The Sketcher.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 361, 11 January 1879, Page 5

The Sketcher.

THE EXCURSION TO THE SOUNDS. (By a Passenger.) ■ Bluff, Tuesday. Nearly a day was curtailed from the programme by the adverse run from Port Chalmers, and it was not until about 4 p.m. on January 1 that a start was made for the Sounds. At the Bluff we had taken on board our friends from Melbourne. There were with us representatives of the Church and the law, art and science. Medicine had two representatives. The passengers seemed to have come from everywhere. There were but few knots of friends, the excursionists being mostly strangers to each other. Our scientific friend was always willing to tell the unpronouncable names of the flora which were brought on board. There, too, was a Dunedin photographer, whose views no doubt will be eagerly looked for. Early on the 2nd of January we got to Preservation Inlet, and the work of doing the Sounds commenced. Immediately we anchored, Mr. Barraud, of Wellington, went of£ in a boat, pencil in hand} to take hfs first sketch, while the legion of amateurs sought quiet spots ou the deck to fix the lovely scenes on their memories for evermore. Then one fishing party put off, but soon returned with various spoil ; and one boat came back laden with flowers to make our decks gay. Our stay in Preservation Inlet was necessarily limited ; after remaining at anchor for some three hours we went back in the Inlet and made for Dusky Sound. Passing up the Sound, the mists clung to the hill, while the sun endeavored to break throug as though tempting nature to unveil her beauties. As the sun rose higher, the outlines of the hills became clearer, patches of snow were here and there visible, and apparently but a few hundred feet from us. Distances in the Sounds were most confusing; what appeared hills of 400 or 500 feet high being nearly as many thousands. The rills of water creeping down the sides of the rugged cliffs, with an occasional more pretentious cascade, were very beautiful, and rivetted the attention of all. One cascade looked like a bridal veil a hundred feet long. At the head of the Sound vs e anchored off the mine of the Dusky Sound Copper Mining Company. A numerous party at once put off for the works, which was received by one of the prospectors, and who is now a director of the company. Climbing up to the first drive, 500 feet above the sea, we found it in 42 feet through exceedingly difficult stone. The hill is composed of porphyritic granite, intersected by bands of black porphyry, with quartz veins of great tenacity. From here a fine view is obtained of one of two waterfalls, which spring apparently out of the hill. The power of these could be utilised for crushing ore from the mines. Two distinct leaders have been met with in this drive. 150 feet higher up hill we came to the second drive. This was in about fifty feet ; and showed marked indications of copper. The ascent to the summit from this drive is somewhat dangerous, and but few of us succeeded in getting to the razor-like edge to look at the out-crop of the ore. The company have nine men at work, and expect to reach the lode in some ten feet or so more. Of course the prospects of the company depend entirely on the extent and richness of this lode. Leaving the

head of Dusky, we proceeded bank to Acheron Passage, making Jacket Arm as the night fell. As we steamed straight in towards the hills, the effect of the shadows on the water was very striking. We anchored in Wet Jacket Arm for the night, and the first day in the Sounds was a great success. The view next morning from Wet Jacket Arm was grand, and Mr. Barraud got a sketch with which he was delighted. Going back to Acheron Passage we got through its other arm into Break Sea Sound out to sea, and on to Doubtful Sound up to Hall’s Arm, back and into Thomson’s Sound, where we anchored in Deas’ Cove. The view at the end of Hall’s Arm was magnificent, and in steaming through the Sounds during the day I was much struck with the nearness of summer and winter temperature in the West Coast Sounds. Winter and summer shake hands ; they kiss each other. To describe properly any one Sound would take some days’ examination, and columns of your space. The morning of next day (Saturday) broke wet, and we reached Caswell and the marble quarries in a driving rain, but few of us went on shore. The vein is of white marble, about 40ft. thick, running obliquely to the shore, and dipping at an angle of 50degs. or 60degs. to the horizon from the shore line. Some of the stone is of good quality, with occasional touches of pink and blue throughout the whole mass. It lies between underglates of sandstone rock ; the marble is very much