596 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



with more cause for remembrance than the unhappy one just 

 mentioned. Taweiharooa told us their country was indebted 

 to her people for the present of an annual which they left 

 behind them. But as he had not himself seen it, no sort of 

 judginent could be formed from his description of what kind it 

 was." 



This can hardly have been any kind of dog — though, 

 perhaps, Cook might understand " large dog," or " something 

 dog," to mean some sort of animal other than dog, for I am 

 given to understand that when the Maoris first saw the horse 

 they named it huri, as other Polynesians who had no dogs, 

 but possessed pigs, called the horse "the pig swift (running) on 

 the land" — TQh\t\QM,puaa-lioro-fenua; and at another island 

 they, on first seeing the dog, called them pigs (hroas).'^'- So 

 we have proof of the difficulty of this investigation. Te ra 

 ivhiti means a place in the direction of the sun's rising. Some 

 suppose this ship to be that of the ill-fated Marion. (When 

 Marion was murdered, Crozet took command of the vessel.) 

 The headland in Cook Strait which Cook supposed to be then 

 referred to was "known to the Maori as To poroporo," but 

 possibly the natives really meant " at a distance eastward — 

 far away." 



In Dr. Von Jheriug's paper " On the Ancient Eelations be- 

 tween New Zealand and South America," Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xxiv., are the following remarks: "The fauna of East 

 Polynesia has such a well-prououneed Mesozoic character that 

 the supposition of a very old Pacific continent, breaking up in 

 pieces more and more during the Mesozoic era, may give us a 

 natural explanation. And the further we go westward the 

 more frequently we meet with recent types — in New Guinea 

 the genus Sus and Muridce; in Australia, besides Muridcv, also 

 Canis. The craving only to make of Australia a land com- 

 pletely without placental mammals accounts for Canis dingo 

 being considered as a race of the domestic dog. This error has 

 been settled definitely by Nehring.f Canis no doubt be- 

 longs to the oldest Carnivora. Species of Canis are found in 

 India and Sumatra, and C. dingo is as well a domesticated 

 sporting-dog as Canis latransoi the North American Indians, | 

 or C. ingcB of the old Peruvians. . . . We shall have to 

 give up the theory of the floating-trees with Sus, Canis, 

 Muridcr, Lacertidce, fresh- water Molluscs, &c., in their 

 branches, as well as many other things of Wallace's hypo- 

 thesis ; and the botanists will not tarry to reduce the trans- 

 ports by currents and winds to a moderate measure." 



* Max Miiller, " Science of Language." 



t Nehring, Sitzungsber. d. Ges. naturf. Freunde : Berlin (1882), p. G7. 

 Zoolog. Garten (1885), p. 1G4. 

 J The coyote (wolf). 



