CHAP. VII.] OF MOUNT EGMONT. 155 



it much resembles. We now began to ascend the 

 cone, which consisted of cinders, or slags of scoriace- 

 ous lava, of various colours white, red, or brown, 

 and had been reduced almost to a gravel, so as to 

 offer no resistance to our feet. These volcanic pro- 

 ducts cannot be distinguished in their lithological 

 characters from scoriae of the Auvergne. We soon 

 came to the snow, at a point about 1500 feet below 

 the summit. The limits of perpetual congelation 

 in New Zealand correspond nearly with the result 

 obtained by calculation according to Kirwan's for- 

 mula, which, taking 59 as the mean annual tem- 

 perature of New Zealand, would give for the limit 

 of perpetual snow 7204 feet ; deducting this number 

 from 8839 feet, which is about the height of Mount 

 Egmont, we have 1635 feet below its summit as the 

 lowest point at which the snow is perpetual. Ve- 

 getation had long ceased, not from the great ele- 

 vation, but from the entire absence of even a patch 

 of soil where plants might take root. In the ra- 

 vines, as I have already observed, the snow was 

 found much lower down. 



As soon as we had reached the limits of perpetual 

 snow, my two native attendants (the third had been 

 left behind at the last night's halting-place) squatted 

 down, took out their books, and began to pray. No 

 native had ever before been so high, and, in addition 

 to that awe which grand scenes of nature and the 

 solemn silence reigning on such heights produce in 

 every mind, the savage views such scenes with super- 



