\S2 



NA TURE 



[October 8, 1908 



of iron. In it lie devoted special attention to llie modifi- 

 cation of the magnetic properties and of the chemical 

 properties in relation vo the resistance of iron to the action 

 of chemical reagents. He gave examples showing that 

 in cases where the silicon added to the iron attains a 

 sufficiently high percentage the magnetic properties 

 diminish, and the resistance to the action of acids increases 

 with the proportion of silicon. 



During the meeting visits were paid in the afternoons 

 to file various iron works in the district and to the new 

 graving-dock works on the river Tees. The social func- 

 tions included a conversazione in the Town Hall, a ball 

 given by the reception committee, a garden-party given 

 by Lady Bell, a special performance at the Grand Opera 

 House, luncheons in the Town Hall, and a luncheon given 

 by the Tees Conservancy Commissioners at the Fifth Buoy 

 Lighthouse. 



FISHING AAV SEA-FOOD SUPPLIES OF THE 



ANCIENT MAORI 

 T N the second Bulletin of the Dominion Museum of New 

 ■*■ Zealand, the director, Mr. \. Hamilton, contributes 

 an elaborate monograph on the fishing and sea-food supplies 

 of the ancient Maori, based upon the investigation of 

 numerous coastal kitchen-middens and camp sites. The 

 importance of these sources of food supply is clearly illus- 

 trated by the Maori mythology, which abounds in tales 

 of sea adventure and monsters of the deep. Among the 

 mammalia, the only class affording food or valuable spoil, 

 except the native rat and the imported dog, was the 

 marine fauna, including the fur-seal, sea-leopard (Ogmo- 

 rhinus leptonyx), and the sea-lion {Macrorhinus leoninus), 

 of all of which traces are found in the middens in the 

 form of bones and ornaments made from their teeth. One 

 of the most valued prizes was the great sperm-whale 

 (Physeter macrocephaliis) ■ but other members of the same 

 group, such as the black-fish (Globiocephalus melas), were 

 used for food. Of mollusca the consumption must have 

 been enormous, one of the many middens consisting of 

 shells of the Maori pipi {Mesodesma novae-sealandiae) being 

 340 feet long and more than 4 feet high. Many of these 

 shells, particularly that of the beautiful Holiotus iris, were 

 used in the preparation of ornaments. Among the 

 crustaceans, thr most valued were the red crayfish, crabs, 



and shrimps. Sea- 

 urchins and many 

 kinds of seaweed 

 were collected from 

 the rocks. 



The variety of 

 fish-hooks in green- 

 stone, bone, or stea- 

 tite is astonishing. 

 Some objects of 

 similar form seem to 

 have been used as 

 amulets, over which 

 charms were recited 

 to bring luck to the 

 owner when he went 

 fishing. This ex- 

 planation accounts 

 for some curious 

 conventionalised ex- 

 amples, the use of 

 which is otherwise 

 not apparent. Like 

 these are the re- 

 markable greenstone 

 pendants in the shape 

 of an eel, which 

 Fig. I.— Large Wooden Hook for Shark. seem to have been 



employed for a 

 similar purpose. The luck of the fishing community was 

 also embodied in certain stones. When one of these was 

 stolen, so recently as 1894, the natives attributed an un- 

 successful season to its loss. 



In the sandhills many tools have been recovered which 

 were used in preparing bone fish-hooks. The material was 



NO. 2032, VOL. 78] 



Fig. 2. — Figure carved on a (i>hing-rod.' 



worked into shape by the use of a drill moved by the 

 alternate pulling of strings attached to the top of the 

 spindle, the end of the drill being armed with a point of 

 flint or quartz. When the hook was roughly shaped it 

 was finished with rude sandstone files. The smaller hooks 

 are usually formed of a single piece of bone, only one 

 remarkable specinsen of a 

 small composite hook 

 having been recorded, 

 though large examples arc- 

 common. Sharks were 

 captured in a net or with 

 an immense wooden hook, 

 young roots or branches 

 being sometimes artificially 

 bent while growing for 

 this purpose. Still ruder 

 are the double-pointed 

 pieces of albatross bone, 

 round which the bait being 

 wrapped they were used as 

 " gorges " — one of the 

 most elementary of fishing 

 implements, common in 

 the European lake dwell- 

 ings. \A"hen the explorer 

 and whaler came upon the 

 scene these bone and stone 

 hooks were quickly re- 

 placed by those of iron or 

 copper ; but the ancient 

 forms were reproduced in 

 the new' materials. A 

 curious appendage to a fishing-rod is a carved figure to 

 the lower part of which a number of valves of shell were 

 attached. These rattle when a fish takes the bait and 

 attract the attention of the fisherman. The net-sinkers 

 form a large class. One specimen at .Auckland, formerly 

 described as a sea-god, seems to belong to this class, the 

 sinker being worked into a semi-human shape and used 

 to produce magical effects. The various kinds of modern 

 fish-baskets and nets display considerable ingenuity and 

 constructive skill. 



Among the inland fish the ancient Maori depended chiefly 

 upon the eel, which more than any other kind of food 

 provided the much desired fat. For its capture they con- 

 structed huge works, only excelled in magnitude by their 

 fortifications, in the shape of canals and weirs. They were 

 well acquainted with the art of drying superfluous fish in 

 huge earth ovens erected on the beach, and heated with a 

 special kind of wood. When sufficiently cooked, the fish 

 were taken out, as far as possible unbroken, placed on 

 raised stages to dry, and finally packed in large flax 

 baskets for winter use. 



Mr. Hamilton's monograph, which is well illustrated 

 throughout, is an interesting contribution to the study of 

 the commissariat and industries of primitive man. 



CHEMICAL DATA FOR THE GEOLOGIST.' 



(^ EOLOGY, as has sometimes been said, is less 3 dis- 

 ^-'^ tinct science than the meeting-ground of all the 

 sciences as applied to a distinct object, viz. as elucidating 

 the history of the earth and its inhabitants. The working 

 geologist therefore feels, more than most of his brethren, 

 the necessity of gaining some acquaintance with numerous 

 branches of knowledge in which he cannot pretend to be a 

 specialist. In particular, the problems of physical geology 

 and petrology are closely bound up with the modern 

 developments of inorganic chemistry, and require not only 

 a familiarity with general principles, but a knowledge of 

 specific results, scattered through the pages of many 

 journals and transactions of societies. 



It is with results, rather than with principles, that the 

 work before us is concerned : and the author has gathered 

 into one volume a large body of information which is not 

 to be found elsewhere in collected form. The work is 

 necessarily that of a chemist rather than a geologist, but 



I "The Data of Geochemistry." By Frank Wigglesworth Clarke. Bull. 

 No. 330 United States Geological Survey. Pp. 716. (Washington, 1908.) 



