I 2 o6 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



process of subsidence is still going on or not, but they are agreed that it has taken 

 place, with the result \ve have mentioned. So great is the depth of these land-locked 

 lakes which slumber in perfect .stillness, that soundings can rarely be obtained under 

 eighty or one hundred fathoms. The woody islets which gem their bosom partake of 

 the inaccessible steepness of the shores. They appear to be, and most probably are, the 

 peaks of submerged mountains. Cascades and water-falls course down the fortress-like 

 sides of the craggy shore, some with the noise of dashing torrents ; others winding 

 through the dense bush-like strands of gossamer, and dissipating their mist of spray-foam as 

 they plunge over the lip of some fearful abyss. The rich and profuse vegetation is 

 yet another feature the beauty of which cannot be exaggerated. It is here alone that the 

 torrid and the frigid zones join hands, and semi-tropical vegetation may be found close 

 to the eternal snows. 



There are thirteen of these sounds between the parallels of forty-four and forty-six 

 degrees south latitude, and they penetrate inland for distances ranging from six to 

 twenty miles. The most southerly of the series is Preservation Inlet, and then follow 

 in regular order as we proceed north, Chalky or Dark Cloud Inlet, Dusky Sound, 

 Breaksea Sound, Dagg's Sound, Doubtful Inlet, Thompson Sound, Nancy Sound, George 

 Sound, Bligh Sound, and then, most famous for its scenery, Milford Sound. 



Milford Sound is the most northerly of the series, and if the traveller has been 

 startled and bewildered by what he has already seen, he will be now perfectly amazed 

 and profoundly impressed. It is here that the sublimity of Nature attains its climax. 

 Although the eye detects no break in the iron-bound coast, we are close to the portals 

 of a sound which takes rank as one of the greatest wonders of the world. In the 

 words of the official report of the survey: "The mountains by which it is surrounded 

 are, with the exception of Mount Cook, the highest on the coast, and its narrow 

 entrance, apparently still more contracted by the stupendous cliffs which rise perpendicular 

 as a wall from the water's edge to a height of several thousand feet, invests Milford 

 Sound with a character of solemnity and grandeur which description can barely realize." 

 After passing Anita Bay, we steam straight for what appears to be a mere fissure in 

 the gigantic embattled phalanx of cloud-piercing mountains, with Mitre Peak, three thou- 

 sand five hundred and sixty feet, on one side, and Pembroke Peak, six thousand seven 

 hundred and ten feet, on the other, standing forward, as captains of the host, to 

 dispute our petty intrusion. We are' at last within the funnel-shaped entrance to the 

 Sound, and passing within the adamantine portals at its inner end only a quarter of 

 a mile wide we might, with but a slight effort of the mind, imagine ourselves in the 

 mysterious under-world. 



Here surely we have cut ourselves off for ever from the commonplace affairs of 

 every-day life, and are swiftly, and, so to speak, profanely entering a region of weird 

 solemnity, and sombre and awful impressiveness. How vast and imposingly sublime is 

 the scale on which everything is reared ! Mountains rising sheer from the unfathomable 

 depths of this silent sea, soaring upward beyond the clouds that invest, as it were, with 

 fleecy zones the enormous bulk of their waists ; forest vegetation of perennial verdure 

 clothing their lower limbs, and magnificent water-falls angrily foaming down their rude 

 flanks. Our wonder and awe deepen and intensify as we proceed upon our way. The 



