TUTIRA ITS PROMINENT PHYSICAL FEATURES 5 



drops its burden of soil as it nears Tutira lake. Save for a mile or 

 so in the course of this little river, and the equally brief run of a 

 few brooks on the uplands of Opouahi, the drainage system of the station 

 has to be searched for. It lies beneath the level. Barring the two or 

 three miles that march with Arapawanui, the boundaries of the run are 

 wet cliff ; except on the Newton range, the paddocks are enclosed by 

 wet cliffs. Within each paddock are wet cliffs ; within many of them 

 are miles of wet cliff. There are in addition miles of dry cliff in almost 

 every one of these natural enclosures. The reader will not grasp the 

 coming story of Tutira if he fails to understand that there are, wet and 

 dry, several hundred miles of precipice on the run, varying in height 

 from 20 to 150 feet. 



Other prominent natural features of the station are its water sur- 

 faces. Of these the largest is Tutira lake, next in size is Waikopiro 

 the two, conjoined in wet weather, covering some 500 acres. Within a 

 couple of chains distance from the last-named, and at a lower level, is 

 situated Orakai, five or six acres in extent. There is a lakelet, Opouahi, 

 of about similar size, on the uplands of the west ; a deep clear lakelet, 

 Te Maru, on Putorino, and a couple of tarns on Heru-o-Tureia. Tutira 

 lake, about two miles long, resting at the foot of the Newton range, is 

 drained by a meandering serpentine creek of the same name, which, 

 after crossing the old Maori foot-trail, breaks into a series of over- 

 falls, and finally leaps at Te Rere-a-Tahumata into a magnificent 

 chasm of 157 feet in depth. 



As in the shaping of the run water has played so prominent a part, 

 it will be well in this initial chapter to devote a few lines to the rainfall. 

 The heaviest deluges are blown up from the north-east, east, south-east, 

 south, and south-west. During some three or four days' duration, not 

 infrequently one foot and over, and on one occasion nearly two feet, 

 have been registered. Except in the form 'of showers, rain seldom 

 reaches Tutira in appreciable quantity from the north and west. 

 Thunderstorms, which cling to the coast and the ranges, the station 

 almost entirely escapes. Snow falls but rarely only thrice in my 

 time has it lain for more than a few hours ; during one of these 

 blizzards, however, it certainly fell in the same whole-hearted manner 

 as have done the greatest of the rain-storms. Everywhere on the low 

 lands two feet deep, it lay still thicker on the Newton range, completely 

 blotting out the sheep for a couple of days. 



The rainfall of eastern Tutira is different in character from that of 



