9 2 ■ Voyage of the Novara. 



bour of Auckland. A bark, which had sailed from Sydney 

 three days before us, had, as we were informed by our pilot, 

 been one day in harbour. We now had to tack slowly up 

 under faint puffs of wind towards the anchorage, which we 

 reached finally at 5.30 p.m. of the 22nd December, 1858. 



The country round Auckland has none of those majestic 

 features which are presented by New Zealand further south. 

 The enormous volcanic peaks, such as Mount Egmont, 8000 

 feet high, have dwindled down in this region to numerous 

 but small extinct cones, rarely rising above 800 feet. In- 

 stead of the hills covered with perpetual snow of the central 

 island, one sees here only low chains of hills, about 2000 feet 

 high, and a rolling country, which dips into the sea in steep 

 cliffs of sandstone. In the various bays and channels of the 

 wide gulf might be seen numbers of natives in their elegant 

 canoes engaged in fishing. We found but five ships in har- 

 bour, and here also the Novara was the largest man-of-war 

 that had ever entered the port. The population of Auckland 

 turned out on the beach as we approached, and began to 

 exchange the usual salutes with the little fort. 



