1838 - Polack, J. S. New Zealand [Vol.I] [Capper reprint, 1974] - Chapter X

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CHAPTER X.

THIS important branch of natural history has hitherto been much neglected. The chain of mountains stretching almost uninterruptedly in the northern island, from 38 deg. to 41 deg. 30' south latitude, and in the centre island, from 42 deg. to 4-6 deg. 30' S. running north and south, doubtless contain,, beside a vast quantity of iron ore and bituminous matter, a variety of minerals, that will amply repay future investigators for their researches.

Shells, principally bivalves, are found within the outer soil of the highest mountains, some of

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VOLCANOES.

which tower to the majestic height of fourteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean. The appearance of these mountains is considerably enhanced in grandeur, by their being skirted with hills of inferior height, clothed to their summits with the beautiful forest-trees of the country.

Volcanic evidences of the primeval origin of the country are visible in every part, especially at some distance from the sea.

Off the Bay of Plenty is situated White Island (Wakari), about thirty miles N. N. W. of Cape Runaway, or Te Kaha. This island is in continual ignition. At dusk, the flames issuing from the crater, situated in a centrical part of the mountain, are distinctly visible for some miles; and long after the mariner has lost sight of the island from the horizon, the ascending smoke of this natural furnace suffices to point out its locality.

Wakari is about six miles in circumference, high, and well covered with perennial verdure; and except the continual fire and smoke emitted from the crater, the mountain, from the sea, has not the cineritious resemblance of a volcano. The beach is formed of shingle, somewhat steep, and; is almost alive, with the subsultive leaping of the innumerable shoals of fish, of unequalled

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WAKARI ISLAND.

variety. The bursting fury, the effects of volcanic ignition, that agitates this solitary isle, has often been described to me by the natives, who have felt the effects of earthquakes on the main, communicated by Wakari.

I was at one time becalmed off this island for six days, during which period the crater emitted a vast volume of black smoke during the day, and at night the flames were glaring.

The natives haul up their canoes above the steep banks, when they visit the island, which parties of them are often in the habit of doing, for the purpose of fishing.

From Wakari, few portions of the very low land of the Bay of Plenty are visible. The lava (punga rea) ejected from the mountain, which is of some magnitude, is carried by currents to the adjacent shores, and is made use of by the natives for polishing their muskets.

Wakari is situated from the river Opotiki north thirty miles. A reef extends three miles in length, between it and the mainland. The island is stated to have arisen from the deep, after Mawe, the paternal deity of the New Zealand theogony, had first touched fire, when, taking up the new clement with both hands, he was so greatly tortured by the insufferable pain, that he instantly dived under water to assuage

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VOLCANIC ISLANDS

his agony; and in the place where he shook the fire from him arose Wakari.

All the islands in this deep bay have indubitable marks of recent ignition. Boiling springs, sulphur, and obsidian, or volcanic glass, are found in all of them.

The sulphur may be remarked as having less dross than is generally found in similar European volcanic matter, and as possessing a brilliant colour similar to the pigment king's yellow.

Tuhua, or Mayor Island, lies twenty miles due north of Touranga, the northern harbour in this bay. The mountain is very high, and it has also hot springs: it is situated S.E. and N.W.: it has but one landing-place, the island boundary rising precipitously from the sea in granitic rock.

Obsidian is found here in large masses: this mineral fusion abounds here. The small islet of Kariwoa lies N.N.W., seven miles distant from Touranga, and is of similar formation.

Motiti, or Small Island, lies eight miles north from the Tumu river, and is eight miles in length and three in breadth. This isle is flat, covered with stunted trees, and decayed vegetable soil, above the mouldering lava. About half a mile west lies a flat rock, one mile in

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IN THE BAY OF PLENTY.

length, about two hundred feet high, with seven fathoms water close to it.

Motu Tohora, or Whale Island, lies N.N.W. to the entrance of the river Waka-tane, which is distant seven miles. This island is high, and somewhat conical, about one thousand feet; it possesses on the west side three beaches, but little fresh water. The anchorage in the vicinity is good; the north end of the island is steep; it is composed of the usual volcanic matter.

The former tribes that possessed this island were partly killed and devoured, and the survivors made slaves by the native hordes from Waka-tane. The former were in the act of scalding some pigs, in one of the boiling springs that are numerous on this island, when they were surprised, cut off, and broken as a tribe. These islands have been the scenes of many depopulating wars, where man, in his most savage state, has not been deterred from following the evil propensities of his heart by the thundering vol-canic eloquence of nature around teaching him his insignificance and nothingness.

