THE LAKES 



17 



bays Oporae and Kahikanui. The lake is destined ultimately to con- 

 tract itself into a narrow crooked creek flowing on the west edge of 

 its present formation ; for on the west the hill-slopes are less steep, 

 and the slips washed down enormously less in volume. Even this, 

 however, will not be the last change. In imagination we have seen 

 its waters gone, and its basin, through which a narrow streamlet will 

 then flow, completely filled with washings from the hills. 



Peering even farther into the future, we shall find not only the 

 lake gone but its very base vanished, and the alluvium, stored for 

 centuries, once more displaced and carried to the sea. Through the 



"A long deep valley with arms extending up each of the branch flats, every one of which 



will have become a gorge" 



centre of what once was the lake will then run a long deep valley 

 with arms extending up each of the branch flats, every one of which 

 will have again become a gorge. 



At present the lake is drained from its nor'-west corner by the 

 stream Tutira. This stream, after a tortuous course of half a mile 

 through level flax swamp, reaches the old native crossing Maheawha. 

 Immediately below begins a series of overfalls and waterfalls culminating 

 in a leap of over a hundred and fifty feet. This drop is distant some 

 forty chains from the lake, a distance lessened every year by erosion. 

 I imagine that the fall has receded lakewards some two yards since the 

 'eighties. Exact accuracy is impossible, as the landmarks by which I 



B 



