Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/281

1770 much as the Peak of Teneriffe: in that particular, however, I cannot quite agree with them, though that they must be very high is proved by the hill to the northward of Cook's Straits, which was seen, and made no inconsiderable figure, at the distance of many leagues.

The sea coast, should it ever be examined, will probably be found to abound in good harbours. We saw several, of which the Bay of Islands, or Motuaro, and Queen Charlotte's Sound, or Totarra-nue, are as good as any which seamen need desire to come into, either for good anchorage or for convenience of wooding and watering. The outer ridge of land which is open to the sea is (as I believe is the case of most countries) generally barren, especially to the southward, but within that the hills are covered with thick woods quite to the top, and every valley produces a rivulet of water.

The soil is in general light, and consequently admirably adapted to the uses for which the natives cultivate it, their crops consisting entirely of roots. On the southern and western sides it is the most barren, the sea being generally bounded either by steep hills or vast tracts of sand, which is probably the reason why the people in these parts were so much less numerous, and lived almost entirely upon fish. The northern and eastern shores make, however, some amends for the barrenness of the others; on them we often saw very large tracts of ground, which either actually were, or very lately had been, cultivated, and immense areas of woodland which were yet uncleared, but promised great returns to the people who would take the trouble of clearing them. Taoneroa, or Poverty Bay, and Tolago especially, besides swamps which might doubtless easily be drained, sufficiently evinced the richness of their soil by the great size of all the plants that grew upon them, and more especially of the timber trees, which were the straightest, cleanest, and I may say the largest I have ever seen, at least speaking of them in the gross. I may have seen several times single trees larger than any I observed among these; but it was not one, but all these trees, which were enormous, and doubtless had we had time and opportunity to search, we might have