest in our doings and augments our ranks, so that we may gain more workers in the
common field of enquiry. Will you here allow me to offer you my warmest and most sincere
thanks for the honour you have done me in again electing me your President, and will
you kindly receive my promise that I will endeavour to do my duty to the Society to the
best of my ability. 1 desire, however, to express a hope that you will allow me to retire
at the next election into your ranks, giving place to some other member, who will be
able to conduct the business of the Philosophical Institute more efficiently than I have
done. :
Although much has been discovered, and wonderful inventions have been made, a
great deal of the general field of enquiry still remaims unexplored ; not to speak of the
peculiar rewards which New Zealand offers to the student and lover of nature. Let us,
therefore, strive to contribute our share towards the accumulation of those facts, by
inductive reasoning on which sound knowledge can only be gained, and however small
the mite which we may be able to add, it will always be some addition towards the great
mental edifice raised by the intellect of mankind to the glory of that First Intelligent
Cause, in Whom all ultimate knowledge rests, Whom we vainly seek to conceive or to
understand, and ‘‘in Whom we live, and move, and have our being.”
Trento Meeting. November 3, 1869.
J. Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair.
The Honorary Secretary (Rev. C. Fraser) intimated that he had written to Dr.
Hector respecting the expenses of delegates for electing Governors, etc., but had as yet*
received no reply. He understood, however, that it would be necessary for the delegates
to proceed to Wellington in order to take part in the election.
Mr. G. W. Hall moved,—‘‘ That a committee be appointed to obtain information as
to the various grasses, native and artificial, suitable for stock feeding, and especially as to
the best means of utilising the grasses indigenous to the colony.”
The motion was seconded by Mr. Fereday, and carried, after some discussion on the
result of experiments which have already been made, the necessity of extensive
correspondence, and a liberal allowance of time to the Committee for bringing up their
report. =
The Hon. J. B. Acland, Messrs. J. Hall, R. Wilkin, J. F. Armstrong, A. Duncan,
and the Mover, were appointed a Committee to carry out Mr. Hall’s resolutions, and
power was given them to add to their number.
Mr. Nottidge moved,—‘‘ That a Committee be appointed to draw up a code of rules
for the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury ; such Committee to consist of the
Rey. J. Wilson, Mr. R. Fereday, and the Mover.”
The motion was carried, on the understanding that the new code would be merely a
simplification of the present rules.
* Letter received on November lst ; answered on 2nd.—J. H.
425
Paper read :—
““On the Tendency of Modern English Poetry,” by W. C. Purnell.
Dr. Haast read letters from Mr. Townsend, of Akaroa, and Captain Gibson, Harbour
Master at Lyttelton, on the subject of the tidal disturbances expected to oceur on October
5th. The former stated that on the day in question the water in Akaroa Harbour was
lower than it had been since the great earthquake wave of August, 1868 ; that six tides
in succession were unusually low ; and suggested that the sun and moon being both on
the equator at the time, an accumulation of waters would take place there, and conse-
quently a lowering of the level in this part of the world. Captain Gibson stated that he
had taken measures for ascertaining the precise extent of any tidal disturbances which
might occur at Lyttelton, but nothing unusual happened.
A short discussion followed on the reading of the letters. %
OM ATG OC INS fia Te
SESSION OF 1869.
PROCEEDINGS.
First Mererine. July 20, 1869.
Mr. Justice Ward in the chair.
A Constitution and Rules for the Institute were adopted.
Office-bearers for the year ending 30th June, 1870, were elected, viz. :—President—His
Honor Mr. Justice Ward ; Vice Presidents—Alfred Eccles, F.R.C.S.E., Arthur Beverley ;
Council —L. O’Beal, Captain Fraser, R. Gillies, S. Hawthorne, Rev. D. M. Stuart,
¥ 5 oe . T. Thomson ; Honorary Treasurer—W. D. Murison ; Honorary Secretary—
. 8. Webb.
Seconp Meeting. August 24, 1869.
Mr. Justice Ward, President, in the chair.
The Chairman, as-President of the Institute, delivered the following
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
I desire to render all suitable acknowledgments for the honour you have done me, in
electing me the first President of the Otago Institute:—an honour most unwillingly
accepted, knowing as I do how many of those present are far more competent than I, to
fill so onerous a post, and have far more leisure to devote to its duties. But I fully admit
that every community has a right to call on those who hold high office in it, to take their
share in such a movement as the present, and however inefficient my services may be
they will at least be zealously given. I need scarcely say, also, that I am well aware,
that in this instance, as in many others, the honour is rendered rather to the office than
to him who happens for the present to fill it.
We have met to-night to inaugurate a Society for the encouragement of Art, Science,
Literature, and Philosophy. It would be difficult to lay wider foundations ; and it is
encouraging to reflect that, although Otago has not taken the lead in the formation of an
Institute, such as the present, yet, in other respects, she may fairly claim precedence.
No other province has attempted what Otago performed in 1865, at the Intercolonial
Exhibition. Scarcely an effort has been made elsewhere to carry out such a Fine Arts
Exhibition, as that which took place this year at Dunedin, none have been equally
successful. With such successes in the past we may well look forward with confidence to.
the future. In so young a colony as ours, it is in the power of every man of average
ability to leave behind him some ‘‘footprints on the sands of time,” pomting in the
onward direction ; and if the inhabitants.of Dunedin only continue to display, in the
cultivation of Arts and Science, one tithe of the energy that has hitherto distinguished
them in mercantile and professional pursuits, we need have no fear of our ultimate
Success.
426
As the Otago Institute is now fairly launched, the first question for us to determine is,
whether we are to stand alone, or to be incorporated with the New Zealand Institute.
