it has an evident, but very gentle slope towards the sea, and its surface is quite unbroken, save by one or two small patches of sandhills, which appear to indicate that the sea at one time had occupied a higher level than at present. “About four in the afternoon we reached Mr. Deans’, and were most hospitably received and entertained by that gentleman and his brother, whom we found living in a most comfortable verandah house, with large and substantial out-buildings, and surrounded with abundance of comforts and necessaries, as well as many of the luxuries of life.
“April 7th—Messers. Tuckett and Davidson arrived this morning after breakfast, having passed a miserable night on the plain without firewood or shelter.”
The travellers had, in fact, been most unfortunate in their choice of a route to the Messrs. Deans brothers’ homestead. Starting, as has been seen, from the head of the Bay, they probably descended to the plains by Gebbie’s Valley. The country was flooded at the time, and they found themselves entangled in a network of creeks, with which the swamp at the foot of the hills was intersected. In attempting to cross one of them, Mr. Tuckett made use of a Maori raft made of mokihi. The native method of propulsion was to sit astraddle and propel the frail craft with bare feet, but Mr. Tuckett’s more civilised methods ended in disaster, and the two prospectors spent a damp and uncomfortable night in the swamp, and did not reach the Deans’ hospitable homestead till the following day. Probably their misadventure had something to do with prejudicing Mr. Tuckett against the Port Cooper Plains.
Dr. Monro’s diary presents a pleasant picture of the Deans’ settlement. About six acres were then under crop, and “they have sixty head of cattle, and about thirty sheep, besides horses. The cattle are in very good condition, the sheep moderately so, but they are confined within a limited space, in consequence of the number of
