The rocks are abundantly furnished with great quantities of excellent muscles; one sort of which, that is not very common, measures above a foot in length. There are also cockles buried in the sand of the small beaches; and in some places oysters, which, though very small, are well tasted. Of other shell-fish, there are ten or twelve sorts, such as periwincles, wilks, limpets, and some very beautiful sea-ears; also another sort which stick to the weeds; with some other things, as sea-eggs, star-fish, &c. several of which are peculiar to the place. The natives likewise sometimes brought us very fine cray-fish, equal to our largest lobsters, and cuttle-fish, which they eat themselves. Insects are very rare. Of these, we only saw two sorts of dragon flies, some butterflies, small grashoppers, several sorts of spiders, some small black ants, and vast numbers of scorpion flies, with whose chirping the woods resound. The only noxious one is the sand-fly, very numerous here, and almost as troublesome as the musquitoe; for we found no reptile here, except two or three sorts of small harmless lizards.[164] It is remarkable, that, in this extensive land, there should not even be the traces of any quadruped, only excepting a few rats, and a sort of fox-dog, which is a domestic animal with the natives. Neither is there any mineral worth notice, but a green jasper or serpent-stone, of which the New Zealanders make their tools and ornaments. This is esteemed a precious article by them; and they have some superstitious notions about the method of its generation, which we could not perfectly understand. It is plain, however, that wherever it may be found (which, they say, is in the channel of a large river far to the southward), it is disposed in the earth in thin layers, or, perhaps, in detached pieces, like our flints; for the edges of those pieces, which have not been cut, are covered with a whitish crust like these. A piece of this sort was purchased, about eighteen inches long, a foot broad, and near two inches thick; which yet seemed to be only the fragment of a larger piece. The natives do not exceed the common stature of Europeans; and, in general, are not so well made, especially about the limbs. This is, perhaps, the effect of sitting, for the most part, on their hams; and of being confined, by the hilly disposition of the country, from using that sort of exercise which contributes to render the body straight and well-proportioned. There are, however, several exceptions to this; and some are remarkable for their large bones and muscles; but few that I have seen are corpulent.