The principal advantages of incorporation, shown by the Act of 1867 (by which the New
Zealand Institute was created), are, that we shall obtain, Ist, the invaluable services of
Dr. Hector, in superintending any Museum or Laboratory that we may hereafter possess,
or which may be entrusted to us ; and 2nd, a share of any sum that may be placed on
the Colonial estimates for the purposes and expenses of the New Zealand Institute. But
the greatest advantage of all lies in the fact, that, in all such societies as the present,
co-operation is the highest requisite for success. In all probability the most useful work
that at this moment lies before the New Zealand Institute is the compilation of a com-
plete Natural History of the colony ; and to that history the Institute of each province
should contribute a chapter. Without the co-operation of all, to attempt such a work
would be hopeless.
If, however, we prefer independence, the path is open ; and whichever we determine
upon, I trust we shall legally unite in carrying out our present undertaking, so far as our
ability extends ; I trust, too, that we shall be guided in our pursuit by the precepts of
that philosophy, which has been mentioned as one of the special objects we hope to
promote. I donot allude to the visionary theories set forth by the magnificent eloquence
of Plato ; nor to the barren sophistry of Scholiasts, into which degenerated the more
practical codes of Aristotle. Still less should we follow the school of the eighteenth
century, though their pages be illumined by the massive and splendid diction of Gibbon,
the lucid beauty of the style of Hume, the brilliant imagination of Rousseau, and the
scathing sarcasm of Voltaire. Their philosophy commenced by a denial of the truth of
Christianity, and appropriately culminated amid the orgies of the French revolution, in
the blasphemous worship of the Goddess of Reason. Their anti-christian writings have
already passed into deep shadow, soon to darken into night. There are records of their
powers of distraction, but of their philosophical creations scarce a trace remains. On the
other hand, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, though favoured by Emperors, fostered
by the Church, after a culture of two thousand years, ended where it began, in words,
and words alone. Let us turn rather to our own great countryman ;—to him who wrote,
at the age of thirty-one, that he had ‘‘taken all knowledge to be his province,” and
whose right to assert this has never been questioned. It was reserved for Francis Bacon to
show that the highest end of wisdom is to be of use; and that nothing that is of use to
the meanest, is below the notice of the highest. The ancient philosophy aimed at
training men to endure evils patiently ; that of Bacon preferred to remedy them. Plato
deemed the most brilliant invention in mechanics, a discredit to a true disciple. Bacon
estimated a philosopher’s learning solely by the fruit it promised for the use of man, the
“* Novum organum,” Bacon’s greatest work, gave a new direction to the human intellect ;
and by that change, has changed the face of the world.
To apply his precepts to our present object, we should constantly keep in mind that
there is not a rock on the mountain, a stratum of soil in the plain, a tree in the forest, or
a herb in the pasture that has not its use—what that use is, it is for science and
experience to discover ; and every new discovery adds a new source of wealth to the
colony, and a fresh incentive to immigration. And it is in bringing together for the test
of science the results of experiences scattered through the colony, that the value of
co-operation amongst the Institutes of the various provinces, will be especially manifested.
Take, for instance, that which, next to gold and coal, is probably our most important
indigenous product, the New Zealand flax. The value has long been recognised, but our
attempts at preparing it for export have been simply a series of blundering experiments.
Let each Institute prepare a careful report on the varieties of the plant, the modes of
culture, the chemical and mechanical means used in preparing it for use or sale; and
forward with that report models of the machinery used, and specimens of flax in various
stages of preparation. Let the whole of these reports, models, and specimens be laid
before some able chemists and mechanicians ; before men who are not only thoroughly
versed in those sciences, but who have all the appliances of science, and ample time to
use them. Our experimental difficulties would soon be solved ; and it would be difficult
to over-estimate the importance of their solution to the colony. Within a few years
after, the export of flax would probably rival in importance that of wool.
With respect to scientific appliances, we may congratulate ourselves on the fact that
the province already possesses a large and valuable Museum, the care of which will
probably be entrusted to us by the Government. We hope to establish a scientific
library, as the next requisite; and at as early a date as our funds permit, to add a
laboratory. We trust to be in close connection with those Acclimatisation, Agricultural,
and Horticultural Societies, which have already conferred so much benefit on Otago. In
every town, and in every gold field we should have our correspondents, and every change
in the face of the province, every new botanical or geological discovery, every rare pheno-
menon of nature, should be registered on our records. The contribution of original papers,
with lectures and periodical meetings, complete all that we can expect to compass for the
4.27
present ; hereafter it may be that, in connection with this Institute, schools of chemistry,
painting, and sculpture may be established ; that our successors may offer prizés for
essays and poems ; may form a provincial gallery of pictures, and establish a yearly Fine
Arts Exhibition, such as that which afforded both pleasure and instruct on to the public
of Dunedin in the present year; but the day for these has not yet come, and for the
present we must attempt no more than our strength will warrant.
There is one subject which has recently been much discussed among us, and on which,
therefore, a few remarks may not be out of place: I allade to that whieh is termed by its
votaries the ‘‘new faith of Spiritualism.” No creed, which numbers *4s believers of the
Anglo-Saxon race by tens of thousands, can be beneath the attention of the wisest of
modern philosophers. In fact, there are few psychological phenomena of our time
which call for keener investigation from men of science than those attributed to
spiritualism. Of those who believe in them, one-half, unable to explain or account for
them, accept, without hesitation or enquiry, the theory propounded by their exhibitor ;
of the rest, the greater number attribute them to the direct agency of Satan. And by
philosophers they are, for the most part, too hastily dismissed, as purely the products of
jugglery and imposture. We would do well to remember that Lord Bacon, at the close
of his treatise on Natural History, when referring to magic, and the powers of imagination,
earnestly recommends that ‘‘whatsoever is of thig kind should be diligently inquired into.”
