POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
27 
foliage, through which the sun’s rays seldom penetrated. 
There were no trodden paths, and the wild and dreary 
solitude of the place was only broken by the voice of 
some lonely bird, which chirped among the branches of 
the bushes, or, startled by our intrusion on its retire¬ 
ment, darted across our path. A sensation of solemnity 
and awe involuntarily arose in the mind, while con¬ 
templating a scene of such peculiar character, so unlike 
the ordinary haunts of man, and so adapted, from the 
silent grandeur of his works, to elevate the soul with 
the sublimest conceptions of the Almighty. I was 
remarkably struck with the gigantic size of many of the 
trees, some of which appeared to rise nearly one hundred 
feet, without a branch, while two men with extended 
arms could not clasp their trunks. About three in 
the afternoon we left Waikadie, but the darkness of 
night veiled every object from our view, long before we 
reached our vessel. 
Near the settlement at Rangehoo, a small field had 
been tilled by the Missionaries, in the European manner. 
I visited it in company with Mr. King, and was pleased to 
see one of the first crops of wheat that had ever grown, 
under European culture, in New Zealand, looking green 
and flourishing. Two years before this, Duatere and 
’Honghi had received wheat from Mr. Marsden, which they 
had carefully sown, and which had arrived at perfection. 
The introduction of the European methods of culture, 
and subsequent processes of converting it into bread, may 
naturally be expected to encourage the natives to facili¬ 
tate its more extensive growth. In several parts of the 
low-lands the native flax-plant,joAormmm tenax^ was grow¬ 
ing remarkably strong. It is by no means like the flax 
or hemp plants of England, but resembles, in its appear- 
