WEST COAST SSPLOKATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10625, 21 March 1896, Page 2

WEST COAST SSPLOKATION.

BY ThOS. inSACKENZIE,

,no. 11. RESOLUTION ISLAND,

,MyUat week's notes of onr outing closed as we 'headed our boat for Pigeon Island after 'leaving itheTarawera. The 'morning was fine, and although we had a slight head wind a! couple of hours' rowing brought us opposite to ' what we..too.k .to. be ,the\,inner .passage. We; made tin attempt to outer, jbufe the heavy seas i r gtrikiu,j the rocky bluffs and breaking right across tua eukance were a .suffioieotly strong 'hint to us "to move on." Away we rpwed merrily and soon espied another passage, but again too rough,, to enter. Finally we swept through a wider .pass, -keeping well clear of the' breaker?, and away we sped. Another half iour will bring us to the land indicated' by the captaia. The bays' "rowed ' w.ith s will, -and we -were Boon coasting akjug w,hat .we itook -to he the wiehedfor island. On, on we rowed. There ate no. indications ,of habitation. We pulled' .along under rocky faces .and,wppded*rags; we^went away into , the deep, dark recesses of the beetling cliffs o£ 'Resolution Island, only to, discover we .were following^ peninsula of 'the maiuland. Once more we steer north. A wooded island 4s.ahead. . That's .the plivqe,: boys! Our rowers are .faecqmiqg a bit' tired now, yet with new spirit they force our craft alon,g. And we circumnavigate an island only to find it utterly devoid of human inhabitant. ■To make things .more .confusing, no island is .marked on the chart at thip placa. We had now reached the,h'ead pf that portion of the Bound. Six hours' heavy pulling made us ones more take refuge in the biscuits. One of our party then bad an inspiration. He declared. " That must be the.idand away to tha right.'' He explained jyhere,we Jiad gone wrong: entirely to his own satisfaction. We did 1105' argue, but pulled away .five miles more, taking -the oeeap side of the islarid. It had a bold, wild, rocky coastline, against which the teavy swell sweeping indashe^ vsjithgreat fury. From the rough appsaranceflf,the place we.Boonrecognised that noman could"stay there. We took a narrow passage that bisected'the island. There wasagcoupflf i'our, although marked only one • on the chart: an old survey, of course, made by Vancouver in 1793. The afternoon was now wearing on. We held a «o.u,neil of war and concluded that Pigeon Island .must be the land with the white cliffs ,tp whjch .the captain had first pointed,- ani. not the land beyond. Twenty minutes'rowing took us to tbe island. As wa coasted along we saw signs .of an old fire on a hill, then a little shandy .bay opened out—tho only one we had seen during our day's rowing, That was decidedly incouraci tig and our spirits rose, .-Passing another Bmall headland another sandy .bay is eeon, then a wnj.il shed. We jnika ' the hills ring .with *>ur cooees. To our joy they 'are .answered. Mr Henry soon appears"; $b.en [ ■ Jiis assistant, Mr ■Burt. A few strokes Voore aa.d we are ashore, ehaking hands and receiving ayery warm welcome; aud so ended our hunt 'for his island home.- For the enlightenment of the uninitiated it may be az well to explain at [this etage who Mr Henry is.

During recent years the.interest .of the people of New Zealand in our native birds has been gradually awakening.; Unfortunately it is too late to preserve some spocies, as they are now .extinct,; still we have maoy unique varieties, and it is in prder to preserve some of these .that Mr Henry was sent round to JResolution Island. When the pakeha first arrived ■in New Zealand our woods were brightened by beautiful and graceful birds, many of which were most charming songsters. They had few natural enemies, and they were the enemies of no one. Then began t&grest influx of strangero, strangers with no five po admire and no ear to be .enchanted-with tie native inhabitant of ourfpreet primeval. Tliey must being to our chores' from pjtlier lauds every vulgar creature that has wings, and they must force back and slay the. gentle, friendly, yiet retiring denizens of our woods to. make room for tjje grain-destroying linnet and the houßerpolluting sparrow. The colony is (ip be congratulated pp. putting fpr(;h this savipg effort even at the eleventh hour. This has been brought about mainly by the sons of New Zealand, who see more grace and beauty in bur lristrons tui than in the British crow, and delight more in the music of the moki than in the blackbird's oong.

