256 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



upon the immense expanse of water. Most of 

 them are coral islets, which are raised so little 

 above the sea-surface as to be invisible at a short 

 distance. During a voyage of three weeks through 

 the heart of the galaxy we only sighted two coral 

 islets, and a lofty volcanic island in the Naviga- 

 tors' group. It may be said that the Pacific is 

 an area of subsidence, and at a period geologi- 

 cally recent the land-surface must have been very 

 much larger than it now is, but all evidence 

 seems to indicate that the Maoris have colonized 

 New Zealand at a period which is recent in a very 

 different sense of the word. Eminent naturalists 

 are even of opinion that the moa, a bird whose 

 feathers are still found in perfect preservation, 

 and whose remains are imbedded in the newest 

 alluvial deposits, was extinct before the arrival 

 of the Maoris. They hardly succeeded in ex- 

 plaining, however, what agency, except that of 

 man, could have destroyed a creature so power- 

 ful and so abundant, in a country without beasts 

 of prey, and where no important geological change 

 has occurred since the time when it flourished. 



How and when the Maoris reached New Zea- 

 land will in all probability never be accurately 

 determined, but their tropical origin is clear 

 enough. They have never really peopled the 

 South (or Middle) Island, the largest and most 

 productive of the group, but have lingered in the 

 balmy climate of the north, and have planted 

 many of their most important settlements around 

 the numerous hot springs of the volcanic districts. 

 Thanks to these natural supplies of heat, they 

 can dispense almost entirely with fuel, and in 

 some villages the inhabitants, like those of a 

 fashionable spa, spend a considerable portion of 

 the twenty-four hours in bathing. From long 

 habit they enjoy a temperature which would al- 

 most scald a European, and will tumble heels 

 over head into natural caldrons apparently at 

 the boiling-point, and into which I could not bear 

 to dip my hand. At sunset, the whole population 

 of a village, men, women, and children, may be 

 seen disporting themselves in the tepid depths, 

 or seated, with the water up to their necks, 

 on the smooth enameled sides of these natural 

 therma?. Infants in arms bathe along with the 

 rest, learning to swim before they are able to 

 walk, and perched on the shoulders of their tat- 

 tooed grandfathers, they regard with astonished 

 black eyes the bleached Pakeha, whose bloodless 

 appearance contrasts most unfavorably with the 

 wholesome brown of the Maori. Laughing, talk- 

 ing, floundering, and splashing, the natives do 

 not forget their good manners, and are as polite 



in the water as they are upon land, treating a 

 stranger with marked consideration. It is need- 

 less to say that they are perfect swimmers, the 

 women no less than the men ; in the popular 

 Maori legend it is Hero, not Leander, who per- 

 forms the feat of swimming over to the island of 

 Mokoia. Iu a country of lakes and rivers, where 

 the only canoes are long, cranky " dug-outs," fash- 

 ioned of a wood almost equal in specific gravity 

 to water, and propelled with short, feeble paddles, 

 it is necessary to be a good swimmer. When 

 two or three miles from the shore, with a still' 

 head breeze rendering it necessary that half the 

 crew should use their paddles for baling, you 

 know that your native companions, encumbered 

 only with a light kilt, will probably reach the land 

 in safety if the canoe is swamped or upset. This 

 knowledge, however, affords only a modified de- 

 gree of comfort to a Pakeha, clad probably in 

 water-proof and riding-boots, and rouses his wrath 

 against conservatism displayed by the Maoris in 

 boatbuilding. Occasionally fatal accidents occur 

 even to natives, and not long ago two canoes full 

 of people were swamped in Lake Rotorua : two 

 women only were saved, the men behaving with 

 great self-devotion in endeavoring to assist the 

 weaker and more helpless. 



Even now, when steamers ply regularly be- 

 tween Auckland and Honolulu, there is little or 

 no intercourse between the Polynesians of the 

 southern temperature and the northern tropical 

 latitudes ; and it is astonishing, after passing over 

 so many thousand miles of sea, to find one's stlf 

 among people who in features and complexion, 

 in frank and courteous bearing, and even in such 

 small details as their mode of decoration with 

 flowers or feathers, seem to be identical with 

 those that one has quitted. It is, however, in 

 language that the substantial identity shows it- 

 self most distinctly, as, after allowing for certain 

 differences of pronunciation, it will be found that 

 almost all the words in cornmon use are the same 

 in the Maori and Kanaka dialects. These are 

 precisely the words which could not have been 

 recently borrowed by one dialect from the other ; 

 and as neither possessed until quite recently any 

 literature, or even an alphabet, it is remarkable 

 that so very little divergence should have taken 

 place. 



Great as are the charms of scenery and cli- 

 mate — 



" Where the golden Pacific round islands of para- 

 dise rolls — " 

 the chief interest and romance of these regions 

 are due to their aboriginal inhabitants, and will 



