48 Transactions. — Miscellaneous, 



after a fasliion by tile autoclitliones of New Zealand ? Or miglit I even 

 suggest that one or more of the ¥7recked mariners of Indian origin were 

 save.d, and that they accompanied as slaves the ancient inhabitants of this 

 island on their journeys, during which these paintings were executed by 

 them ? 



These ancient works of primitive art, as of considerable historic value, 

 are therefore invested with still greater interest, and I have no doubt that 

 further research will make us acquainted with more of these remarkable 

 relics of the loast. I may here observe that as far back as 1862 I met 

 with paintings of similar character and in a splendid state of preservation, 

 during my geological surveys in the south, but which I then passed over, 

 imagining that they were probably the work of some shepherd who had 

 devoted his leisure hours to the execution of these strange figures and 

 characters with the red paint with which sheep are usually branded. I 

 was then, to speak in colonial language, comparatively a new chum, but I 

 may console myself with the fact that many of our intelligent settlers have 

 looked at them quite in the same light. However, I shall not fail to collect 

 all the material as soon as I can find the time, and hope that the settlers in 

 limestone country will kindly inform me where such paintuags are still 

 existing. As before observed, the paintings under review occur over a face 

 of about sixty-five feet, and the upper end of some reaches eight feet above 

 the floor ; the average height, however, being four to five feet. They are 

 all of considerable size, most of them measm-ing several feet, and even one 

 of them having a length of fifteen feet. 



Beginning at the eastern end, we find in the left-hand corner the 

 representation (No. 1) of what might be taken for a sperm whale, with 

 its mouth wide open, diving downwards. This figm^e is three feet long. 

 Five feet fi'om it is another figure (No. 3), which might also represent 

 a whale or some fabulous two-headed marine monster. This painting is 

 three feet four inches long. Below it, a little to the left, in No. 4, we 

 have the re^jresentation of a large snake possessing a swollen head and 

 a long protruding tongue. This figure is nearly three feet long, and 

 shows numerous windings. It is difficult to conceive how the natives, in a 

 country without snakes, could not only have traditions about them, but 

 actually be able to picture them, without they had received amongst them 

 immigrants from tropical countries who had landed on the coasts of New 

 Zealand from some cause or another. You are well aware that abeady on 

 the second visit of Captain Cook, Tawaihura, a native chief of Queen Char- 

 lotte Sound, gave an account of enormous snakes and lizards to him, and 

 drew a representation of both animals so distinctly that they could not be 

 mistaken, but hitherto the researches of naturahsts for so many years have 



