Canterbury and Westland. 223 



in length : first, the existence o£ very hard gneiss granite through 

 which the river had to cut its channel ; and secondly, the existence of 

 a small mountain torrent below the gorge having thrown a large shingle 

 cone across it. In the Hokitika plains the river, flowing for eight 

 miles in a general north-north-west direction, has formed a broad 

 shingle-bed ; it then abuts against morainic accumulations, by which 

 its course is deflected at a right angle, now flowing for five miles north- 

 east, and becoming, for the last mile, deep and apparently stagnant ; 

 the Kokatahi, by which it is joined, having thrown a shingle barrier 

 across the main river, near its junction. At this point, the Hokitika 

 turns again to the north-north-west, which course it maintains for 

 about eight miles to its mouth. The Kokatahi is an important 

 affluent of the Hokitika, its sources being situated in the central 

 chain, a few miles south of Browning's Pass, where a high alpine 

 saddle, north of Mount Chamberlin, leads into one of the tributaries 

 of the Wilberforce. It flows, for the greater portion of its course, in 

 a deep rocky gorge. Near its entrance into the Hokitika plains, the 

 Styx or Browning river leading by the Wooded saddle into the Arahura 

 and to Browning's Pass, joins it on its northern bank. The Styx has a 

 remarkably straight course, and is an old channel of the great Arahura 

 glacier, which here sent a branch into the Kanieri basin. A mile 

 lower down on the opposite side, the Taaroha, a] so a wild and rocky 

 mountain torrent, empties itself. Its glacier sources are situated on 

 the south-western side of Mount Chamberlin. After the junction of 

 this latter branch, the Kokatahi follows a north-western course for six 

 miles across the Upper Hokitika plains, and then, as before observed, 

 it joins the main river. Five miles below this confluence, the Kanieri 

 enters it on its northern banks. It issues from Lake Kanieri, and is, 

 for nearly its whole length, a mountain stream, except for the last 

 six miles of its course, where it is dammed back by the large shingle 

 deposits of the Hokitika. 



Lake Kanieri, a charming piece of water, possessing numerous 

 deep bays, and surrounded by forest-clad mountains, is nine miles 

 long, and on an average one mile and a half broad. Like nearly every 

 lake on both slopes of the Southern Alps, it is surrounded at its lower 

 end by a broad circumvallation of moraines, through which its outlet 

 has cut a deep channel. It is fed exclusively from the mountains on 

 both sides. A low and broad pass at its upper end, leading into the 

 Styx or Browning river, proves that the former Kanieri glacier came 

 by that valley. Finally, the Mahinapua creek joins the Hokitika 



