THE WAKATIP DISTRICT.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 52, 28 October 1863, Page 3

THE WAKATIP DISTRICT.

From Mr. Af'Kerrow's Reconnaisance Survey. Outlet of the Lake.—lt is plain that the Wakatip Lake must have extended formerly over the low fertile track of country that extends east from Frankton to the Crown Ridge. The summits of Peninsula Hill, Morven Hill, and perhaps some of the lesser elevations would then be islets. The old channel of a large river leading away from the south end of the Lake at Kingston, is very suggestive that then the overflow of the Lake had passed away by it, and down the Mataura, to the sea. Examination of the valley, in which this old channel lies, does not readily explain the cause of this rearrangement in nature, for no sudden upheaval has there dammed the waters of the Lake back from their ancient exit; the old channel remains as distinct and as well defined as though the change had only been a thing of a few years. The waters of the Lake have receded rather more than a mile in distance, and left the old channel high and dry. The very abrupt gorge through which the Kawarau (the present outlet of the Lake) flows, suggests that the chauge has been brought about by the sudden erupting force of an earthquake opening a pass through the mountains lower than the level of the then Lake; and that the present deep gutter-like channel of the Kawarau has been the subsequent slow and gradual wearing down of the channel, by the rapid current that sweeps along it.

The Shotover.—The Shotover tanks next to the Dart, of the rivers that are tributary to the Kawarau. It takes its rise in the ice and snow fields of the Richardson and Harris Mountains, and as these are its principal sources, it attains to near its full size early in its course. That for the first 15 miles is S. by E., then eight miles S.W. to the junction of Stony Creek, then nine miles S. in a general direction to Arthur's Point; it there leaves the mountains, and at the same time bends to the east for three miles, and then again S. by E. for other three miles, before joining the Kawarau. On its west side it receives the famous creeks —Skipper's, Stony, Moonlight, and Moke (under) in the order named. The Shotover, during the greater part of its course, is so hemmed in by opposing mountains that its banks are impassable in many places for either man or horse. The confined nature of its banks and the snow-clad watersheds, sufficiently explain the sudden and overwhelming floods which characterise it. The incessant action of the river along one course for ages, has cut out its bed into an abrupt gutter-like channel This, mechanically speaking, may account for the rich auriferous deposits found in the bed of the Shotover; for, as the river kept deepening, the banks would slip into it as a great sluice-box, where coming under the action of so powerful a current, the gold would be washed out and deposited, while the lighter matter would be carried along.

Resources. —The known resources of the Wakatip District are forest, pastoral and agricultural lands, and auriferous deposits. The first three resources are so limited in quantity as to create little or no traffic to and from the district; it would, therefore, devolve almost entirely on the mineral resources of the district to support the road. Goid had been found up to the date of survey over 600 square miles of country; the extent of country found to be payable, and from which the escort returns have come, extends over 360 square miles. The boundary line of this country describes a parallelogram; the north boundary is a line drawn from the head of the Wakatip Lake east to the source of the Arrow on Mount Hyde ; the eastern boundary is a line from the source of the Arrow to its junction with the Kawarau ; then for the remaining boundary lines follow up the Kawarau to the Lake, and then up the east side of the Lake to its head; every creek within this extent, with only one or two exceptions, has been proved to

be highly auriferous. The nearness of the Wakatip Goldfields to the West Coast suggest* the mention of a route to it The distance between the head of the Wakatip Lake and the head of Milford Sound is only 27 miles ; the mountain ridges lie diagonally across the line between these two points ; the height and abruptness of the ridges preclude the possibility of taking a direct course over them ; the only way of traversing this, and indeed all the country bordering on the West Coast, is to follow up the rivers to one or other of their sources, where generally there is a lower and more accessible part in the ridge, over which a pass may be sought.