creeks
grow masses of ferns of all sorts, spreading like large shrubs, and
contrasting by their light bright green with the black stems of the
birch-trees around them. There are a few pines in this bush, but not
many. I can give you no idea of the variety among the shrubs:
the koromika, like an Alpine rose, a compact ball of foliage; the
lance-wood, a tall, slender stem, straight as a line, with a few long
leaves at the top, turned downwards like the barb of a spear, and
looking exactly like a lance stuck into the ground; the varieties of
matapo, a beautiful shrub, each leaf a study, with its delicate tracery
of black veins on a yellow-green ground; the mappo, the gohi, and many
others, any of which would be the glory of an English shrubbery: but
they seem to require the deep shelter of their native Bush, for they
never flourish when transplanted. I noticed the slender the large trees
have of the ground, and it is not at all surprising, after such a gale
as we had three weeks ago, to see many of the finest blown down in the
clearings where the wind could reach them. They do not seem to have any
tap-root at all, merely a very insufficient network of fibres, seldom of
any size, which spreads a short way along the surface of the ground
As long as a Bush is undisturbed by civilization, it appears to be
impervious to wind or weather; but as soon as it is opened and cleared
a little, it begins to diminish rapidly. There are traces all over the
hills of vast forests having once existed; chiefly of totara, a sort
of red pine, and those about us are scattered with huge logs of this
valuable wood, all bearing traces of the action of fire; but shepherds,
and explorers on expeditions, looking for country, have gradually
consumed them for fuel, till not many pieces remain except on the
highest and most inaccessible ranges.

It was a delightful, and by no means unacceptable surprise which awaited
us on the other side, when, on emerging from a very thick part of the
Bush, we came on a lovely spot, a true "meeting of the waters." Three
broad, bright creeks came rushing and tumbling down from the densely
wooded hills about to join and flow on in quite a good-sized river, amid
boulders and a great deal of hurry and fuss,--a contrast to the profound
quiet of our ramble hitherto, the silence of which was only broken by
the twitter and whistle of the birds. Never a song can you hear, only a
sweet chirrup, or two or three melodious notes. On