CHAPTER II
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CHAP. II.]
PART I.
CHAPTER II.
Cook's Straits. --Queen Charlotte's Sound. --Te-awa-iti. --Cloudy Bay. --Whales and Whalers.
After a rapid voyage of only ninety-six days, on board the New Zealand Company's vessel the Tory, we sighted the land of New Zealand with much satisfaction on the noon of the 16th of August, 1839. With the exception of the Island of Palma, one of the Canaries, we had seen no land since our departure from Plymouth. After we had doubled the Cape of Good Hope we sailed between the latitudes of 37 deg. and 45 deg.: the prevailing winds were from the south-west and the north-west. The atmosphere was generally thick and hazy, the weather squally, with sudden gales, accompanied by hail and sleet. The temperature of the air was sometimes as low as 40 deg. Fahrenheit. This state of the weather, and a constant cross sea, which produced an incessant rolling of the vessel, made our life uncomfortable and monotonous. The number of sea-birds, consisting of various kinds of petrels and albatrosses, was remarkable. The habits of these feathered tribes, their elegant movements, and apparently inexhaustible strength of wing, were among our chief sources of amusement. The history of these birds is more
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COOK'S STRAITS. [PART. I.
obscure than is generally supposed, especially their migrations, and the boundaries between which they are found at different seasons, and which depend, probably, upon the supply of food. The history of one bird is closely allied to that of some other animal, and so on in a chain the links of which are intimately connected. The same is the case with other animals, flying-fishes, albicorns, sharks, dolphins, porpoises, &c, which are usually observed during the course of a sea voyage.
We made the land to the southward of Cape Farewell, in the middle island of New Zealand. Only the summits of a mountain chain were visible, and even these disappeared when we altered our course to the north-east, and hove-to for the night in the middle of Cook's Straits.
On the morning of the 17th we were on deck at daybreak. We now saw more of the middle island, which seemed to consist of a chain of steep snow-capped hills, running through the middle of the island, and rising in a succession of ridges from the sea-shore. On the northern island we saw the mountains of Tararua in the neighbourhood of Port Nicholson; these also were covered with snow. At a farther distance, in a nearly central position, a bulky snow - covered mountain appeared, which proved to be the Ruapahu.
We drew nearer to the northern coast of the middle island, and approached Stephens's Island, which rises steep and abrupt from the sea, and seems to be covered with a dense forest from the water's
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CHAP.II.] QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND.
edge to the summit. After this we neared Rangitoto, or D'Urville's Island, the aspect of which is similar. The character of the land was in no way promising. Where no wood covered the steep sides of the hills, a barren-looking yellow stratified rock appeared. At two o'clock in the afternoon we rounded Point Jackson, the western headland of Queen Charlotte's Sound. On this point, which is a steep cliffy promontory, with a reef of rocks running out from it, we observed the palings of a native fortification. To our left we had the island which Captain Cook calls Long Island, and before us was the Island of Motuara. The former consists of a sharp ridge of hills, the formation of which is a yellow argillaceous slate. There is no land at their base, which is washed by the sea, but the island appears as if it were wearing away; and partly by the action of tide and waves, partly by the rains, several slips have been produced at its sides, where the bare rock is now visible.
When we entered the Sound we saw several canoes leaving a bay in the neighbourhood of Point Jackson, but they did not come up to us.
We steered between Long Island and Motuara. Before we came to an anchor in Ship Cove we descried a canoe coming from a neighbouring cove, called Cannibals' Cove in Cook's chart, and Anaho by the natives. It was a small and frail vessel, and contained eight men, who, it appeared, had been fishing. They were clothed in coarse mats, and some of them were painted with red ochre. When
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QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND. [PART I.
they came alongside the vessel, they lashed their canoe to the main-chain, and jumping on deck with the greatest confidence, shook hands with us, and then squatted down. They sold us some fish and Swedish turnips for a little tobacco, and left us in the evening, with a promise to come back next morning. At seven o'clock we anchored at the entrance of Ship Cove, as the wind fell calm, and a strong ebb-tide was against us: we hoisted the New Zealand flag, and saluted it with eight guns.
The following morning the ship was warped deeper into Ship Cove, and moored to a tree. The scene which presented itself was very beautiful; the cove being as smooth as a lake, and surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, which were clothed with primeval forest, and enlivened by the song of numerous birds. But, with the exception of these, we seemed to be the only living beings.
We remained in Ship Cove until the 31st of August; and I will here give a description of this part of the island, the result of daily excursions, which were extended its far as the dense virgin forest would allow me to penetrate.
Ship Cove opens in a semicircle towards Queen Charlotte's Sound, and is formed by two branches of the network of mountains of which this part of the island consists. In looking from our anchorage towards Cook's Straits, there appeared in the foreground Kapiti, or Entry Island: its shape is that of an obtuse cone. The horizon beyond it was formed by two chains of mountains, situated in the
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CHAP.II.] QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND.
northern island, the most distant of which was covered with snow. If we follow this panorama to the eastward we have the island of Motuara, which extends from N.E. by E. to E. by S. Motuara is a steep ridge of hills, the most elevated points of which are on its northern and southern extremities, and bear to N.E. and S.W. Motuara conceals from our view the southern headland of Queen Charlotte's Sound, Cape Koamaru, which is a promontory of the Island of Arapaoa. The southern end of this island is concealed by Moturoa, or Long Island. The latter is for the greater part destitute of vegetation, owing to the great declivity of its sides and the barrenness of the underlying rock.
The features of the land in Queen Charlotte's Sound are those of a very mountainous and thickly-wooded country. Hilly offsets run from the main chain towards the sea, and enclose small bays or coves, which are surrounded by the steep hills in the form of an amphitheatre. These bays rarely contain more than half a square mile in area of flat land. The soil is a light earth, consisting of vegetable mould, more or less mixed with shingle or sand. In these places there are generally some native huts, inhabited chiefly at the fishing seasons; and here also the natives find the soil most suited for the cultivation of the kumera, or sweet potato: for their other crops, however, they prefer the sides and ravines of the hills, where, after having burned the wood, they obtain for cultivation a new and
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QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND. [PART I.
fertile soil, where the surrounding forest preserves a continual supply of moisture.
The geological formation of these hills is very simple. The rock is a stratified yellow argillaceous slate, or a pepper-coloured soft wacke. In a few places this rock is interrupted by basaltic masses, and in some parts by siliceous slate, or Lydian stone, of various colours.
Little decay has taken place on the surface of this rock. But it is covered with a moderate layer of vegetable mould, which naturally collects to a greater thickness at the sides of the watercourses and in gorges or ravines. Generally speaking, however, the vegetable mould is only a thin stratum, and the exuberance and freshness of the vegetation are chiefly owing to the constant humidity.