A series of widely extended plains, very elevated above the coast, lie some few miles inland, E.S.E. from Touranga, and S.W. from Makatu.

The principal in size is called Roto Rua. Its eastern shore is lined by a number of ex-

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BOILING SPRINGS

tensive boiling-springs, in continual agitation; and small lakes of sulphur, bubbling up in thick masses, accompanied with mephitic vapours. On jetting any stone, or weighty substance, into any of these lakes, the thick matter spurts up to some height.

For the space of perhaps a mile, the ground is composed of this bituminous matter. It is damp and foetid; and so very infirm, that, treading on many portions, the sound is reverberated by the ambulation. Many places in the surrounding plains resound with a hollow echo indicative of its insolidity. At the principal spring of Roto Rua, a very heavy body of steam arises from the sulphuric acid, of so overpowering an odour, as to incapacitate - the spectator from approaching closely.

The principal residence of the tribe occupying the largest lake is on an island within the Roto Rua.

This is also the residence of the surrounding tribes in times of war; but the fortifications were taken in 1818 by the Napui tribe of the Bay of Islands, who, possessing a greater quantity of fire-arms and ammunition, became conquerors. The invaders would have found the enterprise pregnant with many difficulties, had they not captured a slave of their enemies, who be-

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AND SULPHUR LAKES. 333

trayed to them the private approaches. The canoes of the Napui were hauled across two narrow isthmuses of land, saving otherwise a distance of ten miles, and thus suddenly appeared before the surprised people of Roto Rua. The Napuis made sad havoc among these tribes, killing and eating some hundreds, and carrying away with them a large number of slaves, most of whom were afterwards killed, and baked in the ovens of these sarcophagi, when rations became scarce in their commissariat. On the island, there are many hot-springs bubbling continually close to the edge of the lake; and it is somewhat singular that food cooked in these springs docs not partake of any foetid or mineral taste.

The Roto Rua is about fifteen miles in breadth.

The natives are particularly delighted with these springs; whose temperature in winter is such, that the people sit immersed for hours together, to keep themselves comfortable. When the springs are of too high a degree of heat, cold water is let into the baths from the lake adjoining, until they are sufficiently accommodating.

The usual method of cooking food in these parts is to dig a hole in the ground in the vicinity of a boiling-spring, placing within the

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INTERIOR LAKES AND PLAINS

cavity their provisions, covered over with some baskets and the surrounding soil; in half an hour the food is well cooked, without any unpleasant taste attaching itself to the edibles.

The houses of the natives are to Europeans insufferably hot, from the warmth of the soil on which they are erected.

There is one cold spring remarkable for its peculiar softness to the touch. This water will cleanse the filthiest of the native garments much better than even an application of soap, or any other alkali. The lake in its immediate vicinity does not possess a similar property; and it is also cold, a somewhat rapid stream flowing in the centre of it. Another stream possesses on its border a spring excessively cold. The water of the latter, when agitated, is tinged with a red earth, which, taken up, and the watery solution dried, leaves a precipitate that is in much request by the elegantes of the tribes for painting themselves with.

In these extensive plains there are other lakes. The principal are Roto Kahi; Rota Ma or White Lake, so denominated from its several white, sandy beaches on its shores; Roto Ihu, or Nose Lake, from its joining Roto Rua by a small river; and Roto Iti, or Small Lake, separated from Roto Ihu by a

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ON THE EAST COAST.

neck of land about two miles long. Roto Iti is also separated by a neck of land eight miles in width from the River Waihi, which latter disembogues itself about two miles south-east of the river Touranga. Roto Iti has a boiling spring where the lake becomes shoal, emitting much steam from the ignition beneath.

Another spring flows within a hollow, which is lost underground. The borders of these lakes are well peopled, considering the scant population of the country; and these tribes can muster three thousand fighting-men to bring into the field. In the luxurious amusements of bathing, all ages and both sexes congregate promiscuously in the warm baths.

At a place called Taupo, some few days' travel south-west from Roto Rua, are a series of extensive and magnificent lakes and boiling springs. These inland tribes are the most wicked and brutal cannibals that, perhaps, exist on the face of the globe. They are not very friendly to Europeans, being fully aware of their security from retaliation in the present state of the country, in case of wantonly sacrificing to their cupidity the lives or properties of such Europeans who might at any time reside or travel among them.

