Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/105

Rh traces of gold in the Glass-eye and other small streams which here debouch on to the sands.

Crossing the Wanganui stream, the traveller instantly finds himself, as it were, in a new country, rocks and beetling crags and densely timbered acclivities have all disappeared, and he sees before him a long expanse of firm sandy beach, lapped by the sea waves on the left hand, and bounded on the right by a perpendicular bank of sand, topped by dense and apparently almost impenetrable scrub. Looking about for human habitation he will find no traces, but as he travels along the beach he will alight on one or more small parties of miners engaged in beach-combing, and by them directed will find that up this perpendicular wall here and there may be found faintly trodden paths, which, followed, lead into the scrub, and there, nestled in close shelter from the ocean gales, which at times rage with exceeding fury, will be found the snug little homesteads of some half dozen settlers and their families, who combine beach-combing with farming pursuits. The land hereabouts, after the bank is topped, extends back some two miles or so until it merges into swamp, and is on the whole of fair quality. With their yearly garden and field crops, a few score bushels of grain, their small flocks and herds, and an occasional washing up from the gold on the beach, the settlers hereabouts, though few in number, lead a quietly prosperous life, rarely seeing strangers, rarely leaving their homes, and in happy oblivion of much toil and turmoil which pervades the busier haunts of men. Their chief anxiety is centred on the beach, on the varying state of tide and currents, which either deposit new layers of black sand, or else for the time being swamp all traces. This auriferous black sand, which they literally comb up from the beach, and with primitive appliances extract the fine gold therefrom, is practically inexhaustible in supply, although it is only profitably worked at certain seasons. In appearance the gold they extract is more like the yellow pollen the bees collect from flowers than a metallic substance, and requires most careful manipulation before it passes into the hands of the gold-buyer.

Premising that the traveller has taken the precaution to ensure the company of a guide, he will have reached this point of his journey in safety and in broad daylight. To get there after nightfall would entail a bivouac on the sands, for the habitations hereabouts are so completely hidden that no wayfarer unacquainted with the locale can possibly hope to find them.

Having travelled comfortably along the fine sandy beach here described, the traveller reaches an undulating track of sandy ground, covered mainly with tea-tree scrub and flax, which encloses the tidal inlet of the Otumahana and Karamea Rivers, and, according to the state of the tide, he may either traverse the mud flats which stretch away to the banks of the Karamea River, or paddle down in a canoe. Getting near the mouth of the stream, he will be rewarded by the magnificent view of the mountain gorges through which the river and its tributaries flow, and the picturesque beauty of the foreground, wherein woodland and water effects blend in charming variety. It is in sooth a spot where the landscape painter would love to linger. A dreamy quiet rest on