H. Travees. — On tlie GhatJiam Islands. 123 



expedition may be said to have been undertaken solely for the latter purpose, 

 a Maori who happened to have visited the islands whilst engaged as a 

 seaman in a vessel trading from Sydney, having reported the aborigines 

 as a plump, well-fed race, who would fall easy victims to the prowess of his 

 countrymen. By a refinement of cannibal cruelty, the unfortunate wretches 

 were compelled to carry the wood and prepare the ovens in which they were 

 to be cooked. Such of them as were destined to be eaten were then laid in 

 a row upon the ground adjoining the ovens, and were killed by blows from a 

 mere by one of the Maori chiefs. It is not more than twenty years since 

 the Maoris gave up these feasts. Although I found the remains of numerous 

 skeletons in the woods on Pitt's Island, I was unable to get one in good 

 condition : I have, however, brought over several authentic skulls, which will 

 probably be interesting for ethnological purposes. 



" As I had determined to make Pitt's Island my head- quarters, in con- 

 sequence of its offering greater advantages as a collecting ground, I took 

 the opportunity of my first visit to Chatham Island to travel round it. 

 Accordingly, on the 2nd November, accompanied by Mr. Hunt, (who had 

 come over with me from Pitt's Island) , I started for the Eed Bluff, about 

 twelve miles from Waitangi. The road led partly through a belt of bush, 

 which, for a depth of two or three miles, forms a fringe round a large portion 

 ' of the island, and partly along the sea shore. The weather unfortunately 

 was extremely wet, as indeed it was during the whole of my stay on the 

 Chatham. The bush consisted principally of Euryhia, Goprosma, Laurus 

 JcaraTca, Dracopliyllitm, &c., with tree ferns, amongst which Avere Gyatliea 

 dealbata, the whole so interwowen with our old friend the supple-jack as to 

 be almost imj^enetrable. In this bush I found a Lomaria, closely allied to, 

 if not identical with, Lomaria discolor, 'Polypodium hillardieri, and several 

 other ferns. On the beach the Myosotidium nohile grew with rank luxuriance 

 where not invaded by the pigs, which fed upon the roots. The Maoris dry 

 the leaves, and use them as tobacco. Where the sea shore is sandy, I noticed 

 a sand grass identical with one of those which occurs upon the sand-hills 

 near Christchurch. • 



" Erom the Eed Bluff we proceeded to Wangaroa, on the north side of 

 Petre Bay, and from thence, leaving a large tract of sand-hills between 

 that place and Tubong on our left, we crossed to Warikauri, on the north 

 side of the island. This route led us past three small lagoons, destitute of 

 water plants, but fringed in part with rushes and in part with bush similar 

 to that before described. The country here is low, and is now covered with 

 a young growth of grasses and sedges, mixed with the common Pteris 

 esciolenta, and with occasional patches of PJwrmitim tenax. On the sandy 

 tract before alluded to, between "Wangaroa and Tubong, I noticed large 



