"During my stay in Nelson my collections waxed in amount to an unusual degree. In vain had I attempted while in North Island to discover remains of the gigantic extinct bird of New Zealand, or the bones of the _Dinornis_ and _Palapteryx_, Moa of the natives. These researches met with far greater success in Middle Island. The chalk valleys of the Aorere valley furnished us with splendid specimens of these singular and rare remains of birds. Not merely were individual bones daily discovered, through the indefatigable exertions of my friend Haast, but from time to time entire skeletons more or less perfect. Besides these, I was presented with a very valuable complete skeleton of the _Palapteryx ingens_ (Owen), from the Nelson Museum, so that the collection of remains[58] of the Moa, which I brought back with me to Vienna, is scarcely, if at all, inferior to the valuable series of relics of an extinct race of birds which at present adorns the British Museum.
"I must express my thankful sense of the kindness with which my friends Dr. Monro, Capt. Rough Travers, Messrs. Adams, Curtis, and many others, contributed minerals, plants, and zoological specimens to the enrichment of my collections of natural history. I am also deeply indebted to Messrs. Campbell and Burnett for several exquisite landscape sketches, and the Provincial Government for a variety of interesting photographic pictures of the environs of Nelson.
"It was with regret I tore myself from a region where so much remained to discover, and so much hitherto unexamined to explore. In the higher and more remote regions of the Southern Alps, never yet trodden by human foot, there was nothing left for me to do. From the shores of the Rotoito lake (Lake Arthur) I could see the southernmost point reached by me, where the lofty pinnacles of the southern range, crowned with perpetual snow, rose grandly before me. I could but picture to myself the majesty and sublimity of those hills, which my friend and travelling companion, J. Haast, succeeded in ascending in 1860-61, after indescribable difficulties and hardships, which redounded to the credit of German 'pluck' and perseverance, as the results did honour to German science.