176 TAHATI. 



mental habits or instincts acquired and rendered 

 hereditary, but with animals in a state of nature 

 it must always be most difficult to discover in- 

 stances of acquired hereditary knowledge. In re- 

 gard to the wildness of birds towards man, there is 

 no way of accounting for it except as an inherited 

 habit : comparatively few young birds, in any one 

 year, have been injured by man in England, yet 

 almost all, even nestlings, are afraid of him ; many 

 individuals, on the other hand, both at the Gala- 

 pagos and at the Falklands, have been pursued 

 and injured by man, but yet have not learned a 

 salutary dread of him. We may infer from these 

 facts what havoc the introduction of any new beast 

 of prey must cause in a country before the instincts 

 of the indigenous inhabitants have become adapted 

 to the stranger's craft or power. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Pass through the Low Archipelago — Tahiti — Aspect — Vegetation 

 on the Mountains — View of Eimeo — Excursion into the Interi- 

 or — Profound Ravines — Succession of Waterfalls — Number of 

 wild useful Plants — Temperance of the Inhabitants — Their 

 Moral State — Parliament Convened — New Zealand — Bay of 

 Islands — Hippahs — Excursion to Waimate — Missionary Estab- 

 lishment — English Weeds now run wild — Waiomio — Funeral 

 of a New Zealand Woman— Sail for Australia. 



TAHITI AND NEW ZEALAND. 



Octoher 20t/i. — The survey of the Galapagos 

 Archipelago being concluded, we steered towards 

 Tahiti and commenced our long passage of 3200 

 miles. In the course of a few days we sailed out 

 of the gloomy and clouded ocean-district which 

 extends during the winter far from the coast of 

 South America. We then enjoyed bright and 

 clear weather, while running pleasantly along at 



