Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/308

280 this? But be satisfied, critical visitor, many have on this same seemingly and really wild spot thriven and become prosperous.

We need not linger on this theme, as our mission is to view the wild grandeur of this river, towards which the steamer steadily bears us. In front rises a bluff—a bold projecting rock, which seems to arrest the further progress of the river, as, in days long past, it doubtless did, but now, after a long struggle, it has had to succumb and allow the water to make its way over its hard breast, wearing it down, until now the river course is deep enough to float half a dozen of the largest ships in the world.

Onward the river glides, winding through a narrow gorge in the hills which rise on either hand, now well-nigh precipitously, anon more gently, from the water's edge, the grey and forbidding aspect of their weather-beaten cliffs contrasting well with the softer hues of the stunted native bush, which clothes many a steep slope with a mantle of green; while in the hollows and ravines the trees attain a larger growth, and from beneath their friendly shelter the tree-ferns look out upon the swiftly-flowing stream. So sinuous is the course of the river that reach after reach presents the appearance of some lovely lakelet, till we arrive at the turning point, when another hill-encircled sheet of water meets our view. Proceeding onward, we at length reach a point where the hills recede and sandy shores intervene, with a rocky island seemingly shutting out the sea. This is our destination, and we steam slowly alongside a jetty and moor the launch.

This river was once the highway for the early settlers in the Taieri and Tokomairiro, who, instead of having our easy means of locomotion, were obliged to take ship in an open whaleboat from Dunedin or Port Chalmers, and after a passage of sometimes twelve hours, at other times some days, they reached the Taieri Mouth, and camping for a night or two under a cabbage-tree, proceeded up the river with the tide, and ultimately reached their destination by this toilsome and roundabout route.

But these reminisciences are out of place here, though they were evoked by a question as to the use of the jetty or platform