dense fog enveloped us, and prevented all further view. After staying for some time on the summit, in the vain hope that the clouds which enveloped us would disperse, we retraced our steps, and accomplished the descent with comparative ease. The natives expressed their joy at seeing us again, as they had already given us up for lost. They had remained at the spot from which they obtain the best sort of kokowai or red-ochre, and immediately on our arrival they set to work to make baskets of rush and flax leaves, for the purpose of carrying a quantity of it with them. The natives use this ochre for many purposes. When mixed with shark's oil, it forms a durable paint for their houses, canoes, and burying-places; it is also universally in request to rub into their faces and bodies, especially to bedaub themselves with when going to battle, in order to strike terror and fear into the heart of their enemy; or to increase the beauty of their appearance when joining in the ceremonies or festivities of their tribes.

We arrived at the beach on the 28th of December, without accident, and with some reason to be better satisfied with our success than on our former return.

PREPARATIONS FOR A JOURNEY

INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND BY DR HOCHSTETTER. A.D. 1859.

IN European countries, where railroads and steamboats are at our disposal, such a journey as this might be accomplished in a few days; but compared with the rapidity and the luxurious ease with which such a journey is performed in Europe, travelling in New Zealand is slow and laborious,

and a lengthened expedition into the interior cannot be undertaken without some preparations. Roads passable for vehicles are all in the vicinity of towns, and extend to only a distance of a few miles. The horse, which to the traveller upon the extensive open plains of the interior of Australia is totally indispensable, is by no means of the same service in New Zealand. In many districts it would not only want the necessary food, but the difficulties arising from the nature of the ground are also such that a horse must soon prove to the traveller a burden rather than a help. He has to pass almost daily over mountain-torrents and steep river banks, or through swamps and morasses. The slender paths of the natives lead over hills and mountains in steep ascent and descent, rarely in the valley, nearly always along the ridge of mountain-heights. When they cross the bush, the clearing is just broad enough for one man to wind himself through, An eye used to European paths will scarcely recognise these Maori-trails, and man and beast would be in continual danger upon them; the horse, in danger of sinking into the deep holes between the roots of trees, and of breaking its legs; the rider, of being caught among the branches, or strangled among the loops of the supple-jack. Hence there is no choice but to travel on foot; and it requires full, unimpaired bodily strength, and sound health, to pass uninjured amid the inevitable hardships of a pedestrian journey through the New Zealand bush, over fern-clad hills, over steep and broken headlands, across the swampy plains and cold mountain streams of the country. Whatever the traveller needs for his personal wants he must carry with him; his outfit, therefore, must be limited to the most necessary articles. Now and then a solitary European squatter may be met with; and more frequently still, a mission

station; and whenever he does so, the traveller will be sure to meet with a cordial welcome and hospitable treatment, and transiently he will enjoy even the comforts of civilised life; but as a general rule he must resign them all, and learn to find pleasure in living in the open air, with the skies for a canopy, and the earth for his table and bed. Following the example of the Maories, he must go back to first principles, and be content with the simple wants of the children of nature; and it is to this truly primitive simplicity that a journey in New Zealand owes its indescribable charms.

The fields and woods of our antipodes are but meagre hunting-grounds, and yield at best only small birds and wood-pigeons. Along rivers and lakes various kinds of wild-ducks are found, however, and nearly all the rivers abound in eels and crawfish. A sufficient supply of provisions is therefore always one of the first and most important subjects of consideration, when preparing for a lengthy journey. Upon the North Island, where there are natives living in small villages and settlements all through the interior, this is a matter of little trouble. It needs only to carry the necessary supplies from station to station. Pigs can be had everywhere; and upon our three months' trip we killed no less than thirty or forty, and were always enjoying good health while feasting on fat, juicy, roast pig. Salt, sugar, and tea we carried with us, in a tin chest made for the purpose; and tea, pork, and potatoes were our chief articles of food.

For camping out we were equipped in the best manner, with tents and woollen blankets. For tents we found cotton-stuffs to be the most suitable, being denser and less heavy than linen. We carried three tents with us, and a fourth large one was intended for the natives who accom

panied us; it was, however, but rarely used, the natives generally preferring to sleep under the open sky, gathered around a large fire, which they kept up during the whole night. The woollen blanket, representing my bedding, I had sewed up in triple folds, at the feet and sides, into a kind of sack; so that on one side the blanket was double, on the other single—an excellent invention of experienced "bushmen." By getting into this sack, one is not only sheltered from troublesome mosquitoes and other insects, but has, moreover, according to weather, the convenient. choice of turning either the double or the single side upward.

Natives are decidedly the best travelling companions. I engaged, for the whole time of the expedition, twelve stout young Maories, who were bound by contract to remain with us through the whole of the tour. Each carried his own bundle; and likewise in camp each one had, once for all, his proper work assigned to him. One assisted in putting up tents, another fetched fire-wood, or carried water, &c.; and with pleasure do I bear testimony to these Maories, that they always proved themselves willing, and of untiring energy, preserving under all circumstances their excellent good-humour, and that their faithful services contributed in a great measure to the final success of the expedition.

JOURNEY UP THE WAIKATO.

ON the 7th of March we were ready for travel. We set out from Auckland upon the Great South Road. This road-now the great highway to the interior of the country -was at that time finished only as far as Drury, twenty

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three miles from Auckland. We started for the Maori settlement of Mangatawhiri, on the Waikato river, twelve miles from Drury, from which we were to proceed in canoes up the river. The greater part of the male population were absent from this village on a trip up the Waikato ; but the women and maidens received us, having, in honour of our presence, dressed themselves to the best of their ability, and donned their choicest attire. They have a strange fancy, these women. Sucking pigs are in great favour among them; they nurse and fondle them with as much tenderness as European ladies do their lap-dogs.

On the 9th of March we started up the Mangatawhiri Creek. The canoe was an entirely new one, wrought out of the trunk of a Kahikatea pine, sixty-one feet long, four wide, three deep, and large enough to hold our whole party, together with the entire bulk of the baggage. First it was cleansed; then the bottom was covered with fresh ferns, and the baggage distributed with all due caution, as equally as possible, fore and aft, to the right and left, for the purpose of securing the necessary balance to the rather unstable craft. At last everything was in readiness, and we Pakehas were directed to take our place in the middle. But the creek was at first far too narrow and too shallow, and the load too heavy, to render the propelling of the canoe by means of the paddles at all possible. We had first to be pulled through the mud: and the scene was a highly amusing one, thanks to the good humour exhibited by the Maories, even when they sank into it sometimes waistdeep. But amid singing and laughing, with the wildest joking, the canoe was pushed ahead, and after two hours, we were afloat. The narrow creek soon turns into a river 100 feet wide, which, about four miles below, empties itself into the Waikato. Soon the Maories ply their