It is this moisture which also nourishes an extraordinary number of little streamlets which discharge themselves from the sides of the hills into the sea. The profuseness of this supply of water, which is quite astonishing, is common to the whole of New Zealand, and gives her a great advantage over the dry and arid soil of New South Wales.
The vegetation of these hills is very luxuriant. Near the beach appear shrublike veronicas, 1 myrtles, 2 fuchsias, 3 solanum, 4 the karaka tree, 5 tutu, 66 and flax. 7
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CHAP.II.] QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND.
Higher up, the sides of the hills are clothed with trees, of which the rimu, 8 totara, 9 and mai 10 (all belonging to the pine tribe) are the most common, and attain the greatest thickness. Intermixed with these are the tawai 11 and hinau. 12 On the lower grounds these trees are almost impenetrably interwoven by liands (smilax), which attain great length, and the berries of which form the favourite food of the beautiful New Zealand pigeon, 13 the plumage of which displays all the colours of the rainbow. High tree-ferns, 14 with the cabbage-palm, 15 strike the eye as the most beautiful forms of New Zealand vegetation.
The number of small ferns is quite incredible, and a great many species may be collected at all times in a state of fructification.
Here and there stems of trees are overturned, either by the winds or from age; and although long preserving their outward shape, they are soon thoroughly rotten, from the abundance of moisture.
At the summit of the hills we find but little wood; and the manuka 16 and kahikatoa, 17 the esculent fern 18 and euphorbium, 19 and the epacris parviflora, form the chief part of the vegetation. The kahi-
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QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND. [PART I.
katoa has sometimes a stem of about a foot in diameter, and affords the hardest and most durable wood found in New Zealand: it is of this wood that the natives make their agricultural implements. It appeared to me as if this wood was admirably adapted for the purposes of engraving and cotton-printing. The manuka supplies the place of the tea-shrub, as its leaves furnish a balsamic and agreeable beverage. The phormium tenax also grows upon the hills: it is indeed found everywhere, in swamps, on the driest hills, and on the sea-side, where it is exposed to the spray of the salt-water.
Where wood covers the summits of the hills the trees are stunted, and the forest becomes more open, vis the liands seldom grow at an altitude of more than 800 feet.
I ascended the two highest hills at the back of Ship Cove, which from our anchorage bore to the north-west and south-west. The latter was without wood on its summit, and was found by a trigonometrical measurement to be 900 feet high. The former was covered with wood to its top; and from the height of the point of boiling-water, namely, 208 deg., with a mean temperature of 40 deg., I judged it to be 2093 feet. The hills in this neighbourhood do not appear to average more than 1200 feet in height.
The native who accompanied me was acquainted with the names of all the trees and birds, which he would tell me when I rested, after a tiresome scramble through the dense underwood. Whilst
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CHAP.II.] SHIP COVE.
walking he seldom spoke, except to relate, in broken English, tales of terrible animals, or divinities, which we should meet with on the summit of the mountain, and which would inevitably devour the poor maori (native), but could do no injury to the pakea (stranger). It appeared to me that he was sounding my belief in things about the existence of which he was not quite certain himself, and wanted to deter me from ascending to the summit.
In the lower regions the forest was much enlivened by birds. I shot some parrots, 20 pigeons, 212 and wattle-birds. 22 Among the branches of the trees hopped the neat fantail flycatcher, 23 and a social bird of a yellow colour, which has been depicted by Forster, 24and which had much the habits of the finch. But these birds were the only beings of the animal kingdom I could perceive: I did not even see an insect. The smaller birds have a touching confidence, and came so near me that I could almost have seized them with the hand.
On the summit the silence was still deeper, and the white-breasted motacilla longipes (Pitoitoi) alone was heard pursuing its search from branch to branch after small dipterous insects. There was snow on the summit, and the thermometer stood at 41 deg. Fahrenheit. The whole mountain was covered with vegetable earth. But I ascertained that the
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ISLAND OF MOTUARA. [PART I.
same rock, a metamorphic slate, formed its entire composition. The quantity of underwood greatly circumscribed the view, and I had only a glimpse of Motuara, Long Island, and the mountains near Cape Te-ra-witi. The dense forest of the hills also prevented any very extensive survey of the neighbourhood of Ship Cove, and I therefore limited my excursions to places within a short distance from the ship. One of these journeys was to the Island of Motuara. There is some excellent land there, where the natives have plantations. Although we were still in the depth of winter, many shrubs were pushing forward their blossoms; one, a creeper (Clematis albida, or nearly allied to that species, which is a native of Van Diemen's Land), was loaded with a profusion of white flowers, which hung in festoons over the neighbouring trees. I have no doubt that this shrub would thrive in our climate, and become one of the greatest ornaments of our parks. We found several natives on the island, who rambled with us through the bush. Pigeons, the large parrot, and a small green ground-perrokeet (trichoglossus aurifrons, Wagl.), were there in great numbers. The natives were merely temporary sojourners, and had come from Cannibals' Cove to catch pigs, which overrun the island.
Another of my excursions was to Anaho, or Cannibals' Cove, where a small tribe of natives is located. The chief, Nga-rewa, with his wife and son, had been our daily guests on board the vessel. On landing all the natives left their huts to receive us,
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CHAP.II.] CANNIBALS' COVE.
and offered a shake of the hand as a welcome. Amongst the houses was a large one, which they had built for an Englishman, who at the end of the whaling season lived with them. His house formed also the meeting-house for the tribe, as they had lately become converted to Christianity by a native, who had been with the missionaries in the Bay of Islands, and had learned to read and write. Some of the tribe in Anaho had already acquired from him these arts, and all were anxious to learn them. These people were well provided with the necessaries of life; provisions were plentiful, and we were enabled to lay in a large stock of potatoes and pigs at a very moderate price. From the neighbouring whaling establishments they had obtained articles of European clothing in exchange for their commodities, and their condition seemed to be a happy one. I was astonished to find it so easy to deal with them; and instead of sinister savages, brooding nothing but treachery and mischief, as many travellers have depicted them, they were open, confident, and hospitable, and proved of the greatest service to me during my frequent rambles in the woods. A party of them had soon after our arrival established themselves in temporary huts opposite our vessel in Ship Cove; the women washed for us, and the men helped us to refit the ship. But for the interference of a noisy fellow of the name of "Dogskin," who belonged to another place, our good understanding would never have
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SHIP COVE. [PART I.
been disturbed. The interruption was not, however, serious. It appeared that Ship Cove was claimed as the property of E Hiko, now living in Entry Island, the son of the former principal chief and warrior of the whole tribe, Tupahi, a native well known in England, which he had visited. E Hiko had buried a child in Ship Cove, and for that reason the place had become sacred, or "tapu." For this "Dogskin" wanted "utu," or payment, putting himself forward as E Hiko's representative. He was, however, compelled to lower his demands, and the matter having been amicably settled by a moderate present of tobacco, we had thenceforth permission to take as much wood and water as we wanted.
