CHAP. 1V.J 107 



CHAPTER IV. 



Kapiti, or Entry Island. Mana, or Table Island. 



KAPITI the " Entry Island " of Captain Cook 

 stretches from north to south in an irregular and 

 somewhat oval shape. It consists of a ridge of hills, 

 rising in some places to the height of 600 feet 

 above the level of the sea, with some of its peaks of 

 a pyramidical form. These hills descend abruptly 

 to the westward and eastward, forming a rocky and 

 nearly inaccessible shore throughout the greater 

 part of its extent ; they are intersected by deep ra- 

 vines, through which small rivulets descend towards 

 the sea-shore. At the southern extremity the hills 

 are more undulating, and their ascent not so steep ; 

 and here the natives have their plantations. At the 

 north-east end of the island the rock has been wasted 

 and broken by the violence of the waves ; and its 

 debris, mixed with sand, vegetable mould, and peb- 

 bles of pumice-stone, of different colours, brought 

 down by the Wanganui river from the active vol- 

 cano Tongariro, in the northern island, forms an 

 alluvium which girds the north-east end for about 

 three miles, and is in some parts half a mile broad. 

 In this beach there is a lagoon about a mile in cir- 

 cumference, and only separated from the sea by a 



