Excursion to the Coal-beds of Dniry. 155 



acquainted witli the country, and Mr. Heapliy, chief engineer 

 of the province; Mr. Smallfield, editor-in-chief of the Neiv 

 Zealander, accompanied it as historiographer, while the Go- 

 vernment invitation was extended to several of the scientific 

 inhabitants of Auckland, among others the Rev. Mr. Purchas, 

 and a recently-arrived German named Haast. The follow- 

 ing is an extract from a journal, kept by one of the party 

 from the JSfovara^ of all the most interesting episodes of this 

 excursion : — 



'' On 28th December we set out in five waggons, and ad- 

 vanced among extinct craters and volcanic cones, on which 

 in former times Pahs or intrenched villages had been erected 

 by the natives, as is plain from the succession of terraces of 

 three or four feet high, rising in regular order, and cut into 

 the side of the hill. The villas and farms on either side of 

 the road, or at the foot of the hills, buried in their splendid 

 flower-gardens, formed a charming contrast with the ancient 

 lava currents, stretching in every direction and over-grown 

 with tree-ferns and dense coppice. Now and then horses 

 were rolling about upon the velvet-like meadows, or herds of 

 cattle and flocks of sheep were passed feeding and ruminat- 

 ing, and bearing ample testimony to the advanced stage of 

 material progress so quickly attained by one of the youngest 

 of English colonies. 



^' Already we had found banners waving from the houses of 

 Otahuha, a little village closely adjoining a very interesting 

 extinct volcanic peak with a crater, and during a brief halt 