Besides the natives from Anaho, we frequently had visitors from neighbouring districts. From one of these parties, which came from Admiralty Bay, in four large canoes deeply laden with pigs and potatoes, we heard for the first time that Queen Charlotte's Sound opens by a passage into Cloudy Bay. The natives and Europeans, who go from Entry Island and the other parts of Cook's Straits to the latter place, generally choose this passage, which is by far the safest way for boats and frail canoes. We also heard that there was in this passage a whaling establishment, in which many Englishmen were living. Captain Cook suspected the existence of such a passage from Queen Charlotte's Sound, but the southern entrance of it is not laid down in his chart of the Straits, which is most
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CHAP.II.] SHIP COVE.
excellent, and far above my humble praise. At our departure from England, Nayti, the New Zealander, who had come in the Tory, had also pointed out this passage, which he said was the route commonly used by his people. But it was not known in England that there was a whaling establishment there, and still less that the passage was navigable for the largest vessels.
Another of our visitors was Te Wetu (the Star), the principal chief from Rangitoto (Red Sky), or D'Urville's Island. He was a New Zealander of the old school, who took much pains to render himself agreeable. He was rather fond of the pleasures of our table, and stayed several days on board, where he at once conformed to all the rules of European etiquette, and evinced the utmost good humour. Joy and mirth, I have found from experience, are always sure to find an echo in the susceptible heart of the New Zealander, and are also the best means to secure his good will and confidence. When "the Star of Rangitoto" left us, he expressed himself delighted with the good treatment he had experienced on board the Tory, and invited us to come and pay him a visit.
Captain Chaffers found the latitude of Ship Cove, at the end of the rocks on the south side of the beach, to be 41 deg. 5' 45" South, and the longitude, by means of chronometers from England, 174 deg. 20' 15" East, only differing three-quarters of
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
a mile to the West of that assigned by Captain Cook. The variation of the compass is 14 deg. 20' E.
In consequence of the information which we had received from the natives, our storekeeper was sent up Queen Charlotte's Sound to the whaling establishment at Te-awa-iti. He returned on the following day, and in his company were two English whalers. The sight of the first European faces we had beheld since our departure from England, and in a part of the country where we scarcely expected to see any, was very agreeable, especially as they understood the native language, and one of them was the Englishman who was living in Anaho during the summer season, and was well acquainted with the Straits, where he has spent several years in the hazardous avocation of a whaler. He undertook to pilot the Tory up the Sound to Te-awa-iti. Accordingly, Te Wetu and Ngarewa, the chiefs of Anaho, were sent ashore, as soon as we had got up our anchors, and only Wiriamu (or Williams), the native missionary, had permission to accompany us. A fine breeze swelled our sails, and, favoured by the tide, we ran up Queen Charlotte's Sound on the 31st of August. The country was very picturesque, consisting generally of wooded hills, and forming a number of bays and coves on both sides. As I shall afterwards speak of several of these bays, which I visited, and each of which forms a separate harbour, I will only mention here, that, after having seen
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
most of the good harbours of New Zealand, I still adhere to my first impression, that the Sound is the most commodious and extensive, the most easy of access and navigation, especially from the regularity of the tides, and the most sheltered, of any in New Zealand. Besides Ship Cove, East Bay and West Bay, and the proper termination of the Sound, form inlets several miles long; in fact, the whole Sound is perfectly landlocked, and has deep water close inshore. As a harbour it well deserves the enthusiastic praise which Captain Cook bestowed upon it.
At four o'clock in the afternoon we entered that part of the channel which Captain Chaffers afterwards surveyed, and named Tory Channel. A pyramidical hill of some height, and without wood at the top, marks the entrance into this narrow part, which is here about a mile broad. Everywhere the shore showed the clay-slate formation. A small rocky island, called Moioio, soon became visible, on the beach of which several canoes were drawn up. On its summit were formed pa's, or villages, and all the inhabitants looked down on us as we passed close by. Several canoes with natives were out fishing. They had various kinds of fish, especially fine mullets and gurnets, which they offered for sale, but we did not admit the men on board. The number of natives on this island, I was told, was about 150. Several recognised Nayti, who belongs to the same tribe. Their character was pronounced by the whalers who accompanied
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
us to be thievish and troublesome; but I have learned to regard the evidence of Europeans against the natives with great distrust. Her Majesty's brig Pylorus had been here during the previous year, to punish a theft which the whalers stated had been committed by the natives. The captain was satisfied with firing some shots into the rock, and the vessel went afterwards as far as the settlement of Te-awa-iti, and returned through the north-west entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound. The Pylorus did not, therefore, actually go through Tory Channel. At all events, I think that the account of the Tory's passage of this channel and Captain Chaffers's survey of it are the first published.
We had the advantage of a strong tide, of at least five miles an hour, which was sufficient to carry us forward when the wind failed, as frequently happened on account of the landlocked position of the Sound. Night had however already set in when we anchored before the settlement Te-awa-iti (the little river). But even then the aspect of this place offered a most exhilarating scene. Large fires glared through the darkness from the neighbouring beach, lighted for the trying out of the blubber of a large whale, which had been brought in that morning; a confused sound of voices reached our ears, and proved to us that even in this remote corner of the world it was the custom to celebrate any happy event with profuse libations. Mr. Barret, superintendent of one of the whaling establishments, came off in his
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
boat. He has been living twelve or fifteen years in Cook's Strait, and the relation of his adventures and migrations in company with the native tribe, to which he is now joined, made the evening pass away very quickly and agreeably. His ruddy and good-humoured countenance showed, at all events, that such a life had not occasioned him many sleepless nights, and that in New Zealand a man might thrive, at least as far as regards his bodily welfare.
On Sunday, September 1, we went ashore early in the morning. We passed several huge carcases of whales sunk under water. A curious spectacle presented itself on the beach, which was covered with remains of whales--skulls, vertebrae, huge shoulder-blades and fins; and the blubber, in pieces a square foot in size, was still boiling in large pots: the fire was fed with these pieces of blubber, after the oil had been boiled out of them. There was much stench from whale-oil, but this was disregarded, so great was the interest I felt in the whole process. After I had inspected the trying-houses, in one of which a native of Australia was occupied, of whose intelligence and quickness his master spoke very highly, I went through the village. Some of the houses were substantial wooden buildings, but the majority had thatched walls of liands and bulrushes, with a roof of the same materials. They consisted of one floor, and contained two or more rooms, with a spacious chimney. The floor is of clay firmly
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TE-AWA-ITI. [PART I.
