Chapman. — On the Islands south of Neiv Zealand. 491 



I may here also mention that I have seen a curious lusiis 

 naturcB while in the bush district this year — indeed, two that 

 were very similar : one was that of a black cow with a young 

 white calf, and the other a white mare with a sucking foal 

 wholly black, presenting such a remarkable contrast. Piebald 

 horses, some of them most strangely coloured, are pretty 

 common about Woodville. 



Akt. LVIII. — T/ie OiitlyUicj Islands south of New Zealand. 



By F. E. Chapman. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 13th May, 18V0.] 



Plates XLVI.-XLIX. 



The periodic visit of the Colonial Government steamer 

 " Hinemoa " to the remote sub-arctic islands is now one of the 

 ordinary services of the New Zealand Government, but it is still, 

 and perhaps always must be, the most adventurous. The story 

 of that good steamer's last voyage, however, will contain little 

 that is novel or startling ; but I slrall endeavour to set forth 

 as faithful a picture as I can of what the islands are like to 

 which the " Hinemoa " goes, and, so far as at present may be, 

 what these islands are worth to us. The service on which 

 they are visited is praiseworthy in the extreme, but at the 

 same time it is undertaken at the most obvious call of duty. 

 It is enough to justify the expenditure involved in sending the 

 steamer, and replenishing the stores, that in later years the 

 boat's crew of the " Sarah A. Hunt " was rescued from Camp- 

 bell Island, and that the survivors of the " Derry Castle " 

 lived at the Auckland Islands for some months upon" our depot 

 stores. 



I. The Snares. 

 The steamer got away from the Bluff in the evening of tlie 

 8th January, 1890, sailing for the Snares. It matters very 

 little which route is taken to these islands, which lie sixty- 

 four miles south of Stewart Island, as the distance is almost 

 exactly the same whether the vessel goes down the east or the 

 west coast of that island. We chose the west coast, as it is 

 clearer of rocks and islands, and the wind favoured that route. 

 It turned out a slight mistake, as the wind veered a little, 

 but the only result was a little more knocking about than 

 we cared for. We arrived in the morning in a sheltered cove 

 on the east side of the largest island, and found good anchor- 

 age in deep water. Long before we came to anchor we could 

 smell the birds, which we soon saw crowding the rocks near 