These phenomena were in secret to the magicians of Egypt, to the astrologers of Babylon,
or the priests of the oracles of Delphi. Inall ages they have existed, in all ages they have
been connected with religious belief. In Europe, their existence faded away with
heathenism, before the pure light of Christianity. But in the recesses of the East there
have doubtless always lingered some relics of the mysteries of the ancient seers of Chaldea,
Two of the most observant of modern travellers, Hoe and Gabi, declared their inability
to account for the marvels they witnessed amid the demon worship of Thibet, save by
referring them to the interposition of evil spirits. In the European revival of these
practices, the principal novelty consists in their assumed connection with Christianity,
Of old, these secrets were jealously guarded by those who profited by their possession ;
but whatever is of Christianity should bear the strictest scrutiny in the clear light of day.
Doubtless, in the vast majority of cases, the phenomena are produced by causes, of the
rationale of which the operators themselves are wholly ignorant; and in such cases
mediums and querists are duped alike. When there arises a philosopher who will not
pretend to despise these phenomena for fear of injuring his reputation for good sense—a
man of science, unswayed by imagination or superstition, who will apply to them the test
of Faraday and Liebig—we may then hope to learn by what cause, and in what manner,
are produced the marvels, real or pretended, to which spiritualism owes its present
celebrity. No enquirer of the present day should be awed by the word, or the theory of
the supernatural, what the laws of nature axe we may know when we stand face to face
with Him by whom those laws were given. Until then, ‘We see through a glass
darkly ;” until then, we shall do well to remember that mysteries are not necessarily
miracles ; that marvellous phenomena are not necessarily supernatural, because we know
not by what law of nature they are produced or governed.
I have now pointed out—how imperfectly none know better than myself—some few
of the objects we may strive to obtain, and the directions in which our efforts should
tend. Doubtless, our part will be rather that of Moses than of J oshua—we may lead
others to the borders of the promised land, which we may not live to enter ourselves,
But when we have done our best we shall have done our duty to our successors, I¢ is
true, that amid all our daily toils we are but “ Stumbling with cur weight of cares upon
the world’s great altar stairs, that lead through darkness up to God.” Yet let us
remember that it is written, ‘‘ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy
might.” If we have planted, others will water, and God will give the increase, as seems
best to Him : and when that day comes that even now is faintly dawning, whose meridian
splendour will shine over the next generation of colonists—when the name of New
Zealand is written on the roll of nations, and she takes her stand as a member of that
that race of honour, upon which we have now entered, will be the Society which we
inaugurate to-night—the Institute of the Province of Otago.
On the motion of Mr. A. Eccles, seconded by Mr. R. B. Martin, an unanimous vote
of thanks was accorded to the President for his interesting address,
KKK
428
THirD Meretine. September 24, 1869.
A. Eccles, F.R.C.S.E., Vice-President, in the chair.
The Honorary Secretary laid on the table several donations to the Library.
Moved by Mr. J. 8. Webb, seconded by Mr. R. Oliver,—‘‘ That the Council request
the Governors of the New Zealand Institute to take the necessary steps for the
incorporation of this Society with the Institute.”
Moved, as an amendment, by Mr. Robt. Stout, seconded by Mr. J. Logan,—‘‘ That
the debate be adjourned, with the view of affording the Secretary an opportunity of
obtaining from each member an expression of opinion, in writing, regarding the proposal
for incorporation.”
The amendment was put and lost, and the motion was carried nem. con.
FourtaH (SpectaL) Merrine. October 30, 1869.
A. Eccles, F.R.C.S.E., Vice-President, in the chair.
The Honorary Secretary stated that the meeting was called for the purpose of
appointing a member of the Institute to vote at the election of Governors of the New
Zealand Institute, in accordance with clause 7 of the ‘‘ New Zealand Institute Act, 1867.”
Mr. J. S. Webb (Honorary Secretary) moved, Mr. W. M. Hodgkins seconded,—
“That Mr. Justice Ward be appointed to represent this Institute at the election of
three Governors of the New Zealand Institute for the ensuing year.”
Mr. Charles Smith moved, as an amendment, Mr. G. Bell seconded,—‘‘ That this
Institute declines to appoint one of its members to vote at the ensuing election of three
Governors of the New Zealand Institute, until the Act of Incorporation had been so far
amended, as to afford to incorporated societies real and adequate representation in the
governing body.”
The amendment was put and lost, and the original motion was then carried
unanimously.
On the motion of Mr. J. 8S. Webb, seconded by Mr. C. J. Smith, it was resolved,—
“That Mr. Ward, if elected to be a Governor, be requested to represent the inadequacy
of the representation of local societies in the Board of Governérs.”
Firth Mererinc. November 2, 1869.
A. Eccles, F.R.C.S.E., Vice-President, in the chair, who delivered the following
ADDRESS.
Notwithstanding all the efforts that have hitherto been made in New Zealand, in
which Otago, with her. topographical and geological surveys, her associations and exhibi-
tions of all kinds, and her Museum, has not been the least conspicuous worker amongst
the provinces, the colony has remained little known to others, and the best informed,
even amongst ourselyes, are but slightly acquainted with the industrial future before her.
Yet it was said by Count Cavour, the regenerator of United Italy, that the most urgent
necessity of a nation determined to take her proper place in the scale of civilization, is to
study and know herself, and to point out to others her present position, and the various
natural resources at her disposal. :
Perhaps the most useful and practical end, then, which the Otago, as a Provincial,
and the New Zealand as a Colonial Institute, can pursue, is to strive to obtain and
promulgate a knowledge of the raw materials that may be found, or economically produced
here, and the best means to utilise them.
