﻿Anniversary Address. 13 



but Mont Blanc and one or two others of the highest of the Alps of Europe. 

 But the exploration of this giant of the southern hemisphere probably presents 

 no unwonted difficulty to practised mountaineers, while it could not fail to add 

 largely to the general stock of scientific knowledge. The present Secretary of 

 State for the Colonies (the Earl of Kimberley) has, at my instance, invited 

 the attention of the Royal Geographical Society to this subject. I have also 

 to announce that the Admiralty, in consequence of my representations, intend 

 to publish new and corrected charts, on an enlarged scale, of the West Coast 

 of New Zealand. 



The ' Clio ' left Milford Sound on the moi-ning of the 17th February, and on 

 the same afternoon struck on her port bow upon a sunken rock, unnoticed in 

 the existing charts, near the middle of the second reach of Bligh Sound. 

 Had the accident occurred amidships, she would pi'obably have at once -gone 

 down with all on board. As it was, the ship made water so fast through the 

 leak on the port bow that she was immediately put back, and anchored in 

 Bounty Haven, at the head of Bligh Sound. The pumps kept the water 

 down, while the divers, with two of whom the ' Clio ' was fortunately furnished, 

 examined, and the carpenters stopped the leak. I was very glad to be of some 

 service in this emergencj;^, by pointing out, from my knowledge of their foliage, 

 the best timber trees in the forests coveiing the slopes of the mountains 

 around this harbour. A party of seamen and marines was sent on shore to 

 procure sufficient wood far such repairs as enabled the 'Clio' to put to sea again 

 in the course of a fortnight. Meanwhile, we were absolutely cut off from all 

 communication with the rest of the world ; for the repeated attempts made to 

 discover a pass leading directly from the settlements in the Province of Otago 

 to the sounds on its south-western coasts, have hitherto completely failed, 

 owing to the inaccessible character of the intervening forests and mountains. 

 In 1863, Dr. Hector, hoping to discover some mode of communication with 

 the inhabited districts on the East of the dividing range, forced his way iip the 

 valley of the Cleddau River, which flows into the head of Milford Sound. 

 After a toilsome scramble of two days, his further progress was barred by 

 almost perpendicular cliffs of some 5,000 feet in height, with snowy 

 peaks rising several thousand feet higher. However, Dr. Hector afterwards 

 found his way by a rugged and circuitous path from Martin's Bay (nearly forty 

 miles north of Bligh Sound), to Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu ; and he now 

 volunteered to attempt the same route again, with messages from myself to 

 the Colonial G-overnment, and from Commodore Stirling to the officer 

 commanding H.M.S. ' Yirago ' at Wellington. Accoi'dingly, on the night of 

 our disaster, he sailed in the launch of the ' Clio ;' which returned, after an 

 absence of five days, and reported that Dr. Hector, with two seamen, sent by 

 the Commodore to attend him, had been safely landed on the 19th at Martin's 

 Bay, and had set out forthwith on their journey across the mountains. It may 



