Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/170

says he, “out in a deep gully a little above the creek which we had been prospecting for the last three days, getting the colour in most places. The hills all round us were mostly covered with tussocks, with here and there a little patch of bush in the gullies. On this particular evening we had just knocked off work, and were putting things a bit straight after supper, when I was astonished to hear my mate sing out, ‘Good God, Jimmy! what’s that?’ On turning round I could scarcely believe my eyes, for there, right in front of us, standing on the opposite side of the gully, was the moa bird that I had so often heard of from the Maoris. It was walking about, and as the sides of the gully were pretty steep, I should say the bird was not more than 150 yards from us, and a bit above the level of our camp. As soon as I saw it I knew at once what it was, so I told Bill, my mate, it was the moa, and that the Maoris were awfully frightened of it. At that he got very nervous and began to shake. The moa, I should say, was about eight feet six inches or nine feet high, and from the knee downwards you would think he had a pair of officer’s boots on, quite shiny and black. His feathers were a lightish grey colour, and his head he seemed to be able to turn round any way, as it would first look at us with one eye and then turn round and look with the other. I must confess I felt a little bit skeered myself, as we had no gun or anything, only a tomahawk, to protect ourselves with. However, after he had surveyed us he cleared out, taking immense strides as he went, and in the dusk of the evening he was soon lost to sight. My mate got so excited over it that he wanted me to break up the camp and make tracks back. He could not sleep a wink the whole of the night, and roused me up at daybreak next morning. After some persuasion on my part I got him to consent to follow the trail a bit. On getting over