: THE STATION AND SCIENCE 279 



a New Zealand Premier, would consume some time in 

 its accomplishment ; but ridicule had little effect on 

 the go©d-natured artist, who has since found support 

 in scientific writers. 



Most of these evolutions lay hidden in the womb of 

 the future, when Butler was still a cadet on a New 

 Zealand station. Still, two germs of his later specu- 

 lative activity were then deposited in a fruitful matrix. 

 The substance of the renowned book Erewhon was 

 conceived, and four of its most characteristic chapters 

 drafted, while the chief of his anti-Darwinian specu- 

 lations was then originated. The scenic background 

 of his most famous work, sketched in the first four or 

 five chapters, was drawn from his Canterbury surround- 

 ings. They are touched in with the eye of a painter 

 and the hand of a poet. " The beauty of the scene," 

 he says on one occasion, " cannot be conveyed in 

 language. The one side of the valley was blue in 

 evening shadow, through which loomed forest and 

 precipice, hillside and mountain top ; and the other 

 was still brilhant with the sunset gold. The wide and 

 wasteful river with its ceaseless rushing — the beautiful 

 water-birds too, which abounded upon the islets and 

 were so tame that we could come close up to them — the 

 ineffable purity of the air — the solemn peacefulness 

 of the untrodden region — could there be a more delight- 

 ful and exhilarating combination ? 



There, as he gazed on the majestic panorama of the 

 Southern Alps, the idea of the book dawned on him. 

 The squatters had travelled ever further inland with 

 their flocks, and still found a well-grassed country as 

 they penetrated nearer to the mountains. Might it 

 not be that, beyond the foot-hills where he dwelt, and 

 yet on this side of the snow-clad range that bounded 

 the horizon, there was another country where he might 

 discover new tracts that he could stock, or, it might be, 

 find copper or diamonds, silver or gold ? Nay, what 

 was there beyond that majestic range itself ? He 

 played with the thoughts, which haunted him, and half- 



