THIS HINEMOA'S CRUISE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11948, 23 January 1901, Page 2

THIS HINEMOA'S CRUISE.

A COLLECTION FOR THE BRITISH MUSEUM. His Excellency tho Governor, Captain Alexander, A.D.C., the Hon. H. F. Butler, Captain Button (curator of the Chrislehureh Museum), and Dr Collins (of Wellington) embarked in the Government steamer Hinemoa at the Bluff on Monday, the 31st December, for a trip to the southern islands. From there the steamer went to Port Pegasus, where a day was spent in waiting fo. the weather to clear. On the following day. tho Snares were reached, and n day was spent in collecting, the weather being capital: Tho iiarty then went on to the Auckland Islands, where they remained a week. The weather was rough, but they went to many places, including Port Ross and Crawley Harbour. They next touched at tho Campbell Islands, where two days were spent.- The weather wa3 fine; in fact, for the remainder of the cruise excellent .weather was met with. From the Campbell Islands they went to the Antipodes, at which spot another couple oi days were put in very nicely. The boat was then headed for tho Bounty Islands, and from there for Lord's River, Stewart Island. From that point tho party travelled to Ohau, the chief town of the island, and thence to Patorpon's Inlet and the Bluff, which was reached on Monday. One object of the'trip was to examine the provision depots on the various islands, all of which wore found to Ira in good order. Another object was to collect birds for tho British Museum. An excellent collection was secured —the best collection, in fact, that Ijas eve? been made. It included the Merganser, a very rare bird. It is a kind of duck, but has a narrow bill, like that of the shag. There aro few specimens of it in existence. The Hinemoa has never before found more than three' specimens, all of which were bought by. Air W. Rothschild, who has a famous collection of birds and insects at Tring. Two other birds secured, a shag and a tern, are supposed to bo new to science. A yonhg bird and an old bird of cach kind were shot. There are different species of shags found in New Zealand and the islands of' the Fouth, but the kind secured by tho party differs in several points from any that have _ been obtained before. The tern is certainly new to Zcahtnd, and Captain Button believes it to be quite new. but without books of reference he cannot be sure on tho point. All the birds are preserved in formalin, and will be sent Homo at once. In addition, collections of insects, shells, and plants were made. Tho insects and shells are for the Christchurch Museum, and the plants, which are alive and young,, fni- Mr Cockayne, a well-known botanist of Christchurch. The object of, the last-mentioned ooHcntion is to eo.npare the Feedliugs with the old plants, which are already well known.