Few places in the country exhibit the vio-

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RIVER THAMES.

lent effects of former volcanic concussions in so great a degree as the district of the Horake, in the River Thames, from 36 deg. to 37 deg. south latitude.

In the numerous islands situated beyond the frith, large, shapeless masses of granite-formation are perpended vertically from the roofs of the caverns which abound in all these lonely and deserted isles, astonishing the traveller how such ponderous weights can hang by apparently the slenderest hold.

In many places piles of black-cindered lava are found, lying in wild confusion, representing, in a picture presented by nature, the sublime and awful chaos before the earliest creation. Immense detached masses, torn by the convulsion of the elements into shapeless fragments, shew the operose action of extinguished volcanoes of antecedent ages.

Many of these islands present deep fissures, the depths of which are indistinguishable for the brush and liands covering the face of the cindered lava.

Many curious effects have been produced in several sections of the country, by the liquid fluid having suddenly cooled, as the mass of matter had been driven onwards in yeasty waves. In this state it has been suddenly arrested, giving a geological representation of a troubled sea lashing

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MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS.

in headlong breakers an iron-bound coast; in other parts representing the cume, or dross, from a furnace.

In such places, on the mainland, rivers have forced their way through this yielding wreck of matter; also large chasms have been formed in the land, which suddenly break upon the traveller. These deep gullies are particularly dangerous, the openings being hidden by the thick copse and brushwood. The fissures are found to descend suddenly to a perpendicular depth, from fifty to three hundred feet, the sides of which shew in curtilinear lines the various strata composing the land around, surrounded by pumice-stones of small size.

The high mountain of Tounariro, in lat. 39 deg. 10' S., and long. 176 deg. Ev situated nearly due north of Cape Palliser, is still in continual ignition. The cloudy and snow-capped summit is observable from many localities, especially from Waikato river. The gigantic mountain of Ruapaka is covered with eternal snow. This towering elevation is situated in nearly lat. 39 deg. 35' S., and long. 175 deg. 30' E., and rises in frowning majesty above a chain of mountains, extending from near Putawaki, or Mount Edgcumbe, in the Bay of Plenty, to Cape Terrawiti, in Cook's Straits, a distance of one hundred and forty miles.

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REMARKABLE MOUNTAINS.

The highest elevation, and which towers by itself, is the mountain of Haupapa, or Mount Egmont, situated at the north-west entrance of Cook's Straits, in lat. 39 deg. 24' S., long. 174 deg. 5' E., in the district of Taranaki.

This mountain must have been formerly the site of a very active volcano: it is calculated to be upwards of fourteen thousand feet from the level of the adjacent ocean: the base commences about three miles from the beach. The French navigators have likened it in form and appearance, from sea, to the Pic Acores, or Peak of Teneriffe. This immense mountain answers the purpose of a barometer to the prescient natives: if any nebulous cloud rests on, or shadows the lofty summit, bad weather is predicted; but if it be clear in the zenith, the fishermen take to sea in their canoes.

The mountains most celebrated in the songs of the New Zealanders are Howara, or Mount Camel, in lat. 34 deg. 49' S., long. 170 deg. 48' E., situated near the North Cape, and are discernible on the east and west coasts of the island. Putawaki, or Mount Edgcumbe, on the southern edge of the Bay of Plenty, between Makatu and Wakatane; Tokatoka, at the junction of the Wairoa, and Kaipara rivers on the west coast, in lat. 36 deg. 30' S., long. 174 deg. 12' E.; Ikorangi,

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AND LEGENDARY LORE.

bearing west-and-by-north from the East Cape, in lat. 37 deg. 55' 30" S., long. 175 deg. 55' 25" E.; Tonguariro, south-west from Kawia; Ruapahu and Haupapa. These elevations, so superior to the hills that surround them, afford an inexhaustible subject of legendary superstitions, which are more implicitly believed, in proportion as they deviate from common sense.

Every hill that overlooks his less elevated neighbour, has some distinguishing tradition, giving evidence of the inventive talents of the ancestors of the present race, who have long since disappeared in the womb of time.

