CHAP. III.] ERITONGA VALLEY. 75 



are especially remarkable for their size. Both belong 

 to the genus Dacrydium. The former is one of the 

 most beautiful trees imaginable, particularly when 

 young, as at that time its branches bend gracefully 

 downwards, like those of the weeping-willow. This 

 is the pine from the branches of which Captain 

 Cook made spruce-beer. Another tree common in 

 this part of the valley is the pukatea, and is easily 

 known by its trunk, which rapidly diminishes in 

 diameter from the ground upwards. The leaves are 

 thick, serrated, and of a glossy green, and it belongs 

 to the laurel tribe. I am not aware that it has yet 

 been described by any writer. Its wood is white, 

 and resembles that of the beech-tree. The rata also 

 is common (Metrosideros robusta). It is the king 

 of the New Zealand trees, and has the hardest and 

 most durable wood. ' In the evenings we always 

 looked for this tree, in order to get some of its peal- 

 ing and friable bark, the lower layers of which are 

 found in a dry state, and were used by us for tinder. 

 These larger trees spread over a number of smaller 

 ones of various descriptions. 



About seven miles from the beach the hills which 

 enclose the Hutt approach near each other, the river 

 keeping close under the western range, which slopes 

 with a steep declivity to its bed. The sides of the 

 hills are here strewed over with sharp-edged frag- 

 ments of clay-slate, intermixed with vegetable earth, 

 which nourishes a vigorous vegetation, but no species 



