Thus baffled, I determined to try the opposite side of the fall, and on the following day we crossed the Waikato at Tapuwaeharuru, and rode across the wide pumice plain between the valley of the river and the great mountain Tauhara. It was when crossing this level tract of weird pumice country, where nothing could be seen but stunted _manuka_ and tussock grass, that we came across, and, in fact, nearly galloped into an enormous fissure, which we did not perceive until we were right on its brink. It was about three quarters of a mile long, running at right angles to the river, and over 100 feet in depth. Now, although on the hard dry plain over which we rode the vegetation was sparse and stunted, down in this chasm there was a beautiful and varied growth of mosses, trees, and ferns, all growing in unsurpassed luxuriance upon the hard pumice soil. A small stream, which came out from under the ground at the head of this deep valley, wound down its centre; and as we gazed upon the varied growth below, it looked like a veritable oasis in a wilderness. To any one anxious to act the part of a modern Quintus Curtius, I know of no better place. When we gained the Huka Falls on this side, we crawled down a steep, precipitous cliff, and by the aid of a rope let ourselves down a wall of rock some fifty feet in height, until we reached a dense growth of scrub and fern, which fringed the rocks on this side of the pool. We came suddenly into a rustic-looking spot in a cluster of bush, where the water from a spring in the cliff above dropped like a shower-bath upon our heads, and from this point we again got out to the moss-grown, slippery rocks on the margin of the river. The wind, too, being across the falls, blew clouds of spray all around us, and it was with great difficulty we crept round the body of water and right under the centre of the shoot, where the full volume of the Waikato rolled over our heads. On this side a series of rocky ledges, each about a foot wide, formed the inner wall, and these were covered everywhere with a thick growth of bright-green mosses, and there was just sufficient room for us to stand without being caught by the fall and drawn into the vortex that hissed below like a steaming cauldron, as the millions of tons of bright-blue water fell with echoing roar at our feet. So far our adventures beneath the waters of the Huka were satisfactory, but I could not recommend any one to repeat the experiment. Our researches, however, proved beyond a doubt that it is not possible to pass under the Huka Falls from one side to the other.