STEAMER AND LAUNCH TO HOORIE CREEK. 153 



all work and departing when he so desires. What can 

 he — the creature of Nature — know of all this puzzling 

 civilization ? 



At noon on March 6th we embarked on the three days' 

 tent-boat journey from Morawhanna to Hoorie Mine. A 

 thirty-foot launch was the motor power and alongside this 

 the big tent-boat was lashed, while several Indians hitched 

 their wood-skins behind as boys hitch sleds to a passing 

 sleigh. 



The baggage was stored fore and aft and, perched on a pile 

 in the bow, we prepared for our first real day of observation 

 along the rivers of the Northwest. We retraced our way 

 northward through Mora Passage, frightening as we went, 

 a flock of seven Scarlet Ibises." They kept close together 

 and were evidently a single family, as two were in fully 

 adult plumage, while the others were only three quarters 

 grown, and feathered wholly in brown and white. 



About three o'clock in the afternoon we reached the Waini 

 River, but instead of turning toward the mouth and the 

 open ocean which we could see to the northwest, we steered 

 eastward up stream. Although the outlet of several large 

 rivers, the Waini, in its lower reaches, is little more than a 

 great salt water tidal inlet, or cano. 



At Mora Passage the Waini is about two miles wide and 

 through the choppy waters of the falling tide we steered 

 straight across to the north shore. Between the waters of 

 this river and the ocean extends a long narrow strip of marshy 

 mangrove, for at least forty miles. Both the White and the 

 Red Mangrove are found here, the latter predominating, and 

 this is the breeding sanctuary of the hosts of birds which haunt 

 the mud-flats at low tide and fill the trees with a gorgeous 

 display of color when the feeding grounds are covered at 

 high tide. 



