LATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. 301 



( T. Forsferi, Sw.) one of the few Orchidea: found by Forster in 

 New Zealand." 



An opportunity shortly occurred for Mr Cunningham 

 being enabled to visit the west coast of the nortliern island. 

 A party of his missionary friends having occasion to repair to 

 the station at Hokianga, Mr Cunningham took advantage of 

 the circumstance, to travel in company with these gentlemen. 

 Their first stage was by boat to the station on the Kiddee 

 Kiddee River (Sept. 20th), where they were detained the 

 whole of the next day by the threatening appearance of the 

 weather ; however, they took the opportunity of visiting a 

 cascade on the river, of which our traveller speaks in the 

 following terms : — 



" We at length penetrated to the margin of the river, 

 where a most picturesque fall of water, from lofty rocks of the 

 whinstone structure, was presented to us, of an interesting 

 and imposing effect ; the more so as its perpendicular drop is 

 considerable, for an island of such a flattened or depressed 

 character. The river, at the point at which we had inter- 

 sected it, murmured over whinstone pebbles, and formed a 

 breadth not exceeding thirty feet. About an hundred feet 

 higher up the river, the column of water fell into an ample, 

 seemingly deep basin, at least eighty yards in width. We all 

 stood awhile to contemplate the grandeur of the scene, amidst 

 a heavy surcharged humid atmosphere, arising from the vapour 

 that enveloped everything around us. From the bed of 

 the river above this vertical dip, its waters fall, in one un- 

 broken body, a space we estimated at seventy feet, into a con- 

 tinuation of its channel, much deepened by the perpetual 

 pressure and wear of the falling column, whose breadth at 

 the edge of the upper bed might exceed forty yards. Per- 

 ceiving a deep recess within the cataract, formed by an exca- 

 vation of the decomposing rock, from which rose a continued 

 mist, I crossed the river, and by passing on the skirts of the 

 woods vesting the banks, crept round into this spacious 

 cavern, which being lined with a verdant vegetation, naturally 

 excited my desire to explore its interior, in the hopes that 