broken where blocks form 3ft. to 4ft. square have been opened by the quarrymen. They present a very uneven fracture, which will make it difficult to work in large blocks, if such are to be found. The rock is cut up in various directions by intrusive veins of a brown colored rock material. These veins are of all thicknesses up to 2ft., and running across the bedding in various directions. The rock, as it shows near the water, although much broken, is not so much affected by the intrusive veins as it is higher up. Consequently, small blocks of good marble for building purposes may be found, but its value as a statuary marble remains to be shown. We next went on to George Sound, and at Its head we anchored, and the weather having cleared up we had a high time of it. Sunday morning broke gloriously without a cloud, and making Milford we steamed up as slow as possible, seeing the incomparable scenery under every advantage, beneath Mount Kimberley, which towered in rugged majesty 4200 feet above the steamer’s deck, seeming to lean over and threaten us. We could almost touch the rock, while its mate on the opposite side of the sound, but a few cables length away, frowned grimly. Away ahead the snow-clad summit of Mount Pembroke faded coldly into the regions of eternal silence, covered by the snows of centuries. Milford Sound — “ See Naples and die,” says the proverb. I have visited a grander, and perhaps as beautiful a scene as the Italian city,—but I don’t want to die ; would rather live to look on other places as picturesque, as lovely, as grand, if such be possible. The salient features of this remarkable inlet have been well described ; I may be permitted to quote a little. A writer a few years back remarked “Milford is the northermost of the remarkable West Coast inlets, and is admitted by general consent to be by far the most magnificent. The approach to it is a grand and at the same time perplexing sight. Its mountains are grouped together, tall, spirial-shaped peaks, shooting up into mid-air like a forest of rockets, and not as they appear further south—a bold ridge or cubical mass. Towards the sea the peaks throw off a variety of sloping spurs, dovetailing into each other, so that the entrance to the Sound is completely hid behind a number of tortuous twists and intricate windings. Approaching it in a vessel, it looks the very semblance of a step towards sure destruction. No sooner, however, has one headland been rounded than an open reach is displayed, which in its turn leads on to further disclosures of a similar kind. A short distance inside the channel becomes tolerably open, and toward the head it expands into a lake-like sheet of water. Our previous Governor describes this Sound, in a despatch Home, as an arm of the great Southern Ocean, cleaving its way through the massive sea wall of steep and rugged cliffs, reaching into the wild solitudes of the lofty mountains which form the cordillera, or dividing range of the Middle Island.” These mountains attain their highest elevation further north, in Mount Cook, a snowy peak rising 13,000- feet above sea level, and visible in clear weather a distance of more than 100 miles to the mariner approaching New Zealand, thus forming a noble monument of the illustrious navigator who first recommended the planting, of an English settlement in this country.” And Captain Cook has described the scene, thus :—■“ A prospect more rude and craggy is rarely to be met with, for inland appeared nothing but the summits of mountains of stupendous height, and consisting of rocks totally barren and naked, except where they are covered with snow, We could only compare the scene to a vast sea of mountains of every possible variety and shape and ruggedness. The clouds and mists floated far beneath us, and the harbor appeared no more than an insignificant stream. The prospect was most bewildering, and even to a practised eye the possibility of recognising any particular mountain as the point of the survey from a future station seemed almost hopeless.” Dr. Hector has described the geological formation of the Sound, and his description, while intelligible to all, is impressive. “ The sea,” he says, “ now occupies a chasm that was in past ages ploughed by an immense glacier, and it is through the natural progress of events by which the mountain mass has been reduced in altitude that the ice stream has been replaced by the waters of the ocean. The evidence of this chasm may be seen at a glance. The lateral valleys join the main one at various elevations, but they are sharply cutoff by the precipitous wall of the Sound, the erasion of which was continued by a great central glacier long after the subordinary and tributary glaciers had ceased to exist. The precipices exhibit the marks of ice action with

