SOURCE OF THE RAKAIA

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 15179, 17 December 1909, Page 4

SOURCE OF THE RAKAIA

.—«, VISITED BY SCIENTISTS. AN INTERESTING EXPEDITION. DE COCKAYNE'S RESEARCHES. A little scientific expedition, consisting of Dr L. Cockayne, Mr R. Speight, assistant-curator at Canterbury Museum, and Messrs Gudex and Wigley, Canterbury College students, has returned to Christchurch from a scientific expedition to the head-waters of the Rakaia River. They were away for ten days, and were very successful in their work, gaining a great deal of fresh knowledge of the region they visited. They camped for part of the time, but they state that much of the success was due to tho generosity of Mr Wood, of Lake Heron Station, who extended to them many hospitalities. Dr Cockayne has supplied an interesting account of tho operations of the expedition. "It is about fifty years since Sir Julius Von Haast first made known to the world the wonderful scenery which lies hidden far in the bosom of the Southern Alps, at the sources of the Rakaia River," he sak. to a reporter. "He collected a few plants in the vicinity, but no' list ol them was published, and, botanically, the region is a terra This also applied to that great glacfer, the Lyall, which forms one of the sources of the river.' Thanks, however, to th energy of Mr Speight, this gap in our knowledge no longer exists. While 1 was seeking to gain some knowledge ol the unknown plant-life tlx e, Mr Speight and his companions were engaged in traversing the Lyall glacier right to its source in the snow-fields of the dividing range, 5000 ft or more above the sea.

" We camped on the south side of the river, opposite the terminal face of the Ramsay Glacier, which, at this point, and for some miles, is so covered with stony debris that no trace of ice is visible. On the north bank of the river, rich meadows of plants were plainly seen, but the rushing, milkwhite waters of the stream, bearing in their impetuous flow huge blocks of stone, made the passage of the river altogether impossible. My investigations then were limited to the mountains on the south side, which, as they are exposed to the full sunshine, are by no means rich in plant-life. At the same time, there is a good deal of matter of interest. • For instance, instead of the usual beech forest of the Canterbury subalpine region, there is one of totara, within which the native holly grows to enormous dimensions, stretching out widely-spreading branches horizontally for 40rt or more, pale brown in colour, and with longhanging papery strips of bark. In tue forest, also, there is the mountain ribbonwcod, Gaya Lyallii, which in the proper season is covered with its cherrylike white blossoms. This particular species does not extend beyond the regions of the western rainfall, being replaced in the dryer eastern locality by the closely related Gaya Ribiioha, which has' thicker leaves, covered more closely with white hairs, and is therefore better able to resist drought. In the young stage these two plants are so much alike that it is hard to tell one from the other, although the adu t forms are so distinct. It is evident that the two species have recently descended from a common ancestor. Much of the totara forest has been destroyed by fire, but Nature is making brave efforts to repair the damage, and a new growth, corresponding with that ot the higher regions, and made up of various kinds of shrubs, is rapidly being reinstated, while it is almost certain that this, in its turn, will be transformed into such forest as was there originally. . , ~ ... "In order to investigate the Alpine flora, I ascended to about 5000 ft on the slopes of Mount Murray, from which point a splendid view was gained of the scenery, which is second only to that of Mount Cook, leaving out of consideration scenery like that on the "West Coast Sounds or on Stewart Island, which depends on the plant covering as much as on the geological formation. Distances, in the clear atmosphere of the Southern Alps, are so greatly reduced that it seemed as if one could throw a stone across the valley on to the sides of the greet mass of Mount Ramsay, which formed a wall of hanging'glaciers and dark precipices, 8000 ft high, reminding me of the famous Wetterhorn of the Bernese Oberland. Close by, the sky was pierced |

with the tapering cone of purest white of Louper's Peak, which forms the southern rampart of Whitcombe's Pass. Further to the west, there was the upper part of the Lyall Glacier, behind which rose sharply the needle-like Mount Tyndall, and, to its south, the wonderfully beautiful serrated peaks of the Goethe Range. "To return to the plants, the rarest of the region is Godley's buttercup, which is confined to the central Southern Alps, between Mount Cook and Browning's Pass. In appearance it 'resembles the well-known mountain lily, but the flowers are yellow, instead of white, while the leaf has not, shieldlike, the stalk in its centro. " Generally speaking, bird life was not conspicuous. We saw one or two wekas in the open, and a few tiny riflemen in the forest. On the riverbed of the lake stream, about as far from the sea as it was possible for them to get, was a nesting colony of the common black-backed gull. The only birds in any abundance wore paradise ducks. These we could both see and bear everywhere on the riverbeds. Blue lucks were rare, only one or two pairs jeing noted. " As far as the botanical results of the little expedition are concerned, I did not find any now species or any rarities, but I will be able to prepare a list which will probably embody ihree-quarters of the Alpine plants of '.he district, and I have mapped out, vith some degree of accuracy, the plant i'ormation hitherto quite unknown, up to an altitude of somo 5000 feet.

"On this the anniversary of Hie p-ovince, a day when the ild colonists- are telling of their early experiences in a land without roads and bridges we are apt to forget the difficulties of the pion< ;r are by no means gone forever in Canterbury, and those who wish to know somehing of them ought to go on foot to 'he head-waters of such a stream as the Rakaia."

Dr Cockayne has brought back a large number of living specimens of llants, wlrich ho will grow in his garden.