SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 299 



in his day ; thought nothing of picking up a man and heaving 

 him over the palisades. They claimed that he recollected Capt. 

 Cook, which would make him considerably over a hundred years 

 old. It was said that when they talked about missionaries to 

 him, the old cannibal would waken up and move his withered 

 lips, as if in dim recollection of some- far away feast. But Capt. 

 Cook, of blessed memory, at least on the south side of the equa- 

 tor, had left among them some civilized pigs; and these had 

 increased and multiplied, and finally took the place of mission- 

 aries at the fire side. 



If there is in all the world a country more rugged and moun- 

 tainous than another it is New Zealand. Ranges, growing higher 

 and wilder toward the south, run through the islands from end to 

 end. And one sailing all around the coast, as I have done, finds 

 only rock bound shores and cliffs and peaks rising inland as far as 

 the eye can reach. Of course there are some exceedingly rich 

 and some wide valleys. But the country is like California, so 

 nearly all mountain side that valley land from its very scarcity is 

 almost beyond price. 



How this mountainous region ever came to be named after the 

 low-lying Zealand in Holland, where they have to build walls and 

 dykes to keep the sea out, is one of the mysteries. The good 

 old Dutch navigator, Tasman, discovered these islands 240 years 

 ago. He sent a boat on shore to establish friendly relations with 

 the natives ; and these took such a liking to the fat Hollanders 

 that they immediately roasted half a dozen of them. Old Tas- 

 man was so disgusted that lie at once set sail, and hove back at 

 them the first name he could think of. It is lucky it was not a 

 worse one.. It might have been Rotterdam Spuyten Duyvils, or 

 some other hard name, for he was awful mad. For more than a 

 century the Cannibal Islands had a fearful letting alone, until 

 they were rediscovered and taken possession of by Captain Cook, 

 in 1769. 



New Zealand bears evident marks of having been elevated out 

 of the ocean in recent geological times. Not only its flora and 

 fauna, but its physical structure shows it to be, in very great part 

 at least, one of the newest made lands of our globe. Volcanoes, 



