CHAP. XX.] VALLEY OF THE THAMES. 275 



a channel into the Thames with a minimum depth 

 of one fathom and a half at dead low water ; higher 

 up the depth of the water is three fathoms to three 

 fathoms and a half. Small vessels have gone up the 

 river nearly fifty miles, and large boats can ascend 

 about ninety miles. A channel also leads into the 

 Piako, but this river is the smaller of the two, and 

 at low water admits boats only. 



I have already observed that the land on which 

 the kauri-pine grows is, even when cleared, of no 

 use for any other purposes, both from the rugged 

 nature of the ground and from the quality of the 

 soil. But at some distance from the entrance into 

 the Thames, the eastern coast hills, which, seen 

 from the valley, look like a steep artificial embank- 

 ment, are flat on the top, and slope gradually down 

 to the sea-coast in the Bay of Plenty : the kauri is 

 scarce ; and the forest is a mixed one, in which 

 rata, rimu, totara, and hinau are the most conspi- 

 cuous. Such land is available, if cleared of the 

 forest ; the kauri being confined to a few steep hills 

 and ravines on the eastern coast. It is one of the 

 most remarkable phenomena in botany, that an im- 

 mense tree such as the kauri should be satisfied 

 with places where one would scarcely have sup- 

 posed it could have taken root. 



The valley of the Thames is about one hundred 

 miles long, extending to the neighbourhood of the 

 inland lake of Roturua, and, with the exception of 

 the banks of the rivers, where the kahikatea pine 



T -2 



