22 JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST 
hills of Wakapunake at the base of which the village is situ- 
ated. I had often heard from time to time about this place: 
from the natives, and the abyss-like cataract in its immediate 
vicinity, and had long cherished a hope of one day visiting 
it. Tired as I now was, I wished for morning that E might 
realize my desire, and gain. a few more additions to the New 
Zealand Flora. 'The roar of the waters during the stillness. 
of the night had much that was soothing as well as solemn 
in the sound. Morning broke, and, prayers and breakfast 
over, I entered into a little canoe and paddled about 200- 
yards to the bed of rock, which, crossing the river, dams up. 
the water and causes the fall. This cataract, from its situa- 
tion, is exceedingly romantic; the most so, I think, of any 
I have yet seen in New Zealand. 'The bed of rock, or 
rather deposit of indurated clay, sand and mud, of a very white: 
eolo.-, which here obstructs the progress of the river, (and 
through a narrow hollow in which the water rushes with fearful 
velocity) is filled with marine shells ima fossil state, although 
at a considerable distance from the sea and ata very great 
height above its level. This bed of white rock is large, being: 
not less than 200 feet in width, and, when the river is swollen. 
by the winter's rains, surrounded. as it is by high and densely 
wooded hills, the fall must present a very imposing appea- 
rance. I gained several specimens of shells, Uni-Bi- and 
Multivalve by digging them out of the rock with my hatchet. 
Among them were specimens of the genera Terebratula 
( Terebratula Tayloriana, n. sp.), Voluta, Pecten, Lepas, and: 
others, at present unknown to me. The waters fell from 
rock to rock three several times, ere they were swallowed up 
in the dark eddying gulph below. The deep gloom of the 
river in the gorge beneath, the different hues of the dense 
masses of foliage on either side, the sunbeams peering down- 
wards through the tops of the trees, the enormous bed of 
rock above, white as snow, with the natives who accom- 
panied me perched here and there upon the same, and the 
little village in the back-ground, contributed to give the whole 
an enchanting effect. In the height only of the fall was I 
