327 
high and consist of grayish-brown shale, the steep-rising strata 
of which alternate with hard calcareous banks. Upon the mud- 
bank at the foot of this cliff numerous belemnite-fragments are 
scattered about, and after a short search among the banks com- 
plete specimens are also found. It is the same species as on the 
Waikato, Belem. Aucklandicus , only a smaller variety of it. To 
the Maoris of the neighbourhood those belemnites were well known; 
they told me, that their children gather the sharp stones to 
play with them; they called them Rokekanae, excrements 
of the fish Kanae (Mugil For uteri ^ mullet), which they 
thought was in the habit of leaping out of the water and 
leaving those stones behind on the shore. 
At the missionary station close by we found Mr. 
Schnackenberg , a German countryman, a native of Han- 
over, w r ho was sincerely delighted at our unexpected visit, 
but who, we found, had utterly forgotten his mother 
tongue. In the garden I saw lemon-trees bearing beautiful 
fruits. While we were amusing ourselves with discussing 
the past and future of Hew Zealand, the chief Te Nui- Belemnites 
tone (Newton) arrived in a war-canoe, a genuine old Auckland^ 
warrior, of the number of Toas (heroes). He had just va ri e tyfrom 
returned from a journey lie had made to Taranaki for Kawhia 
. . .. Harbour, 
the noble purpose of bringing about , if possible, a peace 
between two tribes of that country who had been waging war against 
each other for several years past; and was in a very depressed -state 
of mind. He expressed it as his opinion , that affairs in Taranaki 
were growing worse and worse , and peace was entirely out of 
question; on the contrary, he apprehended, that the English Go- 
vernment would join one party to make war upon the other. 1 
March 26 th 1 sailed to the Rakaunui River. 1 While the whole 
Southshore of Kawliia Harbour consists of shales containing am- 
monites and belemnites; on the northern bank of the Waiharakekc, 
the same light clay -marl with strata of limestone-banks , that pre- 
1 This war broke out in 1860. 
2 Rakaunui, equivalent to big bush. 
