CHAP. XXIV.] PUMICESTONE CLIFFS. 359 



docks. Its shores are less hilly than those of the 

 Wanganui, and are partly open fern or flax land, 

 and partly wooded. 



The Rangatiki is a smaller river, also coming 

 from the Tongariro, and falling into Cook's Straits. 

 In Cook's Straits, and at the mouth of the Waikato, 

 I observed a great quantity of pumicestone : all this 

 is carried down from the Tongariro by the rivers 

 Wanganui and Waikato ; and it is not improbable 

 that considerable quantities of it are borne by the 

 currents to the shores of New South Wales, where 

 I found it, especially in Newcastle, at the mouth of 

 the Hunter's river. The eastern and the southern 

 shores of the Taupo lake consist of high pumice- 

 stone cliffs, which are continually undermined, 

 broken down, and carried away by the current of 

 the Waikato. 



The natives of Rotu-Aire are a division of the 

 Taupo tribes, and amount to several hundreds. 

 With the exception that they would not allow us 

 to ascend their mountain and to grant the per- 

 mission was, perhaps, really out of their power 

 during the absence of their chief they were very 

 friendly to us, and appeared to be in a very primitive 

 state, which, however, was not, in my opinion, at all 

 to their disadvantage. 



On the 21st of May we returned to Taupo, driv- 

 ing before us two pigs, a present from our kind 

 hosts. Our road led us along the base of the 

 Pihanga, and I gained with difficulty the precipitous 



