54 
of cattle taking to this strange diet, and from which they cannot be 
weaned, 
Leaving the island on the 7th August, Wellington was reached on 
the 10th, and on the 12th we commenced our northern cruise. On 
the evening of the following day some lantern-fishes (myctophids) 
were washed aboard. Parasitic copepods taken from red-cod obtained 
at Station 75 are identified by Dr. Chilton with Lernea lotelle G. M. 
Thomson. The dredge, lowered in 105 fathoms, twenty miles north- 
east of Flat Point (Station D), was hauled aboard full of green mud. 
On our passage to Napier, reached on the 16th August, we were almost 
continuously accompanied by porpoises. A school would sight us 
a mile or more distant, and head straight for the vessel, when the 
individuals would zigzag from side to side across the bows, revelling 
in the foam which our passage produced. (Plate VI, fig. 2). + 
We shot a couple of the mammals with a military rifle, and put 
the ship about to where the ruddy water showed they had been killed, 
but the bodies had sunk. Our engineer later harpooned one of the 
porpoises, and we hauled it on deck. An examination showed it to 
be Lagenorhynchus obscurus Gray. Our captain, who is famihar with 
the coast, told me that he has never seen the species far from land, 
and that it is known to the local sailors as the “ sand-porpoise.” 
Having made a dozen hauls since the 12th we reached Napier on 
the 16th August, leaving again on the 19th. Rough weather inter- 
fered with our programme, and sections of the coast were skipped 
in the hope that calmer conditions would prevail on return from Auck- 
land. The Bay of Plenty therefore received most attention, and here 
we trawled several species not before taken. 
Large hauls of schnapper (Pagrosomus auratus) were made, and so 
great was their buoyancy when drawn from deep water that they not 
only brought the net and its contents to the surface, but, in addition, 
supported the weight of Mr. Alward, our chief engineer, who jumped 
boldly on to the net. It was some time before the fish slipped away 
from under his feet sufficiently to sink him to the chest, and in this 
situation I photographed him (Plate VI, fig. 1). Had a plank been 
placed across the net, I am confident that three men would have been 
supported. Terakihi were also buoyant, but in this respect no fish 
equalled the ling (Genypterus blacodes), taken chiefly at our southern 
stations. Normally full-bodied, when the air-bladder and tissues were 
distended it resembled an elongated barrel, and comparatively few were 
required in the net to bring the whole to the surface. 
At Station 96 (24th August) we trawled the greatest weight of 
fish taken : the bag, estimated to weigh nearly 2 tons, consisted almost 
entirely of schnapper and terakihi. 
On the following day, while near White Island, the marine volcano, 
the feed-pump broke down, and we headed for Auckland, arriving 
on the 26th August. Here I parted company with the “ Nora Niven ” 
and returned to Christchurch via New Plym _ th. 
