336 LAKE TAUPO. [PART II. 



occasion to travel amongst savages, who, by the bye, 

 are in this respect often our superiors. 



At the end of two days we started in a canoe, 

 which was very large, but was quite full of men, 

 women, children, dogs, and pigs. We now perceived 

 that the natives had been right, as the waves of 

 the Take still rose high even from the moderate 

 winds which we had had the last two days, and the 

 canoe was very deep in the water. If we had been 

 upset we should not have had much chance of saving 

 ourselves by swimming, as the western shore consists 

 of high cliffs of a trachytic rock, which are washed 

 by the deep water. We landed, and encamped for 

 the night at a small bay where there is a native 

 settlement. Behind this bay the hills are very 

 steep, and about 1600 feet high, and rise to a very 

 narrow crest at the top : they form an amphi- 

 theatre round the bay. The side toward the lake 

 was formerly wooded, and is so still in many patches, 

 although it is so steep that I found it difficult to 

 ascend ; yet the natives, nevertheless, grow their 

 vegetables in places where the wood has been de- 

 stroyed by fire, and the extremely fertile soil brings 

 their crops to great perfection. 



From this point we continued our voyage to Te- 

 Rapa, a native village at the south-west end of the 

 lake. This was the place where the relations of 

 our excellent guide, Titipa, lived, and where we 

 were to stop for some time. The principal chief, 

 Te-Heu-Heu, and many of his followers, were absent 



