Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/82

 New Zealand by Captain Cook. Those pigs approximated the Tamworth breed more closely than any other. For example, when young, they were of a red colour, changing into grey as they got older. In form they were long-limbed, with long straight snouts, and were very hardy. When feeding on fern root or speargrass the flesh had an excellent flavour, and when made into bacon, its quality left nothing to be desired. The boars were very fierce when brought to bay, and, with their big tusks, and the rapidity and accuracy of their “glancing,” were formidable beasts at close quarters. They have now quite disappeared from the Peninsula.

Besides the pig, Captain Cook is credited with having left a cow and a bull, which the Maoris are said to have separated, sending one to the North Island, and retaining the other here, thus effectually checking any increase.

Sheep also were left, but they died from eating tu-tu.

Fowls he left also, and they increased for a time. There were in the early days many wild fowl in the bush in Pigeon Bay, but whether or not they were descended from