Peter Mutu, set out for the Buller with dispatches and a report to the Canterbury Provincial Government relative to the death of Howitt. On August 14th, Townsend, together with Sherrin and his party, left for Lake Brunner in search of the bodies, but returned on September 17th, without finding any trace of them.
From what could be learned of this shocking fatality it would appear that Howitt and his men were eeling, using a canoe cut out of a green log which had but little freeboard, and which in a sudden squall (for which this lake is notorious) filled and sank. This early surveyor’s parents were William and Mary Howitt, both well known in the literary world, the former’s work, “The History of Discovery in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand,” being a most valuable contribution to colonial literature.