A century has just elapsed since Captain Cook, accompanied by Sir Joseph Banks
and Dr. Solander, first landed in these islands, and much that has been subsequently
recorded by scientific observers (especially in the tield of botany), has been but
confirmatory of their observations. Yet should we, who are benefitting so largely by
their labours, give great honour to those practical men of our own day, who first founded
settlements on these shores, of which they may well now be so proud ; to those scientific
men whose labours have done so much towards obtaining and classifying such information
concerning the resources of the colony as we possess ; and to those fortunate discoverers
and producers who have, through gold mining, agriculture, and other industries, added
so much to our wealth. When we look around us and remember, that even this
settlement was literally a wilderness only twenty-one years since, we may well say that
very much has been done, and we may rest assured that, whether assisted or not by this or
kindred societies, those who have accomplished so much, and still remain amongst us,
429
will not cease from their labours ; nor will their children, or new-comers fail to do their
utmost, while pushing their own fortunes, to aid in advancing the general prosperity of
the province and the colony.
Recognising all this, how much has been, how much remains to be done, it is certain
that the time has arrived to facilitate individual labour by the systematic collection of
information as to what has been accomplished, and pointing out the various directions in
which research or discovery would be most desirable, and most probably prove beneticial
to individual workers and the community at large. Here will be a great and almost
virgin field for the members of this Institute—to collect a really good library of works of
reference, a want that is continually being felt, notwithstanding that many useful works
are already to be found scattered amongst local libraries—to render more perfect that
Museum, which it is but scant justice to Dr. Hector to say, forms a splendid nucleus for
future additions—to collect and record fully and accurately facts of all kinds that relate
to our industrial development, even though at the moment we may not be able to
foresee their exact value or true bearing—to prepare practical papers, however short, and
it may be not altogether conclusive, to be elaborated by careful discussion at our meetings,
and to collect for the New Zealand Institute, and other such societies elsewhere, not only
museum, but trade specimens of our products, whether raw or manufactured, with full
and accurate information corcerning them. 1
The Royal Colonial Society, lately established in London, offers us great facilities for
the exhibition of our products in its Museum, and of maps, statistics, and records in its
Library, access to which will be so easy to those at home seeking information of any kind
as to the colony. No one who has himself encountered the difficulty of obtaining reliable
information on colonial subjects in Great Britain, or has observed, since he has himself
become acquainted with the colonies, the lamentable ignorance displayed by even leading
statesmen, affecting to govern them from Downing Street, will lightly estimate the
valuable services colonists and the Colonial Society may mutually afford each other, and
offer to enquirers, whether commercial, scientific, or public men at home. It would be
well then for a sub-committee of this Institute to be appointed to make collections,
representative of Otago and her resources, both for the Museum and the Library of the
Colonial Society. So good an example would be speedily followed by other societies
incorporated with the New Zealand Institute, and, after awhile, their united efforts
would result in a collection eminently useful to New Zealand interests in Great Britain.
We may be sure, too, that other colonies will avail themselves of the organisation
afforded by the Colonial Society. Let us hope that there will soon be in that society’s
rooms a museum and library worthy of the Colonial Hmpire, not only rivalling, but
surpassing the fine collection of Indian products and manufactures constituting the Indian
Museum in Whitehall. Let it not be said that the bureaucratic government of India is
more practically useful than the freer institutions of the colonies; or that self-government
is but another name for slow material-development. Let colonists show to others what
they know themselves of the enormous extent and value of the resources of the colonies,
and then we may be sure the political value of these great countries will not, as now, be
either doubted or ignored.
It would be necessary for the sub-committee to transmit with the specimens, etc.,
full and precise information as to the products themselves, their situation, extent, cost,
transit, and other incidental charges, without which they would be mere curiosities, and of
little value economically ; and, in return for these contributions, we may fairly expect to
receive from the colonial and other societies to which they may be sent, copies of their
own publications, specimens of similar products obtained elsewhere to compare with ours,
samples of manufactures from them, and such reports on the commercial and scientific
value of the New Zealand specimens, as would be extremely useful to us as their
producers.
Weare, fortunately, able to obtain from the Director of the Geological Survey of
New Zealand, very valuable information on the mineralogical and chemical characters of
the ores, ete., etc., submitted to him; but frequently it is desirable to get accurate
information as to the commercial value of products, and how far they can be made to
pay ; to obtain which, it is almost absolutely necessary, that they should be submitted
for examination and report to those trade experts, who are seldom found except in the
great marts of the world.
Scattered as is the population of the province, might not we, enlarging on the
suggestion of our President in his eloquent inaugural address, establish branch or correspond-
ing societies in some of the country towns? In these branch societies, would probably be
prepared and read, papers of a peculiarly practical bearing, on subjects specially interest-
ing in each particular locality, and which would be the more valuable from being discussed
on the spot by men possessing the advantages of local knowledge, and minute practical
acquaintance with their subjects. I could almost wish, too, that the efforts at present
scattered amongst so many public bodies in this province, such as the Agricultural and
Pastoral, the Acclimatisation, and the Horticultural Societies, the Committees of the
430
Museum, and certain public Libraries, and the superintendence of the Botanic Garden,
etc., were focussed under the auspices of this Institute, either by association or otherwise.
Whatever good the present generally desultory, and often antagonistic efforts, may have
produced, a more perfect organisation, oneness of direction, and union of forces, would
accomplish vastly more ; would add greatly to the usefulness and interest of each and all
of the sections, which collectively would then constitute the Otago Institute ; and would
lead to much more economical working, much greater results, and build up such an
institution as would prove of great worth, both to the province and the colony.
Mr. Webb with the view of supporting remarks contained in the address by
Mr. Eccles regarding the products of the colony, mentioned that native flax was most
inadequately represented in the Otago Museum. There were a number of specimens, but
they were not described, nor was there anything to instruct people as to the modes of
preparation, or regarding the different characters of flax. The question they had to
consider was not what could be done here, but comparisons should also be instituted with
what could be accomplished elsewhere.
Mr. Robert Gillies desired to make a few remarks respecting the Colonial Laboratory.
It was, he believed, not generally known that any specimens, not only of minerals, but
also of soils, if sent there, were analysed free of charge. When travelling in the province
the question had been asked what, if any, charge was made, for analyses ; and there-
fore it was desirable that the fact he had mentioned should be widely ventilated.
