NOTES OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH OF THE NELSON DISTRICT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 159, 22 March 1845, Page 11

NOTES OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH OF THE NELSON DISTRICT.

March 8, 1845.— Left Nelson with the intention of penetrating by the country westward of Rotuiti Lake towards the west coast, in lat 42°; imagining that a careful exploration "of the Fox Ravine, visited on a former trip, would lead us to the Large Lake, and probably to the coast, near the sealing ground of Cape Foulw,eather. 12th. On arriving at the Fox River, near the Rotuiti Lake, found it so flooded as to preclude the possibility of our advancing farther to^he south-west. Returned, therefore, round the lake to its southern head, .'here the Rotuiti River falls into it ; and !-vfter dinner proceeded a considerable dis'i.ine?; south, up the ravine of the Rotuiti, L'ld encamped.

i - ■ During our progress through the big wood and around the lake, we were much disappointed at the scarcity of birds and eels. THis was the more serious on account of our having chiefly loaded ourselves with powder and shot in place of provisions, with the expectation of procuring abundant supplies therefrom.

13th. After proceeding some distance •arther up the ravine, to about the point .vhich Mr. Cotterell attained in his second expedition, and finding it becoming exremely narrow, we divested ourselves of i ;verything which we carried but what was nbsolutely necessary for about three days' sustenance and the procuring of fire, and <:ommenced the ascent of the mountain range to our left. Its side was wooded -'vith white birch and scrub to about twothirds of its height, and the summit was bare rock. From the top we saw the lake and over the big wood to the confines of the Nelson country. To the west, a range parallel to that which we were on partly obscured the view, but behind it appeared i|ti places the lower land to the southward 6f the Devil's Grip ; and to the eastward lay a small valley at the foot of the ridge, which we imagined to be the extreme head qi' the.Wairatf. Farther the view was shut in by Snowy peaks.

The air here was remarkably dry and cold, but without being unpleasantly so. Snow lay in the crevices of the rockj but ■was not general. When within about 15 miles of this spot, in November last year, the whole mountain heights appeared thickly covered with snow, and their ascent would then have been impracticable. .Descended the range to the eastward, and encamped in the valley before alluded to, in which we found the water running to the north-east, proving it to be the source of, or a tributaryrto, the Wairau. Heavy rain this evening, with intense cold. Our situation rather unpleasant ; for should the wet weather last the snow on the range we had descended would debar our return to the prace in which we had left our supplies ; and with the rivers flooded the passage to the coast must be jprecarious. Still no birds. 14th. Fine morning. Continued our progreM to the south-east; ascending a

range which we supposed to be a spur of the Kai-koras. This ridge is that which Captain Cook denominated the " Southern Alps," and must be the most considerable elevation in the island ; probably about 8,000 feet from the level of the sea, though not more than 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the adjacent valleys.

It was not without much scrambling over sharp rocky fragments and along steep and fearful inclinations that we reached the summit, whence we had an extensive view before us. Below, to the eastward, diverged the various shoulders of the mountain, and below them a slope of apparently fine land, with patches of forest, extended to the sea, the very distant horizon of which was blended with the sky. The more even land on the coast might have been about fifteen miles from us, but the inferior ridges would have rendered tedious its access, added to which we had but one day's scanty provisions remaining with us. There is a humorous saying, that ascend what hill one may in New Zealand, one is sure to find a higher hill behind it, a little farther off; and even here the snowy peaks of the same range exceeded by many hundred feet the elevation of the highest point which we attained. Descended to the first spring on the hill side on our return to the Wairau, and encamped.

15th. Descended to the Wairau, and recrossed the mountains to the Rotuiti ravine.

16th. Returning down the ravine and along the shore of the lake. Here were evident traces of the three Rangitani natives from the Motuaka ; the country having been burnt, and snares for Paradise ducks remaining on the flat land at the head of the lake.

17th. On encamping in the big wood were joined by Mr. Fox and party, returning from Queen Charlotte's Sound by the Waitoi and Wairau valleys. Reached Nelson on the 20th.

The level land which we looked upon from the Kaikoras must, we find, be that extending on the east coast, from the position of what is marked on the chart as the Lookers-on Bay towards Gore's Bay, near Banks's Peninsula. These bays, however, are not as they appear in the map, and if any at all similar exist, they are but small inlets serving for boat harbours. The coast we looked on consists of extended beaches for probably thirty miles, and with the exception of one spot in which we observed water, as of a river sparkling, there appeared no bays or deep indentations in the line of coast. This country, from its position, we may conclude joins the lower land of the Port Cooper district. Whether there exists any level track connecting it with the Nelson country has yet to be ascertained. Some of the unexplored valleys leading from the upper part of the Wairau are likely to communicate with it, and appear to do so by the reports of the natives. Charles Heaphy. Charles Christie.