shortly transfer to some ship loading for England;
and there is the _Magellan Cloud_, fresh from a successful whaling
cruise in Antarctic Seas. There is a vessel from Kororareka with coal
and manganese, or kauri-gum; there are others from Mahurangi with lime,
from Whangarei with fat cattle, from Tauranga with potatoes, from
Poverty Bay with wool, from the Wairoa with butter and cheese, from Port
Lyttelton with flour, or raw-hides for the Panmure tannery, from Dunedin
with grain or colonial ale, and so on and so on.

Just off the wharf, and facing the river at either corner of Queen
Street, are two large and handsome hotels, while to right and left on
the river frontage are sundry important commercial edifices. Passing to
the left as we leave the wharf, we come to several extensive
timber-yards, and to a long jetty, used exclusively as a timber-wharf.
The immense piles of sawn timber lying here give to us new-chums some
notion of the vast timber-trade of Northern New Zealand, especially
since we learn that much which goes to the South Island and elsewhere is
shipped direct from Whangaroa, Hokianga, the Kaipara, and other ports in
the north. The road along the river front, here, is shortly brought up
abruptly at the base of a lofty bluff, whereon is a church and other
buildings, near the site of old Fort Britomart.

Retracing our steps, we enter Queen Street, the main street of the city.
All the lower portion of it abutting on to the wharf was, we are told,
reclaimed from swamp and mud only a very few years ago. The street is a
fine one, leading straight away from the river, curving imperceptibly to
the right, and gradually ascending for about a mile, until it branches
off into other streets and roads. Down at the lower end of the street
most of the buildings are of brick and stone; and some of them are of
tolerably fine architecture. There are banks and warehouses and
merchants' stores of all kinds, interspersed with hotels and public
buildings. Higher up Queen Street, and in the cross-streets, stone and
brick edifices are less numerous, and wooden houses more plentiful.

The broad, well-paved thoroughfare is crowded at certain times of the
day with carriages, cabs, buggies, omnibuses, equestrians,
express-carts, waggons, drays, and every species of vehicle. The
side-walks are thronged with passengers, who pass up and down under the
awnings that stretch from the houses across the wide pavement. Many of
the shop-windows