142 MOUNT EGMONT. [PART I. 



text, as he knew the books by heart. A mat of 

 his own manufacture, as he had no female to work 

 it for him, was his only-- -dress ; a hatchet his only 

 weapon. We did not take much provision with us, 

 as the party in Nga Motu had little to spare, and 

 as we had no means of carrying it. I trusted to my 

 gun and to the stores of Tangutu in the bush. 



Our road led us along the beach to the north- 

 ward. We crossed the Huatoki and Enui creeks, 

 and then turned into the interior over the downs 

 and hillocks of the coast, which were covered with 

 fern and flax, overshadowed here and there by a 

 picturesque ti (Dracaena australis). About two 

 miles from the coast we came into a low shrubby 

 forest, where the soil consisted mostly of a very dark 

 vegetable mould. Tangutu had here cleared a place 

 in the middle of the bush, where he had formed a 

 clean and well- weeded garden, planted with potatoes, 

 taro, onions, water-melons, and pumpkins. Not far 

 from this point we crossed the river Waiwakaio, a 

 rapid but not very deep stream, with a broad and 

 pebbly bed, all the pebbles consisting of hard and 

 blue trap-rock. About a mile farther we passed 

 another deep creek the Mangorake, a tributary of 

 the Waiwakaio, where my guide had another potato- 

 field. The forest consisted generally of tawai ; 

 here and there might be seen a majestic Rimu pine, 

 or rata, bearing crimson flowers. There were many 

 arborescent ferns, and in the deepest shade grew the 

 Nikau palm (Areca sapida). Sometimes we came 



