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II. SOUTH ISLAND, INCLUDING STEWART'S ISLAND.

1. Blind Bay-2. Admiralty Bay-3. Port Hardy, D'Urville's Island-4. Port Gore-5. Current Basin, connecting Blind Bay and Admiralty Bay-6. Queen Charlotte's Sound-7. Cloudy Bay, whales, runaway convicts, and sailors-8. Lookers-on Bay-9. Pegasus Bay-10. Akeros Harbour in Banks's Peninsula-11. Otago Bay, appears ance of coal-12. South Bay, rivers, rich land, coal-13. Port Preservation-14. Port, Chalky-15. Dusky Bay16. Stewart's Island, harbours-17. Description of West Coast, from Cloudy Bay to Cook's Strait.

We now proceed to describe the rivers, bays, and harbours formed by them at their confluence with the sea. We shall commence with the Northern Island, and the western side of it; the harbours of which, although numerous and of great importance, have been in a great measure overlooked, if not decried, and pass along Cook's Strait, to the eastern side of the Northern Island. We shall afterwards very briefly notice the Southern Island.

It will be remembered that Captain Cook was prevented by severe weather from approaching closer to the west coast than from five to eight leagues, and we are not aware that the information now to be submitted of the harbours of the west coast has before been given to the public. Starting from the North Cape, or Cape Maria Van Diemen, at the distance of about twenty miles southward, is,

1. The open roadstead of Wharo. The anchorage is good, on a firm, fast, sandy beach, and the sup

plies, from the natives, of fresh provisions and of vegetables abundant.

2. The harbour of Whangape is about twenty miles south of Wharo, and about fifteen miles north of Hokianga. The breadth of the entrance between the heads is about two hundred yards: there is a sunk rock visible at low water, about mid-channel, and the deeper channel is between this rock and the southern head. It is not known that soundings have ever been taken. The channel, gradually widening, runs inland for six or seven miles, when it expands into a beautiful bay, running six miles from north to south, by three from east to west. This bay is not laid down in any of the maps of New Zealand. The hills rise abruptly from both sides of the entrance channel to a great height, and are covered with forest trees.

Around this bay, and between it and the hills, there is a quantity of fine flat land, varying from a quarter of a mile to two miles in breadth, clear of wood. Some of it is covered with flax, and some with fern. Some part of this land is cultivated by the natives in detached patches, but the greater part of their cultivation is on the steep sides of their magnificent hills. Patches are enclosed and cleared, and planted up almost to the tops of the hills. This high state of cultivation is peculiar to this bay,-at least it has not been noticed to the same extent elsewhere on land so very steep. A finer or more beautiful view, for its extent, cannot well be ima

gined than this amphitheatre presents. On the northern side of the lake, the valley extends westwards towards the sea for three or four miles, running parallel with the entrance channel, and separated from it only by the lofty range of hills that skirt and confine the river. The harbour has seldom, if ever, been visited by a British vessel.

One European only ever settled here, and he afterwards repaired to Hokianga. The natives expressed much anxiety for missionaries and settlers. The missionaries of both establishments,-the Wesleyan and the Church,-often visited them; and recently the church missionaries have established a settlement at Ahu, at a distance from the bay of about twenty miles, and have opened a regular intercourse. The finest scenery in Wales does not exceed that of Whangape. The natives in the vicinity of the bay are probably not fewer than one thousand souls. They are part of the Rarawa tribe, who possess the country north of Hokianga.

3. The river and bay of Hokianga extends inwards from the heads nearly thirty miles. The tide ebbs and flows even beyond that distance: it is a bar harbour. It is deeply and beautifully indented by smaller bays and creeks, and there is good anchorage for ships of five hundred tons, on all sides of the channel upwards to the head of the bay. About twenty different rivers and streams fall into the larger stream, forming the estuary of Hokianga, most of them navigable for smaller craft and boats,