DUSKY SOUND GRANDEUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20990, 29 September 1931, Page 10

DUSKY SOUND GRANDEUR.

PLEA FOR BETTER ACCESS. COMPARISON WITH MILFORD. Although Milford Sound is the bestknown and irost readily accessible of the West, Coast fiords, its grandeur is surpassed by the beauty of Dusky Sound, according to Professor 11. Speight, of the, Canterbury Museum, who has just returned from a. visit to the district. "It seems a great pity that no attempt is made to open up Dusky Sound for tourist traffic," ho said. "It is far and away the most beautiful of the sounds, and affords a very great length of sheltered water, with many islands, and coves providing ideal shelter for boats and launches. Wet-Jacket Arm and Breakwater Sound make connection with the Acheron Passage, giving a continuous si relcli of 50 miles of waler. Milford Sound is austere and grand, but forbidding, while Dusky Sound is beautiful. "The Government seems to be devoting all its energies to Milford, and has built I here an claborato hostel, capable of accommodating 70 people. An access road, which they hope will eventually provide for motor Ira flic, is being pushed on. Hut though Milford is the most interesting geologically and scenically, it does not compare with Dusky Sound, for which more should be done. 1 believe that there was a track to it from Manapouri 30 years ago, but 1 do not know what it is like now "A further difficulty at Milford is the extreme depth of the water, so that there are really only two anchorages, and these are not of the best. It is not sheltered, and is liable to serious winds. An example of the variation in depth is that at Harrison Cove, where, we lay for two days, there was four fathoms of water at. the stern and 250 at the bow. "There is also the serious difficulty of getting about, which does not apply to Dusky Sound, while a further advantage is that there are historical associations with Captain Cook's visit and tho remains of ihe ship Endeavour (not Cook's Endeavour | in Facile Harbour." The Sounds were riot a picnic paradise, he added. Tho insistent sandfly to a large extent spoiled people's enjoyment.