OF NEW ZEALAND. 359 



mainly included in a pleasure trip up the Waikatu river in a steamer. 

 The whole valley of the Waikatu is of the most luxuriant descrip- 

 tion, abounding in excellent pasture lands ; admirably adapted for 

 grazing, and holding out many inducements to the agricultural 

 settler. 



As I have before mentioned, some eighteen or twenty volcanic 

 cones or craters of eruption may be counted within a few miles of 

 Auckland. Taking Mount Eden as an example ; it is about S00 feet 

 high, with a crater 300 feet deep and from 400 to 500 feet wide. The 

 upper part consists of very light ashes, its lip is very uneven, while 

 hillocks of ashes may be seen at different points around it. The 

 unevenness of the lip of the crater would seem to be caused bj the 

 influence of the wind, the deposits occurring on the points towards 

 which the wind generally blows. In some instances it would appear 

 to depend on the sudden cooling and falling in of the lava current, as 

 I find that the depression of the lip is often immediately over the 

 direction which the lava took when it forced its way through the sides 

 of the crater. 



Judging solely by their external appearance, some of these cones 

 appear to be only mounds of volcanic ashes, being flat or nearly so on 

 the surface, but as they are distant from any other rent, and surround- 

 ed by lava and other indications of volcanic action, their true origin 

 cannot be doubted. In some cases the craters are filled with water, 

 forming beautiful little lakes. 



I find that the lava currents of Mount Eden have taken for the 

 most part a N. E. or 1ST. W. direction ; when they forced their way 

 through the ashes they ran down the sides and spread themselves 

 over the country, leaving at these spots a marked depression of the 

 crater lip. I think I can distinguish several distinct layers of lava, 

 and one has evidently preceded the other by a considerable period ; 

 thus the hard stony matter may be observed to have exuded in a 

 certain direction, ending in some instances in a rounded surface, in 

 a manner that— to use a homely simile — reminds one of hasty pud- 

 ding which has almost ceased to run ; a surface that has begun to cool 

 and solidify, but is yet pushed forward by the fluid beneath. The 

 more general appearance of the lava currents, however, is a surface 

 broken up, cracked and split in all directions, the leaves are extreme- 

 uneven, and we find rugged surfaces of rock piled on each other in 

 extreme confusion. The lavas about Mount Eden are of a blueish 

 gray colour like trap, as will be observed in a specimen which I 

 have sent. At the extremity of the lava current there is generally 



