402 MISSION-STATION. [PART II. 



nearest the coast, we passed several swampy valleys 

 of small extent, formed by the ramifications of the 

 hills ; and at last we followed the narrow crest of 

 one of these ramifications down to the plain. The 

 vegetation everywhere indicated the richest soil, 

 and the most prominent plants were fern, flax, and 

 veronica. Towards sunset, after a very fatiguing 

 journey, we approached the homely-looking build- 

 ings of the Church mission-station, surrounded 

 with gardens, and a planted shrubbery of acacias, 

 ricinus, and peaches, which was almost the only 

 vegetation in the shape of trees which we saw, as 

 for several miles around the station there is no 

 wood. Captain Symonds was welcomed to the 

 house of the Rev. Mr. Brown, and I was kindly 

 received into the family of Mr. Stack, a very active 

 and unassuming missionary, to whom my best thanks 

 are due for the hospitality I received at his hands 

 for nearly a week. 



I at first supposed that those singularly-formed 

 mountain-ridges which are observed in Queen 

 Charlotte's Sound, consisting of clay-slate and oc- 

 casional dykes and interruptions of Lydian stone 

 and basalts, might continue throughout the island, 

 and thus diminish in a great measure the chances 

 which a colony would have of success, as, from their 

 steepness and from their everywhere forming narrow 

 ravines, and small bays near the coast, they promise 

 little reward to the labours of a European agri- 

 culturist ; but, having passed from the western to 