compressed and beaten hard. All the houses have been built by the natives, and some are not inferior to those of the villages in many parts of Europe. The whalers received us with a hearty welcome wherever we came. They are about forty in number, and all live with native women. Their offspring, of whom I counted twenty-one in Te-awa-iti, have finely-cast countenances, and their features remind us little of the admixture of a coloured race; the skin is not so dark as that of the inhabitants of the south of France; they generally inherit from the mother the large and fine eye and the dark glossy hair; there are, however, many individuals with flaxen hair and blue eyes. If you enter a house, you find the wife and her relations generally sitting around the fire and smoking. The "tenei ra kokoe pakea" (welcome, stranger) is heard from every mouth. These women do all the domestic labour, and excel their European husbands in sobriety and quiet disposition. Te-awa-iti is situated on the east side of Tory Channel, about two miles from its southern entrance, and twenty-eight miles from the northern entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound, on the island of Arapaoa, which is throughout its extent of a very hilly nature, intersected by ravines and covered with wood. Towards the channel the island forms several small coves, which are now inhabited; towards Cook's Straits, however, the shores are bold, rocky, and much worn by the fury of the tides and waves. At Te-awa-iti, Tory Channel is three miles broad, and
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
throughout its extent from ten to fifteen fathoms deep. The history of this settlement is not without interest. About twenty years ago, a Mr. Guard, who visited the shores of New Zealand on a sealing expedition, discovered the southern entrance of Tory Channel. As the seals rapidly disappeared, he turned his attention to the whales, which he found to visit the channel in great numbers. He built a house on Te-awa-iti beach, which was then uninhabited; but he suffered much from the natives, who had just been driven from their possessions in Cook's Straits by Tupahi and Rauparaha, and who lived in a straggling manner farther to the southward. Guard soon quitted Te-awa-iti, but was succeeded by other adventurers, especially Messrs. Thoms and Barret. These persons, being without resources, as their property consisted perhaps at first only of a whale-boat and some whaling-gear, made chase on the whales, which they killed for the sake of the baleen only. Afterwards speculators at Sydney gave their support, advanced merchandize to them, and annually sent vessels to transport the oil. In the train of the Europeans arrived a tribe of the Ngate Awa natives from the neighbourhood of Mount Egmont, in the northern island, and with their protection the settlers could more effectually resist the attacks of the original natives of this part of the country.
There are three whaling establishments in Te-awa-iti, and in a small bay a short distance from it,
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
called, from its proprietor, Jackson's Bay. These establishments have a number of boats in their service, manned with white people and natives. Sometimes other inhabitants of the beach have boats of their own, and sell their oil to the Europeans. The boat's crew are paid a certain sum, either for each whale brought in, or for every tun of oil, and they derive their chief profits from the practice of paying their poorer associates with the necessaries of life, slops, and articles of luxury, as tobacco, and especially spirits. The whalers are constrained to take these articles from their employers, who put their own prices upon them, which are exorbitant. They take care never to allow their dependents to get out of debt; this they accomplish by profusely providing them with drink. I do not, however, mean to assert that they are large gainers in these transactions; they have to do with a reckless class of people, --runaway sailors and former convicts from New South Wales, who do not think much about leaving their employers in debt, and go off, without giving much notice of their intention, in some of the numerous vessels cruising about the Sound and Cloudy Bay.
The jealousy existing between the several employers, the system of decoying each other's men by every means in their power, the character of the population itself, the universal use of adulterated and poisoned spirits, have created a state of society in which it is only to be wondered that, in the ab-
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
sence of all restraint and law, outrages on each other's property and persons are not of a more frequent occurrence.
I was astonished, and at the same time gratified, to find that the character of the natives had been so little affected by this state of things. I have not seen one instance of drunkenness amongst them, common as the vice is amongst the Europeans; although mixing with the latter in the boats, they did not join in their revelries, which are contrary to their taste and inclinations, and which do not begin until the evening, after the return of the boats.
In the summer season the whalers live dispersed over the Sound; sometimes trading in a small way with the passing ships in potatoes and pigs, which they obtain through the families of their wives, but more generally spending their lives in idleness. There are, however, some very respectable men amongst them, who have been provident enough to cultivate small patches of ground, and these of course live in comparative ease and comfort, as all European vegetables thrive extremely well: poultry also increases rapidly and throughout the year: goats thrive better than cattle, to the introduction of which the almost total want of grass is a most serious objection.
As whales and whaling were the principal objects which in Te-awa-iti, and afterwards in Cloudy Bay, excited my curiosity, I may be allowed to give here a short account of that interesting and valu-
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
able animal--the whale; in the chase of which, during the winter season, many boats are sent out from the establishments on the coasts of New Zealand. It is called the "black whale, or right whale" (Balaena Australis, or Antarctica). Sometimes chase is given to the finback and humpback whale, which, with the black whale, belong to the great division of the cetacea known by the sieve-like or screening apparatus (baleen) with which they are provided; this it is which furnishes the whalebone of commerce, and distinguishes the whales above referred to from the cachelots, or sperm whales. It is seldom, however, that either a finback or a humpback (so called, the former from possessing a true fin on his back, and the latter a fat and cellular hump) is caught, not only on account of their superior cunning, greater wildness and celerity, by means of which they are enabled to run out the longest line, but also because, giving less oil than the black whale, they are not so frequently pursued. The spermaceti whale is not uncommon in the latitudes of New Zealand, and often falls a prey to the whale-ships which cruise in the open sea; but the cachelot does not approach shallow coasts and inlets, as its habits are different from those of the black whale. Shortly before I arrived at Te-awa-iti a sperm whale was driven ashore which could only have been dead a very short time; it gave about two tuns of oil.
It has been said that most of the cetaceous animals are cosmopolites, and that the sperm whale
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
especially lives under every degree of latitude, both to the north and south of the equator: a statement so entirely at variance with our knowledge regarding the distribution of animals throughout the globe should be received with very great distrust. It is true that the medium in which they live offers to marine animals a very wide range, and great facilities to exchange, in the different seasons, the glacial seas for the equatorial ocean; but until we have strictly examined the anatomical, and especially the osseous, structures of all the species which belong to the cetaceous tribe, we are not justified in regarding them as identical in both hemispheres. The porpoise of the New Zealand seas (Delphinus Novae Zelandiae), which is figured in the 'Voyage de 1'Astrolabe,' plate 28, is decidedly a peculiar species; and we have not yet sufficient data to pronounce that the whale is independent of what appears to be a general law of nature. The whalers, it is true, allow the identity of the Greenland sperm whale and northern right whale with those of the antarctic seas, but their evidence, is not sufficient. Cuvier admitted the difference between the Balaena Borealis and the Balaena Australis, or Arctica and Antarctica. The latter, described by him from a specimen prepared at the Cape of Good Hope, differs in the number of its vertebrae, as it possesses seven collar, fifteen dorsal, and thirty-seven abdominal; in the whole fifty-nine. The Balaena Arctica possesses only seven collar and thirteen dorsal vertebrae. From a very
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
accurate drawing which Mr. Heaphy, the draughtsman, made for me of a cow whale, which was brought into Jackson's Bay, and measured sixty feet in length, I am convinced that the southern black whale is a different animal from the northern, and has been added by Mr. Gray to the system under the name of Balaena antipodarum. This whale was drawn while afloat, and just after it had been brought in; its shape was therefore unaltered. But I was unable to determine this difference from anatomical structure, as the carcase, after having been freed of the blubber, immediately sank, and amongst the osseous remains on the beach I could find no complete skeleton.
