DESCRIPTIVE KARRATIVE OE JOURNEY. 
11 
which I ascended as a topographical station, and from which I 
had an excellent view of the valley, towards the north. Here a 
splendid mountain rose about 5,000 feet high, with three distinct 
peaks, surrounded wholly by lower hills ; and it appeared clear to 
me that I could not make a better selection than this mountain 
presented, for the purpose of a topographical station, Xiom the 
bearings taken here, it was evident that it lay at the south¬ 
western side, near the junction of the Roto-iti and Rotoioa, 
which together form the Ivaiwatiri, or Euller river. X deter¬ 
mined to return up from the Tutaki to this spot, in order to 
ascend it, naming it after the great English geologist, Sir Roderick 
Murchison. We followed the river down, passing over some very 
scrubby and swampy ground; after which we reached a large 
grassy plain, in which three rivers united. Ilere we camped, in 
order to give me time for my observations. The weather was 
very fine, and we doubly enjoyed the warm sunbeams, after having 
for some days travelled in dense forest. 
The next morning we started down the Tutaki, which now 
appeared a very pretty river, and after a walk of two miles across 
grassy terraces, we again entered the forest, but finding that 
walking was easier and far better in the river-bed, ye again took 
to the water, and only at those places where the river entered a 
rocky gorge, or formed falls (some of which were of the most 
romantic character), did we again use the banks. The terraces 
continue here also, and contain much level and good land, in some 
places from half-a-mile to a mile broad, and which, when a road is 
formed through the district, will be valuable for settlement. Our 
provisions here began to fail, but catching some eels and whies 
(blue ducks), they made' a good addition to our scanty com¬ 
missariat. At noon we arrived at a very beautiful waterfall, 
shaped like a horse-shoe, ten or twelve feet high, and called bj/ 
the natives Temai, falling over tertiary rocks. 
Since we had entered the Tiraumea plains, the formation ol the 
country had entirely changed, and instead of granitic, hornblendic^ 
and eruptive rocks, with metamorphic schists, it was composed of 
tertiary fossiliferous sandstones, clay marls, and conglomerates. 
The country, which had been rather hilly for the last mile, opened^ 
again, and flat land on both sides of the river appeared, covered of 
course with dense vegetation. The river, too, deepened a good deal, 
and we had again to take to the bush, and camped, after a walk 
of another mile, on its banks. I had noticed during the preceding 
day that the vegetation began to change; totara, kahi-katea, and 
other trees were intermixed with the tawai (black birch), which 
had till then been the reigning forest tree. . 
Tuesday, January 31st, brought us, at noon, to the junction of 
the Tutaki with the Buller. After having walked several miles 
through the bush, we could not but admire the superb scenery 
here presented to us ; the river breaking thiough and falling over 