Farmers, for instance, could get specimens of their soils analysed. Referring to some
remarks made by the Chairman as to an amalgamation of societies, he might mention that
the President of the Acclimatisation Society, Mr. W. D. Murison, dealt with the same
subject in an address which he delivered at a recent meeting of the Acclimatisation Society.
Under the circumstances, therefore, he thought there would be no great difficulty in
bringing about an amalgamation of the Acclimatisation and other societies with this branch
of the New Zealand Institute, and that steps should be taken in that direction.
Mr. Robert Gillies read a paper on ‘‘Te Puia, a hot spring near the Wangape Lake,
in the Waikato District.” (See ante, p. 169.)
Mr. Webb, referring to the remark of Mr. Gillies that ‘‘Te Puia” served as a barometer
to the natives of the “neighbourhood, explained the meteorological principles which
accounted for this fact.
Mr. Henry Skey asked Mr. Gillies as to the sulphurous odours felt on spomonshins
the spring. The water, as analysed (see ‘“‘Trans. N. Z. Inst.,” Vol. i, p. 71) showed no
trace of sulphur.
Mr. Gillies said there could be no doubt as to the character of the exhalations met
with in the bush on approaching the spring, and suggested that they might arise from
sources not directly connected with the spring.
With regard to the name ‘‘ Te Puia,” Mr. J. N. Watt, on being appealed to as a
Maori scholar, expressed his belief that it was simply the ordinary native name for any
hot spring.
In consequence of the lateness of the hour, the reading of a paper ‘‘On the Natural
History Department of the Otago Museum,” being the first of a series by Mr. J. 8. Webb,
was deferred. In place of it
Mr. Webb read a jpaper ‘On the Mechanical Principles involved in the Sailing
Flight of the Albatros,” being a criticism upon Captain Hutton’s papers on the same
subject published i in the “Trans. N. Z. Institute,” Vol. i., p. 58, and the ‘‘ Philosophical
Magazine” for August, 1869. (See ante, p. 233. )
“Tt was resolved that in future the meetings of the Institute should be fixed for the
second Tuesday in the months of September, November, January, March, and May.
APPENDIX.
THE CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND.
METEOROLOGICAL STATISTICS.
THE following Tables, ete., are published in anticipation of the Report of the
Inspector of Meteorological Stations, for 1869 :—
TABLE J.—TermperatureE of the Arr, in shade, recorded at the Chief
Towns in the NortH and Soutu Is~anps of New ZeEatany, for the
year 1869.
Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Extreme
Mean Temp. for |Temp. for |Temp. for | Temp. for |daily range] range
Place. Annual | (Spring) | (SUMMER) | (AUTUMN)| (WINTER) of of
Temp. |Sept., Oct.,/Dec., Jan., Mar., Apl.,|June, July,| Temp. for | Temp. for
Noy. Feb. | May. Aug. year. year.
Norte ISLAND. Degrees. | Degrees. | Degrees. | Degrees. | Degrees. | Degrees. | Degrees.
Mongonui_ : 60°6 581 67-0 62:4 54°8 14:2 455
Auckland . : 586 070 65:7 60°5 o1°6 13°8 44°8
Taranaki 2 : o7°3 554 65:5 57°5 50°6 15:2 51:0
Wellington : 55°4 047 62:6 561 48°1 DED 495
Means, &c., for : ; : i : Pe ;
Noeceaisland 579 56'3 65:2 59°1 51-2 13°8 51:0
SoutH ISLAND.
Nelson . : 0 55:2 54:°9 64°4 55:2 46°4 20°8 57:0
Christchurch . 52°7 53°1 61°7 52°9 432 16-1 65°3
Hokitika ¢ : 52°9 52°6 60°8 52°5 45°9 13°3 46°9
Dunedin . ; 50°8 51-4 57°6 504 43°7 13°6 46:0
Southland . : 50°9 50°8 59°8 49-4 43'8 18°5 63:0
Means, &c., for
South Island
and Sth. Islands
Means, &c. for Nth.
432
TABLE II.—BarometricaL OBSERVATIONS,—RAIN-FALL, etc., recorded for
the year 1869.
Mean Range Mean Mean Mean
Place. Barometer of Elastic Force] Degree of Total Amount
reading for | Barometer ot Vapour Moisture Rain Fall. of
year. for year. for year. for year. Cloud.
Norru ISLAND. Inches. Inches. a Inches. Sat.-100. Inches. to 10.
Mongonui 30000 1:406 - 429 80 48-340 56
Auckland . 29-985 1°358 405 81 52°797 53
Taranaki 29-937 1:877 349 72 Eaf5y 1 D5) 6:3
Wellington 29-963 1245 344 77 56-768 5:2
Means for Nth. on 3 Ney ae :
fees 29-971 1-494 382 Uo 53°257 56
SoutH ISLAND. acae
Nelson . , 29°S81 1-364 309 76 65°230 5:3
Christchurch 29-910 1:376 323 79 27 292 | 5:3
Bealey* . 29-760 1-132 ras sae 85°875 4:7
Hokitika 29-954 1:403 348 85 88°210 6°4
Dunedin 29-928 1°435 281 75 32°918 56
Southland 29°843 1-449 304 &0 42-680 5:3
Means for Sth. } : A F é :
iad f 29°879 1:359 319 79 57:034 5-4
PASO AL 1-494. 382 ih §3°257 56
29-879 1:359 319 79 57034 54
Means for Nth. ne y k ie ae oe :
Sih Tslanls 29-925 1-426 350 | 78 55°145 5:5
* 2,104 feet above sea level.
TABLE If1.—Winp for 1869,—Force and Direction.
ae Number of days it blew from each point.
Place. Velocity,
in miles. N. N.E. E S.E. 8. S.W. W. N.W. | Calm.
