We Then Descended, And
Reached The Horses At Nightfall, Fully Satisfied That, Beyond The Flat
Beside The Riverbed Of The Harpur, There Was No Country To Be Had In
That Direction.
We also felt certain that there was no pass to the west
coast up that branch of the Rakaia, but that the saddle at the head of
it would only lead to the Waimakiriri, and reveal the true backbone
range farther to the west.
The mountains among which we had been
climbing were only offsets from the main chain.
This might be shown also by a consideration of the volume of water which
supplies the main streams of the Rakaia and the Waimakiriri, and
comparing it with the insignificant amount which finds its way down the
Harpur. The glaciers that feed the two larger streams must be very
extensive, thus showing that the highest range lies still farther to the
northward and westward. The Waimakiriri is the next river to the
northward of the Rakaia.
That night we camped as before, only I was more knowing, and slept with
my clothes on, and found a hollow for my hip-bone, by which contrivances
I slept like a top. Next morning, at early dawn, the scene was most
magnificent. The mountains were pale as ghosts, and almost sickening
from their death-like whiteness. We gazed at them for a moment or two,
and then turned to making a fire, which in the cold frosty morning was
not unpleasant. Shortly afterwards we were again en route for the
station from which we had started. We burnt the flats as we rode down,
and made a smoke which was noticed between fifty and sixty miles off. I
have seen no grander sight than the fire upon a country which has never
before been burnt, and on which there is a large quantity of Irishman.
The sun soon loses all brightness, and looks as though seen through
smoked glass. The volumes of smoke are something that must be seen to
be appreciated. The flames roar, and the grass crackles, and every now
and then a glorious lurid flare marks the ignition of an Irishman; his
dry thorns blaze fiercely for a minute or so, and then the fire leaves
him, charred and blackened for ever. A year or two hence, a stiff nor'-
wester will blow him over, and he will lie there and rot, and fatten the
surrounding grass; often, however, he shoots out again from the roots,
and then he is a considerable nuisance. On the plains Irishman is but a
small shrub, that hardly rises higher than the tussocks; it is only in
the back country that it attains any considerable size: there its trunk
is often as thick as a man's body.
We got back about an hour after sundown, just as heavy rain was coming
on, and were very glad not to be again camping out, for it rained
furiously and incessantly the whole night long. Next day we returned to
the lower station belonging to my companion, which was as replete with
European comforts as the upper was devoid of them; yet, for my part, I
could live very comfortably at either.
CHAPTER V
Ascent of the Waimakiriri - Crossing the River - Gorge - Ascent of the
Rangitata - View of M'Kenzie Plains - M'Kenzie - Mount Cook - Ascent of the
Hurunui - Col leading to West Coast.
Since my last, I have made another expedition into the back country, in
the hope of finding some little run which had been overlooked. I have
been unsuccessful, as indeed I was likely to be: still I had a pleasant
excursion, and have seen many more glaciers, and much finer ones than on
my last trip. This time I went up the Waimakiriri by myself, and found
that we had been fully right in our supposition that the Rakaia saddles
would only lead on to that river. The main features were precisely
similar to those on the Rakaia, save that the valley was broader, the
river longer, and the mountains very much higher. I had to cross the
Waimakiriri just after a fresh, when the water was thick, and I assure
you I did not like it. I crossed it first on the plains, where it flows
between two very high terraces, which are from half a mile to a mile
apart, and of which the most northern must be, I should think, 300 feet
high. It was so steep, and so covered with stones towards the base, and
so broken with strips of shingle that had fallen over the grass, that it
took me a full hour to lead my horse from the top to the bottom. I dare
say my clumsiness was partly in fault; but certainly in Switzerland I
never saw a horse taken down so nasty a place: and so glad was I to be
at the bottom of it, that I thought comparatively little of the river,
which was close at hand waiting to be crossed. From the top of the
terrace I had surveyed it carefully as it lay beneath, wandering
capriciously in the wasteful shingle-bed, and looking like a maze of
tangled silver ribbons. I calculated how to cut off one stream after
another, but I could not shirk the main stream, dodge it how I might;
and when on the level of the river, I lost all my landmarks in the
labyrinth of streams, and determined to cross each just above the first
rapid I came to. The river was very milky, and the stones at the bottom
could not be seen, except just at the edges: I do not know how I got
over. I remember going in, and thinking that the horse was lifting his
legs up and putting them down in the same place again, and that the
river was flowing backwards. In fact I grew dizzy directly, but by
fixing my eyes on the opposite bank, and leaving Doctor to manage
matters as he chose, somehow or other, and much to my relief, I got to
the other side.
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