OTAGO

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1763, 6 September 1862, Page 5

OTAGO

We extract the following from the Melbourne Argus Correspondent's letter of the Ist August. It will be read with additional interest, at this particular time, as the country described is in the vicinity of the newly discovered Gold Fields:—

A report of a very interesting character, fropi the pen of Mr. M'Kerrow, a government surveyor, has lately appeared. It was the intention of M'Kerrow's party to penetrate to the terra incognita of the west coast, hut this they had uot time to achieve before the commencement of tlie winter season readered the country inaccessible.' The district absolutely surveyed includes an area of about 2,000 square miles, piincipally within the province of Otago. Of this breadth about 960 square miles are classed as pasturage, ranging in quality from good to very inferior. The description of the remainder reads more like a leaf from Laing's Sojourn in Norway, or accounts of travels among the Alps or Pyrenees. In these times of exploration, the quotation of some particulars with reference to a countiy of which comparatively little has hitherto been known may be excused, and I therefore append some extracts from the report. The only mention made of gold prospects is in the concluding paragraph, in which the explover says : —

"In conclusion I should state, on information received from the manager at Messrs. Wilkin and Thomson's station, that gold has been obtained in small quantities several times, at Quartz Creek. The latest was in the month of April* A sawyer, before leaving the district for the winter, dug a hole on the banks of the creek, and found fine gold all down through it ; the find became richer the further down he went at thirteen feel the water coming in put a stop to further effort. The prospector was a digger of Californian and Australian experience; he expressed his opinion that Quartz Creek would turn out to be a paying gold-field, and that when the winter was over he meant to give it a further trial, with proper equipment." The following are extracts from Mr. M'Kerrow's leport to which I have referred: —

"The character of the country surveyed is mountainous— the ridges rise from 4,000 to 10,000 feet high. All elevations abore 8,000 feet were seen to be covered with perpetual snow, and those between 6,500 and 8,000 were bare only for a very short time in the year. The time during which the survey was executed was favourable for determining the height of the Hue above which the snow never melts. During the early part of March, elevations of 7,000 feet had snow more or less on their summits ; this gradually disappeared till there was none left. On the 29th March, the summit of Mount Alta, which attains to an elevation of 7,838 feet was free of snow, only a few patches remained ou its shaded side ; all elevations above 8,000 feet, as seen from it, were white. , A few days afterwards a shower, which rained'in the valley, but snowed on the mountains, made Atla look grey. This appearance commenced on the 18th April, when it and several lesser elevations received their cap for 1862-3, A rain shower after that brought the snow line further down, till on the morning of 18th May the snow-fall, which was general throughout tke province, made valley and mountain alike white. The snow-line, in its successive steps down the mountain sides, preserves an outline as even and as well defined as the line of shadow. In different seasons the snow-line will likely vary within the limits of a few hundred feet ; for the latitude of 44fr deg. S., it may be stated in round numbers at 8,000 feet. " The glaciers, in some instances, appear to be considerably lower than the snowline ; on the shaded siue of Mount Alta, a little below the summit, there is one about five acres in extent, and three feet in thickness. On the east side of Glacier Dome, and to the north and south respectively of other two glacial domes, theve is a sheet-like mass of glacier several square miles in extent, sloping down from these mountains, and stretching across and entirely filling up the ravine enclosed by them ; on the east side, where no eminence opposes, it leaves the ravine and bends over the ledge of the ridge in an easy curve; here the smooth erenness which it had ih its upper part, is supplaced by a sort of frizzled appearance, just as though a great waterfall had been suddenly frozen. The angle of depression fr.nn Mount Alta gives its centre elevation at 6469 ft. above sea level; it was viewed from a distance of twelve miles, a riage transverse to the line of sight hid its terminal face, but its immaculate whiteness and great extent rendered it, even at that distauce, a grand, decided, and imposing spectacle; it was the largest unbroken mass of ice. that was seen during the survey ; it is one of the fountains of the east branch of the Maiukituki. The glaciers of Mount Aspiring lie in shelf-like masses on ihe south and east sides of the mountain; none of them appear to be individually of large extent, though in the aggregate they cover twenty-five square miles ; they lie principally in the ravines formed by four very sharp conical ridges — one running south from the Peak for about eight miles the other three parting off from it, at about equal distances to the east. So;ne of these glaciers appear to be as low as 4,000 feet, and as seen from the base of the precipices on which they lie, about thirty feet in thickness. Mount Aspiring is flanked rouud the east, south, and west sides with precipices, which, to a casual inspection, offer no chance of ascent. The water of the lakes may all be said to be of glacial origin, for the rivers that flow into them drain a country from 6,000 to 10,000 feet high.

