142 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



they had really been ladies of fashion in Europe. We were witnesses of a 

 remarkable instance of kindness, when we saw a middle-aged woman, whose 

 breasts were full of milk, offering them to a little puppy which had been 

 trained up to suck them. We were so much surprised at this sight that we 

 could not help expressing our dislike of it ; but she smiled at our observation, 

 and added that she suffered little pigs to do the same service. Upon 

 enquiry, however, we found that she had lost her child, and did her the 

 justice among ourselves to acknowledge that this expedient was very 

 innocent, and formerly practised in Europe. The dogs of all these islands 

 were short, and then- sizes vary from that of a lap-dog to the largest 

 spaniel. Their head is broad, the snout pointed, the eyes very small, the 

 ears upright, and their hair rather long, lank, hard, and of different colours, 

 but most commonly white and brown. They seldom, if ever, barked, but 

 howled sometimes, and were shy of strangers to a degree of aversion." 



Again he says : — " The quantity of live stock which we had purchased 

 during our stay there was amazing. * * * The ' Eesolution ' alone 

 had 209 live hogs, 30 dogs, and about 50 fowls on board when she sailed ; 

 and the ' Adventure' had not much less." And a little further on he says : 

 — " The want of room occasioned the death of several hogs ; and the obstinacy 

 of the old dogs in refusmg to take any sustenance deprived us of the greatest 

 number of those animals." About a month after, when their shii^ was near 

 to the coast of New Zealand, he says : — " Some of our people who examined 

 the pump-well found there a dog, which they brought up on deck. This 

 creature, which had been purchased at the island of Huahine, like many 

 others of the same species, had obstinately refused to take any nourishment, 

 and in all probability had lived ever since in that hole without the least 

 support of food for a sioace of thirty-nine or forty days. The whole body 

 was reduced to a mere skeleton, the legs were contracted, and he voided 

 blood at the anus. The torments in which this poor animal must have 

 lived were a lesson to our people to purchase only young puppies of this race 

 for the future, as the grown dogs constantly refused to eat on board." 



The elder Forster in his work also says : — " The dogs of the South Sea 

 isles are of a singular race ; they mostly resemble the common cur, but 

 have a prodigious large head, remarkably little eyes, prick-ears, long hair, 

 and a short bushy tail. They are chiefly fed with fruit at the Society Isles ; 

 but in the low isles and New Zealand, where they are the only domestic 

 animals, they live upon fish. They are exceedingly stupid, and seldom or 

 never bark, only howl now and then ; have the sense of smelling in a very 

 low degree, and are lazy beyond measure ; they are kept by the natives 

 chiefly for the sake of then- flesh, of which they are very fond, preferring it 

 to pork. * * * The New Zealauders continually living on fish are 



