Mair. — On Rurima Rocks. 153 



These islets at one time abounded in hot springs ; in places the shores 

 consist entirely of silicious deposits, contorted in the most fantastic manner. 

 Most of the rocks are, I think, trachjtic. 



Rurima is famous for its fish ; hapuka {Oligorus gigas), kahawai [Arripis ' 

 solar), snapper {Pagrus unicolor), tarakihi (Chilodactylus macropterus), moki 

 (Lafris ciliaris), king-fish {Seriola lalandii), wharehou {Neptomenus hraraob)^ 

 barracoota {Thyr sites atun), mackerel [Scomber australasicus), and the 

 delicious little maomao, can be caught in immense quantities. The koura, or 

 sea cray-fish, is unusually large, and may be found anywhere under the sea- 

 weed about low water-mark. Tokata, a rock looking something like a boat or 

 canoe, and forming the in-shore limit of the group, is a great place for hapuka, 

 while a rock, awash at half-tide, lying beyond all the rest to seaward, was in 

 the olden time celebrated for the ngoiro, or conger-eel {Conger vulgaris) ; but 

 the best fishing that I have ever met with was half-a-mile or thereabouts off 

 the little sandy bay which I have described, by bringing the northern end of 

 White Island just in sight to the left of Moutoki cone, and the inshore side of 

 the western hummock of Rurima proper just clear of the inner face of the 

 most southern hummock. In four or five fathoms water, with six lines, we 

 had a whale-boat half full in an hour. The first fish hauled in were followed 

 to the surface by swarms of snapper, kahawai, kingtish, barracoota and 

 maomao, and then we simply bobbed for them as you would for minnows in a 

 brook until my arms ached with the exertion of lifting them over the boat's 

 side. 



I have never seen a spot so well adapted for a fishing station. Were it 

 utilised in this manner in all probability the trees would be felled, the birds 

 would seek other nesting-places, the tuataras would be exterminated, the 

 mysterious dripping well would dry up, and some of Rurima's most interesting 

 features would disappear, but its fisheries would not be surpassed on the coasts 

 of New Zealand. 



u 



