QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 162, 12 April 1845, Page 23

QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND.

To Tns Editor op the Nelson Examiner

Sir — As the very interesting and glowing (yet equally truthful) description of the larger portion of Queen Charlotte's Sound in your paper of the 29th of March would naturally awaken some curiosity respecting the remainder, I trouble you with a short account of the upper portion, or that left unvisited and therefore undescribed by Mr. Stephens and his party. I speak of that part which " has never been surveyed or properly explored," from the result of a partial exploration in company with Mr. Patchett and others in March, 1843 ; on which occasion we walked from the head of the Sound to the Pelorus and Kaituna.

The Sound terminates abruptly about six miles from the Waitoi valley, lessening in width to about a mile at its extremity. As at Otago, Port Cooper, the Bluff, and other harbours, a considerable mudflat intervenes between the harbour and deep water. This circumstance, which forms a serious drawback to Port Cooper as a site for a settlement, is comparatively immaterial here, as the connexion of the Waitoi with the Wairau seems to point out the mouth of the former valley as the probable site of the important settlement that must one day be formed somewhere on these shores. There is, however, a channel suitable for heavy boats at almost any state of the tide through the flat, and remaining navigable about a quarter of a mile up the fertile valley beyond. There are two valleys of some extent meeting here. The one already spoken of is separated by an almost imperceptible rise from another at its head falling in the opposite direction, and terminating in a large arm of the Oyerri or Pelorus.

The district that we traversed between these arms of Queen Chaalotte's Sound and the Pelorus contains about three or four thousand acres of level or (what is in every respect preferable) gently sloping land, the greater part magnificently timbered, and the whole well watered and of the finest possible description. The native who accompanied us called this district Mocapahwah, and assured us that it had never been visited by white people before. The other valley (which we did not ascend above a mile) is in every respect similar to the first, except in point of extent, in which perhaps it is superior. There are several other valleys joining the Mocapahwah, both as tributaries to the valley of the Sound and that of the Pelorus, one or two of which are of considerable promise. Indeed the whole country hereabout, whether in respect to its surpassing beauty and fertility or in any other, is of the most inviting character. I am, sir, Your most obedient servant, W. Barnicoat.