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his frugal repasts. Any one, therefore, that would depend, for 
subsistence, merely upon hunting, or upon wliat little is furnished 
him from the vegetable world, would be exposed in the interior 
of New Zealand to the same danger, as those much lamented 
men of dauntless spirit , who lately , upon the Burke Expedition 
through the continent of Australia, after they had success-full v 
attained their object, were, on their way back, doomed to 
die of hunger. And in fact, such cases have really happened, 
especially in the interior of the totally uninhabited South Island; 
and several expeditions endeavouring to penetrate from the East 
coast across the chain of the Southern Alps to the West coast have 
found the greatest difficulty in barely supporting life even. A 
sufficient supply of provisions is therefore always one of the first 
and most important questions for a longer journey. Upon the 
North Island, where there are natives living in small villages 
and settlements all through the interior, this is a matter of no 
trouble. From station to station the necessary supplies are carried 
along, such as are obtained from the Maori settlements, which but 
rarely are more than a few days’ journeys apart. Bigs, especially, 
can be had everywhere , and upon our three months’ trip we killed 
not less than thirty or forty heads, and were always enjoying good 
health while feasting on fat, juicey roast-pig. But if the season 
following the gathering of crops, and beginning with February, 
is preferred for the journey — which is best suited also on account 
of the pleasanter weather , and less inconvenience suffered from in- 
sects , as the mosquitoes generally vanish more and more by 
the setting in of March — there is also no want of fruit and po- 
tatoes. By that time, even Hour is to be had in some parts, and 
the traveller has ample chance of occasionally changing his uniform 
every -day -fare of pork and potatoes, and regaling himself with 
“dampers .” 1 Eggs and milk, however, are very scarce in the 
Maori settlements. Money and tobacco are the current means of 
1 “Damper” is a dough made from wheat-flour and water without yeast, which 
is simply pressed flat, and baked in the ashes; according to civilized notions, rather 
hard of digestion, but quite agreeable to hungry woodsmen’s stomachs. 
