The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-10
AN ADVENTURE IN
 NEW ZEALAND Man from Texas Meets An Enormous Bird EIGHTEEN FEET TALL Two Prospectors in New Zealand Have Narrowing Adventure With a
 Monster of the Aerial
 World.

get your figures mixed!
 'No, didn't. It was put down in black
 and white by an authority nobody can
 question:"
 well" said the trsveler from New Or
 leans, "Ive heard of prices like that being
 paid for prize chickens, but I'd like to see
 the fool that would pay 5000 for one egg.
 But, maybe" he added, as the thought
 struck him, maybe it was one of these l Chinese eggs made out of gold, with jew
 els on the inside"
 "No, no, mo-" objected the Memphis pas
 senger; nothing of the sort. It was 1 genuine egg What's more, it didn't have
 anything inside of 1t. It was just she'll
 ''Oh. see.' mur1nured the red-headed
 man, 'It was in a collection"
 ''Yes; you guessed it. It was the egg of
 a great auk, an extinct bird, and it was
 in the National Museum at Washington.
 They say there's only two or three of l them in the world"
 'Yes, they say-they say" put in the 1 passenger from San Antonio. "but how do
 they know? They say that great auks are
 all dead. but how do they know? Those
 scientific chaps down in Washington set 1 up solemn as owls and say things that's l law and gospel to the rest of us, but lots
 of times they are just guessin'. Nobody's
 seen any great auks for some time back,
 they figger so they must be all gone. Well, I'm bettin' they afnt."
 'You talk pretty positive" said the red 1 headed man, "did you ever see great
 auk?
 "No I never saw great aull, and 1 never saw a purple COW; but that's no l sign I never will. I've seen something 1 stranger'n either one of em-something
 the wise guys in Washington would rather
 see than the North Pole"
 .F'ine." said the red-headed person; "go right ahead and don't stop till you get to 1 the end"
 "Was any of you ever in New Zea- 1 Iand?' asked the passenger from Texas, l by way of a starter. The other smokers l shook their heads. "I didn't spose any of
 you ever had been. Not many people from | this country ever get around to that side l of the world. But I want to tell you | that it's worth the trip. When you look | at 1t on the map, New Zealand don't seem | to size up very big. but all the same 1t g HOO miles long an runs all the way from | 150 to 200 miles wide. There's two main | islands cut in two by a narrow strip of l mighty rough water, an both of 'em
 chuck full O mountains. There's a big
 range runnin' the whole length of South
 Island so high the tips are covered with | snow. Up in that range there's big gla- l ciers an lower down there's valleys | white mans ever seen, and no native l either, for that matter. unless if was hun 1 dreds of years ago, when there was more l of 'em There's some mighty good towns 1 in New Zealand an some mighty good | people. but they's mostly along the coasts. l The mountain country ain't much good
 for anything except scenery an minin'. 1 "Along about 12 years ago me and a l feller named Jim Parkins was a-scratch- l in gravel up in the Klondke. We wasn't l maxim much more'n enough to pay for l flour and bacon, an we was gettin' pretty l sick O the whole business when we run | across an Engishman named Higgins, 1 who'd been considerable of a traveller. 1 He'd prospected all over South Africa, l pretty much all around the world but the 1 best place he ever struck, he said, was 1 New Zealand. He took up claim close
 to ours but he didn't do much good with
 1t. Put in most of his time cussin' the 1 Klondike and braggin about New Zea- 1 land Finally he got me and Jim so | worked up about it we decided to go down l there an give it a tryout. We couldn't l do any worse than we was doin there
 an if the Britisher was telin' the truth 1 there was just as good chances to strike | |
 freeze to death in the winter an get ct 1 up by the skeeters in the summer Hig- | gins wouldn't go with Wouldn't say | why, but we got the idee he was sort O 1 barred out.
 l Well, one way an another, it took us l about a year to get down there, but after so long a time we landed at a place called | Chrstchurch. Queer name for a town, | but it's bang-up place all the same We l nj ctt ont xgh 1 they call the Southern Alps. that big | range O mountains I was tellin you | about. Inside of week was clear | away from anybody, an for months we l didn't see Twin soul but ourselves. We 1 prospected for a hundred miles north an 1 south I reckon, before we got q sign O l gold, but day we broke into a valley | over toward the west coast, where we
 got good color in the first pan. an we
 stayed there quite a spell. Might O been | there yet if that-but I guess I'd better
 take things as they come.
 "This here valley was high up in the | mountains. an if anybody had ever been l there before us they hadn't left any l marks. It was about the lonesomest place
 I ever saw. You know there ain't s'posed | to be hardly any animals of any kind in | New Zealand There's bird without any | wings they call the kiwi an there's few 1 parrots an that's about all except now
 an then a wild pig that they says de- l scended from a lot old Captain Cook left | on the island a long time ago. But they l wasn't even any parrots up where we l was, an it was sure doggone lonesome. If l 1t hadn't been for the fish we'd a starved for fresh meat, and as for our guns. we | didn't have any more use for em than we had for a baby buggy. But the gold l was pannin' out pretty well, an man l can stand whole lot when he's maxim l good wages.
 l wed been in camp there for about a 1 month I reckon when one mornin', while l we was gettin' breakfast, Jim with his | hands in the dough pan an he fryin' | some bacon when all at once Jim lets out 1 a screetch that nearly knocked me over. "Goddlemighty, Jim he yelis, 1ooky
 yonder!
 l q turned around an looked to where | he was pointin' down the creek, an l 1 didn't say nothin I opened my mouth, | but couldn't make sound. an I got as l cold as ever did in the Klondike. l been l scared some in my time, but l was never | scared plum stiff before. An old Jim ne 1 was just standin' there pointin, with ms l hand covered with dough an It shakin | like he had the palsy.
 "Walkin' towards us, an not more n
 three or four rods away was bird. Yes, l sir, just bird, but I guess US been | long time since any human beln' ever | saw bird like that. It was built some thing like an ostrich. only 1t was lot