42 EXCURSION TO VAIHIRIA. 



at Opoa, the ancient thicket around this edifice 

 is chiefly composed of Purau and tangled brush- 

 wood, and contains but few of the more funereal 

 trees. 



In the evening we reached Mr. Henry's resi- 

 dence at Atinua, where the kindest hospitality 

 obliterated the fatigues, and enhanced the plea- 

 sures, of the past day. 



At day-break on the following morning I 

 quitted Atinua, in company with a native guide, 

 and rode four miles further along the coast, to 

 Mairipehe, whence we proceeded on foot, inland 

 and to the northward, for the lake of Vaihiria. 



For a short distance, our route lay over an 

 extensive tract of fertile land, in some parts 

 thinly strewn with the cultivated plots and 

 modest huts of the natives, though more gene- 

 rally overrun by a rank vegetation and inter- 

 sected by streams, which compelled us to take to 

 the water and practise those aquatic exercises 

 which we had afterwards so frequently to repeat. 

 As we advanced inland the country assumed a 

 wilder and more romantic character. An occa- 

 sional hut, erected as a temporary shelter for 

 the fruit-gatherer, was the only trace of hu- 

 man occupation ; and a river of respectable size, 

 arising inland, near Vaihiria, flowed through the 

 land with a winding and impetuous course, to 



