CHAP. XXVIII.] RIVER THAMES. 413 



working together in a large piece of land containing 

 about three acres, which they had fenced round, 

 and in which they were about to sow wheat. 



We started on the 26th in the direction of the 

 Gulf of Hauraki, for the purpose of reaching the 

 Piako river, which flows through the same valley, 

 or, to speak more correctly, through the same low 

 table-land, as the Waiho, or Thames. This table- 

 land is between twenty and thirty miles broad, and 

 is bounded to the eastward by the basaltic coast-hills 

 already mentioned, which are called the Aroha 

 (Love) Mountains, and do not exceed 1500 feet in 

 height, and to the northward extend in an uninter- 

 rupted chain to Cape Colville. To the southward 

 the valley continues to the neighbourhood of Rotu- 

 rua, and the coast-hills are there connected with 

 the Horo-Horo Mountains, in which the river 

 Thames has its source. Throughout their extent 

 these mountains are abruptly separated from the 

 plain, and, in fact, bound it like an artificial wall. 

 To the westward the valley of the Thames, or rather 

 that part of the interior table-land which we call 

 by that name, is connected with the table-land or 

 valley of the Waipa and Waikato, and is bounded 

 by the basaltic coast-range near the western coast. 

 There is, however, a separation caused by the 

 Maunga-Tautari Hills. The lower part of the 

 valley of the Thames is separated from the Waikato 

 by hills which run toward the Gulf of Hauraki, 

 Near the eastern slope of these hills flows the 



