78 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



bow in use ; a native, in the evening, stealthily seeking to destroy 

 thereby a large bat (Pteropus), vv^hich was making free with his 

 bread-fruit. Some arrows of a novel construction were procured; 

 intended, it was said, for " bringing pigeons to the ground alive with- 

 out injuring them." 



NEWZEALAND. 



Before proceeding with the account of the Tropical Polynesians, I 

 have concluded to follow the order of the Voyage ; which next con- 

 ducts us to the Austral division of the Polynesian family. 



In company with others of my associates, I took passage at Sidney 

 in a merchant vessel, and we reached the Bay of Islands on the 24th 

 of February, 1840. We remained in New Zealand about six weeks, 

 until the return of the Vincennes from the Antarctic cruise. 



Nothing so much surprises the European emigrant, as the physical 

 difference between the natives of Australia and New Zealand, two 

 neighbouring regions situated between the same parallels of latitude : 

 the change in habits, is likewise radical. The remark may be ex- 

 tended to the other territories of the Southern Hemisphere, which 

 are remotely detached, and are noted for their remarkable yet dissi- 

 milar natural productions : for it will be difficult to select from the 

 human family, four nations more unlike, than the Australians, Austral 

 Polynesians, Fuegians, and Hottentots. It will further be observed 

 that they severally pursue the precise four ultimate methods of pro- 

 curing sustenance ; and may be classed respectively, as hunting, 

 agricultural, piscatorial, and pastoral tribes. 



The 'hunter state' indeed is impossible in New Zealand, from the 

 absence of game. By an anomalous distribution of the vegetation, 

 the open grounds of this extensive country are almost exclusively 

 covered with fern. There is no pasturage for grazing animals; neither 

 on the other hand, have any woodland quadrupeds been allotted to 

 the forests. 



Although fish enters largely into the diet of the New Zealanders^ 

 they are not an exclusively maritime people, like the piscatorial tribes 

 of America, but they are diffused throughout the interior country. 

 Moreover, what is a little remarkable in the Malay race, they rather 

 avoid the open sea; holding nevertheless, occasional communication 

 along the coast. 



I 



