263 
California and Canada. The saw-mills in Huia Bay on the Manu- 
kau-side, and Henderson’s Mill on the Waitemata-side are the 
principal establishments of this kind for the preparation of boards 
and all kinds of timber in the vicinity of Auckland. We paid a 
visit to one of the saw-mills, which is constructed and managed 
in the best manner possible; thence we followed a tramroad leading 
about three miles into the woods to the point , whence the wood- 
cutters were engaged in rolling the powerful Kauri logs down-hill 
upon the road; and by 11 o’clock we were back again on our 
camping ground. 
From Captain Wing’s house on the North-side of the entrance 
to the harbour, — which was to be our stopping-place for to-day, 
— - we were distant only four or five miles, and Ave could easily 
reach it by water in course of an hour. We determined, however, 
on taking the more interesting route by land across the mountains. 
But we did not arrive at our destination until after a very trying 
march of five hours ; nevertheless Ave AA»ere amply repaid for our 
hardships by the grandest and most imposing display of natural 
scenery, which on the Avay avus were everywhere presented to our 
view. The passage Ave had chosen A\ r as a Maori path but rarely 
trodden, leading through the deepest ravines, and over the highest, 
steepest rocks, and which cannot be found without a very expert 
2'uido: for one would almost need the instinct of a wild beast to 
perceive in those Avild haunts a track, which others have trodden 
before. Already from the heights near Onehunga I had observed, 
in the direction of the Manukau heads, several peaks of sugar-loaf 
shape, designated upon the maps as Omanawanui and Pukehuhu, 
and had been curious to know, of what kind of rock those singular 
peaks might be composed. To-day I had ample opportunity 
to convince myself with hands and feet, that they a re very hard, 
pointed masses of volcanic conglomerate, like those upon the penin- 
sula of Puponga, shooting up as it were in taper-pointed masses; 
for it was over the topmost points of those very cones of rock, 
that we had to climb before arriving at Captain Wing’s house, 
which is built high above the foaming sea upon a ledge of rocks 
