Geological Survey of Canterbury. 95 



of white pine and rimu. The whole was enlivened by many small 

 waterfalls, which every few hundred yards, and often still nearer, 

 dashed down from the summit, the heavy rains of the last few days 

 having supplied them with a larger body of water than they usually 

 possess. They were for that reason so numerous, that in one locality 

 I counted fifteen close together. Towards night we camped near a 

 small creek, and, as unfortunately the tides were very disadvantageous 

 for travelling, high water being towards the middle o\ the day, we 

 made use of the magnificent moonlight night, starting before four 

 o'clock in the morning, to round the next headland before reaching the 

 "Wanganui river. Even then we had started too late, as we soon 

 became aware. For about two miles we were able to travel on sandy 

 beaches, or at least on patches of smaller shingle which had been 

 deposited between huge rocks ; but soon the tide rose, the boulders 

 became larger and larger, and it was apparent that since my companion 

 had returned, the surf had washed a great deal of sand away, 

 previously deposited between the interstices of the huge rocks, and it 

 was not without some trouble that we arrived, towards daylight, at the 

 "Wanganui. The ubiquitous storekeeper was not wanting here, and had 

 established himself in a wooden hut, built from the remains of a 

 former whaling station. Round a good fire in the hut several diggers 

 were, lying, who had just returned along the coast, from a trip with the 

 Bruce, to Taitahi, near Bruce Bay, without being able to find any 

 auriferous ground rich enough to induce them to set to work. 



The view from the mouth of the Wanganui towards the east is very 

 extensive, although the highest parts of the Southern Alps are here 

 still hidden by moraine beds, and in the foreground of which a very 

 interesting sugarloaf-iike headland, Mount One-one, on the southern 

 side of the river, at its mouth, is most conspicuous. Such an 

 occurrence shows clearly to what an enormous extent the glacier 

 accumulations have already been destroyed by the action of the 

 present rivers and the encroaching sea. 



Owing to the unfavourable tides, we had again to stay till the after- 

 noon at the Wanganui before we could continue our journey, as we 

 had to cross another bluff before reaching the Poerua river. We 

 also crossed the Wanganui in a boat. The bluff between the two 

 rivers is not at all difficult to pass, as a good sandy beach, from which 

 only at intervals large erratic blocks rise, stretches to the Poerua river ; 

 and only the last piece, leading for a short distance along that riverl 



