FROM OIIAU TO THE WEST COAST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 47

FROM OIIAU TO THE WEST COAST.

By Dugald Matukson, 111,

Sunday, Makoh I.— The weather being fine, we breakfasted early, and packed up oar swaga and impediments, and taking with us three dajs 1 provisions, we oommenced our match down rivet »t 7.30 a.m. We got on easily until we passed Wilson's Creek, after which the ziver narrowed into one confined stream,, the bed of which waa strewn between the bush and the water with pieces of angular rooks .of great eize, which much re* tardefl" otflc progress^ Onco, instead of scrambling over, O'Leary got vnder the boulders. We got gold along. the river vrhtrever we ttied on the surface. Close to thei water (be gold is light, and under the mScroicope iooSs fiat and honeycombed. The lighter purl tales, when dry, floated on water. From Wilson's Greek to Adam* Creek large quantities of quartz were seen also in both the streams namod. Tbe quartz stones were numerous, bub, although I looked very carefulty, I could discover no traoe of_gold in any of the stone, which was. mixed with a blue o,r rather light greerish rook, not hard.. Low.tr down the liver we found in tbis quart z slight indio&tiono of galena. , Tbe laet eand rcmainirg in tbe wash-dish watf of a greyish coltfur, and very bearjr. The rßnge to our left got more precipitous as wo went .down. The main ppur .gradually converged towards theMver, until it came right down' from; the top of tbe ridge sbeer into v the river quite at an BBgle of DOdeg— -in other words, perpendicular,— tlus completely barring our further progress along the river. Here we decided to camp for ths night, a* it was impossible to scale tbe spur that evening. On reconnoitring this ridge from tbe flat, I could note o&e small depression along the top, about 1500 ft high, wbloh I thought we could manage in the morning. The rocks at tbis point all dip about from sdeg to lOdeg to south-west or - vres*. or are peifeclly vertical. The Solution U'dge, between the Landsborough River and Claike's River, had here tapered down to a low Bpur not more than SOOOft cr so, and was denstly wooded to tbe summit. The'bueh around our camp (which was on a email patch of grassland in ihe bush) has deteriorated, being both in biza of tbe trees and in quality ioferior to that wbfch we noticed at the M'Keczio Creek camp. Another camp, with nails in Ihe'ridgepolr, we found about 50 yards away. I picked up a fmall tin canister wbioh was worn through with rus*-. While the others pitched (be lent I got tea ready, and, as we imd bad r hard day, we soon turned in.

Sf ai-oh 2.— B^c»bfa6t oycr, we set oafc to get ever the top of the epuV to the left. I took with me the photographic appliances, and Low and Leary .oarrl^d the prospecting tooto. Wo had avcry'difflcnlt ccramblo to get tip, Low leadiag the way. RiJn oomm«hced to fall beforo we reached Ihe top. In making down the other side the descent vras easier than on the side on which we had come tip. At the bottom of the MuiT was a pretty grass fM", ri'orais of twe?

