which skirts this plain, may be estimated, as nearly as I could judge without the assistance of a surveyor, to lie from the sea coast at distances ranging from ten, fifteen, to fifty miles, the level of land gaining on the forest as we approached the Rangitikei. Many parts of the country we passed over have indications of having been numerously populated; and my attention was frequently diverted by the old Chiefs, to the fact that the Ngatiapas were formerly a numerous and powerful tribe; of which their existing representtatives are only a diminutive remnant. In confirmation of their statements, they carefully noticed the traces of every deserted village or cultivation we came to; and feelingly described the agency of a disease termed