THE KEA COUNTRY. 25 



South Island of New Zealand, and stretches for about 480 

 miles, from one end of the island to the other, lying 

 somewhat to the west. It is composed of long- parallel 

 ranges of mountains many thousands of feet in height, 

 crossed all along their length by shorter transverse ranges, 

 which taper out to the plains. In between these cross 

 ranges the rivers run, fed all the year round by the alpine 

 snows, and cutting out deep gorges between the mountains, 

 which form picturesque defiles opening to the plains. 



These river-beds form the easiest way of access to the 

 alpine country, and usually a road or track stretches 

 along their high banks, cutting across miles of shingly 

 river-bed, over low hills and flat tussocky terraces, until it 

 runs towards the central range, often getting rougher and 

 more hard to follow as it approaches the passes that lead to 

 the West Coast. 



On the east side of the dividing range the mountains are 

 clothed with tussock grass, which grows up towards the 

 snow-line, w^here it gives place to the sub-alpine vegetation. 

 Where the rainfall is sufficient fairly large patches of forest 

 stretch for miles. 



On the western slopes, owing to the large amount of 

 moisture deposited by the north-west winds, the barren 

 tussocky scenery changes almost immediately into beautiful 

 snow-clad peaks, covered on their lower slopes by evergreen 

 forest, where ratas, veronicas, olearias, tree ferns and mosses 

 form scenes of exquisite beauty. 



Erom the sides of the steep forest-clad mountains 

 foaming cascades and roaring torrents tumble down into the 

 valleys ; and, when the upper snows melt, waterfalls of all 

 sizes pour from every depression and gully, forming, with 

 the dark evergreen of the bush, scenes of unsurpassed 

 loveliness. Here one leaps from the cliff" a hundred feet or 

 so above you, and, arching over the roadway, tumbles with 

 a roar into the valley, drenching the travellei' with spray as 

 he passes under its watery arch. There one darts out from 

 some bush-clad precipice, and, when caught by the wind, 

 spreads itself out for some hundreds of feet along the sides 



