104 Historical Notes on the 



having done so will afterwards feel surprised at the facility with 

 which that wonderful and powerful plough of nature will furrow 

 deep valleys and model roclies moutonnees. 



On both sides of that glacier, for a good distance, the mountains were 

 covered with a luxuriant vegetation, amongst which beautiful rata trees, 

 and in one locality Fuchsia bushes, then without leaves, covered a large 

 extent of the mountain side, and were most conspicuous. It was in vain 

 that even here, close to the glacier, where the large ice masses must, in 

 some degree, refrigerate the surrounding atmosphere, I looked for 

 characteristic alpine plants. There were neither spear grasses nor 

 Cehnesias, those gigantic New Zealand daisies, which are such an orna- 

 ment to our higher vegetation, nor even any of the sub-alpine bushes 

 and shrubs. One may easily imagine how extremely striking is the 

 contrast between the stupendous ice masses, enclosed by that tremendous 

 mountain chain, and the arborescent ferns, pines and other luxuriant 

 vegetation which are in general only found in more genial parts of the 

 coast. 



On Monday, the 19th of June, we began to retrace our steps from 

 the Okarita lake, and found great difficulties in passing some of the 

 rivers, the entrances of which had been nearly choked up by the sands 

 travelling with the current, so that they formed large watersheds. 

 The weather, which hitherto had been so fine, began to be very 

 boisterous • and from Lake Poerua to the "Waitaha, we had mostly 

 heavy rain, whilst the last day from the "Waitaha to Hokitika, was one 

 of those bright days which makes the remembrance of that journey a 

 very pleasant one. I reached Hokitika on June the 23rd, and had to 

 wait till July the 4th before I could proceed to Christchurch, the 

 weather being so stormy that no steamer would venture out. At last 

 the Maid of the Yarra crossed the bar to tender the Omeo, in which I 

 returned, via Kelson and "Wellington to Christchurch, where I arrived 

 after a protracted passage, on the loth of July. On July the 24th, I 

 presented a Progress Report to the Secretary for Public "Works on the 

 main results of my examination during that journey, which was 

 printed with the reports written during my residence on the West 

 Coast, by order of the Provincial Government, and of which I have 

 given the title on page 88. 



From this report I may be allowed to quote here the concluding 

 passage concerning my views on the extent of the "West Coast gold- 



