A STRANGE REPTILE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11229, 27 September 1898, Page 7

A STRANGE REPTILE.

GISBORNE, September 9. A bush-feller on Lysnare station, Arowhana, 50 miles from Gisborne, was startled last week by a strange animal which he surprised in the bush and which ran into a hole in an immense rata tree. Other bush-fellers who were near wera :'called, and distinctly traced the track of the animal to the tree and up the trunk from its hole. On the ground were • footprints larger than a man's hand, and circling round the tree was a track worn by the claws of the creature. The man who saw it said it was like a huge lizard, with four legs, and his description, wellinformed Maories say, tallies with the description handed down to them by their forefathers of a reptilo called the kumi. Kumis are not known to have been seen for at least three generations, but old Maoris in this district have stories that they existed and grew up to 12ft long, living in large trees or amongst boulders. They possessed huge jaws with curved teeth (as the one described), and used to lie in wait for their prey. The kumi used to be found in company with the moa, and were believed by the natives to be protectors of the moa. They were able to ascend trees, travelling up them in a spiral fashion, just as the animal' seen last week is said to have done. According to tradition they were known to exist on three hills in this district, Arowhana being one. They 'were known by a strange noise, somewhat like the noise inside a drum, and it was this peculiar noise that attracted attention to the animal seen tho other day. The head of the kumi was bigger than a man's, and like a bulldog's. A party is going out to endeavour to secure tho reported find. September 17. Mr W. D. Lysuar has returned from a visit to his station, and confirms the statement that indications exist on Mount Arowhana of the presence of some strange large animal where it was reported to have been seen by Maoris a fortnight ago. Unfortunately,' however, at the time of Mr Lysuar's visit it was not there, and possibly it has been frightened aVay by the bush-felling which has been going on in the vicinity. Mr Lysuar and Mr Hansen (a naturalist who accompanied him) state that they saw sufficient to satisfy them that some strange animal had been haunting the place, and the photos they took will confirm that impression. Leading towards the tree in which the animal was supposed to have its home, for a distance of 10 yards, was a well-formed rutshaped track of such peculiar formation that it is supposed it can only have been, made by' an animal dragging its heavy tail- aloii'g the ground. Bound about the roots of the tree there were numerous evidences of the traffic of some heavy animal, which had the appearance of not being many weeks old, and the theory formed1 in the minds of those who made the examination was that the animal had come recently to the locality, probably from another part of the mountain, with the object of making its home there. There were three places round the tree a sort of nest, and a clawing under the roots of the tree seemed to indicate that it had been trying to get into the tree. Mr Hansen a.nci a native climbed some distance up the tree and examined the various holes in it, and'their impression was that the kumi (if it be a kumi) was not there. Whether it has gone temporarily or permanently will be the business of a party of men, whom Mr Lysuar is sending to camp in the vicinity, to discover. The men have instructions, if they can find the animal, to shoot it. Amongst the debris in one of the nests at the foot of the tree were found a quantity of pigeon feathers. These were as though they had been chewed in the mouth of an animal. They were not old feathers. The supposition is that the kumi. had been feasting on a pigeon, taking it into his mouth whole, and had spat out the feathers. From the way in which the native described the., gait of the animal he saw, and its other peculiarities^ Mr Hansen is confident it is a large reptile.

— Among flowers tho ohrysanthemum, is said to live the longest after being cut.