The hollow ground, covered over with a slight crust of vesicular lava, in volcanic districts, requires much circumspection, as a false step may precipitate the incautious traveller into a deep abyss beneath. The bases of the hills, in many districts of the country, are formed of whinstone, surmounted by a stiff argillaceous earth, mixed, in parts, with a white arenulous marl. Large pieces of chert are found in making excavations for wells, or digging some few feet in a mountain wall.

Much of the mineral called steatites is found in the country north of the Thames; it is a principal formation, found generally in a lamellated

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MINERALOGICAL PRODUCTIONS.

form, and is easily divided into flakes; its many veins are marked as if iron pyrites were in the immediate vicinity. It is of a soft friable nature; and large masses are easily divided, with the aid of a crowbar, from high rocks of this substance. It has much the appearance of a petrified argil, strongly tinctured by iron in an oxidised state. Sandstone is of course the substratum of the sand-hills. I have had occasion to observe the annoyance it causes to travellers in its mouldered state.

Coal is, doubtless, plentiful in the country. In the River Thames district there is no lack of this invaluable addendum to European comforts; and, when the primeval formation of this article is taken into consideration, it will not surprise the geological observer should large tracts of this useful bitumen be discovered.

Marcasite and bismuth are met with in the interior; also quarries of slate in various districts.

Quartz is found in abundance. Cyanile is met with in its usual bed of granite. Marbles of a superior description are also to be seen in large masses in many parts of the island; and Waiomio, in the district of the River Kouakoua, a principal cemetery to the inhabitants of the

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MINERALOGICAL PRODUCTIONS.

Bay of Islands, has a tract of this invaluable stone.

In Stewart's Island, furthest south, much of this valued material is met with. Freestone is common in the country, and will be of great service to the future colonist. Basalt rocks are met with in various districts.

In employing some labourers to excavate a portion of ground on my settlement at Kororarika, several large pieces of augite was found. This was the only indication I saw of volcanic origin so far north. Large pieces of jasper, red and green, are found on the sea-coasts, very heavy for their size. This mineral is mostly found in a square form, with evident appearances of having been exposed to the action of the water for a length of time, the corners, or small abutments,, being well rounded.

Cornelians, an inferior species, small and variously coloured, are found very plentifully strewed among the sand-hills; also, in the same places to the north of the Bay of Islands, and principally on the west coast, a kind of limation, or metallic dust.

The red ochreous earth, called kokowai, I have had frequent occasion to mention, and also a protoxyde of manganese, called by the natives parakawahia. This pigment gives a blue ochreous

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GEOLOGICAL AND

precipitate, which is made use of to decorate the uncivilised sons of the land.

Large indurated pieces of silica are seen in excavating clayey hills; also a species of argillaceous ochreous geode, much resembling the well-known tierra sienna in appearance. I found much of this material on the west coasts. Iron stone is somewhat abundant.

A peculiar mineral stone exists on the boundaries of a lake a few miles inland from Tokomaru, in lat. 38 deg. 5' S., long. 176 deg. 8' E., forty miles south of the East Cape. This stone is called by the natives moamoa. They are perfectly spherical, studded with iron pyrites, and are found from the dimensions of a pistol-ball to that of the calibre of a cannon. These are made use of by the natives for their ammunition. I could procure no account of the origin of their being found in this peculiar spot, but was informed that the counterpart of these stones are also to be met with on the borders of the lake situated on the elevated mountain of Ikorangi, some twenty miles N.N.W. from Tokomaru.

Iron pyrites are found in the bed of rivers, and mineral dust of a similar nature. If we take the latitude of New Zealand into consideration, and the most valuable of the mining districts of

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MINERALOGICAL PRODUCTIONS.

South America, we find them to accord; and, doubtless, time and investigation will discover valuable ores in the former country as well as in the latter.

On the shores of either coast are found various stones, striated with mineral veins. Whole districts are formed of a cretacious marl, or chalk, extending from Warre Kahika, or Hick's Bay, to the Mahia, due west of Nukutaurua, or Table Cape. These coasts are entirely formed of this material,, slightly covered with a stunted furze.

The poenamu, or green talc, jasper, serpent-stone, and jade, for it is known by all these names, has ever been held in high estimation by the aborigines of the country. It is found in the channel of a river lake, which has a distant communication with the sea. This lake is known as Te Wai Poenamu, or the water of green talc. It is disposed in its natural bed, on the banks of the lake, and, similar to flint, has a whitish incrustation on its outer edges. It lies in layers not of a large size. When first dug from its bed, it is found to be of a soft nature, but it hardens on exposure to the air. This substance, when not formed too thick, is semi-transparent, having the appearance of crystalite.

