330 FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. [PART II. 



the sides of the hills, which yields them the best 

 crops. 



If I wished to describe the country through 

 which we passed, I could not do so better than by 

 saying that it resembled land over which a flood 

 had swept, leaving it torn, or in many places ridged 

 with terraces formed by slow subsidence, but alto- 

 gether devastated and dreary. Shallow ravines had 

 been formed here and there, often turning at sharp 

 angles where the water had found resistance ; the 

 declivities of these ravines were covered with gravel. 

 Sometimes a higher cliff appeared, consisting of a 

 tufaceous conglomerate ; the upper soil was pumice- 

 stone gravel, and was covered with stunted fern and 

 lichens; here and there was a moor-ground with 

 rushes ; there were also swamps and numerous rivu- 

 lets, near which the vegetation had a fresher aspect. 

 After sunset I arrived at a range of hills covered 

 with wood, and presenting sometimes a cliffy, some- 

 times a sloping aspect to the eastward. Here was a 

 small pa, the ascent to which was steep and rocky, 

 and which had been chosen by a tribe of the Taupo 

 people as a place of security against the inroads of 

 the Nga-te-Kahohunu from the east coast. It is 

 called Tutaka-moana. In the "evening our killing a 

 pig and cooking it on a Sunday was the subject of a 

 lively controversy between our companions and the 

 natives of the pa. Titipa, although not yet a Chris- 

 tian, was well read in his Bible, and proved to them 

 that there was no commandment to refuse a hungry 

 wanderer food on a Sunday. 