NortuH ISLAND. Cae
Mongonui. 183 Aly 45 29 29 19 92 26 49 59
Auckland 326 35 58 34 16 66 70 43 24 19
Taranaki . 245 31 45 23 83 8 66 49 29 31
Wellington 193 16 30 1 126 0 3 0) 189 0
Souta ISLAND.
Nelson . 129 46 63 3 56 ll ae 26" {583 0
Christchurch 146 4 48 113 16 9 Paz 14 23 11
Bealey 90 0 39 1 23 2 32 ) |) lea 91
Hokitika 186 22 65 35 102 1 46 15 71 8
Dunedin . 128 21 44 18 14 Pail 41 87 15 92
Southland 180 36 3 26 92 3 5 93 107 0
Average daily horizontal movement, in the North Island (four stations), 236 miles.
29 be)
99 29
South Island (six stations), 143
New Zealand
99
1895 ,,
433
TABLE IV.— Earruquakes in New ZEAuanp, in 1869, as registered at
the Government Meteorological Stations.
Po EP 5 3 2 H BS © 2
Station. S | 3 fa eS = ia = F| 2 SI g 4
Fe Ieee) 2 Ete) a lee SSS eee) ihe
Ei ite lie SS ie quay. | =
Auckland . ens BG 0
Napier . Boil al LA Parl lies lon shoul bated [uses Near 2
Taranaki . NO) |e SAE TO IIS P20) cca goo op LOM cee. || eee 8
Wellington 91 Pls soe || jose. Ike Gy eo ESS OW S10) Mh one Nl ous 8
Nelson 3 ce Wik sia Beall (eae ae le lhe 4* Aye leer | eis 5
Christchurch | ... ll Ae BN cess sake ead | eeaien | nmae Me Leimert NS 5
Hokitika . ses 11 AL: See Mero Bii| | ae eel ce Gee Reem ant sd een oaee a Bot 9
Dunedin. on or si Saba [ Cee ce eaz eran ca cose ks MEER feet dal ESM [abel ate teeny | Fe]
Southland . 14*| 10 ke REOPEN BOA Rul arent eatice cau litte culs| aD Tere (hare IVD Fy aca ieag hy
The figures denote the days of the month on which one or more shocks were felt.
Those with an asterisk affixed were described as smart shocks. The remainder were very
slight. The only earthquake which did serious injury, occurred at Christchurch on the
5th June.
Notes ON THE WEATHER DURING 1869.
January.—Several heavy gales and thunderstorms were experienced
generally throughout the colony during this month, especially in the North
Island. At Taranaki, the lightning caused considerable damage on the 14th ;
and on the 31st, half an inch of rain fell ina quarter of an hour. Rainfall, on
the whole, was lower than usual. At Dunedin, 950 miles of wind passed the
station on the 3rd.
February.—Several storms of great violence occurred at most of the
stations in the North Island during this month, particularly at Auckland ;
and the rainfall in every case was considerably greater than the average for
previous years. The rainfall in Auckland on the 11th—6-329 inches,—and
the force of the wind on the 27th—1,229 miles,—greatly exceed any previous
daily records in that province. The weather in the South was, on the whole,
fine, with slight rain.
March.—W eather remarkably fine and pleasant at all the stations in the
North {sland ; rainfall considerably below the average for previous years. On
the west coast of South Island, and south of Christchurch, the weather was
not so fine ; several severe storms from 8.W. and N.W. occurred, accompanied
with hail, thunder, and heavy rain. On the 25th, 989 miles of wind were
registered at Auckland ; and on the 27th, 860 miles at Wellington.
April.—Weather tolerably fine throughout the North Island, except at
Taranaki and Wellington, where the rainfall was excessive. In the South
Island wet weather prevailed. In Southland the month was characterized by
a dull, cloudy, and very moist atmosphere, with light drizzling rain on twenty
days. At the mountain station at Bealey, snow fell on the 15th, 16th,
and 27th.
May.—Strong W. and 8.W. winds prevailed at almost all the stations
from the 3rd to about the 7th days, accompanied in many cases with rain,
thunder, and hail ; the weather was especially severe at Southland, where there
was also a heavy snow storm on the 7th. Rainfall at all the stations unusually
heavy. In Auckland, 889 miles of wind on the 23rd.
434
June.—Weather on the whole fine, but with several severe storms ;
average force of wind low ; and total rainfall for the colony rather lower than
same period in previous years. In Auckland, on the 28th, very severe gale,
described as a perfect hurricane, from N. and N.E. ; much damage done in
harbour ; 1,170 miles of wind passed by in twenty-four hours. At Wellington,
-500 inch of rain fell in about fifteen minutes, on the 30th.
July.—The weather throughout the colony for this month was much
finer than is usually the case at this season of the year, but particularly so in
the South Island. The rainfall was in almost every case far below the average,
and, with the exception of a few stormy days in the North, the winds were
moderate. Snow fellin Christchurch on the 8th and 24th ; and in Wellington,
sleet fell on the 8th. At Bealey (altitude above sea level, 2,104 feet) there
were five days of snow ; and on one night the minimum temperature on grass
fell to 2°5°.
August.—Universally fine steady weather during this month on the Hast
and South of the colony. On the West Coast, and in the North, stormy, with
prevailing westerly winds. The average rainfall for the whole colony was that
usual for the month ; but the distribution was very unequal, being excessive
on the West Coast.
September.—Prevalent westerly winds. The only marked change, which
appears to have been generally felt, was from fine to broken weather on the
21st (full moon) ; the fine weather having commenced at almost every station
with new moon on the 7th.
October.—Month characterized by a heavy gale from 8.E. of unusual
severity and persistence, accompanied by electrical disturbances, low tempera-
ture, and heavy rainfall, especially in the Wellington district. At the latter
station 3:200 inches of rain fell on the 29th, in twenty-four hours. The
alternation of climate was very great, without any very extreme fluctuation
in the atmospheric pressure.
