248 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VIII. 
the sand-hills to the l)each about two miles beyond the 
river's mouth. Ehina, the native who had tried to 
get too much payment for his mat, applied for an en- 
gagement in my suite; and, although I was warned 
by the significant looks of E Kuru and E Puke, who 
still remained with me, not to have anything to do 
with him, I at length gave way to his earnest entrea- 
ties, and assigned him a load. 
Wq walked for about fourteen miles along a hard 
sandy beach, at the foot of cliffs varying in height from 
one to two hundred feet, broken in two or three places 
by the gullies through which streams descend from the 
table-land on the top. The lowest stratum of these 
cliffs was generally a blue clay, studded with shells, all 
of modern sorts. After comparing it with the pieces 
of stone which I had picked up at fVangaihu, I con- 
cluded that they had been detached from this stratum 
and hardened by exposure to air or water. Half-way 
up the cliffs, I frequently observed layers of sound trees 
of large size lying in a horizontal position, and some- 
times protruding into the air where a land-slip had 
carried away some of the surrounding soil. Higher 
still, strata of lignite, which occasionally dipped down 
below the beach, were also to be distinguished. The 
natives tried to account for the trees by saying that 
that had formerly been forest-land, and that the in- 
habitants of bygone days had cleared it for potatoes. 
They were puzzled, however, to account for the super- 
incumbent hundred feet of soil ; and so, I confess, 
was I. 
Coming to a point, where the sea dashed against the 
cliff, we ascended a beaten path in one of the natural 
breaks, and got on to the top. Plains of barren sand, 
only varied by occasional hummocks and stunted shrubs> 
extended four or five miles into the interior. Groves 
