A NIGHT AT LAKE KANIERI.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3918, 19 March 1881, Page 2

A NIGHT AT LAKE KANIERI.

[TO THE EDITQB.] Sib, — For thoise of your readers interested ia the natural beauty of Westland, I enclose an- extract from the letter of a tourist who was inland through a good portion of the Coast a short time ago. The letter after rather hurriedly describing the Alps, the Francis Joseph Glacier, Lake Mapourika, and one or two other of our more southern )ake3, lingers over Kanieri Lake aB follows. •'lpaid two visits to Kanieri Lake. It is easy to get at being nine miles through the bush by a metalled track fiom the township of that name, or twelve miles from flokitika. It is a beautiful lake. In some respects now more so even than Mapourik, or Brunner. I shall never forget an evening and night there. At the cloae of a warm day tired after Beveral previous days of unusually heavy travelling, 1 had reached it just at sunset, to find vexingly the tints being cast amongst hills and mountains more than half hidden in a veil of clouds. But there was J the lake! Nestling with a wild loveliness amidst the veiled grandeur of the hills with the exquisite tints of sunset over if, it lay j its depths as clear as healthful eyes. Wooded peninsulars, and in the distance two small islands rested in it. On it broods of grebe and little ducks revelled in the evening light. From the bush around it echoed the Tui's sonorous farewell note and the swell of the rippling wavelets - upon its pebbly shore was as the music of aipeaceful song. Under the charm of it, Ijrambled round its lower bays till dusk ; gathering as the light faded away some dried wood together for a fire. Then making a bed under a rata tree, and aft3r A , having some food, I laid me down at rest Jk to listen to the alower lapping of the water as it gradually settled into stillness under ' the spell of a perfectly breathless night. " Now in intense stillness began an upraiungof the veil. Softly, first from off the nearer hills, then from off a higher, piercing outline of peaks, thence from oS the snowy masses of the highest mountains, lifted the clouds. Above them opened the vault of heaven bright with stars, and the moon appeared ; until by degrees within the silent mirror of the lake was pictured first the black reflection of the bush clad hills ; second an inner sharper reflection of silvery fringed peaks ; and then the alpine white immensity of snows • whilst within towards the centre of it all remained a clear open space of glassy water ■ studded with stars and with "the pale chaste image of the moon, " Moved by the divine loveliness of the scene, I uttered aloud an almost involunj tary exclamation of worship. The utterance was caught and returned in a solemn j double and treble echo from amongst the hills. I spake again. Again came the I echo through the night's intense stillness, broken only by the sound of crested grebe upon the lake,' and the far-off distant murmur of water falling in the mountains. Once during the night I heard the shrill scream of a Koapiroa, and twice or thrice the notes o: one or two owls ; but save these, there was not a sound to break the holy and unutterable calm. "Towards morning the clouds again desceaded upon the mountains ; and with the characteristic changefulness of Westland's atmosphere, the stars and tha lake itself soon became absorbed in a misty rain. Deeply thankful however, for what I had seen, and with a fall heart, I wrapped my blankets tightly around me, pulled over me my indlarubber waterproof, l and slept."