﻿130 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



limestone formation, containing large caves. A person wLiO resided near the 

 nioiitli of this stream for several years, and who has since been for many years 

 engaged on the g'oldfields in Victoiia and in the Middle Island, expresses a 

 very strong conviction that gold will be found in its neighbourhood, but 

 hitherto there has been no means of testing the accuracy of his opinion, a 

 party, who went up for the purpose, having been turned back by the natives. 

 South of the Manganui-a-te-ao, an extremely rich level bush country extends 

 along the western skirts of Tongariro and E,uapehu, for a distance of about 

 twenty-five miles in a southerly direction, and about ten or twelve miles from 

 east to west. The timber is very fine, and the streams which run through 

 the bush flow in channels only a few feet deep. These streams are mostly 

 tributaries of the Manga-ai-turoa and Mangawhero, the former of which rises 

 in or near the pumice plains I have mentioned, and flows southwards parallel 

 to, and about seven or eight miles to the eastward of the Wanganui River, 

 Its valley, which is of great depth, is, so far as I have seen, cut into the 

 marine tertiary formations. It contains apparently no gravel, but for some 

 distance, near where the new Ranana road crosses it, the stream, which is 

 here more than a chain wide and about ankle deep, flows over a bed of what 

 seems to be soft sti'atified limestone, over the ledges of which it forms falls 

 varying from a few inches to more than twenty feet in height. ' There is some 

 swampy level bush land in the valley, but behind this the hills rise abruptly 

 to a height of nearly or quite 1,000 feet. The Mangawhero rises on the 

 western slope of Ruapehu, and after passing in a south-west direction across 

 the level bush country it turns southward along its western edge, and continues 

 in this direction till it is joined by the Manga-ai-turoa, about thirty miles 

 from its source. A little above the junction, at the Ranana road ford, it is 

 about 100 feet wide, and rather more than knee deep ; and here, and indeed 

 throughout nearly its whole course, it flows over a bottom of coai-se shingle 

 intermixed with huge boulders. Its valley, which is as deep as that of the 

 Manga-ai-turoa, is cut out of a similar foi'mation, but I have seen no trace of 

 anything resembling limestone. From the junction of the streams, however, 

 the Mangawhero flows south-easterly for ten or twelve miles to Te Anu, and 

 at about two miles below the junction it descends in two falls a height, 

 according to the natives, of fully 150 feet. Such falls must be over some 

 hard rock ; and as the natives describe it as white stone it may be the same 

 material as that over which the Manga-ai-turoa falls. I have not been able to 

 visit these falls, and think it likely the Maoris have exaggerated their height, 

 but from the fact that at a distance of five miles, through level heavy bush, 

 the roar is as loud as that of the sea at the same distance on a rough day, 

 they miist be worth seeing. At Te Anu the Mangawhero again turns south- 

 wards, and continues generally in that direction to its junction with the 



