Description of tlie surrounding Country. 269 



eome known, which they have an idea is curious, without 

 payment ; and when I recollected the difficulty and the delay 

 that we had experienced in finding the cave before, I knew 

 that I could not find the place again without assistance, and 

 a native of Auckland had refused to conduct me to the cave 

 because the bones that were in it had been sold to a Euro- 

 pean, and I was aware that several bones from that cave had 

 been sold at an extravagant price at Taranaki ; consequently 

 the place was, to the few who knew it, a species of gold mine. 



I was anxious, however, to try and find the cave again ; 

 so partly with this object in view, and also to visit Taupo, I 

 set out with Major Hume and Captain Cooper of the 58th 

 regiment, in October 1852. We directed our steps to Pa- 

 rianiwaniwa, a village upwards of a hundred miles from 

 Auckland, near to which the Moa cave is situated. 



When passing through a forest between Raraoraro and 

 Rotomarama, we were overtaken by a native driving a pig. 

 We knew him to be partial to Europeans, because he had a 

 gun-swivel hung from a hole in bis right ear, as an ornament, 

 and he had on his feet a pair of Blucher boots, which, from 

 their dilapidated condition, were evidently worn more for 

 ornament than use. After keeping up with him for some 

 time, chiefly to admire how he got his pig through a most in- 

 tricate path in the wood, the animal appearing to understand 

 perfectly what he said, we entered into conversation about 

 the price of his pig ; and we asked him if he knew any caves 

 near his village, which contained Moas' bones. This question 

 made him stop, and turn round and look at us all. It would 

 be something like asking a pig-driver near the quarry in Til- 

 gate Forest in Sussex, if he had ever heard of the fossil re- 

 mains of the Iguanodon Hylseosaurus, and other stupendous 

 creatures made known to us chiefly by the industry of Dr 

 Mantell. The English pig-driver would likely infer that the 

 querist had escaped from a madhouse, because he was ask- 

 ing about things which he had never heard of ; but not so with 

 the New Zealander, acquainted with every tree in the forest, 

 and every insect in the gronnd : he at once comprehended the 

 question and replied, " I will shew you a cave which contains 

 'Moas' bones, for two sticks of tobacco." 



The day after our arrival at the village of Rotomarama 



VOL. LVI. NO. CXII. — APRIL 1854. T 



