PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
The Waitakere is a nice stream, to whose banks the path from 
the Tuhinn descends. The mouth of this river offers good 
anchorage for small craft, but I do not know whether the bar will 
permit it to be entered. At the northern side of this stream a 
small belt of forest separates it from extensive terraces, covered 
y itli grass and rushes, which commence here, and which are 
fringed on the coast line and on the margins of the intersecting 
streams by strips of forest. These terraces stretch across the 
Buller to the Waimangaroha stream, and are in fact the delta of 
the Buller, accumulated during successive ages. The coast line 
from the Waitakere to Tauranga is nearly straight, and consists, 
for nine miles, of a splendid sandy beach, upon which the Totara 
and the Okari, two considerable streams which drain the Buckland 
peaks, empty themselves. Tauranga is a small rocky projection, 
which has been united to the main land by an accumulation 
of drift-sand, forming small hillocks behind it, and extending for 
several miles towards the south, near the coast; contrasting greatly 
with the wild scenery of rocks and promontories further down. 
Although some picturesque rocks occur between Tauranga and 
Omu Point, bordering the sea, and protecting the loose alluvial 
formation within against encroachment by the waves, the country 
still continues of the same character; that is to say, a terraced 
table land, from sixty to 150 feet high, which, near the Buller, 
descends to its level in successive terraces, from ten to fifty feet 
high. The Buller, or Ivawatiri river, of which I have already 
treated, has a better entrance than the Gfrey, although its waters 
are shallower over the bar, being, as I have been told, only fou r 
feet deep at dead low water. A deep lagoon, of some extent, on 
its southern bank, offers a safe anchorage for vessels. The level 
terraced country on the banks of this river extends from six to 
seven miles inland, and will one day be found useful as an agri¬ 
cultural district, should either the gold fields of the middle Buller, 
or the extensive coal-fields on its northern bank, induce a European 
population to settle there. 
Advancing towards Cape Farewell, the level land contracts, 
the Papahaua range approaching the coast. About ten miles 
north of the Buller the level country ceases entirely, the spurs 
from Mount Frederic falling to the water’s edge. Behind the 
Ngakuwaho stream, which drains part of the southern slopes of 
the Papahaua chain, is a good sandy beach. Here again the hills 
are low, and have between them broad valleys, covered with 
luxuriant forest, and intersected by small streams* Above them 
tower the spowy peaks of the Eyell range, the western, base of 
which is five miles distant from the mouth of the Atokihmui, a 
stream of considerable size, which drains a large extent of country, 
and derives its waters principally from the northern slopes of 
those mountains. From the Mokihinui to the Wanganui river, a 
distance of twelve miles, the coast has similar features to those 
