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The New Zealand Survey

Canto III

“New Zealand Survey”: Page 73.

Canto III.

Note 2,* Page 27.

“Deep was thy bed.”

The following is an extract from the journal of a missionary, relating to a journey from Wanganui to Taupo, which I found in an old colonial newspaper sometime after the poem was written, and which I here transcribe in support of the above expressed idea. “June 19, 1846.—We left Pipiriki after morning service, calling at a small kainga (village or dwelling place) where our natives were presented with a pig. Thence, we stopped at some curious caves called pura rota, where I heard there was some limestone. The scene was very romantic; half of a stream falls down a precipice of 100 feet, and the other through a cave out of which it comes with a rushing noise. There is an amphitheatre of rocks, in the middle of which is a cave fifty feet high, into which we entered. In this we saw some staluctites. I picked up one, which had fallen from the roof, about two feet long. We went to the end of this cave, the roof being white with a calcareous deposit. As we receded from the light, I noticed with astonishment innumerable spots of light which at first I thought came from openings in the top, but on further examination of some on the sides, I found the light proceeded from innumerable little worms of a luminous nature crawling upon the damp rock. * * * Afterwards I lit a newspaper and we explored the termination. It is an immense rent in the cliff formed most probably by an earthquake, and extends nearly a quarter of a mile. The rock is soft sandstone containing sea shells in great quantities similar to those found on the shores; the cliffs of the river, there, are from four to five hundred feet high.

page 74“New Zealand Survey”: Page 74.
Note 3, Page 29.

“Havock’s motley mass.”

At the time of the heavy earthquake which occurred on the 23rd January, 1854, as a certain coasting vessel was on its way to Port Nicholson, some 200 or 300 miles, and in a great part of its voyage, it passed through numerous shoals of dead fish of every description tossing about on the waves, while at many places a great many of the dead fish were also thrown up on the beach by the rolling of the waves of the sea. These facts are given as a coincidence of what is likely to have taken place in earlier times.

* This note ought to have been (1) and the following one (2), but they are thus marked to agree with the numbers in the text, which were overlooked till too late to correct the error.