The black whales of the southern hemisphere appear to be considerably inferior in size to those of the northern. The cow whale above alluded to was regarded as of an unusually large size; but Scoresby tells us that he measured whales in the Greenland seas seventy or seventy-two feet long. Both the northern and southern Balaena occupy only the second place in regard to size in the animal creation. Mr. Beale measured a spermaceti whale on the coast of Japan of the "enormous size of eighty-four feet, and its circumference in this instance was not less than that of a Greenland whale of the largest size."
Almost all the whales which are killed on the shores of New Zealand are females, or cows, and their calves. The male, or bull, is very rarely caught, as it never approaches the land so near as
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
the female, and is more shy and wild. The season in which whaling is carried on is from May to October. In the beginning of May the cows approach the shallow coasts and smooth waters for the purpose of bringing forth their young. This period lasts about four months, as in May whales are seen with newly-born calves, and cows have been killed in July in full gestation. During the same months also copulation is sometimes observed by the whalers. But from these data it is impossible to draw a conclusion on the real period of gestation in these huge animals, which has never yet been satisfactorily determined. In company with the cows are also the calves of the preceding year or years, for it is still uncertain at what age the whale attains its full size and leaves the mother; these young whales are called scrags, and they yield about four tuns of oil.
It appears that the female generally produces but one calf at a birth: the cow is indeed sometimes seen with two; and although in this case it is the opinion of the whalers that one is an orphan calf, yet it is probable that the black whale, like the northern sperm whale, occasionally produces twins. A calf, which appeared full grown, and which was cut out of the mother a short time before my arrival in Te-awa-iti, measured fourteen feet.
The whale is a truly migratory animal, and its migrations are the most interesting part of its history. They arrive at the coasts of New Zealand in the beginning of May from the northward, go through Cook's Straits, keeping along the coast of
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
the northern island, and pass between the latter and Entry Island. This is borne out by the fact that they are never seen on the opposite coast, nor do they enter the northern entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound. From Entry Island they sweep into Cloudy Bay, and. at the end of October they go either to the eastward or return to the northward. In the beginning of the season the chase is said to be most successful in Cook's Straits and Te-awa-iti; in the three latter months in Port Underwood, which is only thirty miles distant. From the month of June they begin to show themselves near the Chatham Islands, 150 leagues to the eastward of New Zealand, where their number increases with the termination of the season in the latter place. During the six remaining months of the year the ships cruising in the "whaling-ground" fall in with many whales. This whaling-ground extends from the Chatham Islands to the eastward of the northern island of New Zealand, and from thence to Norfolk Island. It is curious that the whalers assert that this whaling-ground is nothing but a shoal, although I am not aware that soundings have ever been obtained. Perhaps Captain Ross, who is now in the South Seas provided with sounding-lines, will confirm a fact which is of some importance in the natural history of this animal. The migration of the whale is probably owing to its search for food; but we must still regard it as a subject for inquiry, which cannot be terminated before we know many more particulars connected with it, and espe-
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
cially how far it depends on the greater or lesser quantity, in certain localities and at certain seasons, of the small animal of the Medusa kind upon which the black whales feed. Their approach to the shores of New Zealand, however, is particularly connected with the process of parturition, as I have already mentioned. In the month of June they are observed in the same condition, viz. with calves, at the Cape of Good Hope. It seems as if certain herds of whales, if I may be allowed to use that term, which occupy a limited district, visit at the end of the period of gestation the bights and inlets of those countries which are next to their feeding-grounds: the same is the case round Van Diemen's Land. But it has yet to be proved that the black whale of the Cape of Good Hope is the same with the black whale of New Zealand.
Besides this general migration, which, until more accurate data are obtained, I do not conceive should be termed a circumnavigation, but merely a migration of different species in a certain marine district, there exists also a daily one. These fish approach the shores and bays with the flood-tide, and quit them with the ebb. In their general migrations, also, they seem to be influenced by the direction of the tides. Whales are often seen in places where the depth of water does not much exceed their own breadth, rubbing their huge bodies against the rocks, and freeing themselves of the barnacles and other parasitical animals with which they are covered.
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
The maternal affection of the whale for its young is very great. As soon as the mother observes a threatened danger, she clings, as it were, to the calf, tries to hide it, and often takes it between her flooks (fins) and attempts to escape. She has even been observed to carry off the calf when it had been killed, but not fastened upon. Sometimes, however, she seems to be infatuated, and heedless of all that passes around her. If the calf has been once fastened upon, the mother will never leave it. The whalers assert that the young cows have less affection for their offspring than the old ones, and will desert them at the appearance of the least danger. It is, however, the affection of the whale for her young which becomes the principal means of her destruction. The calf, inexperienced and slow, is easily killed, and the cow is afterwards a sure prey.
It is not known in what position the cow suckles her calf. The teats, which are two in number, are abdominal, and situated between membranaceous folds on both sides of the genital organs. I was astonished to find them so small. In a female, whose mammae were full of a fat milk resembling cow-milk in taste, the teats were not larger than those of a cow. The operation of suckling never having been observed, it is no matter of surprise to find the whalers denying that the cows suckle their calves; there can, however, be no doubt of the fact.
