OUR EXPLORATION MAP OF THE INTERIOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6757, 14 July 1883, Page 5

OUR EXPLORATION MAP OF THE INTERIOR.

We issue to-day, -with each number of the New Zhaland Herald, a sketch map of the explorations made in the King Country by our Special Commissioner. It will be seen at a glance that Mr. Nicholla' journey, which has already been in part deecribed in our columns, embraces a large extent of country, beginning at Tauranga Ln the cast and extending southward to tho Manganui-a-te-Ao River at its junction with the Whanganui, and thence northward to Alexandra. Considerably more than halt of the route traversed was through a region which was, to all intents and purposes, a terra incognita, but we venture to think that the information which we today lay before our readers will do much to make known an important and interesting portion of the colony, which has hitherto been a I comparative blank on our best maps. The table of altitudes of the various camping places and stations of observation throughout the country explored will be found to be of considerable interest and importance, as 1 showing the rise and fall in the altitude of the country over a widely extended area. By these results, which have been arrived at by a carefully devise.l system of barometrical observations, the conformation of a large portion of the island may be arrived at. Thus, beginning at Tauranga and taking that place at 10 feet above sea level, it will be seen that the land rises rapidly from tho coast line for a distance of abnut twenty miles, when, at the Mangorewa Gorge, it attains to an altitude of 1750 feet. From that point it falls towards the south nntil the table-land of the lake region is reached, when, at Ohinemutu, it has an altitude of £162 feet. From the latter place, still going southward, the tableland rises with an elevation varying from 1000 to 1500 feet, until it'falls towards the valley of the Waikato, where, at Ateamuri. it is not more than GSO feet above the level of the sea. Further along it g.-adually rises until it reaches Oruanui, some rifteen miles j distant, where an altitude of 1625 feet is attaiued until the country again falls to the extensive table-laud of Taupo, where, over a large area, it maintains an elevation vaiying from 1000 to 1400 feet, the great lake itself standing at an altitude of 1175 feet. Southward of Lake Taupo the Kangipo table-land varies from 2000 to 3000 feet, until it falls i towards the south coast, giving an altitude, at Karioi, on the Murimotu Plains, of 2400 feet. Westward of this point the country fulls gradually to SGO feet to the valley of the ! Wauganui, and frt>m that region going east- ] ward to the Waimarino Plains it attains to an 1 elevation of 2550 feet in a distance of about ' thirty miles. Northward again, along the western table-l:ind of Lake Taupo, it varies iu height from 1000 to 2420 feet, until the t Tokapiti Valley is reached, where it is only j 000 feet. In the Te Toto Ranges au altitude ] of 1700 feet is attained until, at Mi.ngarongo, , \ •i deep bcsiu-like depression in the valley of j the Waipa, the land is not more than 50 feet above sea-hvel. It is worthy of remark, as shewing with what accuracy under favourable conditions heights may be determined by the * aneroid barometer, that, after Mr. Nicholls ! had fixed the altitude of Lake Taupo at 1175 feet, a eooiparison was made at tne Survey Office in Auckland with the result obtained ( during the trigonometrical survey of the dis- ( trict, when it was found that there was only a foot of difference between the two measurements. Hochstetter p'.aced the height of . the lake at 1250 and Diffenbach at 1337 ' feet above the level of the sea. ]