CHAP. III.J ERITONGA VALLEY. 79 



of which we must look not in the subsidence of the 

 waters, but in a rise of the land after an interval of 

 repose. These terraces, both on the banks of the 

 river and on the sea-coast, are far too elevated 

 for the highest floods or tides ever to have reached 

 them. 



Some of the most valuable land in this part of 

 the valley is found on these platforms: a thick 

 mould, or clayey soil, covers the boulders. The 

 forest is very open, and in some parts consists almost 

 entirely of tawai- trees, and in others of the totara. 

 The totara pine is a very stately tree : its stem is 

 generally five or six feet in diameter, and is without 

 branches for about sixty feet above the ground. The 

 branches spring from the stem at an acute angle, 

 and form several crowns at some distance from each 

 other. The bark is thin, of a reddish colour, and 

 generally peals off in longitudinal stripes. Its leaves 

 are lanceolate and short : they are of a dark-green 

 colour on the upper surface, and of a sea-green on 

 the lower. It grows in this valley chiefly in rich 

 alluvial land, which is exposed at times to inunda- 

 tions, but it is not found on the lowest banks. In 

 other parts of the island, however, I have seen the 

 totara also growing on hills, and it was this pine that 

 I found occupying the highest elevation on Mount 

 Egmont, although there it had diminished much in 

 size, and had become stunted. To the southward of 

 Mercury Bay, on the eastern coast, and of Kawia, 

 on the western, the totara is the only tree used by 



