78 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
deterioration already produced in tracts of country which had formerly 
presented the uniform aspect of luxuriant pasture grounds and abundant 
cornfields and vineyards. 
I have digressed somewhat from the immediate subject of my paper, but 
a recollection of the destructive results of the great floods of February, 1868, 
brought vividly before me the amount of injury which has already occurred, 
and which is likely to follow, from continued improper interference with 
natural operations; and I could not resist the opportunity of once again 
urging the necessity for checking such interferences, before it is altogether 
too late to do so with effect. 
To return to my immediate subject. I have added by way of Appendix 
to this paper, a table (compiled for me by Mr. Gore), containing 
the meteorological notices recorded in both Islands during the month 
in which they occurred, from a perusal of which, independently of what 
I am about to state in this paper, you would doubtless conclude that 
the floods in question were of an unprecedented character. From observa- 
tions made by myself during two or three journeys overland between 
Christchurch and Nelson, and, therefore, through the heart of the country 
in which these floods attained their maximum intensity, I was led to the 
startling conclusion, not only that they were the greatest which had 
occurred for a very long period of time, but that that period might properly 
be reckoned by thousands of years. Such a statement is, I admit, easily 
made, and must primarily be treated as being incapable of proof ; but, 
whether I succeed or not in establishing my proposition to your satisfacti 
I feel pretty well assured of its truth, and will, in due course, state my 
reasons for advancing it. In order, however, that you may be able to 
appreciate those reasons, it is necessary that I should give a somewhat 
detailed description of the features of the country in tomar my observations 
were made. 
My first journey took place within a fortnight after the floods had 
subsided, and was from Christchurch to Nelson, visiting on my way ® 
cattle-station which I then held, in the heart of the Spenser Mountains. 
My route, after leaving the Canterbury Plains, lay through the Weka Pass 
to the Hurunui and Waiau-ua Plains; from thence through the second 
gorge of the Waiau-ua, to the Hanmer Plain ; across that plain to Jack’s 
Pass ; and over the pass into the Valley of the Clarence ; and then into my 
station on the Upper Waiau-ua, by Fowler’s Pass. From my station to 
Nelson, I crossed Maling’s Pass to the head of Lake Tennyson ; thence 
over the Island Saddle to the head waters of the Wairau, and through 
the Wairau Gorge, and the upper valley of that river, to the Top House ; 
and thence through the Big Bush, to Nelson, 