November.—The weather for this month was unusually fine and pleasant
throughout New Zealand, the rainfall being considerably below the average,
and the winds generally moderate, except on the West Coast of Middle Island,
where strong 8S. W. winds prevailed.
December.—The most remarkable feature in the weather for this month
was the occurrence of severe electrical storms, throughout almost the whole of
the colony, towards the middle of the month, with vivid and dangerous
lightning. There was also heavy rain at many of the stations at the same
period, but no severe gales were reported.
JAMES Hector,
Inspector of Meteorological Stations.
MEMBERS
OF THE
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE,
1869.
WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
Abraham, Right Reverend C. J.,
Bishop of Wellington
Aicken, F., Wellington
Allan, J. G., ditto
Allan, A. 8., ditto
Allen, W., ditto
Bannatyne, W., Wanganui
Batkin, C. J., Wellington
Beetham, W., ditto
Best, W., ditto
Bidwell, R., Wairarapa
Boor, L., M.R.C.8S.E., Wellington
Bowden, T., B.A., ditto
Braithwaite, A., Hutt
Buchanan, P., Wellington
Buchanan, J., ditto
Buller, W., F. JLGShy Ae as) SW aneants
Coes G., ‘Wellington
Geman, J. Camis, F.G.S., ditto
Dransfield, J., ditto
Duncan, R. J., ditto
Ewald, Rev. H. W., M.A., ditto
Featherston, I. E., M.D., His Honor,
Superintendent of Wellington
France, C., M.R.C.S., Wellington
George, J. G. R., C.E., ditto
Gillon, E. T., Wellington
Gore, R. B., ditto
Grace, M.8., M.D., ditto
Green, H., ditto
Gumpel, C. G., London
Hamilton, W. S., Wellington
Hart, R., ditto
Haultain, The Hon. Col. T. M., ditto
Hector, J., M.D., F.R.S., ditto
Holdsworth, J. G., ditto
Holmes, R. L., F.M.S8., ditto
Hurley, J., ditto
Jackson, H., ditto
Johnston, The Hon. J., ditto
Kebbell, J., ditto
Knight, C., F.R.C.8., ditto
Knowles, J., Wellington
Krull, F. A., ditto
Logan, H. F., ditto
Lomax, Mrs. E., ditto
Lomax, H., ditto
Luxford, W., ditto
McKenzie, T., ditto
Maniac, — ditto
Marchant, J. A., ditto
Marchant, N., ditto
Martin, J., ditto
Mason, T., Hutt
Mills, E. We Wellington
Monro, Sir iD, M.D., Nelson
Nancarrow, J., Wellington
Pearce, E., ditto
Pharazyn, "The Hon. C. J., ditto
Pharazyn, R., F.R.G.S., ditto
Pharazyn, C., ditto
Pharazyn, W., B.A., LL.B., ditto
Plimmer, J., ditto
Potts, T. Er, , Canterbury
Powles, C. F, Wellington
Rhodes. W. iB. ditto
Richardson, C. 8., ditto
Richmond, The Hon. J. C., ditto
Richmond, H., Taranaki
Skey, W., Wellington
Smith, B., ditto
Stowe, L., ditto
Stuart, T. M., ditto
Toxward, C. J., ditto
Travers, W. T. L., F.L.S., ditto
Travers, H. H., ditto
Wakefield, F., F.L.S., ditto
Wallace, J. H., ditto
Waterhouse, The Hon. G. M.
F.R.C.S., Wairarapa
Webb, J. S., Dunedin
Willcox, H., Wellington
Woodward, J., ditto
?
LLL
436
AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.
Aitken, W., Auckland
Atkin, W., Tamaki
Alexander, C., Auckland
Allom, A. J., Shortland
Baber, J., C.E., Auckland
Ball, T., Mangonui
Barstow, R. C., Bay of Islands
Beere, D. M., Shortland
Beale, B. C., M.D., Hamilton
Boardman, A., Auckland
Brissenden, F. W., ditto
Brookfield, F. M. P., ditto
Bruce, Rev. D., ditto
Buchanan, J., ditto
Buckland, W. T., ditto
Buller, Rev. J., ditto
Camphbell, H., ditto
Chamberlin, H., ditto
Chapman, G. T., ditto
Cheeseman, T. F., Remuera
Codrington, Rev. N., Norfolk Island
Cook, A. G., Auckland
Crawford, J. H., ditto
Dyson, R. W., ditto
Farmer, J., ditto
Firth, J. C., ditto
Fischer, C. F., M.D., ditto
Ford, 8S. H., M.D., Russell
Gillies, His Honor T. B., Superinten-
dent of the Province of Auckland
Goldsbro’, F., M.D., Auckland
Goldsmith, H., C.E., Shortland
Gwynneth, J., C.E., Grahamstown
Harding, 8., C.E., Grahamstown
Hay, D., Auckland
Haultain, The Hon. Colonel T. M., ditto
Heale, T., C.E., ditto
Heaphy, C., V.C., Major A.R.V., ditto
Hector, J.. M.D., F.R.S., Wellington
Horne, J. H., M.D., Auckland
Hunt, W. A., Remuera
Hutton, Capt. F. W., F.G.S., Churchill
Jackson, 8., Auckland
Jones, 8., ditto
Kidd, R., LL. D., ditto
Kinder, Rev. J., ditto
Kirk, T., ditto
Lascelles, A., ditto
Lee, W., M.R.C.S.E., ditto
Lowe, J., C.E., ditto
Lusk, H. H., ditto
Lyell, J. L., Epsom
Mac Cormick, J. C., Auckland
Macffarlane, T., ditto
Macfarlane, J. S., Auckland
Mac Kay, R., ditto =
MacKellar, H. S., ditto
Mackelvie, J. T., ditto
MacLean, E., Howick
Macleod, J., Kawa Kawa
Mair, Major, Tauranga
Manning, F., Hokianga
Meinertzhagen, F. H., Napier
Mitford, G. A., Auckland
Morton, H. B., Parnell
Morrin, T., Auckland
Murdoch, D. L., ditto
Nesbitt, W. K., M.D., ditto
Ogilvie, J., ditto
O’ Keefe, D., Shortland
Owen, G. B., Epsom
Owen, G. W., London
Palmer, W. J., Auckland
Peacock, T., ditto
Petschler, C. F., ditto
Phillips, C., Onehunga
Pollen, The Hon. D., M.D., Te Whau
Purchas, A. G., M.D., Onehunga
Roberton, J., Auckland
Russell, T., ditto
Sheppard, A. M., Whangape
Shera, J. M., Auckland
Sinclair, A., ditto
Smith, W. B., Remuera
Smart, G., Auckland
Stewart, J., C.E., ditto
Stratford, 8. J., M.R.C.S.E., ditto
Todd, R,, C.E., ditto
Upton, J. H., ditto
Upton, W. B., ditto
Vilcoq, A., Russell
Von der Heyde, Gustav, Auckland
Wark, J. N., Sydney, N.S. W.
