88 Historical Notes on the 



charging their cargoes, reminding us of the life in a European port. 

 Owing to the shifting nature of the channel, which leads through the 

 surf into the river, several vessels had been stranded, amongst which 

 were two steamers ; however, one of them, the Stormhird, was that day- 

 brought into deep water again. I pitched my tents in the G-overnment 

 camp, in which, in canvas houses, the Provincial G-overnment Com- 

 missioner, Mr. Gr. Sale, and the other Grovernment officers were living, 

 and which contained also the Police camp, jail, and the offices of the 

 Resident Magistrate and of the Groldfields Warden. For several days 

 we had quite a deluge of wet weather, as it rained almost incessantly. 

 During that time I wrote a report to the Secretary for Public Works, 

 giving the results of my observations during the overland journey, 

 which, with a number of others written subsequently, were printed by 

 order of the Provincial Grovernment, and presented to the Provincial 

 Council.* 



As soon as the weather had cleared up again, I started for the 

 Waimea goldfields, to which the road was still in a most wretched 

 state, owing to the enormous traffic along a swampy forest track, 

 although the Grovernment had already begun to corderoy the worst 

 portions. In the evening we reached the Waimea township, for 

 which room had to be made by felling a number of trees in the 

 luxuriant forest, here clothing the whole country. Although 

 surrounded by a large digging population, there was very little loafing 

 to be seen here. Of course diggers were coming and going, but the 

 whole intercourse had a healthy appearance, and showed that its 

 mining population was busily engaged on its claims. During several 

 days I visited all the principal diggings in the neighbourhood, making 

 myself acquainted with the mode of occurrence of the precious metal, 

 and following the main branches of the Waimea to near their sources. 

 I also went to Fox's rush, and some other goldfields on Fox's and Bed 

 Jack's gullies, falling into the Arahura ; afterwards, I proceeded to 

 the sources of the Kapitea, and visited G-allaghan's and Grerinan 

 Creeks and some others in the neighbourhood, and thus obtained an 

 insight into the nature and extent of the goldfields in that part of the 

 West Coast. As I shall treat of the nature of the goldfields in 

 the geological portion of this report, I may only here state, that the 

 whole goldfields, as far as visited, were found to be deposits of a very 

 large river of pre-glacial age, those portions being only preserved 



* Report on the Geological Exploration of the West Coast. By Jttlius Haast, PhD., F.G.S., 

 Provincial Geologist. 



