found the Pali which is encompassed by a row of palisades, 
entirely deserted, nor was a single soul to be seen in the huts 
outside of the enclosure. All the inhabitants had moved into the 
country during the summer; they were scattered about in the smaller 
settlements in the vicinity, where they have their lands and fields, 
and are said to congregate here only on Sundays to attend church. 
It is not until after all the crops have been gathered, that they 
assemble again in the Pah for the winter. The church we found 
few paces to the rear of the Pah , und I was quite surprised at 
the sight of the neatly constructed and clean house, in which every 
Sunday a congregation of Maori Christians assemble together for 
worship, a native preaching the sermon. A few hundred paces 
farther ? rises the Rangiriri hill , an elevation only about 100 feet 
above the Waikato, from which a magnificent view all around is 
opened of a large portion of the lower Waikato Basin. 
This was to me quite a welcome point for planting my azi- 
muth-compass and commencing magnetic hearings which, continued 
on my onward journey, yielded me a triangulation, forming the 
basis for the construction of the topographical map of the southern 
portion of the Province Auckland, such as is found annexed to 
this work. To a great distance the fertile river- valley is seen with 
its changes of plains and hills, of woods and fern-heaths , encom- 
passed round-about by nearer and remoter heights, with a view, 
in front, of the broad surface of Lake Waikare, on the East-shore 
of which steep hills with numerous patches of bare ground arise, 
while above them , at a still greater distance , dark wood-clad ridges 
are seen. In the middle of the Lake Waikare a saline mineral 
spring is said to rise , bubbling up sometimes to the height of three 
or four feet. 1 To the South , the Taupiri range with the conical 
Pukemore closes the horizon; and towards the South-west above 
the spurs of the Hakarimata range the trychyte-stock of Pirongia 
with its many peaks is looming up in the distance. The broad 
belt of the Waikato can be traced southward as far as the point, 
1 Perhaps the lake lias received its name from it, Waikare meaning bubbling 
