606 Proceedings. 



Sixth Meeting : 23rd September, 1896. 



Mr. W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S., President, in the chair. 



Papers. — 1. "Polynesian Migrations" (Chapter IV., Agri- 

 culture ; Chapter V., Domestic Anhnals), by Joshua Eutland ; 

 communicated by E. Tregear, F.E.G.S. {Transactions, p. 20.) 



Mr. Kicharclson did uot agree that the dog was not introduced as a 

 •domestic animal because it was allowed to go wild. It was well known 

 that domestic dogs often went wild, also horses and cattle. 



Mr. Kirk s-aid the fungus mentioned was similar to one eaten by 

 people in South America. It grew on the beech-tree as large woody 

 masses. One of these, on the silver-beech in Preservation Inlet, was the 

 most nutritions known ; and another specimen in Tasmania was probably 

 the same as that in New Zealand, but not the same as that of South 

 America. 



Mr. Maskell said, no doubt this paper was very interesting. The facts 

 seemed correct, but the deductions were not strictly logical. The point 

 ■concerning the dog was one instance. Of course, it was well known that 

 the common cat was often wild. He himself had seen in the South Sea 

 Islands ordinary fowls in a wild state in the bush ; and to say that they 

 could not have been introduced by others because they were wild was, he 

 thought, incorrect. And because the bark-cloth (taya) was used in 

 Madagascar and other places, that therefore it was impossible for it not 

 to have come from some great central place, was also unsound rea- 

 soning. 



Mr. Hudson mentioned that, in connection with the knowledge of 

 agriculture in ancient Egypt, some very interesting remarks were con- 

 tained in Mr. Peck's new astronomical handbook. The author, in tracing 

 the origin and meanings of the names of the zodiacal constellations, con- 

 sidered that they could only refer to certain agricultural operations per- 

 formed by a race of people living in the Nile Valley about fifteen thou- 

 sand years ago. This remote period was arrived at by taking into account 

 the effect of the precession of the equinoxes on the apparent positions of 

 the constellations since they were named. 



Mr. McLeod %vas in doubt as to whether the writer of the paper had 

 given sufficient consideration to the hypothesis that similar climatic and 

 other conditions prevailing for centuries in the various regions touched 

 upon would tend to produce parallel results. 



General Schaw thought the paper was full of interesting facts, but 

 he agreed with Mr. Maskell in thinking that the deductions from them 

 were doubtful, and the general line of argument one in which he could 

 not concur. He felt, however, that to attempt to criticize a portion of a 

 paper was unfair. He himself had seen no reason to doubt the general 

 history of the human race given in the Bible. He had no belief m ages 

 of agriculture or ages of pastoral life, but that rather, from very early 

 ages, men had followed various lines of life according to their tastes and 

 surroundings, just as they do now. 



Mr. Travers said, what the writer of the paper said regarding the dog 

 was that, had they possessed it in domestication they would not have 

 allowed it to go entirely wild. As to the introduction of the kumara into 

 New Zealand, the natives had deliberated over this, and had concluded 

 that each of the canoes arriving here brought the kumara as part of their 

 supply, not one canoe only. This fact was in Mr. White's History of New 

 Zealand. The fungus referred to was used in Russia, but did not appear 

 to be valued as food by us. The kitchen-middens, he said, owed their 



