ALPINE EXPLORATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9669, 6 March 1897, Page 5

ALPINE EXPLORATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

In August, 1893, Mr Arthur P. Harper, as he tells us, applied to and obtained work from the Westland Survey Department, in conjunction with Mr C. E. Douglas, to continue the exploration and mapping of the rivers and glaciers with their surrounding ranges. Mr Douglas had been working for some twenty years, following and traversing rivers to their sources, but none of the larger glaciers had been explored except the moraine-covered Strauchon on the Copland river, and Balfour Glacier on the central branch of Cook river. This -was owing to the want of a man experienced in ice work, Douglas having as a rule, carried his work only to the snow line, and, having neither companion nor Alpine equipment, was unable to go into high altitudes. Mr Harper seems to have been just the man to take up the work ■ where Mr Douglas left it. He had been . ablo to gratify a natural taste for mountaineering, not only in Now Zealand, but in the Swiss Alps, and is evidently blessed . with great pli3*sical strength and powers of endurance. Last, but not least, he seems ) able to keep up his spirits well even under circumstances which Mark Tapley would have felt depressing. The book before us is a modest record of the work ho was able to do as an explorer and an interesting account of the country he traversed, much of it terra incognita. His engagoment with the Government lasted till 1895. He had previously, in 1889-92, made holiday expedi tions to the Tasman district, and is in the , position of being able to say that he has shared in the first exploration of nearly every glacier in the central portion of the Southern Alps. The map which accompanies the book shows the extent of his wanderings. Summing up the results from a topographical point of view the author says, " The information is very advanced. The Westland Survey Department has in its possession tht trigonometrical heights and positions of every peak and col of the Dividing Range, from Elie de Beaumont to South of Mount Sefton, with all the chief peaks of the divergent ranges. These were obtained years ago by the geodesical surveyor to the Government from stations on the sea-coast and Emu Hills. In addition to those observations they have traverses by Douglas and myself of every river and all the principal glaciers in this part of the Alps—innumerable careful sketches, and some 300 of my photographs from sundry points of | vantage on both sides of the Alps, from > which alone a map could be made approximately correct with the compass, clinometer [ and aneroid readings referring to them." After this it is certainly matter for regret to learn that the Government are apparently quite content to leave the information hidden away in the office safe, without attempting to bring out a complete and ' accurate map, such as could be prepared from the data given. Exploration on the wild West Coast is no child's play. Mr Harper nowhere seeks to make much of the hardships he endured—in fact his unfailing cheerfulness gives his book one of its most attractive features. We all know how very terrible Mr Fitzgerald and Zurbriggen found their scramble over the rocks and through the bush of the Copland river. Yet this was not at all a bad river to descend compared with the Landsborough, Cook, or Karangarua rivers, which Mr Harper also explored. For shelter he found the fly of a tent sufficient luxury, and not infrequently had to dispense even with this. For food he used to depend largely on native birds—principally wekas, —and when these failed was more than once within measurable distance of starvation. The following account of a day spent by the author and Mr Douglas while they were surveying the Cook river gives a very good idea of the kind of experiences pioneer explorers- in this country have to meet with:— " We used often to wish that we could see the picture which would present itself to.a man coming up the river; if anyone had by chance followed us he would have seen a low-roofed cavity under a huge boulder, in which sat two ragged men on a log in front of a large fire, and a hungry looking dog lying close by. The men would he of doubtful nationaUty, having long unkempt hair and beards, and with their skins as brown as a penny. In all probability their clothes would be hanging at the side of the fire drying, and they would be sitting with their blankets wrapped round them smoking their pipes, and possibly playing a game of cribbage with a pocket-book marked out as a board ; or perhaps both would be reading—one lying down on the dry scrub which served as bedding and the other sitting up. Periodically the dog would get up, and stretching herself, would put on a piteous blind-man's-dog look in the hopes of coaxing a little something to eat, but without success. A picture of this kind appears dismal, and I suppose the reality was about as depressing as one could imagine. The hours would drag slowly along because we could only afford two small * doughboys'—or suet dumplings—for each meal, and only two meals a day. The weather was too bad to allow us to