The manner of carrying on whaling is so well known as to render it unnecessary for me to dwell
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
upon it at any length. The whale-boats are admirably adapted for the purpose for which they are intended. They are of various construction, and are designated as English, French, or American: each has some peculiarity to recommend it. They are capable of resisting the rough sea of Cook's Straits, but are at the same time swift and buoyant. When starting on a whaling expedition, the boats leave Te-awa-iti before the dawn of the morning. Each has either five or six oars, and a crew accordingly. The boat-steerer and headsmen are the principal men in the boat, and are generally Europeans; the rest are natives. They pull to the entrance of Tory Channel, where a view opens over Cook's Straits and Cloudy Bay from the southern headland, where they keep a "look-out" for the spouting of a whale. The boat which kills the calf claims the cow, even though it should have been killed by another boat's crew. If a whale has been killed, the different boats assist each other in towing it to Te-awa-iti. I once saw ten or twelve boats towing-in a whale. Each boat had a little flag, and the whole scene was guy and animated. One day a calf had been killed, and the cow, having been fastened upon, but not despatched, was towed inside the channel. Gasping in the agonies of death, the tortured animal, when close to our ship, threw up jets of blood, which dyed the sea all around; and, beating about with its tail, it broke a boat right in the middle, and threw the crew into the water; but it at length
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
died, exhausted from the many wounds which the irons and harpoons had inflicted. The calf was stated by the whalers to be six weeks old (on what grounds I do not know), and was twenty-four feet long. It was cut up in a few minutes, and gave several barrels of oil. The process was so rapid, that when I came ashore I found only the head. I cut out the brains, the weight of which, amounting to five pounds and one ounce, astonished me greatly. The whalebone was very soft, and therefore useless. There were two hundred plates of it on each side of the roof of the upper jaw. I got the whole roof cut off, and, intending to dry and preserve it, I placed it on the roof of a native house; but on the following morning I had the mortification to rind that the rats and native dogs had found their way to it in the night, and had eaten all the softer parts, so that the rest fell to pieces
A portion of the heart of this calf was roasted and sent to our table. In taste I found it very like beef, but it was darker in colour. The cow was sixty feet long, and measured between the fins on the belly eighty-two inches. Her skin was a velvet-like black, with the exception of a milk-white spot round the navel. As regards the colour of the whale, I have been repeatedly assured that it is sometimes speckled, and that even perfect albinos, or cream-coloured ones, are seen, which must indeed be beautiful animals. The fat or blubber of this whale was nine inches thick, and yielded eight tuns and a half of oil.
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CHAP.II.] WHALES AND WHALERS.
Whales have been known to yield twelve or thirteen tuns; but I have been told that so large a quantity is now very rarely obtained, from the great decrease of the whales. A whale which yields nine tuns is at present regarded as a very good one.
The tongue was of a white or ash colour, blackish towards the root. This organ gave several barrels of oil, and is a monopoly of the "tonguer," or "cutter-in." The latter operation is performed in Te-awa-iti near the shores, where by means of a windlass the whale is raised to the surface of the water under a scaffold called the "shears." The blubber is cut off in square pieces by means of a sharp spade; it is then carried to the shore, and immediately put into the trying-pots. The "cutting-up" of a whale, secundum artem, is a process which requires great proficiency, like that of the skilful dissector, who separates the cutis, and with it at once all fat and cellular tissue, from the subjacent muscles. In the whale the blubber is to be regarded as the cutis, in the cellular structure of which the oily matter has been deposited. Shortly after the death of the fish the epidermis comes off in large pieces, looking like oiled and dried satin.
As soon as the process of cutting was over, the natives, who had come with their canoes from the Sound, cut off large pieces of the flesh, which they carried off to feast upon. They also fished in the evening for sharks, and a curious gelatinous fish, which fastened in numbers on the sunken carcase,
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E 2
WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
and which is nearly related to the Myxine glutinosa of our latitudes.
There are the following whaling establishments on the coast of New Zealand: --
Te-awa-iti, Entry Island,
Cloudy Bay, Evans's Island,
Parurua, Taranaki,
Banks's Peninsula, Table Cape.
The number of whales annually captured by these establishments is about 120. Each whale, on an average, yields six imperial tuns of oil, making, in the aggregate, 720 tuns, which, before the establishment of the settlements of the New Zealand Company, was sold on the spot to small vessels, or sent to Sydney, when the whaling was carried on at the expense of Sydney merchants. Those who were at the head of the establishments in New Zealand were paid at the nominal price of 10l. per tun; I say nominal, because the payment was made in dear and bad slops, whaling-gear, and, most of all, in adulterated spirits. The same oil sells in the London market for 27l. per tun. The value of the oil of these shore stations is, therefore, at the highest, 20,000l.: to this sum must be added 3000l. for the whalebone, or baleen, for which the whalers receive 78l. a ton, but which sells in London for from 122l. to 130l. A large whale yields about five cwt. of baleen.
I must observe here, that the sort of shore-whaling which I have just described is very detrimental
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CHAP.II.] LEGISLATIVE MEASURES.
to the whale fishery in general, and the number of whales has decreased from year to year. The female whale approaches the land merely for the purpose of bringing forth and rearing her young. Later in the year, when the calf has attained a certain size, the cows leave the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, and return to the "whaling-ground," where the males share with them the dangers resulting from the pursuit of man. Would it not, therefore, be advisable by legislative enactments to put an end to the whale-fishery from the coasts, and to restrict it to a certain distance from shore, where it would have to be pursued in ships? To kill the calves in order to capture the mother, or to kill the latter in the time of gestation, is an unprofitable and cruel proceeding; but it carries with it its own punishment. In a few years this trade, of which, from the geographical position of the "whaling-ground," New Zealand might have continued to be the centre, will be annihilated. Seals, which were plentiful in New Zealand, but were slaughtered in the same indiscriminate manner, have already entirely disappeared. The protection proposed would only be such as the governments of all civilized nations have long bestowed on their coast fisheries during certain seasons. Unfortunately there exists a belief that the female whale in a state of gestation, or immediately afterwards, yields the greatest quantity of oil; but I have reason to believe that this is entirely un-
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I,
founded. If we may judge from analogy of fishes, birds, and the whole class of mammiferous animals, the assertion must be untrue; and this View is confirmed by the testimony of those who carry on the fishery from ships, that, instead of the whales being fatter during that time, the contrary is the case, and that the average result of the fishing on the whaling-grounds exceeds that of the coast fisheries. I have also heard that very often cows have been brought into Te-awa-iti which were remarkably lean, and did not yield more than five or six tuns of oil. We must also expect the oil from whales in the period of gestation to be inferior in quality, from the great change which then is effected in all the solid and fluid elements of the body. 25
Whilst I am thus pleading the cause of the whale, I am well aware that the most effective mode of preserving the fishery would be to spare the cows and calves altogether, and to kill merely the bulls. The whalers can distinguish at a considerable distance a bull from a cow; --the elevation near the spout-holes, called the top-knot, being much higher in the bulls, and this part is always above the water; but such an extensive protection is probably impracticable.
It would suffice if, during the winter season, or
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CHAP.II.] LARGE PARROT.
from May to October, all whaling was prohibited within a certain distance from the shores of New Zealand, and a man-of-war cutter kept to enforce obedience to this rule.
Behind Te-awa-iti the land rises in steep ravines, which are covered with various kinds of wood, or are cultivated by the natives. Whenever the weather permitted, I rambled through the delightful and shady forest. It was inhabited by flocks of the kaka, or large parrot (nestor hypopolius, Wag.), one of the three species which inhabit the islands of New Zealand; it is closely allied to that isolated and now probably exterminated species, the Philip Island parrot, and has many peculiarities in its shape and habits. The bill is more elongated than that of other parrots, and of a greyish colour; the forehead and crown are brown, with a tinge of green; the face and ear-coverts yellow, tipped with red; the neck, breast, and wings of a dull red, with a dark-green tint; the abdomen is of a deep red, and the tail brownish. The male is smaller than the female, and of a redder plumage.
