Geological Survey of Canterbury . 79 



of the pass without getting off our horses ; now we could no longer 

 think of riding. The unparalleled bad road led rather steeply down- 

 wards, either over smooth slippery blocks of rock, or through pools o£ 

 slush full of roots and large and small stones, over and between which 

 the poor horses tried to pick their way, panting and trembling, and 

 often sinking up to their girths. Of course it was no better for the 

 pedestrians, and I was now convinced that the famishing 

 travellers, who had returned, had not at all exaggerated in 

 their description of the horrible road. The change in the vegetation 

 is very remarkable, as, after having descended several hundred feet, 

 it is entirely different from that observed on the eastern side. 

 The sub-alpine vegetation instead of going over into Fagus Solandri, 

 is little by little supplanted by forms of trees, which we generally find 

 on the West coast of the Island, and to the growth of which a damp 

 climate seems particularly favourable. Some few of the shrubs on the 

 saddle assume a treelike form, as for instance, Olearia ilicifolia, Panax 

 Fdgerlyii, wbilenumerous trees of Metrosideros lucida, Fuchsia excorticata, 

 Weinmannia racemosa, and several others are mixed among; them and 

 gradually supplant the sub-alpine vegetation. Fagus fusca, the blackbirch 

 of the colonists, soon makes its appearance together with the two conifers 

 Fodocarpus Totara and Libocedrus Doniana, the Kawhaka of the natives 

 rising far above the other forest vegetation with their erect stems and 

 superb crowns. Twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet below 

 the saddle, on the steep declivity the forest has already assumed 

 the character of the vegetation which we find everywhere in the 

 lower mountains of the Alps near the West Coast. Descending 

 about 850 feet, we came to the first considerable mountain 

 stream, which comes out of a deep wide gorge on the 

 northern side of the range and rushes over large blocks of rock 

 to the valley. This stream was already more considerable than the 

 Hurunui, three to four miles below the saddle. This crossed, 

 we entered the forest again, which, for a short space, covering 

 terrace-like ground, tolerably smooth and very mossy, much resembled 

 a bottomless swamp. Continuing down the mountain, we passed 

 several important tributaries from both sides, and after two hours con- 

 tinuous travelling arrived at the western foot of the pass. The valley 

 widens here visibly, and is bordered on both sides by moraines twenty 

 to thirty feet high. At a height of 1500 feet above the sea, it 

 assumes the peculiarities before described of a broad shingle bed. The 

 river has here such a considerable body of water, that even when it is 

 low, the fords are difficult to cross, although good places can generally 



