WEKA PASS ROCK-PAINTINGS. 15 
to the springs of the Weka Creek, and looked down the some- 
what steepish gorge which it has cut through the rampart. The 
hills around are studded with limestone rocks projecting in all 
conceivable forms, but our eyes at once perceived two of these 
evidently answering to the term “rock-shelter ;” for, sloping 
gently from the surface, their broad tops have been flattened and 
weathered, and the under surface has been, by some agency or 
other (I suppose water) hollowed out. Passing the smaller of 
these, our guide led us to the larger, on the hollow under side of 
which we found the rock-paintings of which we were in search. 
Much disappointment did the first view of the locality of the paint- 
ings cause ; for it was abundantly clear that, whatever their nature 
or origin, whatever their interest, ethnological or archeological, ar- 
tistic or quaint, their future existence is almost certainly extremely 
limited. The rock on which they are painted does not rise per- 
pendicularly from the ground to its roof, but slopes back a little 
first. The owner of the land has taken advantage of the 
“shelter” to convert it into a cow house. ‘The floor is covered 
with straw; the cattle make themselves at home in it; the 
milkers probably occupy their leisure moments in defacing the 
“paintings;” and between the rubbings of the cows, the scratchings 
ot the labourers, and also, perhaps, of visitors, and general dirt 
and neglect, probably a few years more will entirely obliterate the 
whole affair. 
We spent a good long while examining the curious designs 
visible on the hollow surface of the rock shelter, and forming 
speculations as to their nature and origin. The first thing that 
struck us was the extraordinary number of them. From the 
plate given by Dr. von Haast in the “ Transactions,” it might be 
imagined that the “ paintings” were not numerous ; and although, 
in a phrase of his address here and there, he mentions that the 
rock is covered with them, yet he does not, I think, give any clear 
idea of the immense crowd of designs visible. In point of fact, 
the whole shelter wall, some sixty feet long and eight feet high, 
is covered with a labyrinth of drawings in black and red (the 
former very greatly predominating), mingled together, crossing 
each other, tangled up so inextricably that very careful and 
minute scrutiny would be required to unravel them. The scaling 
of the rock itself, and the constant rubbings and defacements to 
which it has been subjected, render it now a task of enormous 
difficulty to clearly decipher the paintings ; but even when they 
existed in their primitive freshness, I imagince there must have 
been a good deal of confusion for the spectators. 
It occured to one or two amongst us that one means of decid- 
ing the question which had been raised as to the European or 
aboriginal authorship of the paintings might be found in an 
analysis of the pigment in which they were executed. For this 
purpose a few chips of the surface, carefully selected from spots 
already crumbling of their own accord, were taken away. It was 
not until after our return to Christchurch that I found in Dr. von 
Haast’s address a statement that “the paint consists of Kokowai 
