BY SHORE AND POOL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 81

BY SHORE AND POOL.

By Apakata Renata.

When I waa engaged in the fishing industry with a companion we often made Ruapuke our headquarters, and anchored generally in company with the oyster fleet. It waa a beautiful sight on a fine morning to watch this fleet of 15 to 20 white-sailed craft putting off to the oyster hanks a few miles off. In the evenings the oysters secured by each one would be talked over, and if any boat got less than 2000 dozen (yes, 2000 dozen) its crew was considered to have done a poor day’s work. I don’t know the record, but it is much over twice that number of dozen. The huge steel dredges of the oyster men come up with a great load of oysters, shells, and some weeds. After the oysters have been sorted out by hand the debris remaining is termed culch- There is seldom time to pick out the fine shells that come up with the oysters, and they are treated as rubbish, and slung ■overboard, even to the great scollop (Pecten medius). At times some of these are put aside if they are specially asked for beforehand. The circular saw shell (Asr tralium) i & often to he found in the culch Verv frequently the shells are too much injured to be of any use. The depth of water on the hanks of Dog Island varies from 12 to 15 fathoms. Some westerly banks have 15 to 20 fathoms of water over them, and the banks nearer the easterly shores of Stewart Island, I believe, average 25 fathoms in depth. I have an idea that the best oysters of the Foveaux Straits veiietv I ever tasted were sent up in a sack filled from tins deep water bod. The sack came to Dunedin in the Rosanna Rose, whaler, to my address, and the oysters out of it were pronounced by authorities as _ very superior. The oysters from different "beds vary in condition, and it is said also in flavour. There are extensive beds all about the straits. Near Riverton—that £«. five to seven miles south-east—the bottom is composed of heavy gravel, ami. at though carrying plenty of Oysters, it in not considered suitable for oyster dredging. The oyster fleet is manned hv many of our future navigators. Hundreds ol young men now in good marine positions made their start on cneof these '■raft. Captain Fcollay, of the Peninsula Ferry Company’s twin s.s. Waireka, served as boy and man on some of them. They are good training craft, and require careful handling when working the banks with heavy gear dragging them over, sometimes in fairly rough weather and about positions where tide rips, reefs, submerged rocks, exposed and half-exposed