This bird lives upon the fleshy and amylaceous fruits of the hinau (Elaeocarpus hinau), of the tawai (Leiospermum racemosum), of the miro (Podocarpus ferruginea), and of the mai (Dacrydium mai). It only feeds upon the fleshy parts of these fruits, and has not the power of opening their hard stones with its beak. The tongue is small, terminating in several filaments. In captivity it feeds
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TORY CHANNEL. [PART I.
upon bread and potatoes, but most readily on the latter. These parrots seem to have regular times of feeding: early in the morning they are found on the trees which yield their food. During the heat of the day they play about quietly in the topmost branches of high trees. Before the sun sets they assemble and fly with discordant screams over the forest, alighting sometimes on a dead tree in an open spot, or where their curiosity is in any way arrested. When it is dark they become silent; but rarely an hour of the night passes that one of their fluting calls is not heard; and with the dawn of the morning they are again in full activity. They nest in hollow trees, and are said by the natives to lay four or five white eggs. Their flesh is tender and well-flavoured, and the natives are very expert in enticing them by means of decoy-birds, or by imitating their cry. When one is caught or wounded, the rest hover about it with screams, and, one after another, become the victims of their commiseration.
Above Te-awa-iti, towards the southern entrance of Tory Channel, are two other bays, Wanganui and Hokokuri. The access to them is over the hills or by water, as a protruding and rocky shore separates the bay of Te-awa-iti from them; this is, in fact, the general character of the coast in Queen Charlotte's Sound. In Hokokuri Bay, on a fine flat of fertile earth about one square mile in extent, stands a large native settlement. The natives received us with their usual politeness, and afterwards
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CHAP II.] TORY CHANNEL.57
gave us a canoe in which to return to Te-awa-iti. The man who seemed to be the principal chief was of a fine powerfully formed figure, with a noble countenance, and reminded us of a Roman tribune, wrapped, as he was, in a new native toga.
On another of my excursions I traced Tory Channel towards its northern entrance, for the purpose of crossing the neck of land which separates Port Underwood in Cloudy Bay from Queen Charlotte's Sound. A more accurate examination of the coast showed everywhere the argillaceous schist in stratifications from east to west, and dipping to the north. Sometimes no stratifications could be observed, and the rock was of a more granular nature, but still very soft, and with fissures in many directions, as if it had been acted upon by fire. I observed in the Straits no indications of any other kind of rock, except the occasional appearance of Lydian stone, massy basaltic rocks, and greenstone. It became very apparent to me, from the various transitions from one kind of rock to another, that they had assumed that structure in consequence of the infusion from below of the trappean rocks, and the consequent metamorphosis of the slate-rocks. I could not discover any trace of organic remains in the latter, and it is therefore most probably to the transition series that the hills in Queen Charlotte's Sound belong.
Notwithstanding the barren quality of this substratum, and the want of decomposition on the sur-
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TORY CHANNEL. [PART I.
face, a character common to all the hills of this formation, the vegetation is by no means defective: the moisture of the atmosphere makes up for the deficiency of the upper stratum. The vegetation reaches to the sea-shore, and does not suffer from the salt-water.
I visited the island of Moioio, and afterwards came to a native settlement called Toko Karoro, on the island of Arapaoa. The natives in the latter place were sitting around a fire; some were busy in carving the head and stern of a new canoe, others were smoking and talking. This little village is situated on a tongue of land formed by a branch of the hills, very narrow on the top, and falling on both sides towards the sea. This singular position makes it a very strong place, and easy of defence. A steep path leads to the summit of the ridge, where clearings for native cultivations appear in the ravines. When I use the term "clearings," I mean those spots where the forest had been set on fire: half-burned stems of trees were lying in confusion over each other, and in the places between were patches of potatoes. The number of pigeons in these grounds and on the skirts of the forest was very great; in less than half an hour I shot twelve. An intelligent-looking boy, his goodnatured face painted with red ochre, pointed them out to me quicker than I could load my gun.
It is also in these open and cultivated spots that the kakariki chiefly lives. This is a small
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CHAP.II.]TORY CHANNEL.
paroquet, and the second one of the parrot tribe existing in New Zealand. It is a very beautiful bird, and measures eleven inches. The crown is crimson, with a few feathers of a golden yellow at the root of the beak; the rest of the plumage is green, and the quill-feathers of an azure blue. The tail is long and arrow-shaped. This paroquet feeds on potatoes, and on the berries of the Solanum laciniatum and other fleshy fruits; it lives in flocks, and on the ground, or the lower branches of dead trees. In some parts of New Zealand it is very common, but generally follows man, as it is only in cultivated places that it can find the shrubs which yield its favourite food.
On both sides of the tongue of land to which I have alluded, the Sound forms deep bays, perfectly sheltered, and very fitted for the anchorage of ships. Opposite to it, on the mainland, is another large bay, called Oyster Bay, from the thick beds of rock-oysters which are found there.
After leaving the village we crossed to another bay, E-Taua. This bay also is spacious and pleasant. Kingfishers, oystercatchers, tuis, 26 and cormorants, 272 enlivened the trees on its shores, and many birds were singing in the forest.
From this bay we crossed the hills in order to reach Port Underwood. They form a deep saddle, over which the path leads. Everywhere on the
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TORY CHANNEL. [PART I.
surface sharp shingly fragments of slate are strewed about. Low stunted fern and manuka are abundant. From the top of these hills the northern entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound opened to our view. The island of Motuara bore north-by-east. We saw the sea over the narrow island of Arapaoa in Cook's Straits, and our eye wandered over Ship Cove, Shag Cove, East Bay, and part of West Bay. The land has everywhere the same mountainous and intersected character. A few paces farther another extensive panorama opens: we look into Port Underwood, a deep inlet, formed on both sides by chains of hills, from which numerous buttresses run out towards the sea, and form as many small coves. Port Underwood opens to the south-west into Cook's Straits. The coast sweeps round towards Cape Campbell, forming what Cook has named Cloudy Bay, and a range of high snow-clad mountains in the middle island, called Kai Koura (Feast of Crawfish), shut in the view.
The chain of hills which form Port Underwood to the south-east, in fact all the land which separates that port from Tory Channel, consists of a succession of steep and barren ridges. Only here and there a patch of brushwood or trees relieves the brown and gloomy tint of the Pteris esculenta. The chain to the south-west, however, on the other side of the harbour, is more wooded, although the hills are equally steep; its offsets branch into the sea, and form a few small coves. To the south-south-
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CHAP.II.] PORT UNDERWOOD.
west these hills turn into the mainland, and the hilly character of the coast gives way to a comparatively level country, which stretches towards Cape Campbell, and is bounded by the snowy mountains above mentioned. Here the Wairao, a moderate-sized river, with a bar at its entrance, discharges itself into Cloudy Bay. The quantity of level land seems to be largest in the neighbourhood of this river, and the surface is covered alternately with fern and groves of high trees.