".All the rivers already mentioned show proof that they undergo great fluctuations in size ; their supply depends, not on what fulls, but on what mulls; a favourable change of wind or any other cause that raises the temperature a few degrees, wises their volume proporlionably. In this, effect follows cause so closely and plainly, that the heat of the day might be gauged in the erening by the amount of rise in the river. Towards the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, while the cold is increasing, these rivers are very Mnall compared to what they must be during the long days of summer; in the montb of April, the main stream of the Matukituki was about three chains wide and two fe«t deep ; its shingle bed is one half mile wide,—

the stranded trees and other flood debris showed that all this channel is sometimes covered. The channels of the Makarora and Hunter gave similar evidence, of the freshets that occur in them. The vast amount of water that is sud denly poured down by the rivers when at their maximum, is shown by tbo great rise and frill that take place on the surface of the lakes during the year. The even line of drift wood along the shore was evidence that the lakes had sub sided at least five feet from the last flood mark — the subsidence still continued, and will do so till the temperature changes to the ascending scale. Considering, then, that the Wanaka covers seventy five square miles, the Hawea forty eight square miles and the Wakatip as much as both, and that the Clutba drains the whole, it may be inferred, perhaps, that the lakes like great reservoirs, are of much value to the country— that, without their broad expanse on which the melted snow might spread and be conserved, to pass away in the steady flow of a great river, the Clutha must have become an intermittent torrent — a Matukituki or a Makarora on a large scale, its valleys shingle and quicksand.

" Pastures. — The pastures range from good to very inferior, according to the lower or higher altitudes on which they grow ; as the qualities occur iv scattered localities, and as the ease or difficulty of access to them is another criterion of value, it may be well, in describing tbem, partly to follow the same routes as the prosecution of the survey rendered necessary. The Cavdroua Valley will have to be noticed, firstly — it lies N. E. and S. W., is tv\entyfour miles long, and from two to three miles broad ; its liver, 'for the last three milesof its course, flows through the Clutha Valley, and joins the river of that name one quarter mile below, where the Wanaka and Hawea rivers unite to form it. The Cardroi a Valley Proper consists of a narrow fertile strath, of a general elevation of 1,100 feet; this, together with the steep slopes of Pisa on the one side, and the spurs coming down from Middle Peak and Cardrona Mountain on the other, make up a piece of well-grassed country. Towards the head of the valley, the mountains close iv an form the gorge through which the Cardrona flows for the first few miles of its course. At the bead of this gorge, there is a low saddle. On the west side of it, at a horizontal distance of one mile, and at a depth of more than 2.000 ft, the Kawarau pursues its narrow, swift, and tortuous course to the Clutha. On the right bank of the Kawarau, immediately below Double Cone and Ben Nevis, there are ten or twelve square miles of good pasture ; but this is so hemmed in by precipices that communication with it seems almost impossible ; nor does the river afford any chance by fording, for, in addition to its great depth aud speed, it flows in a deep rocky rut, from thirty to several hundreds of feet in perpendicular depth below its immediate banks. The country between this river and the Kirtleburn consists of steep spurs, covered with coarse grasses — the peninsula opposite the confluence of the Nevis is the only exception, three or four square miles there being of fair quality. The Kawarau, before its junction with the Kirile, enters a gorge so deep, black, and abrupt, as to seem almost unuatural. After flowing through this gorge for five miles first in aN. E. and then in a S, Edirection, it enters at the S. W. corner of the Cut. a Valley ; and after a further courseof five miles in a S. E, N. E, and E. direction, it joins the Clutha just before that river enters into the Dunstuu Mountains. The part of the Clulha Valley included in this survey extends from two miles south of the Kawarau to the Wanaka and Hawea Lakes ; in length it is thirty-eight miles, and in breath from two to twelve miles; it rises from 674 feet, at the junction of the Kawarau with the Clutha, to 1,562 feet — the elevation of the high terrace iromediatly above the mouth of the Cardrona. The soil consists of rich alluvial fiats and shingle terraces, both well covered with grasses, suitable either for catt'e or sheep. A narrow strip along the south side of the Wanaka Lake, of five miles in length and about one in breadth, connects the Clutha Valley with thirty square miles of very fair country, formed by the union of the Motatapu and Matukituki valleys. This is partly covered with fern and scrub, but the soil being mostly alluvia!, the ' burnings off" and grass-fostering influence of stock will rapidly improve it. What bas been already noticed, together with about five square miles in detached patches at the head of the Hawea Lake, two square miles on the isthmus between the Wanaka and Hawea Lakes, and a choice piece of sixteen square miles between Quartz Creek and llawea River —complete all that cau be said to be level or undulating, and permanently free, so far as the safety of stock is concerned, from snow.

