THE WILD WEST COAST.

Grey River Argus, 21 June 1906, Page 4

THE WILD WEST COAST.

(By Dr. T. F. Macdonald. )

She looks towards the setting sun o'er burning seas and skies With wonder in her youthful face, and. ■'.'■• lustre in her eyesv ; She stands .upon a rockrbound shore, and draws the Westland. air Deep down, unconscious of her - ... strength, unknowing she is fair. O, wild West Coast, by mountains walled, as if by nature plannedj In all the circle of the seas I know no fairer land;

In the rondure of the earth where are the hilsl like thine, In sweeping lines, and linked strength : and touched with grace divine ! ; Why gaze into those vacant skies, across those fruitless seas, When love is calling from thy streams ■ and whispering in' thy trees ? ._.: ' ■ ■;'■; ; II __ ■; ....; ■ ■ A healing sound of water freshly pour -'ing from the hills, ; From shingle-bed to , snow-capped j peaks," Otifa's valley fills; And there thy wounded ones may rest 1 " " from, social. stress and strain, iAnd with the balm of nature build their "happiness" again. The. river of Otif a moves with soft and sinuous tread, A thing of life in shining mail to eyes wth fancy fed — - - Uncoiling swiftly from the Gorge 1 in westward leap to fight With foam-fanged jaws, the granite rocks • and churn them in his might. Olira's torrents roar in flood; and over them the wind jComes down the pass with strident shrieks, an omnipresent fiend, To shift the shingle down the hills, and burst the clouds, and blow 'The workmen's tents to shfeds, and ' lay the "forest giants low. Otira's mountains, range on range, „ on _ either. bank uprise - In bastioned might and grandeur, meet foundations for the skies; I And looking upward through the I gloom, nor sun nor moon in sight ji Infinite space seems but a dome of 1' vapour lashed with light. Otira's sabaoth of trees, when winter dips her wing" ' I Beneath the kingdom of the hills 1- to whiten everything, , jAre veiled in flowing! robes of frost, I a mute, unmoving," throng lAs if Otira called them forth - and 1 chained them there with song ; Otira's sun leans on a throne of rocks embossed with snow, And calls the shadows from their" haunts, and bids the stars to glow What time the 'housewife tends the fire and trims the lantern's oil lo light the children home from school the workman from his toil 111 A world of restless elements! In ac- ' tion fresh and bold j With every shifting of the scene new I tragedies unfold; But beauty ] oves those hills of thine 3 c , and l ° *eir crimson tips ' SLc clambers-wh'en^e sunrise comes to touch them with her lips. " ;