that grows out of the ground," said a stock farmer to us, "and would if
left to themselves soon eat the sheep out of the fields." The flesh is
recognized as good and suitable to eat, but it is so abundant that it is
held in small repute, the skins only as a rule being preserved, and the
carcasses left on the ground where they are killed, to be consumed by
hawks and other carrion-eating birds. When brought to market, as they
are daily, the retail price of rabbits is two pairs for sixpence, the
seller retaining the skins and receiving the bounty paid by Government
for their destruction. We were told that London and Paris are the
largest consumers of the rabbit-skins, being freely used by the
glove-makers for the manufacture of a certain grade of gloves. We also
saw large cases of the skins securely packed and addressed to merchants
in Vienna and Berlin. Thousands of bales of rabbit-skins are annually
exported; indeed, so extensive is this trade that there is a large
commercial room established in Dunedin called the Rabbit-Skin Exchange,
where the article is bought and sold in enormous quantities. Thirty-five
miles inland from this city, the author has seen by moonlight a whole
sloping hillside which seemed to be moving, so completely was it covered
by these little furry quadrupeds. They are poisoned, shot, trapped, and
killed with clubs, but still so rapidly do they breed that there is no
visible diminution of their numbers.

From Dunedin to Christchurch by sea is about two hundred miles, or the
trip may be made by sail via Oamaru and Timaree. The harbor of
Littleton, which stands in the same relation to Christchurch as Port
Chalmers does to Dunedin, is a thoroughly sheltered deep bay, surrounded
by a range of hills on three sides,--hills of cliff-like character
rising abruptly out of the sea. Beyond those are higher elevations,
their tops covered with snow, which the sun tinged with silvery hues as
we sailed up the channel on a bright July morning. The surroundings are
delightfully picturesque, the entrance to the harbor being as narrow as
the harbor of Havana. It is formed by two breakwaters extending from
opposite sides toward each other, each of which is over a thousand feet
in length. Two huge dredging-machines were seen busily at work deepening
the channel, so that vessels drawing not over twenty-two feet of water
can lie at the wharves and discharge cargo. The spirit of commercial
enterprise was very manifest here.