464 
running Eastward , and the Teramakau running Westward , — the 
Southern Alps send forth towards North two branches through the 
province of Nelson, the extremities of which are washed by the 
waters of Cook’s Strait. 
These branches present very different geological features. The 
Western Ranges, terminating in Separation -Point and near Cape 
Farewell , have an almost northerly strike. They consist of crystal- 
line rocks and metamorphic schists, principally granite, gneiss, 
mica-schist and hornblende-schist, quartzite and clay-slate. To the 
auriferous character of those rocks, Nelson is indebted for its gold- 
fields. 1 'Idio peaks of these ranges ascending to a height of 5000 
to 6000 feet above the level of the sea, and in winter-time covered 
with snow to a great extent, such as the picturesque Mt. Arthur, 
Mt. Owen and others, greet the traveller from afar on his arrival 
in Blind -Ray, and impart to the landscape about Nelson one of 
its most peculiar charms. The plains watered by considerable rivers, 
which interrupt the ranges, offer to the colonist extensive areas for 
agriculture, and to sheep-farmers very fine natural pasture grounds. 
Mr. T. Brunner was the first to traverse these regions under un- 
speakable difficulties; J. Haast, in his able report on the Western 
district of the province Nelson 2 was the first to publish a detailed 
account of them, giving names to ranges, mountains, lakes, and rivers 
not named before. My own name I had also the pleasure of find- 
ing in the report and on the accompanying topographical map at- 
tached to a mountain , a river and a lake near the sources of Grey 
river. For this token of friendly remembrance I am the more in- 
debted to my worthy friend, as I have been honoured with a place 
in the most select and respected society, by the side of the mountains 
Werner, Herschel, Hooker, Albert and Victoria. A view ot the moun- 
tain-range bordering the Grey -plains in the East, I have presented in 
the following chapter. The principal groups belonging to the Western 
Ranges, are to the North of the Buller river the Lyell and Marino 
1 See Chapter V. p. 99. 
2 Report of a topographical and geological Exploration of the Western Di- 
stricts of the Nelson-Province; Nelson, 1861. 