The kiwi and kakapo are Mr Henry's peculiar care. In a very few years they will be exterminated oo the mainlaud if the imported vermin in the shape of ferrets continue healthy, and Mr Henry is employed placing tfco kiwi and kakapo on Resolution Island. Some years ago the Government in jts incomprehensible wisdom liberated, amid much noise of trumpets, some 50 ferrets on the west side of the Wsiau river at Mauauouri; much care and attention was devoted to (he transport of these filthy vermin. There were Then many rabbits on the .east side of the Waiau, and manifestly ferrets should not be let Joose on that aide. There were thei) no rabbits on west side of the Waiau, and that was—as all common esnse would dictate-:-the place for ferrets. Even if rabbits did reach the west of the Waian it reilly did not m&tter to anyone, as fcbat country will never carry sheep, aiid consequently the rabbit would do no harm. But there were kiwi and kakapb, teal, blue mountain, grey, and paradise ducks, and they have nearly all gone. The rabbit has reached the west aUo, bat the ferret never disturbs him —they live in perfeot amity. Mr Henry is the right man in the right place. Ha is a born uatmaliijt. and tak*B

the keenest interest in and has a real love for ;his work. He is noted for having found a skeleton of that extiaot bird, the Nofcornis nmutelli—tokabi of tho Maoris. His knowledge of birds and their habits is great, and much useful information he gave to us during our varns around the camp fire at night. Mr Henry has done splendid work during the short time he has been at Duslcy. He has erected a comfortable house, 'fallen a lot of torast, and struggled, hard to make a garden, but owing to the fearful winds which prevail there, almost everything he plants is blown over. There is also about two or three feet of solid mouldy moss to get through before he reaches the good soil. He has cunning rat traps and ingenious sandily traps, on which ■thousands of sandtlies perish. Unfortunately millions come1 to attend their funerals. He h»o his pets ako, which include six Maori hens, four of whom are widows and one a gentleman Maori—well, I suppose hen is the correct word. This gentleman is a strict monogamist.

We had a long yarn that eveuing with oar Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday. He has communication about twice a year with the outer world, so that we h*d many tilings to tell him. Incidentally the Dean case was mentioned, when Mr Henry expressed his strong disapproval of Judge Windeyer's severe treatment of that unfortunate man Dean. "Why," we said, "the judge was right all along, and Dean has confessed the whole affair, and a pretty kettle of fish there has been about it." Mr Henry was simply dumbfoundered, and his 'face was a perfect pictaro. Dlr Henry, in response to my request, ex,-j pressed his willingness to accompany us. All were glad of that, as he was well acquainted I with the. sound, and had beeu some .distance up the river we proposed exploring. . j THE SOUNDS. | The following day (Monday) opened with i a lovely morning.. We were up with the lark, and got a fine early start, and away we went with a fair, fresh wind behind. We spin through the narrow pass separating Parrot Island from Pigeon. The spray is dashing from oar bows as we dash jilong through the rollers. Beautifully wooded islets are quickly pasted on both sides. We obtain peeps into narrow reaches, where the sun is glinting through the lacy foliage of the 'beech and the fringey rimu trees, making the dancing water Bparkle like emeralds. Some enchanting vistas are revealed as the ns.rr,ow inlets rau away into the cool recesses of hills. Earshell Cove opens out and is soon gone. Here we alter our course, and very soon we .enter a narrow strait, the sea being as smooth as a mirror. It looks like fairyland: lots of wild fowl are" swimming ab»ut, gr*nipus are sporting arid spouting, and penguins playing all sorts of capers. We look at Pickarsgill Harbour, into which Captain Cook roped his ships, getting his yards entangled in the overhanging trees as he entered it. On our left we pass Duck Cove, a favourite resorb of Cook's, and memorable as the place where the 60-toa cutter was built over 100 yeans ago, ta enable some shipwrecked people to escape. A head wind wrestles with us now, and cbutinneß until we resch Acheron Passage, so mimed by j Captain Stokes after H.M. surveying ship, a ] steamer of some note in those d?ys (184-9), beiug ' a paddle boat .of over 700 toes.. By Captain Cook's party the passage was palled " Nobody Knows What," as they did' ..not&o allfehe way through it. Ont of Acheron .Passage cosrei a welcome favouring wind. Up .goes our ssilj and our boya eujsy a well-earned . rest as they stretch themselves out to bask in the ; BUD«hino. Ou we glide; Long Mand (eight I .miles) we pass, on our left we see Doeherty'a Ciiiip. We ste told that he h«s been experiencing hard times, livjag on cods' heads i -,and mamaku—ths thick mucilaginous pith of j tree fern. We coast along close under the ,bigh walls of Cooper Island. Here we notice a distinct change in the vegetation •■ ,-from that of the Bast Coast. We observe the North Island tree fern (Cyathea niedullaris). , It is a noble plant, probably the largest .tree fern in the world. It attains a height ,of fi-Oftj and has fronds from 10Ft to 20ft long. The pith of this plant (macnaku) was once used as an article of food by the Natives. While we were waiting for the fiinemoa we ■boiled some of ,it. The day being moist I was lying on my back in the tent with mj head under a blanket to keep the sandflies off, when ■I was greatly : amuße,d to suddeuly hear a discussion arise, as "all hicds" were trying it. One remarked, " It's queer stuff; it's like raw turnip without any flavour." Another thought it approached pumpkin. A third, when urged to give his opinion, said " he was darned if ha knew what it .was -]ike. It was like no other blooming thing ever made by fche Creator.1"

