ME. DOBSON'S EXPLORATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1372, 14 March 1865, Page 5

ME. DOBSON'S EXPLORATION.

The following reports have been placed at our disposal for publication by the Provincial Government : — . Christchurch, March 12th, 1865. WEST COA6T BRIDLE TRACK. Sir,—l have the honour to inform you that, after having carefully reconnoitred the proposed route from the Waimakariri to the Teremakau by the rivers Bealey and Otira, and am of opinion that it will be impracticable to construct a line of road for horse traffic in this direction. The great, and I may say, the only difficulty to be overcome on the proposed line is, the gorge of the Otira at a point about two miles north of the saddle, where for about one mile, road, owing to the precipitous nature of the hill sides, would have to be constructed entirely in the bed of the river, which is, in this place, almost a cascade, falling with great violence over immense boulders, in a very narrow channel between two perpendicular walls of rock. The cost of constructing even a horse track in this place would be immense, and the road would require repairing, or very probably entire re-construction, every time a fresh occurred in the river. I am, therefore, of opinion that the only way to open a communication by this route, would be, to cut a horse track to the north side of the saddle, and establish a depot on the Otira, where the open riverbed commences, leaving the remaining distance, about two miles to be travelled on foot. _ ; After my description of the gorge, it will be hardly necessary to add, that this communication would l)e completely stopped by the slightest fresh, in the river. On ir.y return journey, I followed the east branch of the Otira to its source, and, after climbing a very high saddle, and scrambling through some thick bush, found myself in the east branch of the river Bealey. A horse track might easily be constructed by this route, and would have the advantage of necessitating very few river crossings, but the upper part of the road would be constantly outof repair, owing to the loose nature of the hill sides* and the saddle is so vfcry high that the road would probably be rendered useless by snow during the greater part of the year. You will, however, appreciate the directness of tins route, when I inform you, that although obliged in many places to force my way slowly through tnicK bush, I walked from the Teremakau to Messrs. Goldney's station on the Waimakariri in two days, carrying on my back a week's provisions. I enclose a sketch map of the two routes, And have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, George Dobson. The Hon. John Hall, Secretary for Public Works. Christchurch, March 13th, 1865. ACCOUNT'OF A JOURNEY FROM CHRISTCHURCH TO

THE RIVIiK TKREMAKAU. February 27, 1865.—Left Christcjmrch withi two men, Russell and Anderson, and drove up to «w • Goidney'a station on the Waitnakariri, at place we arrived in the evening the 28th. , Started next morning with two pack honse , followed up the Waimakariri and Bealey of the grass flats, where we camped for the ng • March 2.—Left the horses in charge oi • O'Brien, who had kindly volunteered to nr gWa es back to the station, and having packed up walked up the gorge of the river as far as P I then climbed up the cliffs on the J the followed through the bush till we cft ™ aV :i y we saddle, when the rain coming on very « .by were obliged to camp for the night m the the side of a small lake. ' . the flom- ' March B.—Followed dowa the _Otir» j mencement of the gorge, having r6CO

which 1 determined on taking down half at the time to left the flour. I started down with the remainder of the stores, &c. found it very rough travelling down the gorge, so climbed the cliffs on the east side, hauling up our swags after us by the slings. I pushed through the bush till we came to a shingle creek, falling in from the east, where we camped, and commenced cutting a track through the bush to avoid this part of the gorge. March 4.—finished cutting the track by which this part of the gorge is avoided, marked both ends by breaking down the branches of the trees outside, brought down the flour, and leaving it at the bottom of the track, shifted camp down through the rest of the gorge, and three miles down the open river bed, where we could see a large double peaked hill en the north side of the Teremakau. This part of the gorge (which it is impossible to avoid) we found tolerably easy travelling, the river being very low; but should there be much water in the river, it would be impossible to get down, as it has to be crossed sixteen times in two miles, sometimes by fording and sometimes by jumping from boulder to boulder, between which the water rushes with great force.

March 5, Sunday.—Walked back up the gorge, and brought the flour to camp. Looking up the western branch of the Otira to-day I observed a large opening in the range. There is, apparently, a low pass in that direction. March 6.—Walked down to the Teremakau, where we met three parties of diggers going to the Okitiki via the Greenstone Creek, which place they expected to reach the next evening. The general feeling amongst them seemed to be, that if they had known the road had been so bad, they would have gone round by sea. They had, however, been extremely fortunate, the Teremakau being extremely low. Walked up the Otira, and camped at the mouth of the east branch, up which I intended to return.

March 7.—After breakfast Anderson asked if I would give him enough provisions to carry him to the diggings, which I consented to do, knowing the uselessness of arguing with a man touched with the yellow fever. Russell, however, determined to stay with me, and see me back over the range. I was much pleased with, his conduct, as, had he left me, I should have been obliged to give up all further explosions and return alone. Taking with us a week's provisions, we followed up the east branch of the Otira, where for a long way up we had easy walking; but the hills at last closing in, a rough scramble of about two miles, over boulders and through bush, brought us to the foot of a saddle, up which we had to climb on our hands and knees. On reaching the top I saw by the character of the bush, that we were looking down the east side of the range, so followed down the creek, which rises from the saddle, until we came to the bush where we camped. This saddle, which I have called the " Goat's Pass," must be immensely high, as the bush does not grow to : within several hundred feet of the summit.

March 3, —Followed the creek bed as far down as possible, and then took to the bush, but, unfortunately, taking the wrong side of the creek, became entangled amongst a mass of cliffs covered with thick bush out of which we had some difficulty in extricating ourselves, having to throw our swags down through the bush, and lower ourselves after them by the branches of the trees. On getting into the open river-bed, I saw that we were in the east branch of the river Bealey, and throwing away. the remainder of our provisions, we started off at a good pace, determined to reach Messrs. Goldney's station that evening, having walked from the Teremakau in two days. From this place I was obliged to drive to town, having lost my saddle horse, and being delayed by heavy rain on the 9th and 10th, which caused an Unusually high fresh in the river Kowai; did not reach town until late in the evening of Saturday, the llth March. In concluding this account, I should wish to add a few remarks on the general character of the two routes.

The western route by the saddle, which I have called Arthur's Pass, would be travelled on foot with great ease, provided a track were cut from the open 'bedof the Bealey to the top of the saddle, and that the Otira\was low. At present, going up to the saddle entails a scramble through bush and over rocks, which I would rerecommend no one to attempt; and however good a track might be cut over the saddle, the slightest fresh in the Otira would render the gorge completely impassable. About the eastern route, by what I ha,ve called the Goat's Pass, very few words need be written. It is, by this time, probably snowed up, whilst the appeari ance of the gorge of the east branch of the Bealey is quite sufficient to deter any one from attempting to go up it. I am, however, of opinion that an available pass will eventually be discovered between the *Waimakariri and Teremakau, the great advantage of tfhich route will be, that on whatever stream of the Waimakariri the pass may be situated, a dray may be taken, in the present state of the road, up to the foot of the saddle. George Dobson.