Canterbury and Westland. 217 



Hurunui Pass, but are not of glacier origin. For the first eight miles 

 of its course it has rather a narrow bed, although the valley is already 

 of considerable width ; it then expands and assumes the usual charac- 

 ter of our broad shingle rivers, till 18 miles from the Pass it enters 

 Lake Sumner. This small lake, with a length of seven miles and an 

 average breadth of one mile, is bounded on its northern and southern 

 sides by fine ranges, covered to a considerable height with beech 

 forest. It owes its origin to the existence of large morainic accumu- 

 lations at its eastern end, by which the waters brought by the river, 

 after the retreat of the glacier, have been retained. North of it, and 

 separated by a large isolated range, lie several other lakes, at various 

 altitudes, of which Lake Taylor, the outlet of which joins the Hurunui 

 three miles east of Lake Sumner, is the largest. Lake Katharine, 

 nearly at the same level as Lake Sumner, without doubt formerly an 

 arm of it, was cut of£ by the advancing delta of the Upper Hurunui. 

 It communicates with the main lake through a huge swamp by a 

 meandering creek, which, according to the height of the one or the 

 other lake, is said to flow in a different direction. 



For about seven miles after the Hurunui leaves the lake, its valley 

 is of considerable width, morainic and alluvial deposits forming terraces 

 on both sides. At the end of this distance, the most important 

 tributary, the Southern Hurunui, joins it. The sources of this large 

 stream are close to those of the North Hurunui in the central chain. 

 After first flowing through a narrow valley, the Southern Hurunui 

 enters, in its middle course, a small plain, once the bed of a lake, and 

 in which roches moutonnees and morainic accumulations prove the 

 presence of a large glacier in former times ; after emerging from this 

 plain, the confluent stream again flows through a narrow valley before 

 uniting with the Hurunui. For the next ten miles, this river occupies 

 a deep rocky gorge through the ranges, receiving numerous smaller 

 tributaries from both sides. It then enters the Hurunui plains, where 

 its channel widens considerably, bordered on both sides by high 

 terraced alluvial banks which gradually sink, so that at the eastern 

 termination of the plains, where the Waitohi joins on its southern 

 banks, they are only a few feet ab ove the river bed. For the next 30 

 miles, measuring along the principal bends of the river, its bed is 

 mostly narrowed, rocky mountains of middle height forming its banks 

 on both sides. Here also, before it enters the sea, the Hurunui 

 receives numerous affluents on both sides, of which the "Waikari is the 

 principal one in Canterbury. 