work, and it seemed little use looking at the aneroid barometer, which however we did constantly, in hopes that it would rise; but even the barometer seemed to have very little effect on the weather. Wet days with plenty of food are not unpleasant, as we could spend considerable time in cooking an elaborate (?) meal, but when hungry and with nothing to cook it is painfully dreary. After consulting our watches periodically during the daj, one of us would exclaim, • By Jove, it's six o'clock at last; let's sling the billy.' " -Right you are_ what are you going to eat? "•I vote for grilled chops, some bread and cheese and a long beer.' " *Oh, I'm tired of chops, let's have some steak and kidney pie, with a Welsh rarebit to follow.' ". * The steak is too tough, what do you say to devilled kidneys.' " * They'll give mc indigestion.' " 'Well, then, goose and apple sauce.' "' I'm sick of goose.' " * You're so .confoundedly particular, shall we;have some dough-boys?' " ' Good idea. Let's have a doughboy for a change.' " Now we had been eating dough-boys for breakfast and dough-boys for tea for some days, and even then only one dough-boy the size of a man's fist ; but such is the depressing effect of the weather and short rations i that we were really amused at our little j joke, and probably repeated it again next morning. I recollect one evening when very hungry telling Douglas of the winter dinner of the Alpine Club in London, at which I was in 1892, and we both felt quite cheerful after thinking of so many good things. In the evening we generally had a game or two of cribbage, discussed various items of news three, or. four months old, which we had just gleaned from the papers, and at soon after eight o'clock boiled the? billy again and made a small drink of cocoa. At nine p.m. having made a large fire we rolled into onr respective blankets and dreamed of. city .banquets and good living until daylight." Mr Harper's observations on the natural history of the districts explored are always interesting: When he was on Fox glacier one morning he found himself the object of considerable attention from some keas or mountain parrots ; at first two or three, but afterwards their number increased to fifteen or more. They annoyed him considerably by their inquisitiveness while he was taking some bearings and photographs, one of them alighting on his back just as he was looking through the compass. What followed was somewhat ludicrous:— "When crossing the Chancellor ridge the keas, which I have referred to, followed mc on the wing but, owing to the ice being very slippery, my progress wa3 too Blow for them; therefore, alighting on the ice, they began to follow mc on foot. Whenever a kea makes its appearance we are prepared for some good fun, as their actions are most ludicrous and their conversation (which is incessant) is almost expressive enough to enable one to understand what they mean. I have had considerable experience with these birds, but have never seen such an intensely funny proceeding as on this * " Pioneer Work in the Alps ot New Zealand : A Record of the First Explorations ot the Chief Glaciers and Ranges of the Southern Alps." By Arthur P. Harper, 8.A., Member of the Alpine Club, VicePresident ct the New Zealand Alpine Club. London: m, f-ftM*-*--**-. "■'■■■•»

particular morning. The keas, having settled on the ice, began to follow mc in a long straggling line, about fifteen of them. They have a preternaturolly solemn walk, but when in a hurry they hop along on both feet, looking very eager ana very much in earnest. To see these fifteen birds hopping along behind in a -string as if their very lives depended on keeping mc in sight, was ridiculously comic, the ice was undulating with little valleys and hummocks, and the birds would now for a second or two disappear into a hollow and now show up on a hummock, pause a moment, aud then hop down again out of sight into the next hollow. To judge by their expressions and manner they were in a great state of anxiety on emerging from a hollow on to a hummock a3 to whether £ was still there. Now and then the one in front'would appear craning his neck, and on seeing mc still ahead would turn round and shriek 'k-e-e-a,' as much as to say 'It's all right boys, como along.' And the others, putting their heads down, would set their teeth and travel • all they knew,' a fat one in the rear evidently making very heavy weather of it. On tho Chancellor Ridge they became offensively inquisitive, and I really could hardly take any photographs owiug to their anxiety to ascertain the maker's name on my camera. However, such is the perversity of affairs in general that it was only when it occurred to mc that a picture of ton or fifteen keas examining my ice-axe would be interesting that they suddenly seemed to remember an appointment elsewhere and disappeared." It is sad to learn that even in these wild solitudes the native birds are rapidly disappearing.. When Mr Douglas visited the Copland Valley, only three years before Mr Harper, ho drew a charming picture of Welcome. Flats, swarming with birds. "The kiwis," ho says, "were of larger size than usual; the wekas were largfl-sized, more like Otago or Canterbury