growing over it. Hero wa saw eovae fuio on tho eidling near the flat. Rabbits, paradise dock?, and woodhens are here plentiful. Wo passsd the skeleton of Ibotus cattle beasfc on this flat. Horses [-or cattle, by fording the river, oonld come up as far as our present camp, or to Larsen's Creek, about half a mile further up ; but above that point tbe oountry is quite inaccessible to cattle, sbeep, or horses by way of the river bod. We got a little light gold wherever we waehed ouc a diah of the surface alluvium without linking holes. From this downwards as far as we went the block lr ousts ate along the fringe of tha bush in thousand?. They keep up a constant z'zzlng sound. Their dark colour may be doe to the soMbro tints of their forest surrounding*. Still following | the river down, we again oamo to a steep promontory going bluff into the river, muoh like the one we had come over in the morning, and, ofcouwe, unless we olimbod over it we were prevented fiom further following the river. From a spot on tbe eide of tbis spur , could be saen the Clarke's River basin and & very pretty flat where It falls into the Landsborough River. The fog prevented us from seaing the highest peaks of the Macfarlane rauge, although we could make out the main range for about two-thirds of tbe distance to tbo top. Tbeiidg&close at hand, and boundiug tbe view to tbe left, is olotbed thickly with dense shrubbery with a few of the larger -trees here and there among thsm. The small bu&hes are oovored with creepers and native vinery over nearly tbe whole of the bilhide. j It is really a veiy beautiful spot, and forms a congenial home for the wood pigeon. I saw j a considerable cumber of .them flying about, and while I waited for the fog to clear to enable me to got a photo of the West Coast range j I counted 27 birds in one covey, and about, j 20 in another, all within a few inlDui-.es. As it was now getting late, and rain had begun to come on, it was decided we should go back to camp. On the way back tbo men caw a Btcat or a weasel near the edge of the I bush. It acems wonderful how these little creatures could penetrato co fay inland through bo much bush and rough country. The rain now came on heavily, and continued to fall dnriag Ihe evening. We bad a naaly rough j b gcttlDg to the' saddle, and when we weru near the top it was difficult to determine our exact whereabouts, owing to tbe dense bush and fog. In tbe morning, on i reaching the saddle, I had taken the, precaution to carefully take the bearing of our} csmp from ihe top with my pocket compas?, and I now was compelled to consult the compass several times last we should go astray. At last we got to the esoaipraent at the top just a liule way lower than where we had Btmok over in the morning. Low still led the way ! down,, and we were soon afc camp, wet i through. We lit a fire with difficulty, had | somQ.tea,, and , went to bed. The tain confirmed,, to coma, down heavily for several hours. The tent we had on tMs trip befog a light one, afforded us very icd iff srent protection from the wer, and drops kept per6iste&tty falling on-my bead. • I triod to hold tbe blanket over m?, using my arms for a tent pole ; bub as this became raVber tiresome, and by no means entertaining, I at last got up and fixed a piece of oilcloth over my head, after which tffort I soon ftll fast asleep.

-MAlYOJri^Tbe- meffntng'wair fair, cloudy and threatening, so we stayed in camp drjfng our wefc clothes. Bain again came on heavily about 2 p.m., so that we were confined to our tent all the evening.

March 4.— The day began cloudy, bub fine. Wo breakfasted rather meagrely 0^ rabbit and some fragments of kaka with a little bit of scone whiob wo had saved from tea tbe night before. We then dried the tent at the morning fire, and at 9.15 a.m. were on our way back to headquarters. We arrived at M'Keczle Creek at 4 p.m., and found our camp tent all right. Low baked nomo~econes, vrhila we bunted about; and succeeded in capturing five rabbits. Thic, together with two blue ducks which bad been Bhot earlier iv the day and a couple of woodhena which Low had snared, put our supply of rations on a more cheerful footing for our intended trip up the river in the morning. The weather promised well, and we wont to sleep with hopes of good weather for some days, as the wind had changed to tbe south.

March s— Twenty minutes to 9 a.m. found us again on our tramp up tbe river. The day was lovely, and I got some good views of the peaks, which showed without a cloud on thetr summits. We Boon' got into tbe bu»h, which turned out very rough travelling, exeppt whon we got on what vr& called " Mueller's track," where a few' saplings had beea^hiuned out from the undergrowth. Our swags had an awkward trick of getting entangled in boughs and vines, which told mach on our patience, as well as being at the same time" extremely tiring. By-and-byc, howevor, the liver widening oufc, we got into better i travelling. The long grass on the bend* of ( tbe river, reachingtft our knees, showed that Mr Bunny had not yet got full possession here, although we saw trscss of bira. We lunohtd at a lovely spot some miles up the river. On the opposite .aide were pretty j open grass flit?, with nice clumps ot large trees standing apart from the main forest. Then there were pretty trees of a smi-Her j Borfc. Nature here held undisputed sway, ' and . one could imagino these beautiful i grounds lo be gardens run wild. Just j after lunch, a short way up on a mo3sy j sandbank, we carao on the footprint? of j some persons going in the up-river direction, j We olosely examined them, with perbapa as , much cariosity as Eobfaison Oruuoa is said , to have done with regard to those he discovered, on his island. There were three persona;- two of them bad worn heavy Tvatfrtight bootp, the tbird ( (probably a lad) wearing smaller and lighter boots. We noticed one man's tracks going j down river, but as the marks seemed to be j impreß&ed on the eatdy moss at the eamo time as tbe others, it also no . doubt was the track cf one of the party going in the opposite direction, the remaining two men probably havit g walked on the grass alongside. As the growth of grasa in" the footmatka wafl 9iu lorg, I conclude the men mu-.t have passed not later than last -year, perhaps the year before* Excepting^-th'eso footprint?, wa saw nothing to indicate tbe presence of any visitors fo* five or seven years. There have been grass fives, but none of late yearp. When nea.ring our -intended camping ground O'Leary phot at a blue duck, which escaped to lha far side of fcho river. Old

