380 WAIKATO RIVER. [PART II. 



is called a travelling potato- ground, serving as it 

 were in the place of an inn. We again diminished 

 our loads, and, amongst other curiosities, a wooden 

 carved head of the old chief Waikato, made hy him- 

 self, and which I had carried during many weeks, 

 here found, to my great sorrow, a resting-place. 

 We had to go back to the banks of the Waikato, 

 and follow its right shore for several hours. The 

 country was flat, although intersected by gorges and 

 ravines. The Waikato had a very deep bed, and 

 its banks showed cliffs of pumicestone. Although 

 the river was deep and rapid, yet nothing could be 

 more apparent than that it had had no part in the 

 formation of the valley. How considerable must 

 have been the volcanic eruption that covered this 

 immense district with pumicestone or lapilli, which 

 show, where they are exposed in sections, a uniform 

 character throughout, and seem not to be the work 

 of any subsequent eruptions ! From the slight de- 

 gree of decomposition which had taken place in 

 these lapilli, I should imagine that they must have 

 been ejected at a comparatively recent date in the 

 earth's history. We passed several hot-springs, 

 from which clouds of steam arose, and many solfa- 

 taras, which were small hillocks of the purest sul- 

 phur covered with a black crust. We halted at 

 night near a rapid creek, a tributary of the Wai- 

 kato. The land was perfectly level, but preserved 

 its barren character. A large swamp separated us 

 from another group of powerful springs, which, as 



