ON THE WEST COAST ROAD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3950, 15 December 1880, Page 3

ON THE WEST COAST ROAD.

[By oub Special Repoeteb.] 11. Our stay at the Cass hotel was destined to be longer than we had anticipated. Before the tea-table had beon cleared, the nor'wester had dropped upon v«, and was giving ue a pretty liberal allowance of West Ooast rain. Christchurch peoplo fancy that they got heavyrain during some of the sou- westers. So thoy do ; but there are degrees of heavy rain, and for the degree superlative one must go to the more elevated portions of the West Uoaßt road. All night the etorm " raged, and beat, and thundered," and in the morning come Paradise ducks were swimming about, opposito the windows of our sitti.ig room, • where the day beforo the place was -.fry. At tho breakfast table, on the Sunday morning, we recoived the intelligence tbat the Cass river was in flood, and thafc for the present wo were " stuck up." Ifc was surprising wifch whafc heroic calmness we sustained the shock. We wero in most comfortable quarters, and we had that deeply interesting volume, the visitors' book, with which to amuse ourselves, ehould other resources fail üb. We had looked through this long list on tho previous night, and had derived not a little amueement from the recorded opinione of some of those who had gone before. lam afraid, however, that the "remarks" column gets tampered with, for a notable temperance leader is mado to eulogise, in no Btintod measure, the quality of the Cass Hotel bottled boer. Lord and commoner, bishop and bagman, have jostled together in the little hotel, and have, in many cases, left signatures which are evidently intended' ac the caligraphic myetoriee of the next generation. AH, however, are unanimous upon one point— the eterling excellence which characterises everything belonging to 'he hotel. Books are obtained from the library oetablished in connection with tho Craigieburn Station, which, by-tho-way, has no resident owner ; and the Grasmere Station is at present in tho came predican-.ent. Mr Soarle has built, at the rear of hie hotel, a capacious oven, tho material used being upwards of 20 tone of tho Castle Hill etono ; and the co3t of cartage, it need scarcely bo said, mado tho undertaking a costly ono. At the same time, the chimneys of the hotel wore rebuilt, heavy, blocks being used in their construction ; but in a recent nor'-wester one of fchem was broken off as though it had been a reed. Many illiißtrationß of tlio terrific orce of the wind might be givon. In ono instance, the coach, staying for tho night, had been left on the roadway. Tn tho morning, it. was found in tho rivor bed, a conpidcrable distance away. Tho panorama of hills, as seen on that Sunday morning, was indescribably grand. The seared slopes of Mount Horrible, seen now and again "through the gray skirts of a lifting squall," were laced with tho glittering lires of etorm streams ; and the tints of fho rockj prominences Beomed to be undergoing perpetual change. At noon the rain had abated sufficiently for us to po outside, and we wandered down fo the river, only to find that tho eloping approach to fcho ford had evidently boen washed away by tlio boiling flood. Even then, however, the water wae eubsiding rapidly, r.nd we determined, if possible, to gc' over tho nine miles intervening between ub and the Beuley. At three o'clock wo elarled, with a welliiiountcd horseman to pilot us through the river, and to ride in advanco up the Waimakariri cutting, whoro landslips were anticipated. Wo experienced what even Fuzzboe called a pernicious shaking, and one had lo cling like a, limpet to the rocking, bumping seat. Tho culling looked ugly enough, for the driving rain had come on i'/aii'S, nnd provented us from eceing vory f -.r ahead. Only a few small Blips had o^currc.;, howover, anil tho del, ris was being dieposed of by a gang of the roadmen, co ac to givo euflicicnt room for a vohiclc to pace. From the heights of this cutting, a good idoa could be formed of tlio enormous amount of rainfall draining into tlio Waimakariri. It is quito certain that the larger part of the water must, boab.*orbod by the shingle. If (ho river had un impel* vious bed, the value of Hoctionn in Kaiapoi, or in Chrietchurch either, would bo small indeed. Just after passing the cutting, we met M'Kay, the road foreman, who kindly accompaniod ub ovor tho flooded flat, intersected by a few deep guts, and saw us safely to the Bealey.

