"N NEW ZEALAND. 59 
forests.. This is a very common occurrence in New Zea- 
land, and often thoughtlessly done by the natives on pur- - 
pose to cause a blaze, by which means many a noble forest 
of Pines has been entirely consumed. A species of Metro- 
sideros was growing in these woods, a small tree about 15 
feet in height, of which I took specimens (250). A fragment 
of a woolly-looking Jungermannia (251), a Polygonum (253), 
and a Pimelea (254) were also procured in this locality. All 
these, perhaps, have been already noticed. 
On arriving at Kaipara, we found we had no means of crossing 
the harbour, a sheet of water which, from where we now were, 
at the extreme southern inlet of the harbour, to the nearest 
landing place on the northern shore, was more than sixty miles 
across. Our situation at this place was rather unpleasant, 
no natives being near. Rather, however, than retrace our 
weary steps to Otahuhu, we agreed to wait a day or two, 
in hopes of a canoe arriving at the landing-place. Here 
then we remained until the night of Tuesday the 8th, making 
fires on the brow of the hill, in order, if possible, to attract 
the attention of the inhabitants residing on the opposite 
shores of the water before us. No one, however, came ; and 
on Tuesday, reconnoitring with my glass, I saw the roof of 
a hut about four miles distant, which, from its construction, I 
knew to belong to a white.  Thither, without delay, I de- 
spatched two of my natives, who, to their credit be it 
said, willingly went, although they had to force a passage 
through mud and underwood the whole distance. At night 
they returned, with two whites, in an old, patched-up, and 
leaky boat, in which we gladly left this wretched place, where 
the mosquitoes were more numerous and intolerably annoy- 
ing than I had ever before found them. So thick and torment- 
ing were these insects at night, that I was obliged to leave 
my tent, and move about in my cloak from place to place, as 
they successively found me out. We had, in hopes of avoid- 
ing them, pitehed our tent on the top of the hill, more than 
a mile from the water below, but without the least change 
for the better. On the morning of the 12tb, after encoun- 
F2 
