A TRIP TO, LAKE AAUROTO. 123 
the trees were loaded with great bunches of scarlet-flowered 
mistletoe (Loranthus colensot), which was replaced on the shores 
of the lake by the yellow-flowered ZL. flavidus. 
Our long day’s journey enabled us to enjoy the night’s rest, 
though serenaded by a few more-porks and kiwis.. The cry of 
the latter is an “eerie” sound when first heard, though not 
nearly so alarming as the ghostly cry of the kakapo. 
The portion of the lake reached by this track is a beautiful 
little bay, nearly semi-circular in form, and fringed with beaches 
of white sand, and this opens out to an almost circular larger 
bay, about two miles in diameter. The view from the boat hut 
is more beautiful than grand, the surrounding hills being of 
moderate height and of soft, rounded outlines, while the rugged 
mountain masses to the westward are toned down by distance, 
and the gentle undulations of their foreground. Altogether it is 
a charming spot, sheltered from the gales which almost daily 
lash the main lake into foam, and will most probably be the site 
of a prettily situated village or town, when population becomes 
denser. The water is comparatively shallow, and apparently 
well fitted to support trout or salmon in large numbers. We 
might have enjoyed the beauties of this spot had all our zsthetic 
faculties not been utterly blinded by sand-flies. We were all 
experienced—or thought we were—in the ways of these little 
demons; but their numbers, the virulence of their bites, and 
their unceasing devotion to us, made life almost unbearable. 
What do sand-flies and mosquitoes live on when they have no 
unfortunate people to bite? And how do they know to attack 
the “human form divine”? The latter question is worth the 
consideration of the evolutionist. 
Our first work on reaching the lake was the getting of the 
boat into something like condition to carry us. 
This took us nearly two days, as every rivet had to be ham- 
mered up, and all the seams caulked, before she would float. 
This accomplished, we started early on the fifth morning of our 
trip, and pulled out of the bay into the main lake. This bay is 
almost shut off from the rest of the lake by an island, which so 
nearly approaches the main shore on its northern side, as to 
leave a narrow passage not more than 20 yards wide. On pass- 
ing through this,a wild and beautiful bit of lake scenery bursts 
on the view. Along the margin of the lake the mountains rise 
precipitously to between 4000 and 5000 feet, and so scaured and 
steep are their sides, that one wonders how the bush manages to 
exist. There are no gentle slopes, nor shelving bays ; no rivers; 
but for more than two thousand feet above the water, only dark 
bush, with an occasional rocky face protruding. Above the 
sombre green, a perfect chaos of rocky peaks, some of them bare, 
some flecked with snow, rise in every direction, and numerous 
streams, fed from their lonely heights, plunge down their sides, 
forming cascades which fall thundering down into the deep 
waters below. The whole upper arm of the lake is of this wildly 
picturesque character, and, like the West Coast fiords, seems 
