OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2207, 18 June 1896, Page 20

OUR WEST COAST LETTER.

„ (From Ova Own Coekespondent.) Boss, June 10. PICTUEESQTJE B.OSS XO CEDAK. CREEK. As many folks from many classes will be setting In this way 'during the approaching summer I have been pressed into giving a description, through the Witness, of tliii beautiful country, therefore lot such be my excuse for attempting to pourtray many of the masterpieces of tke Geeat Architect of the Universe. Last Wednesday morning, ere the sun had shot eastern Hatters (ft dome-like, forest-dad mountain immediately overlooking from his height of. some 600 ft the village, yet asleep, in the semicircle of the other bills, some of which go sloping away out till their lowest points almost meet the ocean) we— l.«., Mr Lawrie imanager of the Bank of New Zealand, Hokitika), Mr Honry Pickott (Ross, manager of the same Institution), good host Healey (of the Junction Hotel, hard by the foot of the eminence crowned | and sanctified by St. Paul's 0 invent and the mortified maids of heaven within), and Tour ,<>WD, not to mention Folly, the mare— set out to negotiate the tortuous sinuosities of the trending spurs, .frowning gulches, and evergreen flanks of Mount Greenland and «the Coner inountains tumbling about in the ratified ftir. Between our starting point and destination, Cedar Greek, nine miles have to be Journeyed, but the path is hard and dry, while ,lhe day is most promising. Passing, under the syphon' of the' Boss United Gold Company, which j comes down all one side of a great papa mountain dividing the waters of Donnelly's ami Jones's, to cross on elevated- truck* the .blood-red tailingspread bed of the latter' stream, only to mount away up the steeps of Old Cemetery Hill till it •ilently conveys its hidden waters to the reservoir, come 600 ft above the township, the first and most steep portion of our path, which winds up a some■what rugged defile looking out eastward, and the itop of which overlooks the dizzy, jagged facs of $he celebrated Mont dOr Company, whence pluck and enterprise, led on by Messrs Charles Savoy, John M Kay, Joseph Lager (lons gone "home"), Joseph Gummond, and the clever, renial Malfroy brothers, have extracted during th« last two decid-s something like £10,000 worth of gold ; over this height; between matchless fern-banks and bird'»«eye peeps of the lower country fast falling from us, we enter on a considerable natural bench ofthe hilte, our path ..finding it* way through chains of forestry hung on festoonerv of gorgeous green, until emerging iby a succession of easygrado^ zig-zags, benched .from the longer slopes- of the rising country, we at length gain the divide or comb of Greenland, and another paep of the western ocean 800 ft "below, the motionless; surface of which ateo mirrors up the sunlight of the opening day. We are now threading the ftnlike back of a lonely 'saddle, the geueral sinnous course of which takes in capital views of the sea and a bit of the Mahlnapua Lake inland, and the remote Alps flash between forest glades. A couple of miles' further climb, and we reach Black's Creek, some 1700 ft up, and our highest point. Blacks has a Mstory, and is cbook full ofthe thrilling incidents of the vanished dxti's, and somewhere among those barbaric gilded ages 25 ->z gold nuggets were taken up from its rocky bed. But no restless ieet now run excitedly up and down. They have , ftqne where goes the wind, and silence and desolation disturbed- .only by the falling of -broken vratare, unheeding in their mad career down the N mountain defila-the- harsh screech of kaka, the Bofier intonation of- the tui, the love sonnet of - wood pigeon, or the lullaby of the Tasman Sea away below, and so we quit Blacks to enter- upon miles and miles of path - hewn from the dizzy shoulders 'of tottering rocks, tthd it is' all along here that finest panoramic , effectsburst at frequent intervals upon the vißion of the delighted, traveller. Sloping"* directly above us, where the mountain Bide ceases to be a mere precipice,- are --the -numerous gulches, fissures, and sunlit wood spurs of Mount Greenland ; down below lie the darker recesses, where nxsver a beamnenetrates, and the hoarse roar of unseen waters tumbling down is heard. Away out to the weit the scene is 'superb, the clearness and purity of the ' air rendering distinct all the features of the tea and - sky, and the stupendous pile of country rolling between—all snow and' ice' and living green. Towering 'up' afar off' in the purple' sky' gleam the rose-tinted, sn6wy peaks of Cook and Tasman, lords of the Southern' Alps; nearer is silver Xangitoto's " western ' girdle to the Mikonui Valley, which is'foll of rich colour, shadow/aud silhouettes ; andagain, further out towards the sea coast, Bald Head' raises his crest like a huge lion, ap friend Lawrie observed, guarding the northern waters of the Ritor Waitaha, home of South Westlatd's poet' ;' beyond. Wanganui Heads and Okarito Point cut a dim blue outline. A - sharp turn in the path discloses a cavern glittering amongst a] thousand miniature crystalline rivulets which- daace 'down from crag to ledge, from ledge to pinnacle, and fall over again and again in diamond spray, now seen through the tronds, now lost under the heavier foliage of vines, barrieri of girdling copses of underwood or the deeper verdure of pitch pine, until finally the sparkling torrent collects itsilf in a circular rock bash), over which the spotlets convolvuli and the delicately poised gee-gee, the graceful king fern, and the guarded fuchsia hang their contrasted leaf and blossom. On a giddy eminence Above this cbarmibg grotto, a pointed rock rears a pinnacle through the cluttering pines, which very romantic senses might transform into a castle tower, mosque, or cathedral spire. Down t>elow,"tbe overflow of the pellucid basin finds its dam-way through an entangled gult upon the steep, rugged walls and buttresses of which tall *",yine trees rear their stately heads to the light, still, gloomy, and heartless on the morning air. Emerging from this romantic 6pot, the snow lowere of Mount Cook gleamed upon our party. A human face peered from the shade, and our 'vanguard started to see two dark eyes fixed upon Imsowd.- Halting, abruptly, he mechanically put his hand on the place where his dagger should v have been, when a low chuckle and a voice in a i broken high falsetto screamed : ," Oh, yee, sheutle- ! ;xnans! Good day!" -It was Giacomo Manera, Slewing out a path in the face of a rock, the rocks loosened by his hammer and drill going tumbling away down to unknown depths. Resuming, we thread *-labrynthiuo oath byruoun tain and defile, and across gulches richly beautified by rarest fernery and forested heights, and gurgling brooks and more waterfalls, until at length we emerge on Vnronica, the loveliest spot of all. Veronica is almost a plateau, and rejoices in its solemn. grandeur at an altitude of about 1200 ft above the waters of the Mikonui River, in sight below, and runs out parallel with Cedar Creek, which hojda the rich quartz, reefs particularised further on, and for its southern bank it forms a Irattress. - The scenery all around nere is entrancing. Bight above us towers Mount Greenland, 2970 ft high, and verdure-clad all down his southern fall. All around the east and southward the' snowy sierras lift their minarets sky--wards, prominent amongst them being lofty sugar-loafed Frazer Peak, gleaming like a huge diamond all ablaze. Right across the Mikonui valley Mount Rangitoto still rears his seamed and scarred flank, 4400 ft up in the air, his feet feeing washed by the blue waters of the riyer, ■whilst out west a bit of sea shows up between the western slope of Greenland and the northern trend of Rangitoto. We enter a hut, and refresh •with brown tea from the proverbial billy, sandwiches, and even cake, feeding our senses the while with such bits of snowclad mountain Bcenery as come through thewhare doorway. THE QUARTZ REEF. Since the discovery of Mr Verschoyle, raining engineer and expert, representing an influential < syndicate; active prospecting has continued. Six leases— severally* named the Alpha, the Omega, iheMeroi, the Republic, the Ceder Creek, and the Johahnesbuitf— representing a total area of 600 acres, have been pegged out. and as they are all dead on the line of reef, and in most cases it is outcropping, big encouragement is lent to owners. The reef in the Alpha (the prospectors') is quite 3ft thick, well defined, oounes a few points off east and west, and has a northerly underlie. Tha quartz is of a brownish colour, full of mineral, and snowing gold freely ; and this lease, along with .the Omega and Republio, is now under •ffer to a London syndicate through theig

