during the same afternoon, going out by the same passage she had entered.

The Inlet runs into the interior upwards of twenty miles, and has a width varying from a quarter of a mile to three miles. It possesses many fine anchorages, chiefly within a radius of five miles from the Heads. Price’s Beach, immediately inside Gutches’ Head, on the north shore, is a safe anchorage in north-west gales. Here Jack Price, a whaler, died and was buried, forty years ago. The slab of totara, marking the spot, on which the name and date is carved, is in good preservation even to this day. Inside Cuttle Cove is the snuggest place for a vessel to lie; but almost anywhere on the south shore of the Inlet, from Otago’s Retreat to Kisbe Bay, vessels may anchor safely in any weather. Captain Thomson approved of Kisbe Bay as the best site for a township, and here it was afterwards laid off. The Taiaroa, on her second trip to the Inlet, to bring the party back, anchored in two places in the southern entrance: first inside the shoal, over which, at high water, she sailed, anchoring then in Otago’s Retreat, convenient to the South Heads, thence sailed out to sea, this being the first vessel which ever made the southern passage. The rocks on the coast line, and for two miles inwards, are chiefly sandstone, succeeded by slaty rocks, which extend four or five miles. After that to the top of the sound the rocks are almost entirely granite, from the base to the summit of the mountains. In the sandstone and slate rocks are numerous fine caves, on the floor of which there is a thin coating of guano. Stalactites were found hanging from the roof of one cave in the sandstone rocks. Through it there runs a fine stream of water. Enclosed in a box in a cave, at a fine sandy beach, two miles from the heads on the south shore, I left a quantity of provisions.

Nature of the soil.

The soil along the shores is sandy. Away from the beach, where the ground is flat, and on the tops of hills of small elevation, it is composed of vegetable matter, occasionally of a very mossy nature, resting on gravel or rock. It varies in thickness from a few inches to five and six feet. There is very little soil on the steep slopes of the hills, where the trees strike their roots into the crevices and fissures of the rocky face. A piece of ground was cleared for a garden, in which seeds were sown, and cabbages and potatoes planted. This was in the beginning of November—rather too late in the season; and just then the weather was so cold and wet they got a bad start. In three months they came to nothing, only one cabbage out of half a hundred throve, and it perished of blight. The cress flowered before it was fit for use. The potatoes only seemed healthy and thriving when the party left.

Trees of the Forest.

The bush begins at high water mark, covers the tops of all the Islands, and clothes the mountain sides to an altitude of 2000 feet. Birch, red pine, ironwood, miro, and totara are the chief varieties. Birch is the commonest and has the greatest range. It grows on the shore, as well as away near the summits. On the top of Steep-to Island one was cut down 18 feet girth. There are some fine red pine 70 to 80ft. high, straight, and taper without branches. Ironwood, at this season, is the prettiest tree in the bush, being covered with scarlet flowers; is mostly confined to the shores and hills of low elevation. It attains a girth of 5 to 6ft. in certain places. Miro and totara for the most part are small and crooked, and not of much use, especially the latter. Although good and useful timber exists everywhere, yet not in sufficient quantities in any convenient locality to keep a mill any length of time employed. The shores, wherever the soil is sandy, and the rocks above high water mark, are adorned with shrubbery of the most beautiful description. A few of the shrubs have pretty flowers. The fuchsia tree is plentiful, and the tutu attains the dignity of a tree 20 and 30ft. high. There are several kinds of tree ferns, one of which, the mummuk of the Maoris, is peculiar to the West Coast. It grows large, is an edible fern, and a great ornament to the bush, especially near the upper end of the Sound. The bush is mostly open and easily traversed, rarely choked with thicket, excepting a belt of supplejacks along the shores of the inlet, varying in width from a few yards to a quarter of a mile. The undergrowth on landslips is impenetrable, and also wherever the bush has been cleared by the whalers. It is seldom dry under foot, owing to the moistness of the climate, and from the number of fallen decaying trees, and the soft spongy nature of the ground, it is very tiresome travelling far into the bush. It is evident, from the fine specimens of mosses and lichens on the ground and fallen trees, that the climate is exceedingly humid. Two or three days’ very dry weather unless the bush is dense, gives everything a parched appearance, as if the nature of the soil demanded much moisture. Flax is not plentiful, and is of a different kind from that on the East Coast. The fibre is not so strong, but finer, and more silky in appearance.

Agricultural Land.

Available agricultural land is very scarce in Preservation Inlet. It is found in any extent in only three places. Between Seek Cove in Preservation, and Southport in Chalky Inlet, there is a piece of fair level land, estimated by Dr. Hector at 1200 acres. Adjoining Kisbe Bay and towards Revolver Bay there is land of similar quality, probably 1500 acres, being comparatively level. Three miles from the entrance to the latter bay, farther up the Sound, there is a fine piece of level land known as the Birch Flat, containing a few hundred acres. Through it runs a fine stream, which in wet weather must rush from the mountains in torrents, because of the great quantity of large trees at its mouth, evidently carried there by the force of the current. Between 2000 and 3000ft. altitude, the hills have all the appearance of being well grassed. Above the latter height they are mostly naked, bare rock. Want of time prevented the ascending of any of the mountains to have a look into the interior. The general appearance of the country, however, is against the supposition that there are any tracts of open land at a low elevation. If there is, it must be behind the hills which rise around and beyond Kisbe Bay. The country from their summits dips away towards Howtoko Lake, discovered and described by Mr. M’Kerrow in his reconnaissance survey of the Waiau and south-western districts. Kisbe Bay is the proper place to start from to explore this hitherto unknown part of the Province. From here clear ground could be reached without much difficulty.

Coal.

Seams of coal have been discovered in five different places on or near the Ocean Beach, between Payseguir Point and Gulches Head, a distance of miles. Thin seams of coaly matter have also been found cropping out on the cliffs a mile from the Heads, in the south entrance. The seam, which has been worked by a drive, is on the Ocean Beach, round the Heads from Otago’s Retreat. It is apparently the best yet discovered. On the face of the cliff it is 2ft. 8in. thick, and gradually increases till the end of the drive, which is about 50 yards in, where it is 4ft. thick. Half-way in there is a break in the seam, where the coaly matter is of a stony hardness, unfit for use. This extends only a few feet vertically; how far it may affect the seam horizontally I cannot tell. Between the break and the cliff the coal is brownish, and has a lignite appearance; from the break inwards it becomes clearer, blacker, and more glossy, indicating an improvement in quality the farther in the drive goes. The dip of the seam inclines to the sea, at the same time dipping inwards, leading to the conclusion that it must be found within the harbor, if a proper search was made. A seam does appear inside at low water, but whether it is the same or no it is difficult to determine, because here the rocky crust has been very much disturbed. Immediately opposite, on the north side of the passage of Coal Island, the cliffs