72 
.PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
the lake, a small plateau 4,700 feet high, from which afterwards 
this mountain rises to an altitude of 0,200 feet. 
This second chain I have named the middle range, lhese .wo 
ranges appear to unite about six miles south ot the southern 
extremity of Lake Roto-iti, and form a high serrated nucleus oi 
peaks from 7,000 to 7,500 feet high, which I named Mount 
Travers, after my energetic friend Mr. W. T. L. Travers, who has 
done so much towards our knowledge of this hitherto unknown 
region. It is in this range that w r e have to look lor the principal 
feeders, and, considering the distance from its mouth, lor the 
actual sources of the Kawatiri, or Buller. Out ol the southern 
extremity of the valley formed by these two ranges, flow's the 
principal feeder of the Roto-iti lake, meandering, as I observed 
from Mount Robert, which lies above it, for a few. miles . through 
a picturesque valley, and then lost in a frightful mountain gorge. 
The sources of this river are sixty-three miles in a straight line 
from the mouth of the Buller. 
On the western side of Mount Travers we meet the sources of 
the Pukawini, or Howard river, which falls into the Roto-iti river 
about nine miles below the lake. The united ranges then stretch 
towards the south, and form, above Lake Roto-roa, a conspicuous 
dome-shaped mountain mass, 7,500 feet high, which I named 
Mount Mackay, after Mr. James Mackay, who was my com¬ 
panion wdiilst exploring this part of the country. Here the chain 
falls abruptly, and a large valley appears, through which flows one 
of the principal feeders of the lake, having its source near that of 
the Waiau-ua, on the eastern side of the Spencer mountains, 
whilst another streams joins it, flowing in the southerly direction 
from Mount Travers to the eastward of Mount Mackay. 
The Maories, in travelling in former years from the Port Cooper 
plains towards Wakatu (Nelson), used this pass, and describe it 
as easy, and as possessing a gradual and uniform gradient. Here, 
therefore, we have a lateral break in the chains, dividing their 
northern parts from the Spencer mountains proper. Lake Roto- 
roa lying more to the westward, and 258 feet lower than Lake 
Roto-iti, has, besides the first-mentioned feeder, which I called 
the Sabine, the course of wdiich is north-north-west, another 
important one, which I named the D’Urville, running through a 
deep gorge, in a nearly northern direction from Mount Pranklin. 
The western side of this stream is formed by another diverging 
range, stretching from the highest mountains in the northern part 
of this island, and running parallel with the D’Urville to the lake 
where it terminates abruptly. The outlet of the waters of Lake 
Roto-roa, which are at least double the volume of those flowing 
from the Roto-iti, joins the latter near Mount Murchison after 
a rapid course of five miles and a-half, and their united waters then 
take the name of the Kawatiri, or Buller, the Roto-iti passing to 
the junction through a valley formed by wooded mountain spurs, 
