the prevailing plant is a fern,
which rises generally to the height of six or seven feet.

Along the skirts of the woodlands flow numerous rivers, which intersect
the country in all directions, and several of which are navigable for
miles up by ships of considerable burthen. Various lines of
communication are in this way established between the opposite coasts of
the northern island; while some of the minor streams, that rush down to
the sea through the more precipitous ravines, are interrupted in their
course by magnificent cataracts, which give additional effect to the
other features of sublimity and romantic beauty by which the country is
so distinguished. Many of the rocks on the coast are perforated, a
circumstance which proceeds from their formation.

The quality of the soil of this country may be best estimated from the
profuse vegetation with which the greater part of it is clothed, and the
extraordinary vigour which characterizes the growth of most of its
productions. The botany of New Zealand has as yet been very imperfectly
investigated, a very small portion of the native plants having been
either classified or enumerated. From the partial researches, however,
that have been made by the scientific gentlemen attached to Cook's
expeditions, and subsequent visitors, there can be no doubt that the
country is rich both in new and valuable herbs, plants, and trees as
well as admirably adapted for the cultivation of many of the most useful
among the vegetable possessions of other parts of the world.

Rutherford, we have seen, mentions the existence of cultivated land in
the neighbourhood of the village to which he was last conveyed. The New
Zealanders had made considerable advances in agriculture even before
Cook visited the country; and that navigator mentions particularly, in
the narrative of his first voyage, the numerous patches of ground which
he observed all along the east coast in a state of cultivation. Speaking
of the very neighbourhood of the place at which the crew of the "Agnes"
were made prisoners, he says:--"Banks saw some of their plantations,
where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even in the
gardens of the most curious people among us. In these spots were sweet
potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much esteemed both
in the East and West Indies, and some gourds. The sweet potatoes were
placed in small hills, some ranged in rows, and others in quincunx, all
laid by a