', We also saw growing on Cooper Island that handsome variety of our cabbage tree species, Gordyline iudirisa. It "is a magnificent plant, with -.excessively thick, broad, flaxshaped leaves, and hus long, elegant flowers. . JDr Calenso describes it as the plant " from which the Natives made a .garment called toi. Forster, tho botanist, found it' -in Dusky .Sound. Hector .<the ■ omniscient) disputes that it is .ths plaut desoribed by Colenso from which the true toi is made; but Dr Hooker, who compiles the "Handbook of .New Zealand Flora," states that "ha has bo Dusky Sound specimens of Forster's plant,''though Colenao agrees well with Forater's in the Bcitish 'Museum. I ■ was exceedingly .pleased to have an opportunity of beholding a plant growing in its native souud, and securing a specimen of a cordyline which had caused so much contrp--versy. ,

The afternoon was .steadily advancing. On Mr Henry's suggestion we left the main sound and passed between a beautiful wood-clad island and the mainland. The passage at its entranoe .was very narrow ; then it widened out slightly, and continued throughout no broader than the Grand Canal, Venice. Beooh was the predominating .timber, intermixed with rimu, a" few feathery kowhai, and here and there a flowering rata—one blszs of scarlet. .Just above the .eeaiswept^ocks were numbers .of lovely celmisias in full flower, and endless varieties .of some of our finest filmv ferns. If the Grand Canal is rich in architectural grandeur, this narrow strait was perfect in its wealth of native loveliness. This island was not .marked ,oa the map ,or chart, to we will name it on our map.

We were now .entering :Suppsr Cove und within two milas of pur destination. Ou our right, great walls of rock rise hundreds of feet higli, and EQiLcould lod^e innumerable .tree ferns were clinging and growing in great magnificence. From a botanical point erf view one might have imagined himself up the Wanganui river, so similar were the plante and -ttieir -habit of growth. Other North Island plante such as Pteris ra^Kilnnta, Lpmaqa lUigca, ;&3. ,were seen. At 4- p,m. we ,ente,r a laxge civar .ocitoiog in at the head of the sound. Black swans, paradise and grey duck, and red ;t«&l give life to the place. The swans are wild, but the paradise ducfes tooknonotioaof us, and although we .made-.8 floiisa ;to ,alarna them *ud'iuduca t'neai to fly they paid not the least attention: A <;uarter of a mile more brought un tp the first rapid, below which we purposed firing our camp. After searching about for 10 minutes we ja^stijy .Rejected ,a .place .vvheie .we hoped floods would rotreich us should the river rise. Rain now began to fall, gradually increasing until it became a solid dowupour. All hands, however, worked with a will, equally dividing the duties. Some cut poles aad pegs, others logs and bedding, sonw fixed tents, othera the fire fly, .while one attended to the difficult job of lighting a fire and the duty of boiling the indispensable billy; and a« evening began to close in our tonts and fire fly ware eructed, and we succeeded in making ourselves wonderfully comfortable considering the moist surroundings.

(To be continued.)