No European article of warfare has yet been

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NATIVE "FORGET ME NOTS."

introduced that is more affectionately regarded than implements formed of this substance by the natives: they are respected as the legacies of an ancestral people, lost for ever. The meri, or native implement, used in battle instead of the tomahawk, is generally made of poenamu. A thousand tales, bordering on the supernatural, are attached to these deadly weapons; the adults are incited to acts of recklessness, the young to deeds of precocious valour, by these mementos of past struggles,

Manatunga, or "forget-me-nots," are made of this valuable stone, and are appended from the neck, ears, &c. Tikis, or breast ornaments, representing the human form much exaggerated, are also formed of the poenamu.

These mineralogical mementos are peculiarly cherished, from the circumstance of having belonged to relatives whose appearance will gladden their descendants no more. I have frequently desired to obtain some of these antiquities, but they were esteemed beyond any price; nor can I conceive any inducements that could cause them to part with these remembrancers, to many of which are attached tales of merriment, or enduring affliction, that have been associated with the memories of their former possessors, long since mouldered in the dust.

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NATURAL HISTORY.

The natives have many superstitions respecting this stone.

The priests, to whom I always applied for any information relating to native polemics, always said the poenamu was originally a fish, who, naturally vexed at being unceremoniously taken out of the water, transformed itself into a stone. In relating this story, the narrator generally enacts the part of the hapless fisherman, and, with a piece of stick to represent the apocryphal fish, is in the act of taking a bite, but finds himself bitten by the petrifaction.

The onewoa, a dark gray granite, was also formerly made use of for hatchets, war implements, &c.

Fossils are found in those islands very abundant. The Island of E'Ainomawi contains a large quantity of these natural curiosities. On the shores, fungitae, or fossil corals, are often met with; and various dendrites, or arborisations, in fossil substances. Petrifactions of the bones of large birds, supposed to be wholly extinct, have often been presented to me by the natives, who invariably expressed much pleasure in beholding a European attracted by substances that belonged to their country. On any subjects connected with the natural history of the land

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NATURAL HISTORY

the people felt a pleasure in communicating information; but it was rendered almost nugatory from being clothed with the most abstruse and ridiculous legends.

Many of these petrifactions had been the ossified parts of birds, that are at present (as far as is known) extinct in these islands, whose probable tameness, or want of volitary powers, caused them to be early extirpated by a people, driven by both hunger and superstition (either reason is quite sufficient in its way) to rid themselves of their presence.

A few petrified zoophites came in my way, but in small portions. The natives are aware of the existence of all these natural phenomena; they require only their memories shaken on the subject, and will instantly commence the recital of a number of superstitions bearing on the subject, in which some truth may be elicited, out of a mass of absurd fiction.

The mountain of Ikorangi comes in for a large share of applause in these tales. Ostracites are found in various parts of the country-- inland and on the coast--in deep swamps and elevated mountains--with the soil.

Na kapia, or gums, exuding from forest-trees, are met with in various parts of the country; that of the kouri, or yellow pine, being most

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OP THE COUNTRY.

exuberant. This resin is not soluble in water; it has a strong odour of turpentine, and, when freshly exuded, is much chewed by the natives; and a piece of this savoury article is handed from mouth to mouth among them. Many tons of this prolific bitumen have been taken to England and the United States, but I have not learnt the success that has attended the experiments of its analysis.

It is very brittle, but a varnish, of a nature and use similar to copal, might be made from it. It flows from the tree in large quantities, especially if an incision be made in the trunk. With trifling caution it may be gathered clear and white, when in its liquid state. It gives a bright flame, when ignited, burning to the last, and emitting a body of thick smoke; the odour is far from unpleasant, and, when chewed in its semi-liquid state, acquires the consistence of India rubber (caoutchouc.) The trees in the native forests are full of similar resins, which often exudes even from the tips of the leaves.

Few countries possess a greater quantity of caverns than New Zealand, the inland parts being disembowelled by volcanic eruptions, and the coast cut into a thousand perforations by the lashing surges of the Pacific Ocean. The caves, excavated by the latter cause, have been

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CASCADES AND NATURAL SCENERY.

given in a description of Uwoua. Caves inland are mostly found either at the foot, or in the close vicinity, of lakes; the mouths of many of these subterrane excavations are of immense width, covered around with brush-wood and campanula bindweeds, and may be accounted monuments of the ravages caused by ancient convulsions.