great distinctness, and descend quite abruptly to a depth of 800 or 1200 ft. below the water level. Towards the head, the Sound becomes more expanded, and receives large valleys that preserve the same character, but radiate in different directions into the highest range. At the time that these valleys were filled with glaciers, a great ice lake must have existed in the upper and expanded portions of the Sound, from which the only outlet would be through the chasm which forms its lower part.” After rounding the headland or spurs forming the entrance, the channel travels south-east for about, a mile and a half. (I am indebted to the Otago Daily Times, already laid under contribution, for this description of the natural features). The trend then follows an easterly direction for six and a half miles, passing between stupendous walls of mountain—Pembroke, 6710 feet high on the one side, and Llawreny, 6500 feet, on the other. The perpendicular rocks along this reach indicate the presence of numerous cataracts or waterfalls, some of which have a sheer descent of many hundred feet. One of these was in full play, discharging a considerable volume of water from a height of 300 or 400 ieet. Opposite the waterfall the depth of channel is 214 fathoms. A short distance above this fall on the same side there is an anchorage named Harrison’s Cove, with a steep winding valley, running back towards Mount Pembroke. From the entrance to Harrison’s Cove, a splendid view is obtained of Pembroks Peak. In the bosom of a slope extending from the peak to that of an adjoining ridge, the snow lay thick in a solid sheet, and with a glacier reaching down to within 2000 feet of the sea. On the opposite side of the Sound there is a similar exposure of sloping valley under the brow of Mount Llawreny. Situated as these two valleys are, within eye-shot of each other, it was curious to note the different atmospheric effects produced during the latter part of the day. Llawreny Valley caught the rays of the morning sun almost as soon as it arose, while that of Pembroke was entirely shut out from them, unless during two or three hours about the meridian. The result was that while the •one was lit up with all the splendour and warmth of a summer sky, the other was enrapped in deep solemn glcom, intensified by surrounding fields of ice and snow. It is very seldom indeed that two such extremes —the depth of winter and the height of summer—are seen so closely approximated to each other. At the very head of the Sound there is another permanent water-fall fed from the snow peaks and ice fields of Mount Perpendicular and the ridges, known as Barren Peaks. This waterfall is of much larger dimensions than the other. It has a descent, or rather a leap from ledge to ledge of 600 ft. Seen from a distance it presents the appearance of a gushing fountain rising out of the naked rock, falling around in flakes and sheets of foam and spray. This fountainlike appearance is given to it in consequence of the first few feet of the fall having conoded a channel ®r gutter in the rock, which hides the stream of water from the eye of a person looking at it from a side view. • Below the ‘ gutter ’ it strikes a shelf of rOck with a force that sends it bounding up on the principle of a sebound, The face of the rocks behind the fall is covered with a coat of green verdure which, seen through the white feathern spray, gives a fine fresh variegated appearance to the scene. The basin of the falls forms a jutting point with a small tract of level land, kept constantly moist by the falling waters. During certain states of the atmosphere the rays of light coming into contact with the waters of the fall produce all the tints of the rainbow. These floating and surging around the descending stream give to nature a finishing touch, for which in art there is no parallel.” We anchored in Fresh Water Basin, and except that two of our party had to camp out, being unable to descend the hill they had ascended during the day, the day was one of unbroken success. Mr. Barraud and the photographers wers greatly pleased with the work to-day. Three of our party saw an avalanche descend Mount Pembroke, which they described as appearing as if half the mountain were coming down. We found a party of three camped in Fresh Water Basin ; they said they got a good prospect some distance from the Sound. Monday was devoted to picnics and expeditions, and as the day was fine throughout it was one of unalloyed pleasure. The attention of one and all in connection with the ship was sustained all through, and the excursion was a complete success. We left Milford shortly after 6 on Monday, and got here at 8 p.m today.