CHAPTER XII.

NEW ZEALAND.

1840.

HAVING replenished our stores of provisions, we took, with much regret, a final leave of our friends at Sydney. The Vincennes weighed anchor, and at 3 P. M. on the 19th March, we discharged our pilot, and bade adieu to these hospitable shores. The Peacock, not having completed her repairs, was left at Sydney for a few days, with orders to follow us to Tongataboo.

On reaching a distance of thirty miles from the coast, we again found a difference of three degrees in the temperature of the water, and experienced the effects of a strong current towards the south. The wind was from the northward and eastward.

On the 23d we spoke the French whale-ship Ville de Bordeaux, in want of provisions, which we supplied her. She had been out three years, and had on board four thousand barrels of oil. The crew was reduced to bread and water, and the vessel was apparently in a bad condition in other respects.

On the 25th, in latitude 34° 24′ S., longitude 160° 26' E., we experienced a current setting to the south at the rate of twenty miles in twenty-four hours.

On the 26th the current set east-southeast at the rate of twelve miles per day.

The wind on the 27th hauled to south-southeast by the east, and became a fine breeze.

On the 29th, we made the North Cape of New Zealand. The current for the two previous days had been setting north-northwest, and the temperature of the air varied during our passage from Sydney, from 63° 3', to 76° 4′; that of the water from 70° to 72°.

At daylight on the 30th, we made Cape Brett, and after groping

our way through the dark, into the Bay of Islands, anchored at 10 P. M. in the Kawa-Kawa river, opposite the residence of Mr. Clendon, the American consul. Here I had the satisfaction to find the Porpoise and Flying-Fish, and receive the reports of their cruises, which will be found in Appendix XXX. : they were all well on board. The former vessel had arrived a few days, and the latter about three weeks, before us. We were also gratified with the receipt of letters. from the United States. Every exertion was made to shorten the duration of our stay in New Zealand, and the necessary instruments were landed without delay.

Here also we met all the scientific gentlemen,-who, as has been stated, had been left at Sydney when the squadron sailed upon the Antarctic cruise,-anxiously awaiting our arrival.

They had been forced to remain inactive at Sydney, in consequence of a change in the destination of the vessel in which they had first taken their passages, and, by this vexatious delay, had not only been prevented from pursuing further researches in New South Wales, but had lost time that might have been advantageously employed in New Zealand. They finally succeeded in finding an opportunity of reaching the Bay of Islands, in the British brig Victoria.

After leaving Sydney in this vessel, a sea was shipped, which, besides doing other mischief, entered at the cabin-windows, and filled the chronometer-box with salt water; in consequence of which the master considered it necessary to put back, in order to exchange the injured time-piece for another. She accordingly anchored again in Port Jackson.

On the 7th February, they had a beautiful exhibition of the aurora australis the coruscations were of a straw-coloured light, reaching nearly to the zenith in the southern sky, and lasting from seven until ten o'clock. A noddy alighted on the brig, and remained on board many days; so tame was it that it even suffered itself to be handled.

On the 16th, when they had performed about half the passage, they had another exhibition of the aurora, much like the former; after which they experienced a gale of wind of five days' duration. On the 21st, they were enabled again to make sail, and, on the 23d, they made the North Cape. A gale then came on from the eastward, and they had a narrow escape from shipwreck while running down the land. On the 24th, they dropped anchor at Kororarika, about three miles above which place they found the United States Consul, Mr. Clendon, at Ornotu Point.

From the splendid panorama of Mr. Burford, I had pictured the Bay of Islands to myself as a place of surpassing beauty, and I could not but feel gratified at the idea of paying it a visit. It did not, however, realize my expectations. It might, with more propriety, be called the Bay of Inlets. The best idea that can be given of its geographical features is, to liken it to an open hand with the fingers spread apart. The land is much indented with bays, or arms of the sea, running up among hills, which are nearly insulated. The distance between the two capes (Brett and Point Pocock) is ten miles, and there are several secondary bays facing this opening. Four rivers flow into them, the Kawa-Kawa, Kiri-Kiri, Loytangi, and Wycaddie, into which the tide flows a few miles, after which they become small streamlets, varied by some waterfalls. There are many minor indentations, which render it impossible to move any distance without a boat; and it is often necessary to make a turn of five or six miles around an inlet or marsh in going to a place, which might be reached in one-tenth of the distance by water.

The land has the appearance of barren hills without accompanying valleys, and there is so little level ground that terraces are cut in the hills to build the cottages on. The whole view is any thing but picturesque, and there is little to meet the eye except bare hills and extensive sheets of water. Some fine views are, however, to be met with from the elevated ridges, which afford occasional glimpses of the bay, with its islets.

Many of our gentlemen were struck with the resemblance of this land to that of Terra del Fuego. Black islets and rocks, worn into various shapes, are found, as in that country, at all the points in the bay through which a boat can pass. These rocks are of a basaltic character. About the Bay of Islands the rock is compact and argillaceous, showing little or no stratification, and is for the most part covered with a layer of stiff clay, two or three feet thick, the result of its decomposition. The hills about the Bay of Islands are generally from three to five hundred feet high, but some of those at the head of the bay reach one thousand feet. The district about the Bay of Islands, and the northern portion of the island, may be styled volcanic; for, in addition to rocks of undoubted volcanic origin, all the others had in a greater or less degree undergone the action of fire. Our naturalists were informed that the valley of the Thames was of a different character, although many persons represented the whole island as volcanic. The ridges in the northern part of the island