56 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
a Tipua, or fabulous marine monster. My own conjecture was that it was 
meant to represent a seal. (Fig. 8.) 
March 27, 1877. 
APPENDIX No. 3. 
Note on the Tuna Tuoro. By the Rev. James W. Srack. 
The descriptions given of this eel vary so very much, that it would be ` 
hard to believe that anything of the kind ever existed if it were not for the 
general concurrence of native testimony both in the North and South 
Islands to its existence. 
It seems to have combined some of the characteristics of the frog, the 
electric eel, and the watersnake. It uttered croaking sounds, rendered 
senseless anyone it touched, and pursued its prey with such rapidity that it 
was next to impossible to escape from it. 
In 1858 I was told by Hoani Huki, a Waikato chief, and a catechist in 
the employ of the Church Mission, that when he was a lad (that was about 
thirty years before) he distinctly heard the tuna tuoro in the swamps in the 
Upper Waikato, that at that time the older men often described their 
eneounters with it, and that they greatly dreaded it, for when wading about 
eeling in the shallow waters, which it frequented, there was a danger of its 
gliding up imperceptibly and touching them, and anyone so touched was 
instantly paralyzed and destroyed. It would even pursue its prey on to the 
dry ground, and its progress could only be checked by setting fire to the 
grass or fern, when the ash adhering to its slimy body rendered it helpless 
and incapable of moving any further. 
Here in the South Island I have frequently heard of the existence of the 
tuoro within recent times. Tainui and Pita Mutu informed me that they 
once found on the beach near Greymouth, where they resided, what they 
believed to be a portion of the body of a tuoro ; it was after a heavy fresh 
in the river, and they supposed it had been icd down from some of the 
lakes in the interior. The skin they described as scaly, employing a flax 
plait of four to convey an idea of its appearance. Paora Taki, Native 
Assessor at Rapaki, also informed me that it was commonly reported fifty 
years ago that one existed near the source of the Purau stream in Lyttelton 
harbour. 
Though I believe that there must be some foundation for reports so 
common and so general regarding the recent existence of this strange 
creature, I am not prepared at present to put forward any theory about it, 
except that I think that it is highly probable that the Maoris have mixed 
up the descriptions of two or three different things which existed a short 
time back but are now extinct. 
