THE NATURALIST 
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REMARKS' ON THE NATURAL HISTORY, SCENERY, AND 
MANNERS OF NEW ZEALAND. 
By Thomas Kier Short, Esq. 
It is with great pleasure that I perceive you have introduced some papers on 
foreign Natural History in your valuable work, The Naturalist. In the first 
place, I consider it a great acquisition to your periodical, as it will doubtless 
induce many to purchase it who would not be satisfied with articles treating 
exclusively of the natural productions of our own country. In the second 
place, it is opening a channel for many who cannot procure more expensive 
works. But to enter upon my subject without further preface. 
It has been my lot to be one of the few who have circumnavigated; the globe, 
and to have visited its four quarters in pursuit of Natural History. The subject 
of my present essay is New Zealand, and, if it is considered worthy of insertion 
in The Naturalist , it shall be followed by others, on Vandiemans Land, South 
America, and the Brazils. 
I left Launceston, Vandiemans Land, for New Zealand, in the brig Brazil 
Packet, March 26, 1836, and first made land at day-break on the 5th of April. 
We entered the mouth of the river Hookeangah at nine o’clock, a. m., and 
dropped anchor at noon of the same day. 
New Zealand is situated between 34 and 47 degrees south latitude, and from 
166 to about 180 east longitude. It was first discovered by Tasman, in 1642. 
In 1770 the coast was explored by Captain Cooke, who sailed between the two 
large islands, and gave the name “ Cooke’s Strait” to the channel. New Zealand 
forms the southern boundary of Polynesia, and comprises two large and several 
small islands. The appearance of the coast is bold and rocky, the land is high 
and rugged ; and the southern mountains are occasionally covered with snow. 
In the large northern island, where the principal if not the only settlements 
of Europeans are situated, the climate is salubrious, the thermometer ranging 
between 40 and 80 degrees, avoiding the heat of a tropical climate, yet warmer 
than most temperate latitudes, generally equable, and seldom experiencing those 
sudden vicissitudes so frequent and injurious in the variable climate of England # 
The soil is in many parts fertile, and though possessing few indigenous articles 
of food, yet these, when once introduced, grow spontaneously. 
Thunder-storms are frequent and violent in New Zealand, particularly in the 
winter months, when they are generally attended by torrents of rain. The 
VOL. III.—NO. XVI. 
B 
