68 Historical Rotes on the 



their husbands and often leading pack-horses, all going to the new 

 Eldorado. Travellers on foot with heavy packs on their backs, and 

 shovels and pickaxes in their hands, were also there, many of them 

 having already come several hundred miles. It was easy to see from 

 their appearance that most of them were accustomed to such journeys 

 with their accompanying privations and hardships ; but an experienced 

 traveller could easily descry among them single groups whose outfit 

 and appearance showed at once that they were novices, and hardly in 

 the condition to bear the fatigues before them. After the Kowai river 

 is crossed, the high road leaves the alluvium or littoral zone, 

 consisting of drift sand winch it has hitherto passed through, 

 and ascends a terrace about fifty feet high, consisting of the older 

 drift alluvium which forms the Canterbury plains. 



After having traversed about eight miles of this monotonous grass- 

 covered plain, the road enters the tertiary limestone range through 

 which the Weka Pass leads to the Hurunui district. The road instead 

 of leading over the "Waikari plain to the Hurunui river goes towards 

 the Waitohi, one ot its tributaries, where it enters the alluvial plain 

 from the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps. The good high road 

 which we followed hitherto, ends here, and only a small bridlepath 

 leads farther into the country. The ^VTaitohi enters the plains through 

 a rather narrow valley with a small alluvial terrace, about 100 feet 

 high on both sides, in which as well as in the underlying cliffs the 

 stream has formed its present bed. "Within a few weeks a small 

 township had sprung up here, consisting mostly of tents, but a few 

 people had already begun to erect wooden houses and shops, for the 

 numbers of people who came were increasing every day. The traveller 

 could not help being especially struck here with the feverish movement 

 of a population hastening to a newly discovered goldfield. Many of 

 the diggers and storekeepers who had brought loaded waggons from 

 Otago, in the belief that they could take them at least to the foot of 

 the saddle, which leads over the central chain, were now obliged to 

 leave them behind and take their stores on with pack-horses. Many 

 large waggons were therefore sold for a trifle, while others which did 

 not immediately find a buyer were simply J eft behind. And what a 

 busy active life was here to be seen, everywhere tents and campfires, 

 around which several hundred persons were encamped, most of them 

 making preparations for continuing their journey, and often speaking 

 in different languages, English being of course predominant. During 

 the whole of the afternoon and till late in the evening travellers kept 