Watling, W. W., M.D., Auckland
Wayland, J. M., Onehunga
Waywmouth, J., Grahamstown
Wayte, E., Auckland
Weetman, S., ditto
Weston, T. 8., ditto
Whitaker, F., ditto
Williams, H., Bay of Islands
Williams, Archdeacon, Poverty Bay
Williamson, J., Auckland
Wilson, J. A., Remuera
Wilson, W. C., Auckland
Wright, F., M.D., ditto
Wrigley, J., Auckland
437
PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.
Acland, The Hon. J. B.
Adams, F. A.
Anderson, John,
church
Armstrong, J. F.
Back, A.
Barker, A.
Bealey, Samuel
Beaufort, —
Blackiston, A. F. N.
Blackiston, C. R.
Bowen, Rev. Croasdale
Bowen, C. C., F.R.G.S.
Boys, J. C.
Carruthers, W. D.
Coward, J. W.S., L.S.A.
Cowlishaw, W. P.
Davie, Cyrus
- Deamer, Wm., M.D.
Dunean, T. 8.
Enys, J. D.
Frankish, J. D., M.D.
Fraser, Rev. C., M.A., F.G.S.
Gilchrist, J. O.
Gould, George
Gresson, Henry B., B.A., His Honor
Mr. Justice
Haast, Julius, Ph.D. F.R.S.
Hall, George W.
Hail, The Hon. John
Hanmer, Philip
Harper, H. J. C., D.D., Right Rev.
Bishop of Christchurch and Pri-
mate.
Harper, Leonard
Hart, George
Hassal, T. M.
Hennah, H.
Hewlings, 8.
Holmes, G.
Inglis, John -
Mayor of Christ-
Jameson, Andrew
Jollie, Ed.
Lee, E. J.
Lockyear, F.
Loughnan, —
Mainwaring, R.
Montgomery, W.
Marshman, J.
Murray-Aynsley, H. P.
Nottidge, Th. :
Packe, W.
Palmer, Joseph
Potts, T. H.
Powell, L. C.
Purnell, W. C.
Reeves, W.
Rolleston, W., B.A., His Honor,
Superintendent
IOSss J Vie
Sealey, E. P.
Simmons, Edward
Smith, J. W.
Stack, Rev. J. W.
Tancred, Henry J.
Tancred, T. S.
Templar, E. M.
Thornton, G.
Tripp, T.
Turnbull, J. 8., M.D.
Waketield, C. M.
Walton, R.
Ward, Hamilton J.
Warner, G.
Williams, J. Strange
Wilson, J. Cracroft, C.B.
Wilson, Rev. James, M.A.
Wilson, W. .
Wright, E. G.
Wright, F. E.
Wylde, J.
OTAGO INSTITUTE.
Abram, G. P.
Adams, C. W.
Arthur, W.
Ashcroft, J.
Barre G0.
Barton, G. B.
Bathgate, John
Bathgate, Alexander
Bell, George
Beverly, A.
Beal, L. O.
Borrows, Dr., R.N.
Bower, D.
Brent, D.
Brodie, G.
Burns, Robert
Cargill, E. B.
Cargill, John
Carrick, A.
Chapman, Robert
Copeland, James
Davidson, Rev. —
Davie, John
Eccles, A., F.R.C.S.E.
Finch, James
Fraser, Captain Thomas
Fraser, W.
Gardner, David
Gillies, Rev. W.
Gillies, R.
Grant, A. J.
Hawthorne, Stuart
Hislop, J.
Hocken, T. M., M.R.C.S.E.
Hodgkins, W. M.
Houghton, H.
Jeffeoat, F.
Kenyon, E. P.
Langlands, W.
Law, H.
Logan, John
Lubecki, A. D.
Macassey, James
Macandrew, James
Martin, R. B.
Martin, W.
Miller, Robert, Jun.
Murison, W. D.
438
McGregor, John
McKerrow, James
Oliver, R.
Oliver, Thomas
Prentice, N.
Purdie, A. C.
Quick, E. E. C.
Rattray, James
Reynolds, W. H.
Roberts, F.
Ross, A. H.
Ross, John
Russell, Andrew
Russell, G. G.
Russell, Peter
Selby, P.
Skey, H.
Smail, W.
Smith, C.
Smith, James
Stout, Robert
Strode, A. C.
Stuart, Rev. D. M.
Thomson, J. T.
Thomson, Peter
Turnbull, G.
Ward, Mr. Justice, His Honor
Watson, J. T.
Watt, T. N.
Webb, J. 8S.
JAMES HUGHES, PRINTER, LAMBTON QUAY, WELLINGTON.
= 432648
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