496 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



track, and by 8 we were loudly welcomed into a little planta- 

 tion village, where we found a feast awaiting us, in baskets of 

 smoking-liot cooked potatoes, to which we all did justice." 



I will only add that on the day before I collected several 

 new and interesting plants, which with all those others named 

 were described and pubhshed, with drawings, by Sir W. J. 

 Hooker in his " Icones Plantarum," and by Sir J. D. Hooker 

 in his " Handbook of the New^ Zealand Flora." 



Appendix. 



Copy of the Letter written by Mr. Lys to the Editor of the 

 Haivke's Bay Herald, Napier, with reference to Mr. Collie's 

 Ascent of Ngauruhoe, and the Loss of his Camera there. 

 Sir, — Having noticed several allusions to a camera belonging 

 to Mr. Collie having been found at Ngauruhoe, and two of 

 your correspondents having mentioned my name in connection 

 therewith, I beg to supply you with the true facts of the case. 

 As near as I can recollect, it was in 1877 that Mr. Collie 

 and myself started for Ngauruhoe, intending to thoroughly 

 photograph the mountain and vicinity, not making any secret 

 of our intentions, as, although we knew that the volcano was 

 taiyiL,'-'- we believed we should meet with no opposition. But 

 on arriving at Erehwon, Mr. Birch's homestead, we were met 

 by a Maori, who bore a letter from the chiefs of the district 

 warning us to go back, as we would not be permitted to take 

 any photographs of the sacred mountain, which was strictly 

 ta]_nt. It was but a short time since they had stripped Mr. 

 Conolly, and we came to the conclusion that we w^ould return 

 to Napier, and try again in the following autumn; which we 

 did, taking every precaution to keep our intentions secret, and 

 we succeeded in reaching our goal without the natives being 

 anything the wiser, Mr. Collie and myself for three weeks 

 camped at the base of Ngauruhoe, taking views of the moun- 

 tain and surrounding scenery. We had taken part of our gear, 

 including the camera, up into the crater, intending to follow 

 next day with the balance of our necessaries ; but next morn- 

 ing whilst having our breakfast we were surprised by a 

 party of six natives, who manifested great curiosity as to our 

 reasons for being there, and also as to how we had found our 

 way there. I should tell you that we were prepared for our 

 visitors, in that we had our pictures " planted," and also the 

 bulk of our goods were in another camp, and our money had 

 also been sent away to Mr. Birch's, in Patea ; but we were 

 expecting a man to arrive every day with the horses for us to 

 depart when we should have got our views of the crater. The 



* Placed under ceremocial restrictions, rigidly preserved. 



