440 
shone warm , and we had one of the most delightful autumnal days 
I ever witnessed in New Zealand. Haupapa himself ferried me in 
his canoe across the Kaituna river, and finally carried me upon his 
gigantic shoulders over the muddy banks to dry ground. We parted 
with the kindest assurances of friendship and esteem. 
The distance from Maketu to Tauranga is sixteen miles, which 
at a good pace may he travelled in six hours ; to us, however, it 
appeared twice the distance, the road leading in uninterrupted mo- 
notony along the sea -beach; to the right the blue sea, and the 
booming surf, which wets the foot of the traveller; and to the left 
sand hills and swamps. The isolated cone at the entrance of Tau- 
ranga Harbour, the Maunganui (860 feet high), is continually in 
view, and on nearer approaching, seems more and more to recede. 
To judge from the character of the shores between Maketu and 
Tauranga one would never have thought of calling the extensive bay 
between the East Cape and the Mercury Islands “Bay of Plenty;” yet 
the shores Southeast of Maketu and North of Tauranga seem to 
correspond better with that name given by Captain Cook. As avc 
were about to camp for dinner, we were cautioned by the natives 
against a small, black spider with a red stripe on its back, which 
they call Ivatipo (or Katepo). The spider is said to exist only here 
and about Otaki on Cook’s Strait on the grass growing upon the 
sand-hills , and its bite to be so poisonous , that with sickly persons 
it has even caused speedy death. Farther in the interior, they say, 
it is nowhere met with.. This is the only poisonous vermin in New- 
Zealand. But in spite of a long and careful search we could not 
find even a single specimen. Ralph 1 describes it as a real spider, of 
a very different appearance at different periods of its age; when 
full-grown it is black, with an orange-red stripe on its back. Ralph 
mentions also , that lie had put the spider together with a mouse, 
and that the latter died after 18 hours in consequence of the spider- 
bite. We were therefore careful to move our camp farther inland, 
where a swamp furnished us the necessary water for making tea. 
It was not until evening that we reached Tauranga Harbour. From 
1 Ralph: On the Katepo, Journal Proc. Lin. Soc. Vol. 1. Zool. 1856 p. 1 — 2. 
