ile the stems have the graceful inclination of
the cocoanut-tree. The picturesque effect of the birches is remarkable,
flanked by the massive outlines and drooping tassels of the rimu. For
miles of the way on either side of the narrow road the forest is
impenetrable even to the eye, save for the shortest distances,
presenting a tangled mass of foliage, vines, and branches such as can be
matched only by the virgin forests of Brazil, or the dangerous jungles
of India. Ground ferns are observed in infinite variety, sometimes of a
silvery texture, sometimes of orange-yellow, but oftenest of the various
shades of green. Here, too, we make acquaintance with the sweet-scented
manuaka, the fragrant veronica, and the glossy-leaved karaka; this last
is the pride of the Maoris.

Specimens of the lofty rimu-tree are seen, about whose tall white stems
a parasitic vine (a plant which obtains its nourishment from another
plant to which it attaches itself) slowly and treacherously weaves
itself, clasping and binding the upright body with such marvellous power
of compression as literally to strangle it, until ultimately the vine
becomes a stout tree and takes the place of that it has destroyed. The
most noted and destructive of these vegetable boa-constrictors is the
gigantic rope-like rata, whose Gordian knot nothing can untie. The tree
once clasped in its coils is fated, yielding up its sap and life
without a struggle to cast off its deadly enemy. Many trees are observed
whose stems bear branches only, far above the surrounding woods, laden
with bunches of alien foliage,--parasites like the mistletoe. Indeed,
this forest seems like vegetation running riot, and with its clumps of
dissimilar foliage fixed like storks' nests in the tops of the trees,
recalling the same effect which one sees on the St. John's River in
Florida.

Once fairly within the area of the Hot Lake District, which is the most
active volcanic region of the Antipodes, nothing seems too strange to be
true; geysers, vapor-holes, boiling springs, and dry stones burning hot
beneath one's feet, surround us, as though the surface of the land
covered Nature's chemical laboratory. Sulphur, alkaline, and iron
impregnated pools of inviting temperature cause one to indulge in
frequent baths, and it seems but natural that the natives in their
half-naked condition should pass so much time in the water. Near the
shore of Lake Rotorua, where it is shallow, a boiling spring forces i