DESC11IPTIVE NARRATIVE OF JOURNEY. 
53 
further, so, as I had seen enough of the country for my purposes, 
we returned to the mouth of the Buller the next morning, reaching 
it after a pull of about three hours. 
We at once prepared everything for a longer trip over the 
Papahana chain, towards the Orikaka, a tributary of the Buller, 
flowing from the north, and joining the main river nearly opposite 
the Inangahua. As we had to take three weeks’ provisions with 
ns, I engaged two other Maories to assist as far as the top of the 
mountain, from thence they would return, and we took tools to 
build a canoe, in case I should find it necessary to go as far as the 
Buller by the Orikaka. Everything was ready by the evening 
of the 21st of June, and we intended to start the next morn¬ 
ing, but we had not yet come to the end of our trials. The rain 
again set in with storms of wind and hail, and lasted without inter¬ 
mission till the evening of the 30th June. Although we had a 
good roof above us, and were more comfortable in the whare 
than we should have been in a tent, we began to feel very 
impatient of the delay. We had expected to be only five months 
absent from Nelson, and we were then near the sixth month, 
without knowing how much longer our expedition would last. 
On the morning of the 1st of July the weather cleared, the 
aneroid rose rapidly, blue sky was visible, and, for the first time, 
we saw the mountain chain covered with snow, giving to the whole 
landscape a perfectly new appearance. We at once started, and 
crossing the Oruaiti and Tititara, two small rivers flowing from the 
Papahaua chain, we reached, towards evening, the mouth of the 
Whareatea, where we camped, having travelled with comparative 
ease, though heavily laden, over a good sandy beach, from whence 
we had to strike inland towards the mountains. The night was 
very cold, the water froze in our billies, and just as we were about 
to start in the morning, one of the natives declared that he was 
again suffering from rheumatism. This was very disagreeable, but 
as it could not be helped, and I did not wish to be hindered, I 
divided his load between us, and sent him back to the Buller. 
After having travelled a mile through dense bush, skirting the sea 
shore, we arrived at an open tract of swampy land, a pahi, as the 
natives call it, covered with rushes, swamp grasses, and, in the 
higher parts, with manuka and ferns, and over which, owing to the 
very heavy rains, we found the walking very fatiguing. The view 
over this tract of land, dotted as it was here and there with small 
groves of kahikatea, and terminating in the Papahaua chain 
covered with snow, was very picturesque; several deep streams 
run through it, across one of which we found, still lying, the trees 
thrown by Mr. Bochfort when he passed through last year. One 
of the Maories passed over first, one of the Europeans followed, 
but the trees being rotten, broke, and he was plunged into the 
water up to his chin. It took us some time to construct a new 
bridge, and it was evening when we reached the mountain, which 