birds. . . The robins ate out of one's hand ; the bellbird sang its chorus in a stylo only now to be heard south of Jackson's Bay • while the blue ducks were aa tame as of yore. . . With the exception of the kakapo (whioh I did not expect to see, as I never saw one outside the mountain bush), every bush bird was represented on the flats." Three years later Mr Harper found it a solitude indeed, with scarcely a bird of any sort to be seen. Douglas was the first man in the valley, and between his visit and Harper's no man had been into those solitudes except Mr Fitzgerald, who did not attempt to catch any birds. " The decrease," says Mr Harper, " must be entirely due to cats and to a greater extent to weasels." It seems almost incredible that any sane Government could have been guilty of the folly of turning weasels into these wilds. No settlement can ever take place here. The bush ought to be strictly preserved, and in the future, when the country is made more accessible, it ought to be the finest hunting ground of the tourist in New Zealand. Mr Douglas considers that some of the scenery in this district is the finest in New Zealand, and that it surpasses the best Swiss scenery. The effeot of turning weasels loose in such country is to destroy one of its chief attractions and add enormously to the difficulties of its exploration, seeing how much the pionier depends on birds for food. We had marked a number of other interesting passages for quotation, such as Mr Harper's account of " the reasoning tree, his Christmas in camp, &c," but space for* bids. We must, however, refer to his eloquent tribute to his friend and comrade, Mr Douglas, who is evidently a New Zea» land explorer of the finest type. It will be remembered that in hia book Mr FitzGeraid claimed the full credit for Zurbriggen and himself of discovering a pass to the West Coast which Government officials had tried to find, but unsuccessfully. Mr Harper shows that this is very unjust to Douglas, who knew of the paBS " discovered" by Mr FitzGeraid, and, indeed, mentioned it in one of his reports. He did not attempt to cross it, because he had been instructed to find a saddle " free of snow and ice for three months every year," in order to allow a track to be taken to the Hermitage from the West Coast, and FitzGerald's pass did not fulfil this condition. As to Douglas's general qualities as an explorer, Mr Harper bears the following testimony, which we have mnoh pleasure in reproducing :— .'• As a naturalist and explorer, Douglas has had few equals in New Zealand, no amount of hardship or difficulty deterred him from his purpose; he was pains-taking and accurate in his reports; he has explored chiefly for the love of such work, and only recently received aid from the Government; he never exaggerated his difficulties or the results of tne expedition; he never attempted to take credit for a single thing which he had not done; he always allowed his companion, when he had one, a full share in the honour of the exploration, and never tried to add to his own Credit by depreciating the work of others. In fact, he is in my-opinion an ideal explorer. A vast deal of his travelling was done alone, with only a dog for company. He carried little until the gradual disappearance of birds compelled him to increase his loads. Douglas says he does not believe in a man unless he has a petty vice, and that is the reason, I suppose, why he allowß the virtue of modesty to become a vice. These notes concerning him are written without his knowledge, for I feared to risk a refusal if I asked his leave. I have taken the responsibility because I feel that a man who has done what he has in the past and who is too worn out to do much more, ought not to be allowed to hide his light under a bushel. It is of publio interest, to New Zealanders at any rate, that he should be known as a great explorer. Many who have done work of a hundred times less importance are well known in the colony—and some who have done far less in other parts of the world with all the advantages of porters, guides and other luxuries, are of world-wide renown, while for want of a fewwords Douglas remains unknown save to a small circle—even in New Zealand. Had he written or lectured on his work he would have, ere now, received honours from learned societies as a naturalist and explorer. I trust he will forgive mc for dragging him before the public from his remote corner, of Westland, and hope he will look upon my action in so doing as evidence of tbe great admiration I have for his past work." Such men are rare and deserving of honour from the country they serve so well. It only remains for us to add a cordial word of praise to Mr Harper, both on account of the useful work which lie has accomplished as an explorer, and the pleasant unaffected manner in which he has set down the results in these pages. A professional bookmaker would have made more thrilling use of the hardships and adventures encountered by the author. It is questionable, however, whether the work would then have possessed the same genuine value that ib does now. A good map and some excellent process reproductions of photographs odd both to its attractiveness and utility.