158 NATIVE TRADITION. [PART I. 



stone, and breaks into large tabular fragments. The 

 wall where this rock is seen is fissured in a perpen- 

 dicular direction. There seems to he a great scarcity 

 of simple minerals in the principal rock of which 

 this mountain consists. 



The natives have no historical account of any 

 eruption of Mount Egmont, and maintain that the 

 country at its base is less subject to movements of the 

 earth than other parts of the islands, especially those 

 which are the most mountainous. They have, in- 

 deed, tales which, if divested of their figurative dress, 

 might be referred to the recollection of former vol- 

 canic activity : such is their account that the Ton- 

 gariro and Mount Taranaki are brother and sister, 

 and formerly lived together, but quarrelled and se- 

 parated. 



The branches or buttresses which Mount Egmont 

 throws out towards the sea-coast and to the interior 

 being of inferior height, the cone itself appears to be 

 very isolated. A ridge of hills runs towards Cape 

 Egmont; another, that on which we made the 

 ascent, goes to the north-east-by-east, and a third 

 towards the interior, in the direction of the Rua- 

 pahu and the still active volcano of Tongariro. 



On the summit of the mountain I found the en- 

 tire skeleton of a rat, carried there, no doubt, by a 

 hawk. 



After staying for some time on the summit, in the 

 vain hope that the clouds which enveloped us would 

 disperse, we retraced our steps, and accomplished the 



