WOOD AND WASTE 13 



washings from the hills, but peering even 

 further into the future, we shall find not 

 only the lake gone, but its very base vanished, 

 and the alluvium collected for centuries 

 once more displaced and carried direct to 

 the sea. 



Through the centre of the lake will 

 then run a long, deep valley, Avith arms 

 extending up each of the branch flats, every 

 one of which will have again become a 

 gorge. 



At present, as has alread.v been mentioned, 

 Tutira is drained from its nor '-west corner 

 ]>y the Papakiri, which stream after a 

 tortuous course of half a mile through level 

 flax swamp, reaches the old native crossing. 

 Inunediately below this crossing begin a 

 series of overfalls and waterfalls, culmin- 

 ating in a leap of over a hinidred feet. 

 This fall may be some sixty chains from 

 the lake, and the ledge over which it rushes 

 is to some extent eroded year by year. I 

 imagine that the fall has receded lake- 

 wards some two feet since the eighties, but 

 exact accm-ac}^ is impossible as the land- 

 marks, by which I have tried to gauge the 



