248 VARIETIES OF SOIL. [PART II. 



reason that it yielded nothing at all. The soil is a 

 very light dusty volcanic earth. This is the reason 

 why the natives have no plantations here, but pre- 

 fer the ravines intersecting the plain, or go nearer 

 to the groves, or to the base of the hills which 

 bound the table-land, where the soil is more sub- 

 stantial. Some parts of the table-land towards the 

 Keri-keri have a very superficial stratum of vegetable 

 earth, and are strewed over with lapilli of ferrugi- 

 nous clay ; where these are found the soil is almost 

 useless. Good and bad land, indeed, alternate ; the 

 latter rather prevailing. On the banks of the Keri- 

 keri and Waitangi rivers, which discharge them- 

 selves into the Bay of Islands, the land is of the 

 best description ; but even there masses of scoriae 

 have to be cleared away, which will require a great 

 expenditure. 



The Waitangi forms a picturesque cascade near 

 its outlet into the Bay of Islands. Below the fall 

 the basaltic rock in the banks of the river shows 

 somewhat of a columnar structure. 



The neck of land which separates Waitangi from 

 the Keri-keri is claimed by Mr. Bushby, the former 

 consul of New Zealand, and contains some very 

 good land and pasturage. 



The vegetation which covers the table-land is 

 but little varied : fern, tupakihi (Coriaria sarmen- 

 tosa), Dracaena australis and indivisa, and Gaul- 

 theria, are the most common plants. That curi- 

 ous lichen the Cenomice retispora is found in 



