198 NORTHERN ISLAND. [PART II. 



to a well-informed and liberal mind, united all that 

 genuine politeness and savoir vivre for which his 

 nation was formerly so famous. He was a most 

 agreeable companion, and various were our adven- 

 tures in the little schooner of sixteen tons, belong- 

 ing to him, in which we coasted along the island, 

 and entered many of the harbours ; but having a 

 great disinclination to describe personal incidents, 

 I shall omit them altogether, and will risk the re- 

 proach of tediousness by giving what will, I con- 

 ceive, be more useful a topographical description of 

 the different parts of the country, and afterwards 

 look over the whole in a bird's-eye view. 



I begin with the district of Kaitaia, comprising 

 the northern end of the island. Cape Maria van 

 Diemen, its north-western extremity, is formed of 

 detached rocks of a hard conglomerate, which is 

 composed of water-worn pebbles of basaltic lava, 

 amygdaloidal basalt, greenstone, and Lydian stone. 

 Inland of this rocky promontory the cape is sandy, 

 and sand-hills run for a distance of about four 

 miles along the coast to the eastward, as far as the 

 Reinga, where the shore again rises into cliffs. The 

 sand, driven by strong westerly gales, which prevail 

 here during a great part of the year, has made great 

 encroachments upon the land, and in fact nearly 

 its whole northern extremity above the parallel of 

 Houhoura or Mount Carmel with the exception 

 of that part which is situated to the northward of 

 the harbour of Parenga-renga has been over- 



