374 Transactions. — Botany. 



of lofty table-topped hills bounded the range of vision ; while 

 here and there, far away in the extreme distance, several high 

 and isolated mountains reared their barren heads above the 

 horizon. On the left appeared Tauwhara, a high mountain in 

 the Taupo district; Paeroa, and Kaingaroa, near Eotorua, pre- 

 sented themselves in front ; while on the extreme right 

 Putauaki, the high mountain near Whakatane on the east 

 coast, upreared its two-peaked summit to the clouds. Here, 

 notwithstanding the pleasurable h eight to which my imagina- 

 tion had been raised whilst engaged in contemplating the 

 magnificence and extent of the prospect before me, it soon 

 sank below its ordinary level on finding that not a human 

 being dwelt in all that immense tract of country on which 

 my eager gaze then rested. The grass grew, the flowers 

 blossomed, and the river rolled, but not for man. Solitude 

 all ! Even the very little birds, denizens of wilds, few though 

 they were in number, seemed (so fancy intimated) to think 

 with me, for they flew from bush to bush around and about 

 my path with their melancholy " twit, twit," as if wishing to 

 have all they possibly could of the company of a passer-by. 

 Their actions were quite in unison with my thoughts, and I 

 feelingly exclaimed, — 



" Oh ! Solitude, where are the charms," &c. 



Descending to the banks of the river Whirinaki, I was re- 

 warded with the discovery of a few new plants. Crossing the 

 stream, and by-and-by proceeding over the long plain 1 had 

 seen from the top of the hill, I obtained a few more botanical 

 novelties, of sucb kinds as made up the vegetation of this 

 very desolate and sterile spot. I think I never before saw so 

 barren a plain as this. A truly " blasted heath " ; or, in the 

 nervous language of Holy Writ, a "parched place in the 

 wilderness; a salt land, and not inhabited." Night was now 

 fast closing around us, so we quickened our paee, although 

 excessively tired, in hopes of finding a few sticks wherewith 

 to kindle a fire, for none at present appeared within ken. 

 After some time we found some small dry scrub — manuka* — 

 on the immediate bank of the river Eangitaiki, where we 

 bivouacked for the night. 



At a very early hour the next morning we recommenced 

 our journey. Crossing the rapid river Eangitaiki, which at 

 the fording-place we found to be breast-deep, and which we 

 were obliged to cross in an oblique direction, holding firmly 

 on to the tent-poles, that we might not be swept down by its 

 strong current, we travelled over a country more sterile, if 

 possible, than that of yesterday. An interminable succession 



* Leptospcrmum scoparium. 



