84 THE VALLEY OF [PART I. 



down the hill, the day was nearly gone, and we re- 

 turned to our old shed at the junction of the streams. 

 Here we were again detained for a day, as the river 

 was still deep and rapid, and some of our party 

 could not swim. The freshes, however, decreased 

 rapidly during the night of the 7th ; we therefore 

 forded the eastern branch, and followed its course 

 through a district covered with tawai-forest. The 

 river, which is here confined between high shores, 

 preserves the same breadth, but is of greater depth. 

 On the opposite shore, which likewise forms a pla- 

 teau, I observed the rimu pine in great abundance. 

 The section of the cliffy banks shows the same form- 

 ation as that I have already described, with boulders 

 and pebbles above ; but the slate below has assumed 

 a blue colour. We walked for nearly four miles 

 on the flat, which is about a mile in breadth, but 

 were stopped by a sudden curve of the river to the 

 westward. On its right shore the hills were again 

 precipitous to the height of several hundred feet ; 

 the force of the current in its winding course has 

 undermined them, occasioning frequent slips. The 

 left shore is low, and bears sufficient marks of its 

 being very often overflowed. 



I at first thought that the two branches which 

 I have mentioned as forming the Eritonga were 

 branches of one and the same stream, having the 

 flat which we had passed as an island between 

 them ; but this is not the case ; the left arm either 

 rises in or flows through some swamp, as its waters 



