sible from the west, in spite of its equal height. The cliffs around the greater part of the lake are of a dark greenish colour, tinged sometimes with red, and are basaltic. The fissures are irregular, but run quite perpendicular; and the whole face of the rock presents much the appearance of a mass of common starch, but on a gigantic scale. On the west coast, about the middle, there appears, for a considerable extent, a dazzling white outline; but I do not know what it is. The natives said it was not a very hard stone. The white cliffs were not so high as the dark ones—rarely more than two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet. There is plenty of obsidian near the lake, and it is cast up on the shore in many places, but I did not see any in situ. The water is of a deep blue colour, appears exceedingly deep, and no weeds growing in it.
The river Waikato runs into Towpo at the S.S.E. end, and makes its exit at the north; at the place where it enters, it is a small sluggish river, about twenty-five yards wide, and from two to four feet deep. It runs in a very circuitous course through a long line of mud and rushes, forming the only piece of flat land near the shore. On one side of the river, about two miles distant, is situate the great pa of Towpo, and on the east side, at about one mile from the river, is a small pa, called Coteropo, where I was encamped; there are several other pas on the west side of the lake, and three on the east, but not large ones: it is, however, decidedly the most populous place I have seen or heard of in the island. I should think the population of the pas on the lake could not be less than 5000. The country around, I do not think can be populous; it is too mountainous and bare of wood, and the Mowries only grow potatoes in land which is just cleared, and after about three crops abandon it, and clear another portion of forest. Mr. Chapman imagines that all the land which is now bare of timber has been