We descended on a ridge of the hills to the head of Port Underwood. On both sides of this ridge the sea forms bays. On the right is a village, with about sixty inhabitants, and the neighbourhood is well cultivated. Nayti, the New Zealander who accompanied us from England, found here many brothers, which word, however, generally means cousins. One of them, a very suspicious-looking fellow, painted over and over with kokowai, never let the tomahawk out of his hands, and there was an appearance of sly hostility in his manner; indeed, he was the only New Zealander who gave me any apprehension, which was probably altogether unfounded. Nayti, who was dressed in the best Bond-street style, cut a pitiful figure; civilization had taught him nothing but to be ashamed of his relations. Observing his embarrassment, we withdrew to some distance, leaving him to indulge his natural feeling in hongi and tangi, or nose-rubbing and crying.
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PORT UNDERWOOD. [PART I.
To the eastward Port Underwood forms another spacious inlet, called the Inner Harbour; it is the most sheltered part of the whole port, but I do not know whether it is accessible for large vessels.
Towards evening Nayti's relations launched a large canoe to bring us to Kakapo, a bay on the south side of the harbour, where there is a whaling establishment, and where several Europeans are living, who support themselves by supplying provisions to a number of ships, which annually resort to Cloudy Bay. We were welcomed to the house of Mr. Guard, one of the earliest adventurers in New Zealand, where he has been for twenty years.
The western shore of Port Underwood forms a number of diminutive coves. It is so rocky that access from one cove to the other, along the coast, is impossible. The largest bay, near the head of the harbour, is Robin Hood's Bay, where there is a native settlement. No European lives there. The next is Ocean Bay, with a large beach, and some extent of flat but shingly land. Here are two whaling establishments. The number of Europeans was thirty, and of natives about one hundred.
The next is Kakapo, or Guard's Bay. This is very small, and the hills surrounding it so high that the sun can be seen only for a short time. The number of Europeans is only five, and of natives about sixty, who man the boats, and live on very intimate terms with the Europeans. Mr. Guard was the first man who cleared this beach and settled on
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CHAP.II.] PORT UNDERWOOD.
it, and the natives came round him afterwards. Rauparaha's brother, Norua, is the chief of Kakapo. A daughter of Tupahi also lives here.
Next to Kakapo is Tom King's Bay, also the station of a whaling-party; another stands opposite to it, and is managed by an American.
The geological formation, which I have already mentioned, can be well observed on an island which lies nearly abreast of Kakapo. The direction of the clay-slate is here from north-north-west to south-south-east, with a south-west dip at an angle of less than forty-five degrees. In Kakapo the same slate is traversed by dikes of bluish Lydian stone, with veins of quartz. On the coast opposite to Kakapo the slate is harder, and of a black colour, but not fit for the purposes of roofing.
Whaling alone has attracted the Europeans to Cloudy Bay. The different bays look indeed like the Golgotha of the whale, so many remains of that animal are lying on the beach. But whaling is not carried on from the shore alone: ships anchoring during the season in Port Underwood engage with their boats in the pursuit; and the port is better adapted for the whale-ships than Te-awa-iti, as the anchorage is less distant from the entrance, and the rush of the tide not so strong as into the narrow southern entrance of Tory Channel. Besides, Port Underwood is ill adapted for any other purpose: not even the outer harbour, the only one yet visited, is a first-rate one, as the prevalent gales--those
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CLOUDY BAY. [PART I.
from the south-west---blow directly into the entrance, and often drag the ships from their anchorage. The high and steep hills which enclose the place on all sides give it a gloomy appearance, the sun appearing late and setting early. The name of Cloudy Bay, given by Captain Cook, although he never entered this harbour, is very appropriate: it is now called Port Underwood. Rain must be frequent, from the mountainous and woody character of the country. I was here three times, always during heavy rains. A few whalers and traders found but a scanty subsistence even while whales were plentiful and provisions from the natives cheap; both these advantages have now ceased. The harbour, it is true, has the nearest connection with the level land at Wairao, and it is to the latter that it must look for any importance it may in future acquire. The road to that land from Port Underwood is even now passable, and has been driven over by cattle. A Mr. Wilton, from Sydney, attempted a farming establishment at Wairao, and drove cattle thither from Port Underwood. He lost his life through an accident, and I am not aware that any one has since renewed the attempt.
Cloudy Bay and Queen Charlotte's Sound are very rich in fish. Nowhere in New Zealand have I found them in such abundance. They were of the genera Scomber, Balistes, Serranus, Raius, Labrus. Mullets also were very plentiful. A fish was often caught which is nearly allied, even if it be not the
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CHAP.II.] CLOUDY BAY.
same, to one described by Cuvier under the name of Trigla papilionacea. The natives call it kumu kumu. It is of a bright orange-colour; its pectoral fins are large and membranous, and of an emerald-green, bordered with an azure margin. Near the tail is a spot of velvet black, dotted with white. This fish is one of the most beautiful known, and it always caused me pain to see it taken out of its element, and in expiring lose its vivid colours. Another most singular fish often took the bait: this was the Chimaera calorynchus, which is related to the shark tribe, and has a most singular fleshy proboscis. Its colours are very brilliant, of a silvery-white, or grey. It generally appears at night, at the surface of the water, preying upon the young of other tribes. The flesh is somewhat dry, and resembles that of the shark.
I returned from Cloudy Bay on the 19th of September, and at daybreak on the following day we left Te-awa-iti on the flood tide, and with a northwest wind. The southern entrance of Tory Channel is narrow, and requires a leading wind and a favourable tide, in which case the navigation is easy and safe. On leaving the channel the view opened on the Two Brothers, over the rocky coast of the Island of Arapaoa. To the southward appeared the different bights of the coast before the entrance into Port Underwood. We saw the whole of the coast towards Wairao and Cape Campbell, and at a distance towered the Snowy Mountains. To the north-
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WHALES AND WHALERS. [PART I.
ward were the steep shores in the neighbourhood of Mana and Port Nicholson, which latter place is about thirty miles distant from the southern entrance of Tory Channel. At eight o'clock we sailed by the part of the shore of the northern island which is called Te-ra-witi (the rising sun). We beat up against the breeze, and entered the harbour of Port Nicholson. There is plenty of ship-room at the entrance, and the dangers which exist are all apparent. The soundings are between seventeen and eight and a half fathoms. After passing the inner heads a spacious basin appears. Several canoes came off, and in one of them was an old venerable-looking chief, Epuni, with his son. At three o'clock we anchored on the northern side of a large island called Matin, now Somes's Island, about a mile from the mainland.
