448 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



the big tempting bait was let low down before it, and on the 

 onako seeing the bait it would bend down its head to seize it 

 (ka tupott te tcpoko), when its tail would be upraised above 

 water. Then a noosed rope would be flung over its tail (lasso- 

 fashion) and quickly hauled tight, which would secure the 

 tail within the noose hard and fast. And away would speed 

 the canoe at a fleet rate towards all sides of the sea and sky, 

 being continually turned about in all directions by the fish, 

 the man W'ho had noosed it always holchng on to the rope. 

 At last, being exhausted, the mako died ; then it floated, when 

 its head would be cut ofi", as I said before. This was our 

 common manner of catching the mako fish {ko tana Mi tonu 

 tend tenei ika o te mako), often also called by us a monster 

 (taniivha) ; and hence arose the term of monster-binding (liere- 

 taniivUa), owing to it being securely noosed and bound with a 

 rope flung over its tail." Here ends the interesting narra- 

 tion of my worthy old Maori correspondent, who died soon 

 after. 



I have never seen a mako fish, and I am in doubt whether 

 it is yet fully known to science. It is evidently one of the 

 deep-water fishes. The first mention of it by skilled scientific 

 observers that I have noticed is in Sir James Eoss's " Voyage 

 to the South Seas," wherein it is stated that on nearing the 

 Chatham Islands, in November, 1841 (within a week after 

 leaving their winter quarters and anchorage in the Bay of 

 Islands), "the long -snouted porpoises were particularly 

 numerous. One of tlrese creatures was struck with a harpoon, 

 and in its formidable jaws we found the teeth which the New- 

 Zealanders value highly as ornaments, and which had puzzled 

 us greatly to ascertain to what animal they belonged " (vol.ii., 

 p. 134). Those Antarctic Expedition ships had spent several 

 months in the Bay of Islands, and the officers had frequent 

 opportunities of seeing and examining the teeth of the '))iako, 

 and very likely had purchased some from the Maoris, as they 

 were diligent in acquiring natural specimens, and curios and 

 ornaments of all kinds. 



Professor Hutton, in his " Catalogue of the Fishes of New 

 Zealand" (published by the Government in 1872), considered 

 the mako to be the " Lamna ^/a?ica = tiger-shark ;" but he 

 says, " The shark from which the Maoris obtain the teeth with 

 which they decorate their ears is probably this species, but I 

 have seen teeth only " (I.e., p. 77). 



Subsequently Professor Julius von Haast (in 1874) read a 

 paper before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury" on 

 the mako of the Maoris, which, he says, is Lamna cornubica, 

 the porbeagle shark, and not L. glauca as had been supposed 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 237. 



