Hamilton. — On the Forests of Neio Zealand. 147 



Wallon — were also seized, but got away from the mob and 

 into the boat, w'here they found the man Eobinson, who had 

 charge, reehng from a blow on the head. The whole party 

 was evidently meant for slaughter and food ; but Kelly fought 

 his way out, being half-armed with a billhook, which served 

 him in good stead. Mr. Calder says, ' In the desperate hand- 

 to-hand encounter which took place Kelly lost three of his 

 people, and with great difhculty regained the ' Sophia,' from 

 the deck of which"'' he was doomed to see one of his men (one 

 of whom was his brother-in-law Tucker) cut limb from limb 

 and carried away by the savages.' " 



In conclusion, I may say that, taking all the circumstances 

 into considertition, I think tire vessel must have anchored in the 

 stream about opposite to the present Maori settlement ; that 

 the captain and crew went ashore the first day on the south 

 side ; the next day they rowed about two miles outside the 

 Heads to the north, to Murderers' Beach, when the massacre 

 took place, out of sight of the ship ; and that the settlement 

 of Corockar (" the beautiful City of Otago of six hundred 

 houses ' ') was about where the huge drift of sand is now, on the 

 south side of the entrance. 



Art. XVII. — On the Forests of Neio Zealand. 



By A. Hamilton, 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 14th May, 1895.] 



The islands of New Zealand have, from the time of the 

 earliest voyagers, been noted for their magnificent and im- 

 pressive forests. Seen, as the country was, mainly along the 

 coast, and up the estuaries and sounds, the hills and valleys 

 appeared clothed with an almost unbroken dark-green mantle. 

 The climate, though varied, was everywhere favourable to a 

 luxuriant Flora, and stored up in the shady depths of the 

 forest were vast reserves of moisture, w^hich encouraged the 

 growth of all plant-life, and acted as a reservoir for all the 

 streams and rivers. 



* Here the writer is probably incorrect, and meant that the captain 

 saw TucTcer cut up from the boat in which he was escaping (as in the fiist 

 account), not from the deck of the vessel. In the first place, the vessel 

 was two miles off, and probably not in view, and, even if it were, it would 

 be difficult to see a man cut up at a distance of two miles ; secondly, tlie 

 natives would hardly defer tlie operation till the captain regained the 

 ship. 