Thero are many ways in whioh places ond

""" " — w people, manners and customs, along this romantic highway, resemble parts of County Wicklow. The scenery consists of enormouslyenlarged editions of the Dargle.the glen of the Downs, the Scalp, and similar natural gems j the cows are, for the most part, goats ; there is, in every home, the hearth fire, and the greater part of the warm-hearted people ono meets with are of Irish extraotion. And although the houses along the West Coaßt road arc at distant intervals, and the rough, often inclement weather, creates many hardships, of which the dwellers on the plains know nothing, the modeof life generates a rugged independence, combined with a sterling hospitality, that makes one feel there is muoh of true enjoy, ment for these wayside settlers. Their news U the news of the whole lino of road, and their newsmen are Tommy Power and hie companions of the whip. Even nt Springfield we had received " the hU'st intelligence"' from the Bealey, and we know tbat the good people there had been in a state of ghoßtly excitement. It is an awful, unfathomable m*f etery, and the victim is the local police constable. Knocks are heard at his door, on the walls, floor, and ceilings, and no trace of the knocker is to bo found. The constable, white as a sheet, loaded revolver in hand, and backed up by cautious sympathisers, has searched "in tho houae and round the ' house," and the rHdlo has remained unsolved. Peoplo say i-* is 'ho ghost of a man who was drownod ir '■" Waimakariri, nnd was "not buried t01,.. !*: ; :.g" Yiv/.zb^ met one of his agents at the Bealey, a pleaßant fellow known as Brown Stout, and chatted with him about the Bearing occurrences. Brown Stout described wbat he had heard with much solemnity ; but in his eye there lurked just the suspicion of a twinkle, and lam afraid that policeman haß been the victim of a cleverly contrived series of practical jokes. Our hostelrie at the Bealey is" designated the "Glacier" hotel, with about as much truthfulness as appertains to the claim of " an avalanche laid on," which bus been set up by a boniface elsewhere ; for thero is no glacier within many miles of the Bealey. For all that, this marrying place cf the Bealey and Waimakariri waters present much of interest, always provided that the visitor is not cooped up by torrents of rain such aB we experienced. On the hilltops,* the rain was snow, and there was soon a now mantle of exquisite purity over all the higher points. Our chance of resuming the journey on the next day seemed but a poor one, though the barometer in the little meteorological station was rising rapidly. We were early aßtir on the Monday morning, and to our great delight the weird landscape was invested with the glamour of brilliant sunshine, under the influence of which the enow-water of the river seemed — in the deeper places — intensely blue. Before breakfast we had a delightful ramble, and, as a matter of course, we visited tho locality of the ford. Equally, of courso, we found that the approach had been washed away, and that the roadmen of this length were working energetically. Already we could see that many of the poles to indicate the track across the more than a mile of river bed had been eet up, and that with du*j precaution we might— later in the day— make our way across. Brown Stout, who showed himself to be a eplendid horseman, decided to be onr pilot, and to ride in advance until he came to a hut at which his horse could be taken charge of. Thence he was to take a seat in the trap for the remainder of our journey. I wae glad of this, for he was well acquainted with every point of interest, enthusiastic in connection with ferns, flowers, and birds, and as active as one of the Bealey cows. In tho afternoon wo started for the Otira Gorge Hotel, 15 miles distant. An extraordinary dog, Brown Btout's constant companion, went with us. For the size of the animal, I never Baw a mcro powerful one ; nor have I ever made friends with a more knowing rascal. To sco him cross a rapid was a treat. Of course he was washed down for long distances, and at times he must have got some ugly thumps against tho boulders ; but he always emerged, fresh as ever, and proved a "sudden death" for any woodheninthe vicinity. The innumerable streams of the wide river were crossed without a hitch, thanks to Brown Stout's able leadership ; and then, zigzagging aboufc the boulder-stre wn, tree-wrecked bed of the Bealey, and nowand again skirting its birch-clad margin, we feasted our eyes w.th the ever-changing — always charming panorama. Along a portion of this river-bed route, the road ib at some littlo height on the steeply eloping declivity, winding gently, and revealing lovely little bits of ferny bush. But now and again there are terrific examples of the awful fury of the storms. That which most impressed me waß evidently the combined result of wind and lightning. There ib a patch of hill-side, many acres in extent, upon which every tree has been felled ; and all the trees havo fallen in precisely the same direction. They lie as regularly as the most expert woodman could have placed them ; anel for some distance all round tho ttanding trees have been blasted by that fearful flash. Ere long we were fairly within the Bealey Gorge, the region of birch — the only timber apparent — and of waterfalls. Opposite the magnificent fall whioh tumbles perpendicularly into the basin known as the Devil's Punch-bowl, wo stopped without a word, and .there we must have sat for fully ten minutes before we thought of interchanging our impressions. Fuzzbee and Brown Stout, who had -wa'ched this fall dozens of times, wero agreed that we now saw it under most favourable circumstances. The recent and unusually heavy storm had augmented the volume of water, and the atmosphere wbb so olear that the most minute details of tho side of the gorge towards which wo were looking, seemed as distinct as if seen through a gigantic lens. Notwithstanding the body of tho water of this fall, the distance it has to tumble causes it to break up into innumerable drops as of molten silver, upon which thero is a play of exquisite colours, reflected from eky, rook and foliage. From the basin, big clouds of spray are driven upward, and in those clouds miniature rainbows arc constantly being formed. After gazing on the tumbling column of the Devil's Punch-bowl, and listening to its Bubdued roaring, the succeeding falls, boautiful as they aro, Buffer by the comparison. From tho Bealey Gorge, up into Arthur's Pass, a steady climb, slowly but suroly nearing tho snow line. A great ravino opening up on tho left, the shade, as the perspective lengthens, deepening into gloomy purple. A Budden flash of blue and silver, and therfy— -- -

