CorgNso.— On a Remarkable Cavern at Tolaga Bay. 149 
with the natives :—‘ he was often in the habit of doing so during the heats 
of the day with his native friends, as is the wont of the New Zealanders,’ 
said my conductor ;—‘ Tupaea was a great favourite with our fathers, so 
much so, that to gratify him, several children who were born in the village, 
during his sojourn among us, were named after him.'* A few yards in 
front of the cave is a small hole that was dug in the granite (sic) rock, by 
order of Cook, for receiving from a small spring the fluid that unceasingly 
flows into it. The marks of the pick-axe are as visible, at the present day, 
as at the period it was excavated under Cook's eye. The water had over- 
flowed this useful little memorial of our illustrious countryman, was pellucid 
and very cold. The sun had not penetrated this sequestered spot for many 
years, from the umbrageous kahikatoa and other trees that surround it. 
** Around the surface of the cavern are many native delineations, executed 
with charcoal, of ships, canoes sailing, men and women, dogs and pigs, etc., 
drawn with tolerable accuracy. Above our reach, and evidently faded by 
time, was the representation of a ship and some boats, which were unani- 
mously pointed out to me, by all present, as the productions of the faithful 
Tahitian follower of Cook, (Tupaea). This, also, had evidently been done 
with similar materials. "This cavern is made use of as a native resting place 
for the night, as the villages of Uawa are at some considerable distance 
from Opoutama; it is mostly in request by parties fishing for the Koura 
(erawfish) and other fish, which abound in all these bays." 
Mr. Locke visited the cavern and inspected it, and found that while it 
bore ample marks of old ‘delineations” such were so worn and defaced by 
the incessant action of the elements, and also so high over head, as to be 
scarcely discernible. The traditions, however, of the Maoris, respecting 
them and the place, were quite in keeping with Polack's relation. The 
perennial spring was still there, and bore its old and never-to-be-forgotten 
name of ** Te wai kari a Tupaea” (the well dug by Tupaea).1 
Mr. Locke also brought me a branch of the said single tree, which at the 
time of his visit was unfortunately neither in flower nor fruit. However, it 
was sufficient for me to identify it as being Sapota costata, a tree which 
I had first noticed in flower at Whangarei Bay, in 1836, and in fruit at 
Whangaruru Bay, further north, in 1841. It had been also found by Mr. R. 
Cunningham, still further north, in 1834, on the shores opposite the Cavalhos 
Islands, between the Bay of Islands and Whangaroa, and it has since been 
also found at Kawau, and on some other of the islets in the Frith of the 
* On my arrival in New Zealand I found several natives bearing his name, mostly on 
ihe East Coast, ) 
tA further proof of the term by which Cook and his first visit to New Zealand was 
everywhere known. Vide Trans, N, Z. Inst., Vol. XI., p. 108, 
