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Wellington, together with the large stream, which flowed in a 
southwesterly direction as far as Onehunga, shows a surface as 
yet uncorroded by the action of the atmosphere or water. The 
lava presents a barren stone-field of black blocks of rock, between 
which only a few bushes have succeeded in taking root. The dif- 
ference between the older and newer lava is very clearly shown 
upon the Great South Road. About one mile East of the “Harp 
Inn,” the traveller will observe a sudden change in the colour of 
the road, which is most distinctly noticed after a rain. The red 
colour (from oxide of iron) changes suddenly to black, where the 
road leaves the older and more decomposed lava-streams of One 
Tree Hill and passes on to the new and undecomposed lava-stream 
of Mount Wellington. 
Inferences thus drawn already from the state of decompo- 
sition of the lava-streams, are moreover proven by observations 
on the remarkable crater-system of Mount Wellington (Maunga 
Rei of the natives), which I needs must make special mention 
of, as being one of the most instructive points on this subject. 
Here the careful observer has ample opportunity of studying a 
whole system of craters and cones of different ages and different 
composition. The oldest member is a large tuff-crater intersected 
by the Panmure Road , and exhibiting most beautifully , in the 
northern cut of the road , the characteristic outward dip of its 
strata. In this tuff-crater arises a double cone 1 of cinder with 
two craters. The Northeast-side of this cone is now cut into by 
a quarry. Its old lava-streams are to be seen very much decom- 
posed at the bottom of the tuff-crater. After a comparatively long 
period of quiescence, from the southern margin of the tuff-crater 
by new eruptions the large and very regular cinder-cone of Mount 
Wellington arose, from whose three craters large streams of ba- 
saltic lava flowed out in a westerly direction, extending North and 
South along the existing valleys of the country, one stream flowing 
1 I have denominated it as Purchas Hill in honour of my friend, Rev. Mr. Pur- 
chas, who assisted me in the exploration. 
