Canterbury and Westland. 221 



The G-eet. 



Of the rivers of the "West Coast, the Grey in many respects is the 

 most important. It forms the northern boundary of Westland, for a 

 few miles only near its mouth, together with its tributary the Arnold, 

 which issues from Lakes Brunner and Poherua. Lake Brunner (227 

 feet above the sea level), is a fine sheet of water, being four miles 

 broad and six miles long. It lies in the continuation of the large 

 opening leading from the valley of the Taramakau, west of the 

 Hohonu range, into the Grey valley, the former channel of a huge 

 glacier, of which the extensive terminal moraines now form its northern 

 shores. A portion of that glacier branched off five miles south of 

 Lake Brunner, and followed a broad valley in a north-east direction, 

 in which the small but charming Lake Poherua (345 feet) is now 

 situated. After a few miles in this direction the glacier followed a 

 north, and then north-east course, uniting again with the trunk glacier 

 near its termination. Between and above these two branches, the highest 

 peak of the isolated Tekinoa range stood as an island. In the first 

 part of this publication, I have already pointed out that in compara- 

 tively recent times, before the Taramakau had forced its passage 

 through the ranges south of the Hohonu range, it had been flowing by 

 Lake Brunner, and discharged itself as an outlet of this lake into the 

 sea more towards the north, somewhere near the mouth of the Biver 

 Kakawau (Saltwater Creek). The watershed between the Taramakau 

 and the two lakes is exceedingly low, and if I can trust to some 

 barometrical observations here made, an unusual rise of 10 or 15 feet 

 in the Taramakau would bring its flood waters again towards Lake 

 Brunner and its smaller neighbour. 



The Tabahakatj. 



Following the West Coast in a southerly direction from the Grrey, 

 the next river of importance is the Taramakau, the main sources of 

 which are situated on the Hurunui or Harper's Pass, close to those of 

 the Hurunui river. For the first 28 miles the direction of its course 

 is west-by-south, after which, for the remaining 20 miles, it runs 

 north-west. Five miles below the saddle the valley already widens 

 considerably, the river flowing for a long distance in a broad channel, 

 and receiving numerous tributaries, mostly from the southern side, of 

 which the Otira, and principally the Taipo, a river of glacier origin, 

 are the most important ; in fact, the Taipo, at its junction, contains 