The soil of the country differs materially in every mile of latitude; the hills are formed of a hard stiff clay, but the many valleys are filled, to some depth, with a nutritious mould, or something very like it, which the rains wash down from the adjacent hills; that it must be of a superior nature, the vigour and luxurious growth of the various indigenous productions throughout the country, will best testify.

The traveller will continually meet with forests, perhaps unequalled for useful and beautiful timber of a gigantic height, and surrounded by shrubbery in natural beauty. The talents of a Howitt could alone do justice to such splendid scenery.

Cascades and waterfalls, dashing from a towering height, abound in these islands, the mountainous nature of which are calculated to produce these natural curiosities in innumerable forms, rife with sublimity and grandeur.

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CASCADES AND NATURAL SCENERY.

The Island of Victoria possesses these aquatic beauties, accompanied with innumerable jets d'eau, whose magnificence is enhanced by the darkness of the surrounding almost impenetrable thickets, adorned by the loveliest of the umbelliferous tribe of palms. In Dusky Bay there exists a cascade, thirty feet in diameter and one thousand feet in height.

The awfully solemn stillness around, save the dashing force of the high descending element, attunes the soul to pay an intuitive homage to the beneficent Author of all that is good and beautiful.

Some of these charming efforts of nature have even arrested the savage owner of these wilds, and names, allegorical and poetical, have been bestowed by the devourer of the abhorrent food of his fellow-man.

Among a host of others, the Waiani wani-woa, or fall of the rainbow, is very beautiful in the vicinity of the mission station of the Keri keri. It is about ninety feet, descending into a deep natural basin, surrounded by indigenous aquatic plants.

At Wirinaki, in the Hokianga, a noble cascade also presents itself. A beautiful fall of water, but from its locality an invaluable one, disembogues itself, over a natural basaltic wall,

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THE RERI, OR TAIARURU,

about one hundred feet in length, and twenty feet in depth, into the salt water of the Bay of Islands. This fall is constantly jetting a heavy body of water into the Waitangi, a river that has its origin in a beautiful lake of fresh water, situated between Hokianga and the Bay of Islands. This lake is about seven miles in average width, nearly forming a circle, celebrated for large conger eels, which are a food of much repute among the natives; from this inland water, the stream of the Waitangi, or crying waters, flows rapidly through deep valleys, dark on either side with exuberant vegetation, until it enlarges itself, and glides down the fall. This river is never flooded, flowing in a smooth and often rapid manner.

Mr. Nicholas, an observant writer on this part of the country, observes, "We found here such a powerful fall of water as would, in the event of the natives being civilised, be capable of working the largest machinery, and which thus might be made exceedingly valuable. A fall of water like this, so admirably adapted for various purposes, such as mills for grinding corn or sawing timber, would be, at Port Jackson, a certain fortune for its possessor. When the tide is at its height, there is a depth of water from six to seven feet, that rises close up to the wall, suffi-

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AT WAITANGI.

cient for large craft to come alongside." On the north side, a few paces above the fall, is situated a beautiful flat of garden-land, that would be of infinite service to any such establishment above mentioned.

On all the table-lands of the country, lakes of fresh water abound. The high mountains contain beautiful large lakes in the bosom of their summits; one of the most sacred is that of Ikorangi, some six thousand feet above the level of the sea. Large eels abound in this lake, which are honoured by the natives with the appellation of atuas (gods). Some of the lakes in the larger island are said to be near eighty miles in circumference. The many rivers that often take their sources from inland lakes, render these islands invaluable, by interflowing in every possible direction; and but very rarely overflooding their banks, and then seldom beyond two feet in perpendicular height.

A New Zealand river, of thirty miles in a direct course, meanders often in a serpentine direction, full three times that length. The salt-water rivers are joined, at their estuaries, by limpid fresh-water creeks, many of them pursuing their route; joined, by innumerable water-runs in their course, for full forty miles of coun-try. Thus amalgamating, the gentle creek is

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RIVERS, &c.

soon lost within the wide-foaming river, that disembogues itself into the sea. I am induced to refer to the pretty conceit of an Atlantic poet, while dwelling on the beauties of his own beloved rivers: --

All the large rivers of the country are of saltwater, but the entire country is delightfully irrigated with streams, descending from the mountains, and meandering through the undulating lands.