Tenakoe.

Once again the steamer's prow is turned up-stream, and soon the full beauty and splendour of the scenery bursts into view. From the very water's edge rise steep palisades of ferns and lichens, broadening and spreading as they recede into majestic bush-cloaked hills and gloomy valleys, through which many a mountain torrent rushes, giving wonderful strength and growth to the vegetation, from among which the giant puangas rear their graceful fronds. It is out of the stems of the puanga that whares are built. The thick blue-black smoke escapes through the spaces between the stems, in its passage giving durability and strength to the whare, which sometimes lasts over 100 years. Amidst the whare smoke discomforts are soon forgotten, and the meal of wild pork and steamed potatoes, hot from the "umu," are heartily enjoyed, the circle of hungry brown men and women helping themselves liberally with nature's knives and forks watched, meanwhile, by the still hungrier, yet patient dogs.

Holiday under the Ferns.