418 PIAKO TO WAIHEKE. [PART II. 



were grown over with brushwood, and the lower 

 we descended the more we found the land on both 

 sides overflowed, so that we actually sailed over 

 what is in summer a swamp of raupo and flax. The 

 tops of both plants reached above the surface of the 

 water. As the weather again became squally, our 

 natives did not venture to leave the river, and we 

 pitched our tents on some elevated ground, but were 

 surrounded on all sides by the low swampy delta, 

 intersected by deep arms of the river, in which the 

 water was black. We started, however, early the 

 next morning, with the ebb-tide, and in the after- 

 noon reached in safety the mission-station at Puriri, 

 on the right shore of the Waiho, and near its mouth. 

 On the following day we started up the gulf, but 

 could not reach Auckland, as a gale of wind com- 

 pelled us to take refuge in Waiheke, the largest and 

 most fertile island in the Gulf of Hauraki. It con- 

 sists mostly of trap formation, and is for the greater 

 part wooded. 



