188 COOK'S STRAITS. [PART i. 



nient harbours; they contain anthracitic coal and 

 limestone, and bear a variety of timber, of which I 

 must especially mention a new species of the parsley- 

 leafed pine (Phyllocladus trichomanoides), which the 

 natives call E Hutu, to distinguish it from the tane- 

 kaha, another species of the same genus. On the 

 eastern coast the hills in several places are of a more 

 gradual slope, like those in the Bay of Plenty, and 

 forming a rich field for colonial enterprise. Around 

 Queen Charlotte's Sound and Cloudy Bay there is 

 a knot of these hills, but the interior table-land 

 opens towards Blind Bay, and also towards Wairoa 

 in Cloudy Bay. Thus, it appears that the situation 

 of Nelson in Blind Bay is the happiest which could 

 have been chosen in Cook's Straits for opening a 

 communication with the interior, and also for secur- 

 ing a sufficient extent of back country for an import 

 and export trade. 



In the northern island, as far as regards the 

 parts bordering on Cook's Straits, the aspect is 

 somewhat different. From the part nearly oppo- 

 site Entry Island to Cape Egmont, and thence to 

 the northward, a belt of undulating land runs along 

 the sea-coast, increasing in breadth towards Mount 

 Egmont; whilst that mountain rises imposingly 

 with a very gradual slope from the sea-coast, from 

 which it is distant thirty miles. The land here 

 consists, as I have already mentioned, of aqueous 

 strata, which have a comparatively even surface, and 

 which owe their origin to the rise of the volcanic 



