Wanderlust 1947 July p2

went forth on many adventures. And the sun-seekers did gather of manna for a stew. So it came to pass that when all had gathered together again and partaken of the stew, that they did fold the tents and depart with their goods upon their backs. And in time Sel did appear, praising Hamilton and saying, "Let us now haste back to Auck." And they did so, singing praises and making great noise thereof. So endeth the Pirongia trip. "NO BOOTS." ROCKS. There are no doubt many to whom a rock is a piece of stone and nothing else, except perhaps an annoyance when a small piece finds its way inside a shoe. But it will be found that there are very many different types of rock; the -differences, depending on the Physical and Chemical characteristics. Very often the Physical characteristics are due to the proportions of the mineral constituents. Some rocks are hard, some soft, some, flakey, some bristle, and so on, with an infinite variety of form. Around Auckland the majority of the rock formation is of a volcanic nature, well known as scoria and blue metal. There is also to be seen around the bays of the Harbour the soft papa sandstone. In the Waitakeres we have a scoriaceous conglomerate. In the Moumoukai Hills we have a rock which looks identical with the blue metal quarried anywhere around Auckland and yet is not volcanic in any way, but is entirely sedimentary, that is, it has been laid down on some sea bed as a gradual accumulation of sediment, and with the passage of ages has become compressed into a hard rock called greywacke. Generally rocks may be classified into two broad divisions - Sedimentary and Igneous. Igneous has a broader meaning than volcanic, which type it includes. Sedimentary rocks are all those which have been formed by the deposition of sediment on the bed of the sea, have been compressed to a greater or lesser degree to· form one or another type of rock, and so we have sandstone, greywacke, limestone, shales, etc. Igneous rocks are those which have come up from the depths by various means. We have scoria and pumice ejected from a volcano, lava flowing from a voIcano as a liquid. At times molten rock will rise near the surface of the earth and cool off without breaking through to form a volcano. Later, when the old surface has been worn down this rock is revealed as a granite, rhyolite, or andesite. Reprint "Wanderlust," Oct., 1938. TRAMPING IN THE SOLOMONS. One afternoon four of us decided to go out for a bit of a tramp - actually my first since coming on this island ­ so straight after lunch at about one we started out, clad only in longs, boots and sox. It was a very hot, sultry day with the temperature 90 degrees in the shade, and up in the hills it was very black with threatening rain. One of us had a revolver and I had a machete or cane-knife. Otherwise we had nothing but a few candies. The track led through the planta­tion our camp was in down into the jungle, and then for quite a distance followed up a small stream on which our water-point is situated. Some of the time we walked up the stream-bed, and the rest in the damp jungle beside it, with occasional breaks when we came on native gardens. It was often difficult here to pick up the right track as there were several entering the garden from all sides. However, we managed all right and soon began to climb up steep spurs, very similar to the Filter Track and equally as steep. It was very hot going and the sweat was just streaming out of us, making it very hard to see. At one point I stopped suddenly with a very unpleasant start to find I was on a black snake which was lying in the track. I had my boot right on it, but quickly stepped back and the thing slowly slithered off over the dead leaves and roots. Leo brought his pistol into· action then and had three shots at it. all of which missed and left the snake completely unmoved. So I decided it was my turn to try and exterminate it, so went to work with the machete. I was a little doubtful about getting too close to it, but a couple of swipes put it out of