Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

620 LIZARDS TRADITIONS — CURRENTS. Jail. and as big round as a man's body. He said that they some- times seize and devour men ; that they burrow in the ground ; and that they are killed by making fires at tlie mouths of the holes. We could not be mistaken as to the animal ; for, with his own hand, he drew a very good representation of a lizard on a piece of paper ; as also of a snake, in order to show what he meant.'"' — (Cook's third Voyage, chap. VII.) Perhaps this huge kind of lizard has become extinct ; but it is possible tliat it yet exists on the southern (or middle) island. In its bur- rowing we are reminded of the great lizard, or iguana, of the Galapagos Islands; but the assertion that it sometimes seizes men seems to refer to an alligator, or crocodile. Cook heard of it shortly after leaving Queen Chai'lotte Sound, from a native of the southern large island.* If such a reptile ever existed upon the northern island it must have been extermi- nated by the earliest aboriginal settlers, as they have now no tradition of any animals except dogs, pigs, rats, mice, and small lizards. Pigs and dogs, say the natives, wei'e brought from the north, in canoes. On New Year's day, while in sight of the islets called Three Kings, we passed through several tide ' races,' one of which was lather ' heavy,' and would have been impass- able for a boat. These races moved towards the north while Ave could trace their progress. The temperature of the water fell six degrees after passing through the principal one. Next day, at noon, we found that during the past twenty-four hours we had been set as many miles southward (S.S.E.), and hence I am inclined to infer that we were influenced by re- gular tide-streams, rather than by currents setting always in one direction. To the succeeding day at noon (3d) we were set only seven miles, by the water, and that due east. After- wards, in our passage to Port Jackson, we had alternately northerly and south-easterly currents of about ten miles a day, and it was easy to tell which current we were in, by the tem- perature of the sea : — while the stream set from the north, the water thermometer showed about 7S°; but when the current * At New Zealciiul the southern large island is usuiilly called the Middle Island.