Rover -(Q*Learyu dog) swam apioss, ondr after bravely battling against some rooks and a dangerous eddy in tho rapids, managed to get hold of the bird, and brought it back to us. We considered Rover deserving of a cheer, which we heartily accorded him on his landing. Low also very adroitly snared at the same place a second duck, We had also secured two paradise ducks on the way up. We laid them by, mentally, for a rainy day. Arriving at our destination for tbe evening we lost no time in snugly piiobing our tent, as the heavy clouds again began to threaten more rough weather. At bedtime rain commenced, but as we wore prepared we soon forgot our troubles in profound j slumber.

Makoh G.—To-day we continued our travels up the river, bub as we intended returning to camp again the same evening tbe men carried tools only and I took tbe camera. The general character of the country traversed on this day was similar to that of yesterday. We stumbled on another camp, one with its ridgepoles nailed like the others.: a second camp about a hundred yards distant from the firat seems to have been set up in tho usual manner. Two fine glaciers from Mount Deehan were passed; one the larger, comes well down the river. Near the top of the other I could see some grand 1 6mcs which had broken away from the top and had palled up on the edge of a steep face of tbe glacier. In a part of the riverbed here wore some remarkable boulders of large eiza 'of a solid content of 50 tons downward?. They seemed to occupy a short space of tha riverbed — about a quarter of a mile in length. Tho markings on them were most singular,, and much resembled those seen on the face cf Borne old Mnori warrior or the carving on their war canoes. I can only account for the queer tracings on these er^ormoaa waterworn boulders by supposing the strata of this particular rock to have been subjojtod to strotg lateral pressure while ia a plasticstata. It is also noteworthy that at a point about a mila and a-half further on —on Mount Strahan — tbe slabs are identical with tho rock in these bouldera, and ate broken off sharply at tho top, whila down the sida of thß mountain the strata arc exposed for & long way, and show not; the least contoition of any kind, wbioh would indicate that as the two rocks seem to be of the sumo bind, speaking geologically, these boulders must be vastly older than the surrounding mouutains. « Iv oth&r words, the' mountains appeared at a timo when the strata had cooled to such an extent that they would break before they would bend. The thought suggest itself that the Maoris may have gleaned their ideaß of carving and tattooing from first sedpg some such marked rccka. I regretted afterwards that it did not occur to me to secure a photograph of these rocks. W«j travelled on until wa were nearly abreast of Mount Strehau. We were now in full view of Mounts Percy-Smith and M'Kstrow, and another very sharp peak at the head of tho vaUoy, which ou consulting the map I made out to be too Dwaif. Tha name, however, is a misnomer, for tho peak runs up into an altltade of 0025 ft. I paused* here and took a picture of the bead of the valley. We made this spot the me plus ultra of our journeylnga in thet direction, acd, a.t it was now past 2 o'clock p.m., we agreed to

l«C7.Tmwlllll.l«MHHM>H«»l . .0.11 ir.-^ ~..' "Turn'bstcK " Wo baa found no tf*c> of goldt since wa had left our lovw vamp afc! M'KGazlo Oreelr. No rabbits had as yets penetrated so far as the upper grass flats.' We got to camp a little before dusk, After dark we noted the shrill ory of the kiwi ; some woodhens and paradise dnobs can ba heard occasionally. We arranged to go up Mount Gow and the Otoko Pafiß on the morrow. ; (To It continued.)