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 satisfaction, 

 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 which 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 a 

 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, 



