To Make This Entrance Plain, It Will Be
Necessary To Approach The Shore Within A Few Miles, As All The Land Within
And On Each Side Is Of Considerable Height.
Its situation may, however, be
known at a greater distance, as it lies under the first craggy mountains
which rise to the north of the land of Five Fingers Point.
The southernmost
of these mountains is remarkable, having at its summit two small hillocks.
When this mountain bears S.S.E. you will be before the entrance, on the
south side of which are several isles. The westernmost and outermost is the
most considerable, both for height and circuit, and this I have called
Break sea Isle, because it effectually covers this entrance from the
violence of the southwest swell, which the other entrance is so much
exposed to. In sailing in you leave this isle as well as all the others to
the south. The best anchorage is in the first or north arm, which is on the
larboard hand going in, either in one of the coves, or behind the isles
that lie under the south-east shore.
The country is exceedingly mountainous, not only about Dusky Bay, but
through all the southern part of this western coast of Tavai Poenammoo. A
prospect more rude and craggy is rarely to be met with, for inland appears
nothing but the summits of mountains of a stupendous height, and consisting
of rocks that are totally barren and naked, except where they are covered
with snow. But the land bordering on the sea-coast, and all the islands,
are thickly clothed with wood, almost down to the water's edge. The trees
are of various kinds, such as are common to other parts of this country,
and are fit for the shipwright, house-carpenter, cabinet-maker, and many
other uses. Except in the river Thames, I have not seen finer timber in all
New Zealand; both here and in that river, the most considerable for size is
the Spruce-tree, as we called it, from the similarity of its foliage to the
American spruce, though the wood is more ponderous, and bears a greater
resemblance to the pitch-pine. Many of these trees are from six to eight
and ten feet in girt, and from sixty to eighty or one hundred feet in
length, large enough to make a main-mast for a fifty-gun ship.
Here are, as well as in all other parts of New Zealand, a great number of
aromatic trees and shrubs, most of the myrtle kind; but amidst all this
variety, we met with none which bore fruit fit to eat.
In many parts the woods are so over-run with supplejacks, that it is
scarcely possible to force one's way amongst them. I have seen several
which were fifty or sixty fathoms long.
The soil is a deep black mould, evidently composed of decayed vegetables,
and so loose that it sinks under you at every step; and this may be the
reason why we meet with so many large trees as we do, blown down by the
wind, even in the thickest part of the woods.
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