July, 1850. GRANITE BLOCKS. KOLLONG ROCK. 293 



the steep north exposure of the hill ; many good plants 

 grow in it, including some gigantic Balanophorce, Pt/rola, 

 and Monotropa. The bungalow stands on soft, contorted, 

 decomposing gneiss, which is still the prevalent rock, 

 striking north-east. On the hills to the east of it, enormous 

 hard blocks lie fully exposed, and are piled on one another, 

 as if so disposed by glacial action ; and it is difficult to 

 account for them by denudation, though their surface 

 scales, and similar blocks are scattered around My rung 

 exactly similar to the syenite blocks of Nunklow, and the 

 granite ones of Nonkreem, to be described hereafter, and 

 which are undoubtedly due to the process of weathering. 

 A great mass of flesh-coloured crystalline granite rises in 

 the centre of the valley, to the east of the road : it is 

 fissured in various directions, and the surface scales 

 concentrically ; it is obscurely stratified in some parts, 

 and appears to be half granite and half gneiss in mineralo- 

 gical character. 



We twice visited a very remarkable hill, called Kollong, 

 which rises as a dome of granite 5,400 feet high, ten or 

 twelve miles south-west of Myrung, and conspicuous from 

 all directions. The path to it turns off from that to Nunklow, 

 and strikes westerly along the shallow valley of Monai, in 

 which is a village, and much rice and other cultivation. 

 Near this there is a large square stockade, formed of tall 

 bamboos placed close together, very like a New Zealand 

 " Pa ; " indeed, the whole country hereabouts much recals 

 the grassy clay hills, marshy valleys, and bushy ridges of 

 the Bay of Islands. 



The hills on either side are sometimes dotted with pine- 

 woods, sometimes conical and bare, with small clumps of 

 pines on the summit only ; while in other places are broad 

 tracts containing nothing but young trees, resembling 



