CHAP. XIII.] RIVER SCENERY. 



213 



Southee, where the river was not much broader 

 than the length of our little craft. But the tide 

 presses the fresh water back eight feet above its 

 usual level, and it is then of considerable depth. It 

 is one of those rivers the banks of which consist 

 only of their own alluvium, the channel winding 

 in a serpentine course ; it has little fall, but the tide 

 renders it always navigable. The banks are per- 

 pendicular, and rise two or three feet above the 

 level of the spring-tides ; towards its outlet, how- 

 ever, the land is low and swampy, and is overflowed 

 when winds from the sea raise the water to a higher 

 levM, or when floods, occasioned by long-continued 

 rain, come down from the interior. 



I will transcribe a few lines from my journal 

 describing the country in the neighbourhood of the 

 river : " At first we passed swamps covered with 

 mangroves, sometimes only showing their heads 

 above water, and affording shelter to flights of ducks 

 and other aquatic birds. When the banks become 

 higher, the land is perfectly level ; the soil, as is 

 seen by the section of the river banks, is in some 

 places a stiff black loam, in others a lighter earth, 

 to all appearance admirably adapted for grain. The 

 country is perfectly open in many places, and only 

 covered with tupakihi (Coriaria sarmentosa), fern, 

 high flax, and here and there some spots of grass. 

 In other parts the ti (Dracaena Australis), the stem 

 of which seldom exceeds half a foot in thickness, 

 forms almost a forest, or, to express myself more 



