1208 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 





lofty pitch of the Stirling Fall is right before us. We mark its waters issuing free 

 from the dizzy escarpment of a mountain, and then, uniting in loving embrace for the 

 final plunge, hurling themselves in unbroken volume four hundred feet through space, to 



the surface of the Sound, which 

 throws them back in fierce recoil of 

 foam and shimmering spray. Under 

 the frowning lee of Mount Kimber- 

 ley, looking down upon us from his 

 precipitous height of two thousand 

 five hundred feet, and turning the 

 tail of his couchant sentinel, "The 

 Lion Rock," we pass slowly into 

 Harrison Cove, and find ourselves 

 at the immediate base of Pembroke 

 Peak. Its glacier-laden sides 

 tower upward, and upward, 

 until the wearied vision can 

 penetrate no farther, and 

 the mind is fain to conjure 



up the counterfeit presentment of the 

 solitary Peak that pierces far above the 

 cloud-line into the ever-radiant sun- 

 shine. A deep and winding valley 

 trends its sinuous way from the side 

 of the Mountain to the head of the 

 cove. On every side giddy heights 

 and eternal glaciers confront the eye. 

 Opposite Pembroke Peak, the 

 magnificent form of Mitre Peak rears 

 itself into that strange double summit 

 which suggests the episcopal insignia. 

 It and its neighbours, the saddle- 

 backed Llawrenny Peaks and Mount Phillips, gaze down upon a dome-shaped moun- 

 tain of metallic aspect on the other shore, and upon snow-crested peaks on every 

 hand. Right in front, and forming the head of the Sound, stands Sheerdown Hill, 



THE WILD-FLOWERS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



