80 
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
range, supplied by rapid flowing streams, between which lie 
terraces from two to four miles broad and about 150 feet high, 
covered with stunted manuka and coarse grass, and w T hich in many 
places are swampy and boggy. These terraces are confined to the 
western side of the river, for, on the eastern, low wooded hillocks 
appear. Twelve miles up, this river forks, then flowing through 
forest, with low ground on both sides, the larger branch coming 
from the Paparoha range, and the smaller one from a table land, 
the southern boundary of the Inangahua, which is about half a 
mile distant, and is reached by a descent of about 200 feet, and is 
even then a considerable stream. A mile below the confluence of 
the Mawhera-iti, the Grey, or Mawhera, as it is now called by the 
natives, receives the waters of another river, the Otututu, which, 
after a southerly course of seven miles, is entangled in the 
Paparoha range, draining the Buckland peaks and Mount 
Lochnagar, their southern continuation, separated from them by a 
deep depression in this central chain. This river also has small 
grassy terraces on its eastern side for five miles upwards from its 
junction. The Grey, after receiving these two tributaries, becomes 
much larger, and is very difficult to ford. It then turns towards 
the south-west, which course it maintains to its mouth. Whilst 
its western bank is covered with a dense forest vegetation, the 
eastern forms a terrace 150 feet high, covered with grass, and 
called by the natives the Ohine-taketake. These plains extend far 
inland, running parallel with the banks of the Ahaura, which joins 
the Grey eight miles below the Otututu. It is a considerable 
river, its waters being indeed little less in volume than those of 
the main river. It takes its rise in the same meridian of longitude 
as the Pohaturoha, in a mountain called Wakarewa by the natives, 
and breaks through the high slaty chains, receiving on both sides 
several streams'. The most considerable of these is the Tutai-kuri, 
which has its sources near the saddle between the Taramakau and 
the Hurunui, and flows through the chains in a nearly northerly 
direction. After reaching the Grey plains, through which the 
Ahaura has a westerly course with a tendency towards the north, 
it^does not receive any stream worth noticing. Its banks consist 
of slowly rising terraces, which at the foot of the mountains attain 
an altitude of 300 feet above the river bed. Some smaller streams 
from the westward fall into the Grey below the Ahaura, and the 
former now becomes so deep, that it is no longer possible to cross 
it on foot. On its western bank lies a table land from seventy to 
one hundred feet high, which, rising almost imperceptibly, 
stretches to the foot of the mountains. Seven miles below the 
Ahaura the Grey is joined by the Tawaukarito, the outlet of Lake 
Hochstetter, which lies in the centre of the plains, and receives its 
principal supply from the Werner range, a rugged mountain chain 
north of the Taramakau. This lake is two and a half miles long, 
and one and a half to two miles broad. A low line of hills, perhaps 
