Geological Survey of Canterbury. 67 



province ; all New Zealand, and even the Australian Colonies were 

 more or less affected, and numerous steam and sailing vessels unloaded 

 their living freight on the formerly desolate West Coast. Thousands 

 of men who in consequence of their usually sedentary lives, were the 

 least fitted to bid defiance to the elements, to carry heavy burdens on 

 their backs, and at the same time put up with scanty and bad food, 

 would not be warned, but followed in pursuit of the gold which, as 

 report said, was so easy to obtain. Thus the clerk left his desk, the 

 artisan his workshop, even doctors, lawyers, and merchants whose 

 sphere of action was not quite what they desired, preferred to give 

 up their professional position and domestic life in pursuit of the 

 uncertain wealth in the distance. As a matter of course, most of these 

 people returned without having attained any results, while many, 

 terrified by the mountain torrents, and being to their advantage, soon 

 sobered down, came back again when they had scarcely gone half-way. 



This migration began in December, 1864, during the time I was 

 occupied in preparing the results of my geological explorations for the 

 Art and Industrial Exhibition in Dunedin, the capital of the Province 

 of Otago. This was the reason that I was able to set out to follow 

 the general stream to the West Coast, only towards the end of March, 

 1865. All those who did not prefer to come by sea had to travel over 

 the "saddle," the only pass then known, and which leads from the 

 sources of the Hurunui river to those of the Teramakau. The 

 Government had sent out several parties in the beginning of the year, 

 to the sources of the Rakaia and Waimakariri rivers, to see if any pass 

 existed there through the Southern Alps, but meanwhile in order to 

 facilitate the traffic in some degree* had despatched a number of roadmen 

 under qualified engineers, to improve the bridlepath made some years 

 previously, so that pack-horses could be brought from the East to the 

 West Coast. 



On the 29th March I left Christchurch with three horses, and 

 accompanied by three men ; the weather was glorious, as it nearly 

 always is in the latter part of our summer, not a cloud in the deep 

 blue sky, and travelling was pleasant and easy, as a well-made road only 

 a few miles distant from the sea coast, leads from the capital for thirty 

 miles north to the Waipara. What stirring life was on the road ! 

 waggons of all kinds came and went, bringing provisions and other 

 goods to the Waitohi gorge, where the waggon road ends. An 

 endless train of gold-diggers with pack-horses, packers driving horses 

 before them, and even women walking stoutly along by the side of 



