CHAP. VII.] WA1WITI ISLAND. 149 



primeval aspect. We passed numerous tributaries 

 of this river, some of which were of considerable 

 depth, owing to the late rains, which had also 

 formed stagnant pools between the roots of the old 

 trees. At one place Tangutu conducted us into 

 the bed of the river, whence we had the satisfaction, 

 for the first time since we had entered the forest, 

 of seeing Mount Egmont, which rose to the south- 

 by-west, covered with snow, but its summit hid in 

 the clouds. The dense forest on both sides of the 

 river formed, as it were, a framework to the pic- 

 ture. My guide suddenly stopped at the bank near 

 this point, and, clearing away with his hatchet a few 

 of the young tawai-trees, chanted some hymns, and 

 begged of me to read a chapter from St. Paul's 

 Epistle to the Romans. On my asking the reason 

 of this sudden procedure, he told me that many 

 years ago, going with a party to fetch kokowai 

 (red ochre) from the foot of the mountain, they 

 had been surprised at this spot by a party of 

 Waikato, and that in the struggle which ensued 

 his mother had been killed. He had never, he 

 said, visited that spot without paying a tribute to 

 her memory. 



We stopped for the night on a low island in the 

 Waiwakaio, called Waiwiti, grown over with kahi- 

 katoa (Leptospermum), intermixed with a junceous 

 plant, the Hamelinia veratroides of Achille Richard 

 (Astelia Banksii), the seeds of which form the food 

 of the kiwi and weka (Apterix Australis and Ral- 



