Colenso. — On Wqikaremoana District. 367 



spots, it was so cold that I was often obliged to keep on my 

 thick cloak, or walk briskly about to keep myself warm. The 

 natives assured me that the snow lay many feet deep on these 

 hills in the -winter, and that at such seasons they kept within 

 their houses. Their houses are large and warm, and curiously 

 constructed to keep out the severity of the winter's cold, each 

 being built over a large pit or trench the fall size of the house. 

 Thus a house that on the outside appears to be only 3ft. or 

 4ft. high is, when you descend into it, from 5ft. to 7ft. in 

 height. 



I obtained from the lake some fine specimens of Unio,* 

 the only living thing, according to the natives, found within its 

 waters. I supposed this sheet of water to be about six miles 

 in diameter, but could only guess as to its probable size from 

 its very irregular shape. The lake is very deep and clear, and 

 the bottom rocky. During my stay I was often struck with 

 the magnificence of the waves of the lake ; these seemed to 

 me to be altogether unlike in grandeur and high broken com- 

 motion to anything I had ever observed in those of the sea or 

 ocean. Perhaps such was owing to the difference between 

 the specific gravity of salt and of fresh water, as well as to the 

 terrific roaring blasts that furiously rushed down the narrow 

 mountain-gullies. The continual noise by day and night caused 

 by the winds and the waves dashing against the high, rocky 

 romantically-piled crags was deafening ; all speech was with 

 difficulty heard. 



A peculiar sea-bird, called by the natives " tiitii," which often 

 flies irregularly at night, making a noise resembling "tee-tee- 

 tee-tee," rapidly uttered (whence its name), is sometimes taken 

 in this neighbourhood in large numbers. From the natives' 

 account, it should appear that these birds resort at certain 

 times to the tops of the highest and barrenest hills, where the 

 natives assemble and make fires on foggy calm nights, which 

 fires decoying the birds thither, they are easily taken with 

 nets. I have often heard the bird when flying at night, but 

 have never seen one. It is, I think, highly probable that they 

 may belong to the genus Procellaria — perhaps it is the species 

 jP. cookii. 



Having been daily — almost hourly — on the watch for the 



* •' Unio ivaikarense, Col. — Shell oblong or oblong-ovate, concentrically 

 and irregularly sulcated, subdiaphanous. inflated; anterior side produced, 

 obtuse, slightly compressed ; posterior slope keeled, sharp ; base slightly 

 depressed ; umbones decorticated, flattisb, much worn ; primary teeth 

 large, crested ; epidermis strong, overlapping at margins, wrinkled on an- 

 terior slope ; colour brownish - yellow on posterior side, shading into 

 dusky-green on anterior, with alternate light-coloured lateral stripes ; 

 3Jin. broad, 2Jin. long. Hab. Waikare Lake, &c." — " Tasmanian Journal 

 of Natural Science," vol. ii., p. 250. 