high up on the steepness of Mount Rolleeton, but seemingly eiißpended in the air, ie tho icy mass of a true glacier. Tho huge crystal flashed brilliantly in the sunlight, and became one of the chief features of interest of our journey. On our return, when we drove through a great rain-.cloud, the glacier was blotted out, and neither mountain nor ravine — the head water sourco of the Bealey — could bo distinguished. We had reached the snowlino, the region of stunted pines and eurictft vegetation, when Fuzzboe called my attention to a big, square post, which marks thedividiu

line of Canterbury and Westland. Tho post is seared by " the mark of tho beast." In other words, it is ecarred all over with the initials of the great Noodlo family, who, of courso, had previously left their sign-manual on tho Great Pyramids. Hard by, is the appropriately-named Lake Desolation, a dank, slagnant pool of imprisoned rain water. Within lmlf-an-hour more I was silently revelling in tho glories of the OLira Gorge. A precipitous ravine, with its enormous depths Eculpturod and riven into the most fantastic outlines | clothed with majestic foliage of immense variety; beneath this foliage a paradise of ferns and of exquisite moeees and lichens, vigorous with the moist uroladen atmosphere ; tumbling streams, hissing caecades, clouds of glittering spray, boulders of marbled rock. In the narrow rocky bod, far below tho giddy zigzag of roadway, a f-cething, boiling, rushing, roaring t-.rrenfc, here whito with foam, there gleaming with vivid green reflections, or with the rich browns of underlying rocks, and anon forming deep, intensely bluo pools. All theso things we saw blending in one " harmonioiiß whole ;" and the air quivered with the songe of birds, and with tho music <-f sighing houghs and rustling leaves. 11i.it scene of indescribable beauty will be a nevor-fading recollection. It was nothing to me that tho roadway was frightfully ft eep, that Fuzzboo's wrists were aching with tbe strain upon them, or thtt our brake-leathers had bron ground completely away. Not until a hub grazed against a projecting rock, nnd 1 was nearly pitched into tho ravine, did I become at all comciou*? that tho Otira Gorgo is a place in which 01:0 may not always tiif ely forget that he is a human limpet.