Hicks. islands, and very shifty winds mak< navigation dangerous and difficult. Away to the north-east coast of Stewart Island, we visit Port William, where at one time extensive barracks were built for immigrants. Here we set our halfdozen moiki nets, and drop six or eight crawfish pots, We lift a nicki net alter being set near some bottle kelp for an hour. It has a buoy of liy ,;ood at one end. This we secure, slowly draw the net up. How brilliantly beautiful the glistening fish look tangled in the meshes. Hugo mold, trumpeter, white fish, and greenbone reward oar efforts. Prom net to net we proceed in the same manner, and then try our crayfish pots Or hoop nets. \V© are very successful, and have a meal. The dish water is thrown overboard, and no end of small fish appear for the scraps, and also same large follows diart up in sight now and again. At time® at is astonishing what a lot of fish came about for the scraps of a meal. After our fishing is completed wo sort and count our catch, and finally dispose of it either at the Bluff, Invercargill, or Halfmoon Bay. The catch is bought by ebme company that deals with it piecemeal. When at Port William one is reminded of Captain Cilroy and early whalers, if. T, Bullen, in hia whaling book, “The Cruise of the Cachelot,” has made their history and has a lot t'o say of whaling and whalers about the Solonder Island and south-west ocean from Stewart Island. Finally I left my mate and took up other duties which still kept me drifting about Stewart Island for five months, mostly camping in tents, ahvnys in sbrna beautiful, quiet," secluded spot. There is no limit to such places on an island 20 miles wide by 40 in length and possessing 10 good harbours with 10 to 15 sub-harbours within them. There is an interesting piece of coast line extending from Orepuki to the New River heads. From the heads to Riverton there is a sandy beach 15 miles in length, on which no end of sea wrack drills. Whales, ships, boats, timber, kingfish, ling, huge skates, and even thj® bodies of the drowned drift on to this’ great beach. The sand dunes from end to end of this beach nave been the haunt of gigantic moas. Beg bones of pher>omeual size have been found about these dimes, and at one time the old settler* and diggers going part of the way among these dunes saw no end of moa bones and egg shells. Even 10 years ago 1 saw plenty of these -bone® seven miles cast of Riverton. A man very well known to me was listening to my lament at finding Hie pieces of a moa egg almost complete. He icmarked that he knew where plenty could' be got, as he found two close together on the east side of the New; River. 1 told him it was the find of his life, and should have secured hum five or six hundred pounds in cash. He certainly did then feel that he had acted very foolishly in, as he said, breaking both of them to see “what was in them.” Two similar instances Occurred nearer Riverton. Ono man smashed one egg with his walking stick and another broke one just dug out of the sand with hi® foot. It may be mentioned that these eggs could not have been deposited in the glacial or proglacial period, as they' were -found high above glacial drift, and in a very recent formation. I should say they w'ere nob 200 years old, if that age. The old Maori camps in the locality have supplied collectors with same fine specimens of their Slone Age implements. There are generally some moa bones about these, and most of the stone implements, as usual in moa-hunters’ camps, eecan more primitive than the recent forms m ordinary Maori camps. A certain type of Maori curio seems to belong exclusively to th* moa-hunlers’ camps. The drift shells on this beach are m’ora plentiful than on any Otago beach Thor* is a bank causing a lon- bar south and, south-east of Riverton Harbour, andl oq this the horse mussel (Pinna zealandica) exists, in great numbers. These, during vales, drift ashore, and if one is early on the look-out whole once can he picked up As the shells are generally Bin to I2in long, and fragile at one end, they soon get broken up if allowed to remain on the beach for any time. Pectera; fairly common among the drift. CIaJM also are very plentifuf and sometimes are gathered at low water for clam soup Th* giant cockle (Mactra diecors) is dug out by the seagulls and taken uf> m the atf Sd d?opp« break the A* «r often gSSfJSL ’ai'e^rery "plentiful the oeven miles east K>t xvive deen-sea oysters drift in here and mdicate’a bank not far out to sea. I have* times found them fresh and fat on the beach Pawns of the three Z^1 and ”species come ashore in hundreds. S k a mystery to me, as there arena r-odks about 'either exposed or submerged. m sa y that th.e whole beach, is .n deal one for drift shells. Seaweeds are also plentiful and beautiful. Jim most beautiful of mossy corals named m Otriiro Museum (Catenncella cribana) dnf-o ?inre in So bitovn or pinky-brown masses. It i* a most delicate and beautiful obiect, in Indispensable m an ornalit.l Section of shells to produce My b’oys an>d i harmony of enect. i y J j rma* often lucky enough to get a fresh fidi on these sands, and at times, as mentioned some time ago, the sprats came in v. v the hundred thousand. , b South-west of Riverton there is a beausandy beach alx>ut half a mil© long. In some seasons this is well stocked with kingfish on frosty mornings. I have found as many as nine at one time on it. Three of these had just come in, lively and struggling, and W'ere taken possession of. Be vend this beach is a succession of small sandy bays and sandy nooks, with many picturesque rocks and rocky headlands — just perfect for shelter and outdoor recreation, but not so secluded as the Stewart Island beauty spots. Swimming crabs of great beauty are often to be found in the beautiful pools about the rocks. These crabs (Cancer portusus) have the peculia-

