CHAPTER XVII 



AMEHA 



Inaccessible mountains -The koa bird— Concerning our taxidermist — 

 Journey to the cliffs — At the foot of the cliffs— Storm at night — We 

 return to our camp — Further attempts to scale the mountain — We leave 

 the mountain. 



We may imagine that at some remote period in the past 

 the greater part, if not the whole, of the region through 

 which the Merevari flows was one vast mass of sand- 

 stone of considerable thickness overlying a formation of 

 granite now exposed all along the river's banks and in 

 various parts of the forest. A vague idea is all that we 

 can form of the incalculable length of time during which 

 this stratum was deposited grain by grain. When we 

 consider that there must have been a subsequent upheaval 

 of this immense bed extending over ages, followed by slow 

 denudation which has removed the greater part of its 

 mass, we find it difficult to form any conception of those 

 epochs of time in the life of our planet that may not be 

 expressed by figures. Ameha, Arawa, and Arichi stand 

 as monuments of what can be effected by the agency of 

 water ; they are evidences of the great changes that have 

 taken place gradually on the earth's surface ; they have 

 remained as proofs of the alterations brought about, inch 

 by inch, on the face of our globe during periods of time 

 appalling to think of. One is tempted to believe at first 

 sight that the awe-inspiring precipices and forbidding 

 chasms of these inaccessible mountains must have been 