Greymouth representative, 'Mr P. Daniels, who recently visited and reported favourably on these measures. On the Omega, peg-a-peg with the prospectors' and lying to the west thereof, are two very fine reefs averaging from 2ft to 3ft each, and also oarrying highly payable gold. We brought away stone from each of these reefs, in which wo could see gold, and I have smtll doubt but that the advancing sjumnier will see active work all around. Shares in these ventures have begun changing hands at tangible figures. Further west, the Republic contains an loin reef, from whioh rich specimen gold was broken out before tho stoppage at the William Tell, and this is reckoned to be ono of the most valuable leases on the line. The Cedar Creek, lying to the east of the Alpha, holds that very rich leader whioh set the whole field in a blaze of excitement during the time of the great boom. The Johannesburg, which is a broadside to the north of the prospectors', has bean taken up to catch the underlie of the reef, while the lleros fs another claim to the south. Altogether, the greatest faith in the genuineness of Cedar Cr«ek"a» a capital investment is hell, and aa we are now getting a lot of foreign capital introduced, the current year should see big development in thie direction.

THE TWO BWEIIS, ACE, AND THE JOKER. It was all on account of what he said. Up to the last minute he showed he had pegged all right;, so of course' we felt quite comfortable on all other points. He whs our man, and during the height of the last boom we sent him up to peg out the celebrated Swiss Republic lease. The Tell had just unearthed a gold reef with nuggets like currants in a plum pudding, and the Swiss was vacant. A weak later we had sold small interests then in for £500, when there came an ominous sound of " jumping" in the air, and the Tell folk wcie going for us hands down. Our man stoutly met the attack by swearing his pegs and trenches were " all right," but late on Friday night— eve before the battle— he flattened us all out by admitting to our lawyer, that he had oaly put in one peg and cut no trenches before the 'fell marked out ! He ended up by sayisg that his pegs were now all light ! It was 0 o'clock— a dark night,— and, there was twice nine miles. over a 300i)ft mountain to negotiate ere the Cedar Creek and the courthouse could be spanned. You sea, I had a notion I could lick them yet. The rest laughed over my meditated midnight journey over the trackless, forested mountain, but ere setting out I visited a grass paddock in Ross Flat and in the centre thereof piled a heap of very green stuff,' underneath wh'ch lay a bundle of paper well saturated in kero-ene; and then I took a trusted man up to the top of Mount Greenland where the cleared space was, and, telling him of my plot, I returned to town, getting back just in time for the court. As I suspected, the warden threw out both applications and declared the Swiss ground " open for application us if the land had never been applied for." The Tell men rushed out of court, sprang on to their horstfs, and tore off to Cedar Creek, whilst I, enduring all chaff, strolled leianrely down to my paddock, and putting a match to the green heap there raised the signal to my mountain man, in huge columns of black smoke. He was faithful, and mat, and cute, and, acting on my instructions, descended to Oedar creek and repegged out for us. When the panting, foam-Covered " Tell " cavalcade ai rived there some two hours later my man quietly invited the troopers to partake of some warm tea before it got cold. We got the lease. But it was the joker that did it— we'd a'been euchred without the two bowers and aco !