420 Transactions. 



After this we entered a spacious gulf on the west side of Shouraki Bay, 

 where we were obliged to make some bords to approach the land in a S.W. 

 direction. 



This fine basin has ten or twelve miles of extent either way. To the 

 S.E. it is bounded by a chain of islands of moderate height [Rakino, Motu- 

 tapu, Rangitoto, &c.], and well wooded ; to the west by a uniform per- 

 pendicular coast, sad-looking and sterile ; to the N.N.W. a large channel 

 appears to enter into the land [Te Welti River]. But I preferred to direct 

 my researches towards another opening in the south, which would, accord- 

 ing to my calculations, allow me to approach the opposite coast of New 

 Zealand, and which appeared to reduce to very little the width of Te Ika-Na- 

 Mawi [Te Ika-a-Maui] at this point. I even thought that there might exist 

 here a channel which separated the land into two islands. 



We had not remarked any trace of inhabitants, only two or three smokes 

 a long way in the interior. One cannot doubt that this extreme depopula- 

 tion arises from the ravages of war. 



The breeze having very much decreased, and changed to the W.S.W. 

 in the evening, we let go the anchor in 12 fathoms, soft mud, at four miles 

 off the coast. In a few instants the crew had brought up on their lines an 

 immense quantity of fish, which was exquisite eating. During the afternoon 

 a small hammer-headed shark had followed the corvette. 



25th February. — The hammocks were stowed at 5 a.m., and a few 

 minutes afterwards the " Astrolabe " was under sail. The wind having 

 become steady in the S.S.W. obliged us still to beat against it, and I saw 

 that it would take us a good part of the day to attain the pass to the south. 

 In order to profit by this, I jumped into the whaleboat with MM. Lottin, 

 Gaimard, and Lesson, to go and explore the interior channels. At a dis- 

 tance of about half a league we had the pleasure of seeing the " Astrolabe " 

 sailing the tranquil waters of a basin surrounded by land on all sides, her 

 hull lightly balanced on the surface of the waves, her sails softly filled by a 

 light breeze, a lively contrast to the absolute silence of nature. Lost in 

 the immensity of the ocean, like a point, the mass of a ship takes on all its 

 importance as soon as it approaches any object with which it can be com- 

 pared. The effect which this spectacle produces is perhaps more striking 

 still to the navigator who, enclosed within that floating home, finds in its 

 ordinarily restricted dimensions the reason of the constraint he feels. 



At the end of two hours we entered the pass which had excited our 

 curiosity. On the left is an island (Rangui-Toto) [Rangitoto], Ioav at its 

 extremities, surmounted by a peak in the centre, and of which the flourish- 

 ing vegetation contrasts in a singular manner with the nakedness of the 

 opposite coast. We soon found ourselves in a beautiful interior basin, in 

 which we got 6 to 8 fathoms regularly, and which soon divided into two 

 channels : the one turned to the east, of which we could not discern the 

 extremity [Waiheke Channel] ; the other, which ran to the west, seemed to 

 us to be land-locked at two or three leagues distant. 



We entered the latter, and debarked on the right-hand shore. Whilst M. 

 Lottin made a geographical station on the summit of a peak which since last 

 evening we had olaserved from a long distance [probably Mount Victoria, 

 or Takapuna], I cast an eye on the surrounding country. Covered in 

 abundance with herbaceous plants, there are some bushes, but no trees. 

 Already the heat seemed to have destroyed a great part of the vegetation ; 

 and the soil, although fertile, seemed to me to be without fresh water, for 

 I could only find a pool, which was brackish. Birds were very scarce ; we 



