Cussen. — Notes on the King Country, 317 



overlain by beds of tuff. Pureora, tbe most prominent peak on 

 the range, lies 12 miles in a north-west direction from the 

 northern end of Lake Taupo ; its height is 3,800 feet above the 

 sea. It rises with a gentle and regular slope from the Maraeroa 

 Plain, which lies 10 miles west of it ; its slopes are clothed 

 with forest, which disappears near the top, leaving the summit 

 nearly bare, clothed only with tussock grass and scanty scrub. 



Three miles to the northward of Pureora stands the pictu- 

 resque and interesting mountain peak of Titiraupenga, an isolated 

 volcanic rock formed of augite-andesite. Its position and struc- 

 ture would suggest that it was probably the " plug " or neck of 

 land of an ancient volcano, from which the looser materials 

 forming the cone had been removed by denudation. It stands 

 out a most conspicuous landmark at the end of the range, its 

 bare sides standing perpendicularly 200 feet above the mountain. 

 It is a lonely, isolated column of rock, visible for many miles 

 around, and with its mural sides looks from a distance like the 

 ruins of an ancient castle or " Bound Tower." 



Northwards from Titiraupenga the country falls, and there is 

 a saddle or break in the range at the Maraeroa Plains, a rather 

 extensive area of flat and table lands from 1,400 feet to 1,800 

 feet above sea-level, composed mainly of the tuff beds, to be 

 mentioned again, and covered with a deposit more or less heavy 

 of pumice sands. The land here is of medium quality. Mixed 

 with the pumice deposits is a considerable quantity of organic 

 soil, derived from the marl formations which flank the neigh- 

 bouring ranges. The open plains are surrounded by forest, 

 which covers the slopes of the hills, and occupies patches on the 

 plains in picturesque clumps and tongues of bush. The 

 Ongarue River, the chief tributary of the Whanganui, rises 

 here, also the main tributaries of the Mokau and Waipa 

 Rivers. 



From Maraeroa the land rises again to the northwards, con- 

 tinuing the direction of the main range, under the name of Puke- 

 o-kahu, 2,775 feet ; Ran-inui, 3,224 feet ; Te Ranga. 2,309 

 feet ; and Wharepuhanga, 1,942 feet above the sea. From 

 Wharepuhanga the range falls away to the northwards, and a 

 low valley, 500 feet above the sea and 7 miles wide, sepa- 

 rates Wharepuhanga from Maungatautari, an isolated rhyolitic 

 mountain on the line of the main range, 2,623 feet above 

 the sea. The general character of the formations along this 

 main range is tufaceous sandstone, rhyolitic rocks, andesites, 

 and palaeozoic slates, the latter appearing in several places along 

 the top of the range, and cut through by the deep-worn water 

 channels on its western slopes. 



Parallel with the Hauhungaroa Range, and immediately to 

 the westward of it, lies the Ongarue Valley. The upper basin 

 in the valley is a greatly depressed area, 15 miles in length 



