There Is A Glorious Field
For The Members Of The Alpine Club Here.
Mount Cook awaits them, and he
who first scales it will be crowned with undying laurels:
For my part,
though it is hazardous to say this of any mountain, I do not think that
any human being will ever reach its top.
I am forgetting myself into admiring a mountain which is of no use for
sheep. This is wrong. A mountain here is only beautiful if it has good
grass on it. Scenery is not scenery - it is " country," subaudita voce
"sheep." If it is good for sheep, it is beautiful, magnificent, and all
the rest of it; if not, it is not worth looking at. I am cultivating
this tone of mind with considerable success, but you must pardon me for
an occasional outbreak of the old Adam.
Of course I called my companion up, and he agreed with me that he had
never seen anything so wonderful. We got down, very much tired, a
little after dark. We had had a very fatiguing day, but it was amply
repaid. That night it froze pretty sharply, and our upper blankets were
again stiff.
* * *
May, 1860. - Not content with the little piece of country we found
recently, we have since been up the Hurunui to its source, and seen the
water flowing down the Teramakaw (or the "Tether-my-cow," as the
Europeans call it). We did no good, and turned back, partly owing to
bad weather, and partly from the impossibility of proceeding farther
with horses. Indeed, our pack-horse had rolled over more than once,
frightening us much, but fortunately escaping unhurt. The season, too,
is getting too late for any long excursion. The Hurunui is not a snow
river; the great range becomes much lower here, and the saddle of the
Hurunui can hardly be more than 3000 feet above the level of the sea.
Vegetation is luxuriant - most abominably and unpleasantly luxuriant (for
there is no getting through it) - at the very top. The reason of this
is, that the nor'-westers, coming heavily charged with warm moisture,
deposit it on the western side of the great range, and the saddles, of
course, get some of the benefit. As we were going up the river, we
could see the gap at the end of it, covered with dense clouds, which
were coming from the N.W., and which just lipped over the saddle, and
then ended. There are some beautiful lakes on the Hurunui, surrounded
by lofty wooded mountains. The few Maories that inhabit this settlement
travel to the West Coast by way of this river. They always go on foot,
and we saw several traces of their encampments - little mimis, as they
are called - a few light sticks thrown together, and covered with grass,
affording a sort of half-and-half shelter for a single individual. How
comfortable!
CHAPTER VI
Hut - Cadets - Openings for Emigrants without Capital - For those who bring
Money - Drunkenness - Introductions - The Rakaia - Valley leading to the
Rangitata - Snow-grass and Spaniard - Solitude - Rain and Flood - Cat -
Irishman - Discomforts of Hut - Gradual Improvement - Value of Cat.
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