24 THE KEA. 



When spring comes there is a change, but only 

 doubtfully for the better. The biting blasts give place to 

 the warmer winds from the north west. These come over 

 the Tasman Sea, getting charged with moisture on the way, 

 until they strike the rampart of alpine peaks and pour their 

 burden on the snow. At night the scene is weirdly grand. 

 The lightning plays among the rocky crests, darting its 

 fiery fingers again and again down into the valleys. A 

 veritable cannonade of thunder shakes the mountain slopes, 

 while sleet and hail sweep ruthlessly everywhere. Soon every 

 crevice in the mountain side sends forth a torrent ; the 

 creeks become rushing rivers ; and the river itself awakes 

 to fury, losing its winter gentleness for a violence 

 indescribable. Swollen from bank to bank, it becomes a 

 seething, whirling, irresistible flood. It gouges out the bases of 

 the cliffs and sweeps away the fords, while the roar of its 

 water and the growl of its crunching boulders can be heard 

 miles away. Heavily laden with yellow silt, it rushes out 

 over the plains and discolours the sea for seventy miles 

 out from the coast. The coming of these spring winds efi'ects 

 a devastating transformation, well described in the following 

 stanzas from "The Nor'-Wester," by the late Mrs. F. M. 

 Renner, "''' Craig : — 



Theu I spring' up the slopes of the Alps, but recoil at the touch of their suow, 

 And wrap myself rouud iu cloud ; aud my augry eyes, aglow. 

 Shoot forth the zig-zag- lightning ; my thunder shakes the air, 

 Aud I scatter the great drops thick and fast from off my sea-wet hair. 

 But never a whit can the Alps stop me, 



I leave them soon behind, 

 Aud revel aud dance in maddest glee, 

 A riotous Nor' -West wind ! 



My warm breath frees the waters, and makes the suow flowers die, 

 Aud the sides of the Alps are torn as the torrents hurry by; 

 There's a fresh iu the Waimakariri, a flood in the turbid Grey ; 

 Each swollen river is rushing, o'erwhelming' all in its way. 

 And this is my work that none can withstand, 



Nor any power can bind ; 

 Aud I dauce aud revel throughout the land, 

 A riotous Nor'-West wind ! 



During midsummer and autumn only are these vast 

 alpine tracts at all comfortably accessible. 



This band of alpine country forms the back-bone of the 