What remains may be divided into "good " and inferior summer pasture. All below 4000 feet of altitude may be classed as good, and from 4,000 to 5,500 feet as inferior; all higher than 5,500 feet barren. Under good, there will be included as follows: —

A belt of about two miles in breadth, encircling the lower spurs of Pis?., on the east and north sides of tbat mountain.

The greater part of the peninsula between the Wanaka and Hawea lakes.

The upper part of the Cardroua and Motatapu valleys.

The greater part of the ridge between the Nevis and the Clutha Valley.

All the spurs coming down from the i idge, of which Breast Hill and Trig Hill are parts Under inferior, there will be included —

The high table land stretching between Cruffel, Queensberry, and Pisa, and merging into barreuness before it reaches the latter summit.

The higher parts of tbe ridges already mentioned under good.

All the country along the margin of the west and upper east sides of the Wanaka Lake, together with the-upper west side of tbe Uawea Lake. This country is excessively broken, rugged, and much overrun with fern; it rises so quickly and to such height, that an arbitary line drawn round the lake, at a distance of two miles from the margin, would enclose all that is of vegetation ; to the west of this imaginary line there is not a blade of grass to be seen. The stocking of such country as that around the lakes evinces a spirit of much enterprise, for unlike the Ciutha Valley, it is not at once available. The stock owner must put forth his capital and energies years before there can be anything like an adequate return ; the difficulties of shepherding there must always be great, and even dangerous. A full muster at sheariugtime is never obtained — the heights which, to most animals, would be a wall and a fence, afford on occasion, a retreat to the sheep, free from any interference whatever. Last season a shepherd whose duty it was to tend a flock on tbe spurs of Mount Alta, went out one morning to see to his flock ; not returning, as usual, a search was made for him for some days, without success. The conjecture is, that he had been endearouriug to collect some of the stragglers of his flock, and in doing so, had missed either bis hold or footing and been precipitated down into some nook among the rocks.'

Of agricultural capabilities, it may be affirmed that one-half of the Ciutha Valley, including

the Liudis part also, is well adapted, as regards climate and soil for the growing of cereal crops, the other half owing to its shingle element, is too dry and hard. Vegetables grow well, and arrive at ;;ood maturity, as seen in some of the gardens at the stations. A great drawback to agricultural settlement would be tbe want of bush, the nearest being at the head of the lakes.

The bush consists almost entirely of black birch. The stems of the trees are from twelve to eighteen inches diameter, they do not taper quickly, split well, and when the posts are charred, make a pretty durable fence. During the survey contractors were at work in both the Hawea and Makarora Forests. Those in the Makarora report the discovery of a sprinkling of goa, totara, and black pine through it ; and there is manuka en both of the wooded islands in the Wanaka Lake.