The Long Look-out.

Gazing far out from one of these high and leafy places, the eye ranges along the curve of coast, with its white line of surf ever advancing and retreating, until the even crescent terminates in the distant pinnacled cliffs of Cape Kidnappers, which the Maoris call Te Matau-a-Maui, meaning “Maui's Fish-hook.” The whole bay in fact is the fish-hook of the heroic legend, with far away Mahia Peninsula in the other direction—another island-like cliff of limestone, as the barb of the hook. The earthquake of last year raised consternation in the famous sanctuary of the gannet tribe at the Matau, but the myriads of seabirds soon returned to their cliffy homes.