158 Voi/age of the Novara. 



the natives, found ourselves compelled to return when about 

 half-way, in order to husband our strength for the exertions 

 of the ensuing day. 



^' By dawn the noise in the hotel drove away all further 

 thought of sleep, and presently came flocking in from every 

 quarter the horses, both saddle and pack, which had been 

 engaged for the expedition. The morning broke in uncom- 

 mon splendour, and the whole landscape lay bathed in a 

 rose-coloured flush, whose exquisite tints recalled the im- 

 mortal beauties of Claude Lorraine. The winding road that 

 leads over the intervening hills begins at this point to be 

 impracticable for wheeled vehicles, although it is possible to 

 advance a few miles farther in country cars. For upwards of 

 an hour we rode along through beautiful rolling pasture land, 

 for the most part neatly fenced, and covered with herds of 

 noble cattle. Now and then we came upon a stately mansion, 

 buried in flowers and foliage, whose appearance sufliciently 

 attested that the proprietor had long since left behind the 

 struggles of the early days, when the hardy settler inhabited 

 a wretched log-hut (whari), a '' clearing" cut with incredible 

 labour amid an almost impenetrable forest, the soil of which 

 he had to prepare for the reception of corn-seed. 



"At last we reached the forest, which extended from where 

 we were to the banks of the Waikato. The deeper we pene- 

 trated into it, the closer and more majestic grew the trees, 

 and the denser and more impervious was the underwood. 

 Gigantic trees, 150 feet in length of stem, were entwined. 



