CHAP. II.] TORY CHANNEL. 57 



gave us a canoe in which to return to Te-awa-iti. 

 The man who seemed to be the principal chief was 

 of a fine powerfully formed figure, with a noble 

 countenance, and reminded us of a Roman tribune, 

 wrapped, as he was, in a new native toga. 



On another of my excursions I traced Tory Chan- 

 nel towards its northern entrance, for the purpose 

 of crossing the neck of land which separates Port 

 Underwood in Cloudy Bay from Queen Charlotte's 

 Sound. A more accurate examination of the coast 

 showed everywhere the argillaceous schist in strati- 

 fications from east to west, and dipping to the 

 north. Sometimes no stratifications could be ob- 

 served, and the rock was of a more granular nature, 

 but still very soft, and with fissures in many direc- 

 tions, as if it had been acted upon by fire. I ob- 

 served in the Straits no indications of any other 

 kind of rock, except the occasional appearance of 

 Lydian stone, massy basaltic rocks, and greenstone. 

 It became very apparent to me, from the various 

 transitions from one kind of rock to another, that 

 they had assumed that structure in consequence of 

 the infusion from below of the trappean rocks, and 

 the consequent metamorphosis of the slate-rocks. 

 I could not discover any trace of organic remains 

 in the latter, and it is therefore most probably to 

 the transition series that the hills in Queen Char- 

 lotte's Sound belong. 



Notwithstanding the barren quality of this sub- 

 stratum, and the want of decomposition on the sur- 



