Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/223

Rh "Within a radius of ten miles of the city no less then sixty-two points of eruption have been found, the greater part of them being only insignificant cones or hills. The largest and best specimen of the extinct volcanoes of Auckland is Rangitoto, which rises from a great mass of black lava, presenting a forbidding appearance. Unfortunately for the beauty of the landscape, the forest that once covered this region has been nearly all cut or burned away, and Auckland will doubtless regret in the near future the desolation which her settlers have made.

The youths were anxious to see the famous Kauri pine (Damara Australis), which is confined wholly to Auckland, and is the most renowned of New Zealand trees. Before returning to the city they were driven where they saw a single specimen, and before their departure from the district they had the satisfaction of seeing a Kauri forest. Frank's note on this subject is interesting, and we are permitted to quote it:

"The peculiarity of the Kauri pine is that the trunk does not appear to diminish in size from the ground to where the limbs begin to spread. We saw some trees more than two hundred feet high; they were eight or nine feet in diameter at the base, and had no limbs within forty or fifty feet of the ground. They reminded us of the famous big trees of California, but were taller in proportion to their diameter. We don't think we ever saw more graceful trees anywhere. They haven't a great deal of foliage, and it grows in little tufts very much like bushes.

"The wood is full of gum, and is very valuable as timber. They told us it was the finest wood in the world for shingles, as the gum preserved it from the effects of the weather. A great deal of the lumber from the Kauri pine is shipped to other parts of New Zealand, and also to Australia, China, Feejee, and other places where it can find a market.