510 
of excavating to fill up and raise their beds, and run to the sea 
upon elevated dams , similar to the Po and the Adige in Upper- 
I taly , and between high cliffs of shingle, whose height varies with 
that to which the edge of the plains rises above the sea beach. 
With few exceptions, therefore, every one of these rivers presents 
a point at which it may be crossed on the general level of the 
country , below which it is either inaccessible on account of the 
cliffs by which it is bounded, or difficult to cross on account of 
the number and depth of the channels into which it spreads on the 
surface of the plains, and above which it can only be approached 
by long sidling descents cut in tlie terraces. 1 
Such are the laws which guide these rivers, by the action of 
which extensive and fertile plains have been formed at the foot 
of an inhospitable mountain range. These plains, which will one 
day be the centre of a rich , industrious and large population , are 
now the home of an energetic and high minded class of settlers, 
in the name of which Mr. Dobson, the Vice-President of the Phi- 
losophical Institute of Canterbury at the annual meeting on Novem- 
ber 5, 1866, could indeed proudly say: u With scanty means , and 
a comparatively small population, we have succeeded in introduc- 
ing amongst us most of the great inventions of the civilised world. 
TV e have our telegraph through the country , and our submarine 
1 It may he interesting, Mr. Dobson says, to glance at the nature of the channels 
through which the great rivers find their way from the hills to the sea — as they all pos- 
sess , to a greater or less extent, the same features — which governs the selection of 
points of crossing, and, as a consequence, the direction of the main lines of road running 
parallel to the eastern seaboard. Between Christchurch and the Waitaki, a distance 
of 143 miles, t he position of the southern lines, both of road and railway, has been 
determined by considerations of this nature. The main route to the South forms a 
tolerably accurate line of division between the swampy and well watered belt of 
agricultural land on the sea -board and the dry shingle plains, which are only sui- 
table for pasturage. In many places the agricultural land does not extend up to the 
road. Thus, whilst for a distance of twenty-five miles from Christchurch, along the 
Leeston road, the country is fenced in and mostly under cultivation, producing largely 
both grain, dairy produce and live stock, the Southern Railway, which is laid out 
so as to cross the Eakaia river as near to the sea as practicable, is yet two or three 
miles from the edge of this cultivated district, and runs for miles across a desolate 
looking plain — without water, trees, or human habitations. 
