AUCKLAND—EOTOEUA 
449 
and accomplished curator, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., to whom we 
are much indebted. 
We made a special expedition to Shoals Bay on the side of the 
harbour opposite the city in search of Amphibola crenata, Martin, an 
air-breathing operculate Gasteropod which lives in brackish water 
half-buried in the mud. This is a remarkable animal in that having 
a pulmonary chamber and no gills it would appear to be in a 
transitional state from a water-dweller to a land-dweller. We found 
it in considerable abundance in the mud in a Mangrove swamp not 
far above low-water mark. In the same place we picked up a few 
dead spires of Turritella rosea , Quoy. 
At Ngaruawahia, about halfway between Auckland and 
Eotorua, on February 8th, a pretty and very distinct Noctuid flew 
into the train. This turned out to be new to science, and has been 
described by Sir George F. Hampson under the name of *Morrisonia 
chlorodonta, sp. nov. 1 [See Plate VI., Fig. 2.\ 
On the higher land we saw from the train something of the 
peculiar vegetation of New Zealand, the so-called Cabbage-tree, 
Cordyline australis , Hook. ; the Bulrush, Typha angustifolia , Linn., 
and vast extents of Manuka, now somewhat sombre, but beautiful 
when in flower. 
Eotorua (Ohinemutu), North Island, lat. 38° 5' S. 
February 9th—16th, 1910. 
I must admit to a strong feeling of disappointment in the Hot 
Lakes. How far this is due to having heard too much about them, 
and therefore expecting too much; how far to the destruction 
wrought by the great eruption of Tarawera in 1886; how far to the 
fact that I lacked time and energy to see some of the more in¬ 
accessible sights, I know not, but the impression remains. Volcanic 
phenomena are not in their nature beautiful, but the reverse. Inter¬ 
fering with, or even putting a stop to, vegetable and animal life, they 
disfigure the landscape with blains and scars. The interest in such 
phenomena is scientific, not aesthetic. 
We stayed at Whakarewarewa, 2 about two miles south of the 
railway station and in the very midst of the hot springs and geysers. 
Most persons dislike the sulphurous atmosphere, but to the writer it 
1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8), viii., pp. 423, 424 (1911). 
2 It will surprise no one to be told that this formidable Maori name is usually 
abbreviated to Whaka. Where in this part of my narrative no locality is mentioned, 
the sesquipedalian name is to be assumed, 
2 Q 
