ST EE = s,s KA er 
Feb. 2,.1882]| 
NATURE 
crop was ripe. The ripe and dried fruits were used for 
holding water, oils, and cooked food. Often these vessels 
were handed down as heirlooms. 
First in importance among their wild or uncultured 
food-plants is the fern stem (Péeris esculenta) amhe, rot, 
or maroht. Good edible fern root is not to be found 
everywhere, and in some districts it is very scarce. 
Colenso describes a hill of loose rich earth in the interior, 
which had been long famed for its fern root, and for the 
occupancy and use of that hill for digging the root, 
several battles had been fought. All fern root “ diggings ” 
were rigidly preserved. There was a regular set time for 
digging these rhizomes in the spring and early summer 
months, when the starch abounded in the cells. The 
root was never used green. The dried root was slightly 
soaked in water, washed a little, then beaten, and when 
properly finished, it would break with the fracture of a 
good biscuit. It was a very nutritious food, much eaten 
with fresh fish, and steeped in the sweet luscious juice of 
the berry-like petals of the udu (Coriarea rusctifolia). It 
is related that the chief Kiinui, who had been carried off 
by Commander de Surville in December, 1769, and who 
died of a broken heart at sea, March 24, 1770, while he 
ate heartily of. all the ship’s provisions, pined after the 
fern root. It is interesting to note that Capt. Cook, on 
the first voyage, left Doubtless Bay—Kuniu’s home—just 
a day before de Surville entered it. Most of the old 
traditions, and some of the deliciously quaint old songs 
of the Maori, sing the praises of this food, even giving it 
a heavenly origin. It is not without interest to note that 
the young fronds called monehu, just as they made their 
appearance in spring, were also eaten as asparagus 
would be with us. This is also, we believe, the custom in 
Canada. 
As in some manner accounting for Cook’s view of their 
condition, Colenso reminds us that Capt. Cook’s first visit 
was at the very period when their A/anting season was 
just over, and this, the time of the utmost scarceness of 
Kumara and hue, that their plantations were far apart 
and strictly tabooed. Still, Cook says that he saw at 
Islaga Bay, “from 150 to 200 acres under crop,” and that 
too in a place where, he adds, ‘‘ We never saw 100 people.” 
Colenso has no excuse for more modern writers, some of 
whom by long residence, ought to have known better. As 
to there ever being a “great want of food,” the old and 
intelligent Maoris of the North Island have always denied 
this, stating that though they had not such good natural 
gifts as the Europeans—fruits, roots, and vegetables— 
and though they could only obtain their food by labour, 
yet that by labour in some form or other, they could 
obtain enough for all their needs. 
SAMUEL SHARP 
V E regret to have to announce the death of the well- 
known geologist and archeologist, Mr. Samuel 
Sharp. He wasthe son of Mr. Stephen Sharp of Romsey, 
Hants, and was born in the year 1815. During his long 
residence at Stamford, and subsequently in the neighbour- 
hood of Northampton, he made very extensive and varied 
collections illustrating the geology and archzology of the 
midland districts. A portion of his fine geological col- 
lection was some years ago purchased by the trustees of 
the British Museum, while another portion has been for 
a long time placed on exhibition in the Northampton 
Museum. This latter collection, which very admirably 
illustrates the geology and paleontology of the district, 
has, we believe, been left under certain conditions to the 
town of Northampton, and it will forma valuable nucleus 
for a local collection, illustrating the natural history of 
the surrounding district, such as we may hope in time to 
see rising in all our principal provincial towns. Mr. 
Sharp was a man of large culture and varied tastes. His 
papers “On the Oolites of Northamptonshire,’ read 
319 
before the Geological Society, are full of most valuable 
information concerning a district to which he devoted his 
life-long studies. He wrote a little text-book, “The 
Rudiments of Geology,’ which has passed through two 
editions, and which we have already had occasion to 
mention favourably in these columns. As an archzo- 
logist Mr. Sharp was not less widely known than as 
a geologist. On all questions of local antiquities he was 
one of the highest authorities in the Midland district, 
and many valuable papers relating to these subjects were 
contributed by him to the local journals. But it wasasa 
numismatist that Mr. Sharp especially distinguished him- 
self. During the last thirty years he by unwearied exer- 
tions succeeded in bringing together an unrivalled collec- 
tion illustrating the productions of the famous Stamford 
Mint. His valuable memoir on these interesting coins, 
with it several supplements, was published by the Numis- 
matic Society, and constitutes the best authority on the 
subject. As a consequence of failing health Mr. Sharp’s 
familiar face has for some years been missed from the 
geological and archeological societies, in the affairs of 
which he so long took an active part. His genial 
manners and hospitable nature endeared him to a large 
circle of friends, and his loss will be deeply felt. His 
wide and varied stores of knowledge were always placed 
at the service of those who sought his aid, and his 
influence in encouraging the study of his favourite 
science was productive of much good in the district 
where he resided. Many a young collector and 
student of science was indebted to him for useful 
and friendly advice, and his energies could always 
be enlisted in aid of any projects which had for their 
aim the advancement of science, and the diffusion of 
sound knowledge in his adopted county. Mr. Sharp 
was a Fellow of the Geological and Numismatic 
Societies, as well as of the Society of Antiquaries. 
Some time ago he conducted the members of the Geolo- 
gists’ Association over the district with which he was so 
well acquainted, explaining to them those geological 
features which he had himself so carefully worked out. 
In spite of increasing infirmities and great sufferings Mr. 
Sharp steadily laboured on in the cause of his favourite 
sciences, and only a few weeks before his death read 
several interesting memoirs before the local Antiquarian 
and Natural History Societies. He died on January 28, 
in the sixty-eighth year of his age. In him English 
geology and archeology have lost one of those enthusiastic 
and disinterested labourers, to whose exertions the progress 
of these sciences has in the past been so largely due. 
THE AURORA } 
Ile 
is has often been remarked that the importance of 
Arctic exploration is not so much in the geographical 
discoveries which can now be made during our slow 
advance towards the North Pole,as in the additions 
which accrue to physical geography by the observer ; 
quite a new field of observations being opened to the ob- 
server during his stay in Arctic regions. The accuracy of 
this remark is completely confirmed by the new and most 
important conclusions as to the nature of aurorz which 
Baron Nordenskjéld has arrived at during the wintering 
of the Vega in the neighbourhood of Behring Strait. 
The aurore observed at the winter quarters of the Vega 
were mostly very feeble and had nothing of the important 
character they often have in other latitudes. “There are 
no aurore, at least none worthy of this name,” said one of 
the Vega’s crew. But precisely because of their less 
brilliant character, of their simplicity, so to say, and of 
their regularity, Nordenskjéld was enabled to arrive at 
t A. E. Nordenskjéld, ‘Om morrskenen under Vegas Ofvervintring vid 
Berings Sund, 1878-79,’ in * 2 Expeditionen Vetenskapliga Arbeten.”” 
The Scientific Work of the Vega Expediticn, part 1, pp. 401-452.) 
Bog 
