Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/453

Rh the Meri, or native club, is made, is found only in the southern island, and is much valued; it is called Ponamu by the New Zealanders.

Cape Maria Van Diemen, the north-western extremity of the island, is composed of a volcanic conglomerate; in the vicinity of which is the Reinga, or entrance to the New Zealanders' world of departed spirits, which they suppose to be down a steep escarpment of conglomerate rock, overhung by an aged Pohutukava tree, from which the spirit is said to take its final flight to the region below. This sacred spot is the Land's End of the natives, "Te muri wenua." Coal has been found in the sandstone, overlaid by this conglomerate, but to no great extent.

Fossil bones of a large extinct struthious bird, known to the natives by the name of Moa, have been discovered in the alluvium of the mountain streams of Hikorangi on the east coast. It has received the name of Dinornis gigantea, and its height has been estimated at sixteen feet: remains of several smaller species have been also found.

Its only existing type is the Kiwi Kiwi, or Apterix Australis, a bird now becoming very scarce, and, like its gigantic predecessors, destined to become extinct. The natives formerly hunted it for its feathers, of which they made beautiful mats: but since the introduction of the dog and cat, its destruction has been rapidly accelerated; and, as it lays only one egg, its total extirpation cannot be far distant. It is a nocturnal bird, burrowing in the ground during the day, and wandering about the deepest recesses of the forest in the night, in search of the larvæ of insects, and seeds of a rush (Astelia Banksii), its favourite food. It is now mostly met with in the locality of the East Cape.

The principal mountains in the interior are Ruapahu, rising to the height of 9000 feet above the level of the sea, Taranaki, or Mount Egmont, to about 8800, and Tongariri,