OF AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. 213 
Auckland, and the locality is otherwise interesting, some account of it 
may not be unacceptable to you, and therefore I send you the follow- 
ing short description. 
The isthmus on which Auckland stands stretches from the Manu- 
kan forest, on the western shore of the island, in an easterly direction 
fourteen miles to the Papakuru ranges, and varies in breadth from 
five to ten miles. It is bounded on the south by Manukan harbour, 
and on the north by the Waitemutu and Houraki Gulf. The shore 
rises in general pretty abruptly from the water’s edge from sixty to a 
hundred feet, and the coast line is broken.up, particularly on the 
northern side, by gullies and deep bays, which at the Wau and Tur- 
nuki provide a water communication nearly across the island, leaving 
in each place a portage of less than a mile in breadth. 
The isthmus may be considered as part only of a great plain, which 
on the south extends beyond the Manukan to the neighbourhood of 
the Waikuto River, and on the north nearly as far as Cape Rodney, 
and contains much land generally clear of wood and fit for cultivation. 
This great plain is on a much lower level than the country to the south 
or north of it, and consequently towards it the Thames, the Piako, 
and the Waikuto come from the south, and the Wairoa and Kaiparu 
flow from the north. ; 
The surface is varied by gentle undulations, and made remarkable 
by several conical hills from 300 to 600 feet high, crowned by the 
craters of extinct volcanoes. There are few streams of considerable 
size, and the rain which falls finds its way by deep winding gullies, 
which generally terminate on the beach through marshy swamps. This 
part of New Zealand, like many other parts of it, has formerly been 
subject to long continued and violent volcanic action, although no 
eruptions take place now, and very rarely the slight shock of an earth- 
quake is felt. In several places, however, there are thermal and mine- 
ral springs, abundance of basalt, scoria, pumice-stone, and other vol- 
canic productions, and the frequent occurrence of vegetable impressions 
met with in the clay, and the charred trunks and roots of trees in the 
place of their growth, below the preserit level of the sea, point to the 
conclusion that the land must have subsided from a former greater 
elevation. 
The geological formation of the country about Auckland is chiefly 
volcanic, overlaid in most places with beds of clay and loose friable 
sandstone. The rocks are few, nearly all basaltic; which is sometimes 
