82 Historical Notes on the 



tree-ferns, often as much as 30 feet high. After a mile and a balf we 

 came out of the high forest and the pakihi or paddock lay before us. 

 This is the name given by tbe diggers to a grass -covered plain between 

 one and two miles broad, bordered on both sides by thickly 

 wooded mountains. This place, generally so desolate, was now highly 

 animated. Cattle and horses were grazing peacefully in all directions. 

 Numbers of tents were put up near the forest for the accommodation 

 of gold-diggers, cattle-drivers, and storekeepers. It was used 

 by those coming and going as a resting place, before resuming their 

 tedious journey. Besides this, they let the cattle, for which there is 

 very little food in the Teramakau valley, recruit here, since 

 it is the last grassy place, near the coast and neighbourhood 

 of Hokitika where feed grows. "When the cattle are however 

 once accustomed to the leaves of the trees and shrubs, some 

 of which they like very much, they soon get into good condition 

 again. In spite of the rainy weather there was active life and bustle 

 here ; no flour was however to be had, and people who had money to 

 buy provisions were obliged to content themselves with fresh beef. 

 The alluring grog shanty, as usual, was not missing. On a nearer 

 examination of this interesting flat, I came to the surprising conclusion 

 that even in the latest geological time, the Teramakau river must have 

 flowed here. I could easily follow the old river-bed, divided into many 

 branches, one part towards Lake Brunner, the other part towards 

 Lake Poerua, situated to the north-east, the outlet of which falls into 

 the first named lake. 



The isolated mountain group which lies between the Pakihi and Lake 

 Brunner and the Poerua Lake and its outlet into the first, is about 

 2500 feet high, thickly wooded, and is named by the natives Kaimonga. 

 A few hundred feet from the northern bank of the Teramakau, where 

 the Brunner lake opening begins, the ground is in some places swampy, 

 and immediately little water-courses unite and form a stream 

 which flows into the southern end of Lake Brunner. There is no doubt 

 that these springs, rising near the river, are only river water filtered 

 through the debris, and that consequently the surface of the water lies 

 only a few feet under the northern bank of debris which confines the 

 river towards the west. Should an elevation take place, which is very 

 possible, in the shingle bed of the Teramakau river, it is easy to imagine 

 that the river would again occupy its former course. I heard after- 

 wards from the natives, that when the Teramakau had been very high 

 they had taken canoes from it to Lake Brunner and to the Grey river, 



