404 TAURANGA. [PART II. 



live at the other side of the harhour. Some time 

 before my arrival eleven natives had heen seized 

 and slaughtered ; and these mutual depredations 

 have now been carried on for several years to such 

 a degree that the natives of Tauranga were unable 

 to plant sufficient ground to supply them with food, 

 having been besieged and shut up in their fortified 

 places : the fertile district in which they live has 

 therefore been of no use to them. The northern 

 head of Tauranga spreads out into low and level 

 land ; and some islands of considerable dimensions, 

 and of the same structure and configuration as the 

 mainland, are separated from it by broad channels 

 of the sea. Although at present the principal 

 anchorage for vessels is in the inner harbour, not 

 far from the mission-station, I am inclined to think 

 that the islands just mentioned might offer safe 

 places for anchoring, even for larger vessels. 



The remarkable phenomenon of these large 

 portions of land being separated from the main 

 shows that great changes have taken place in 

 the geological condition of this coast, which 

 has wasted away, and been separated either by 

 the inroads of the sea or by volcanic agency. 

 The coast at Tauranga and on those islands is from 

 forty to eighty feet above the level of the sea, and 

 in the cliffs thus formed we find that the geological 

 formation is a yellow loam, surmounted in many 

 places by beds of peat, containing a great quantity 

 of undecayed wood, and averaging between four and 