rity of their fifth pair of legs having flattened segments, and being used as fins or paddles. Their nippers or large claws are smooth as glazed china, and of beautiful shade from ivory white to deep red. “The range of variation in form, proportion, colours, markings, etc., among crabs is very great’’ (Parker and Haswell), and, it might be added, at times very beautiful It was only a half-hour’s walk from my home in South Riverton to the rock-bound coast. The track through the bush going south went over a hilly wooded ridge, rising 500 ft or 6Coft above sea level. As one descended from the hill-top to the coast a patch of rata bush was traversed, and from this through to the beach rata trees, when in flower, coloured the forest in isolated patches. Looking through these trees in flower at the track on a fine day, disclosed to view one of the finest scenes on the coast of New Zealand —gorgeous tints of emerald green and crimson glistening in the rich sunlight like a canopy of filligreed jewel work, ahead and on either side, the sprays of blossom within a few feet, and on the downward view, domes of tree-tops of many shades of bright green, with here and there a great mass of vivid crimson, disclosing a giant rata tree in its full glory of blcssom ; tuis, bell-birds, and bees flitting in and about, .gathering the luscious honey harvest, ana singing in perfect harmony ; ferns, tree ferns, shrubs, creepers, and delicate flowers —all producing an effect which caused one to bless the great All-giver for the faculty and capacity to enjoy the scene. Then below, in the sea by the shore, isolated rocks of many forms and sizes, surrounded with foaming water and strange sea plants, even to the giant kelps ; thes miles of rocky headlands of most varied forms, lashed by the great waves of the South Pacific, and clothed and surrounded by an ocean forest of giant marine plants. Thirty miles south the hazy outline of Stewart Island, with Mount Anglem, 3200 ft high, towering out of the ocean, often cloud-capped or draped in a mantle of snow. To the west, six or seven miles across the sea, is Centre Island, with its clump of white dwellings and lighthouse tower, the rugged coast ending in Colac Bay and hill. Towards sunset, at times, a golden reflected path of light is observed across the ocean- for many- miles. It is dazzling in its burnished brightness, and flashes and sparkle with the play of the broken waters. One is fixed with wonder and admiration at the beauty of this glorious path of light. The rocks and headlands are covered in many places with the leathery-leaved mutton trees. Here and there a giant flax-bush and patches of beautiful flowered veronicas are met with. Tree ferns grow to the water’s edge about the sheltered hollows. As the tide falls, pools and saltwater lagoons are formed. These are suiTounded by kelp and seaweeds of an infinite variety, for these waters are rich in marine plants, including the edible chondrus before mentioned. Sea eggs, pawas, and other shellfish can be found by careful searching. We frequently carried home a dozen or more sea eggs, and cleaned and bleached their beauti-fully-marked shells. Their anatomy is highly interesting. Their construction is always in five sections. Their shells have five sets of large spikes and five sets ol smaller ones. These spikes are not part of the shell, but are attached to it in such xv manner that each one of the many thousand on each shell can be moved in certain directions on a sort of ball joint. In among the spikes on the mouth or underside there are five rows of suckers or feet by which the animal can move and also attach itself to'rocks or we : is. The mouth under the shell is, when cicsed, supplied with cup-shaped frame, which opens out into five sections. Each of these sections is supplied with a strange tooth working in and out of a socket. This tooth, in xv shell 6in in diamater, is about lin long, and well curved inwards. The slide into which the tooth works is grooved to receive it. A section of the tooth shows it T-shaped, and, of course, the groove must be the reverse of this to allow the sliding motion to take nlace. The five teeth and the sections form a circular mouth. . The teeth are pearlywhite and keenly sharpened. They are used to desiccate seaweed, which is the food of all sea eggs, sea urchins, or sea porcupines (Echjna). The combination of teeth and frame, when cleansed of flesh, makes a most interesting object. Internally the animal is composed of five lobes, halfmoon-shaped, and a pouch or stomach. The five halfmoon pieces of flesh are granular in texture, and in most countries j are cooked for soups and stews. They j have a pleasant, peculiar, and distinct flavour, very acceptable to some and equally objectionable to others. In the crevices at and below low water great numbers of the large pawas (Haliotis iris) can bo found clinging to the rock with such tenacity that it is impossible to detach them without breaking their shells unless a wedge-shaped piece of wood is forced under them. At the end of the rocky portion of the shore, which is two miles long, Colac Beach is reached. This beach is mostly gravelly, and about three miles long. These gravel banks are auriferous, and at one time a few diggers worked about them. The beach ends on the Maori settlement at Colac Bay. Crossing a narrow isthmus an ether beach is brought into view. It is about two miles long. At the east end ‘ there was an ancient Maori settlement of the moa hunters. Moa bones, eggshells, and moa gizzard stones are plentiful near its site. I have a photo of a small heap of the gizzard stones, apparently not having been disturbed on the sandy layer where they were foxmd since the moa died there. The bird’s Irenes were lying scattered about, amd are included, or some of them are, in the photo. Many bone spear-heads and other bone implements have been found here, gome of them made of moa bones. Stone implements have also been discovered here of the typical shape got generally about moa hunters’ camps. Great numbers of large sea eggs

drift ashore on this beach after or during gales. It is also a good beach for driftshells, and kingfish, in some seasons, on frosty mornings. Seine netting for flounders is often indulged in by the local settlers. At the west end there was a modern Maori settlement called Wakapatu, and the beach bears the same name. Near this Maori settlement there is a shrubcovered island, which adds a charm ti the scenery. Centre Island is about three miles south-east. The Waiau railway line passes about a mile inland, and at the centre of the beach there is a nice road leading to the Wakapatu Bail way Station. We shall go to this station, and for the present bid good-bye to “Shore and Pool,” hoping to return some day soon.