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The district is divided by the Waitemata into two parts, the well known 

 Isthmus of Auckland, compiising the City of Auckland, with the towns of 

 Onehunga and Panmiare, and Takapuna, or the North Shore, which includes 

 the site of the pretty town of Devonport. 



The Isthmus of Auckland comprises an area of about 30,000 acres, its 

 extreme length being about eleven miles, from the Whau Creek to the Tamaki, 

 and its extreme width rather more than six miles. On the north, east, and 

 west, it is bounded by the Waitemata, the Tamaki Creek, and "Whau Creek, 

 •with the exception of a portage, less than two miles in length, from the Whau 

 Creek to Motu Karaka on the Manukau ; and the still shorter portage 

 between Halswell's Creek on the Tamaki, and Fairburn's Creek on the 

 Manukau. On the west, it is bounded by the Manukau from Motu Karaka 

 to Fairburn's Creek, a distance of ten miles, not making allowance for the 

 indentations of the shore. Thus, with the exception of about three miles, it is 

 bounded by water. 



The Takapuna District comprises that part of the North Shore extending 

 from the North Head of the Waitemata to Lucas' Creek, and from the head of 

 Lucas' Creek to Omangia Bay on the outer coast. It is roughly triangular in 

 shape, and, with the exception of less than six miles from the head of the 

 creek to Omangia Bay, is bounded by the sea. Its area is about 13,000 acres. 



The entire area thus comprises about 43,000 acres, no part of which is 

 more than eight miles in a direct line from Queen-street wharf. 



Both districts belong to the tertiary formation, and ai'e composed of stiff 

 clays, marls, and sandstones. On the Isthmus this has been joierced by 

 numei'ous volcanoes, the lava streams and ashes from which cover fully 

 two-fifths of its area, affording a soil of gTeat fertility. Amongst the lava 

 streams are considerable depressions, which, from the drainage becoming 

 obsti'ucted, form extensive swamps, in some cases dried up during the summer. 

 The hills are volcanic cones, of low elevation, the highest being Mount Eden, 

 which is only 642 feet above the sea level. In the Takapuna District volcanic 

 action has been confined to the North Head, Mount Victoria, the western 

 shore of Shoal Bay. The Pupuke Lake fills the bed of a crater about 

 two-thirds of a mile in diameter, and has a depth of twenty-eight fathoms. 

 The highest point is Mount Victoria, which is under 300 feet. 



Nearly the whole of the Isthmus has been brought imder cultivation,* 

 although here and there patches of clay land, or unusually rough portions of a 

 lava stream, yield merely a sparse return of native grasses, with a large number 

 of introduced plants ; these are, however, rapidly decreasing, and from the 

 almost entire destruction of the clumps of bush that formerly clothed the 

 gullies, and the scrub that concealed the ruggedness of the scoria, indigenous 



* The population of the Isthmus is about 23,000. 



