UNEXPLORED OTAGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4144, 31 May 1875, Page 3

UNEXPLORED OTAGO.

Mr Cameron, lately an applicant for newly discovered country before the Waste Lands Board, has discovered-a lake in that part of the =country which is a blank in the maps ofthe Province, and -marked unexplored. The new lake is situate to the west of the Howloko Lake, in the unexplored country between the Waiau River and Preservation Inlet. It lies .to the west of the Howloko Lake, the range of mountains known as the Princess range .intervening, and it is on the slopes of these mountains ±hat the new country applied for -is situate. The new discovery bears out exactly the character of the region, .which consists, so far as the country is known, alternately of most precipitous rugged monn- - tains, with very deep intervening gorges, in the hoUows of which, so far as discoverers have penetrated, are invariably found a lake, a -forest, and, occasionally, a piece of clear j •country like'that of which Mr Cameron is the ! discoverer. The new lake has the characteristics of the other lakes—length, narrowness, and -- depth—being an old glacier-bed. A thorough exploration and mapping of this country would not likely add much to the land of the Province .•suited for pastoral or agricultural settlement ; - yet it is well worth whUe for geographical purposes, and of considerable importance jn the .furtherance of mineral prospecting, that such ..an exploration should be entered upon ; and it is an object to be commended to the Govern--sment when-their surveyors cau find time for the -undertaking. In fact, we believe the work would have heen already in hand had it not 'been thatthe survey department has all it can ■do in the matter of actual survey. It would ..seem hardly creditable to the Province that .there is so umch marked "unexplored," but it -is simply a matter of being unable to spare sur--veyors from work of pressing necessity. Iv - referring to the question of the exploration of "the country beyond the Waiau, we may also .. mention that of the exploration of the country between the head of the Wakatip Lake and the ■.Otago-Cs.uter'oury boundary line. A lea.se of - the country has been taken up by Mr llobert-

■ son of Queenstown, and that gentleman has cut -atracktothe land through the dense forest. Tiie ■-track, which is an excellent one, leads up tlie valley of the Dart, theuce it has been cut up ithe vaUey of the Rou ebnni, and from there by the headwaters of the Bearsburn into the •- country now a blank on the map. The track . nowhere rises above the forest line, wliich is a -. great advantage. That this country is worthy • of examinatioa is evident from, the fact that it --is a portion of the auriferous belt which runs :through Otago in a diagonal direction and .extends to Hokitika. This portion of the Province's auriferous belt of country lies to--wards the West Coast, and gold has for .years past been profitably worked for by smaU parties on its beach line —it is reaUy the back country of Jackson's Bay. In the development of the resources of this tract of country there is really in hand the formation of an entirely new district. We understand that the survey department contemplates a thorough exploration and mapping of this north-western unexplored country as soon as other engagements permit, and that at some subsequent time the filling in of* the blank on the maps beyond the west of the Waiau will be taken in hand.