XLIV.

THE UNKNOWN LAND.


C. returned the next day from V.'s boma, bringing more potio and some
trade goods. We sent a good present back to Naiokotuku, and prepared for
an early start into the new country.

We marched out of the lower end of our elliptical valley towards the
miniature landscape we had seen through the opening. But before we
reached it we climbed sharp to the right around the end of the
mountains, made our way through a low pass, and so found ourselves in a
new country entirely. The smooth, undulating green-grass plains were now
superseded by lava expanses grown with low bushes. It was almost exactly
like the sage-brush deserts of Arizona and New Mexico--the same coarse
sand and lava footing, the same deeply eroded barrancas, the same
scattered round bushes dotted evenly over the scene. We saw here very
little game. Across the way lay another range of low mountains clothed
darkly with dull green, like the chaparral-covered coast ranges of
California. In one place was a gunsight pass through which we could see
other distant blue mountains. We crossed the arid plain and toiled up
through the notch pass.

The latter made very difficult footing indeed, for the entire surface of
the ground was covered with smooth, slippery boulders and rocks of iron