Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/167

Rh But the exploration of this giant of the southern hemisphere probably presents no unwonted difficulty to practised mountaineers, while it could not fail to add largely to the general stock of scientific knowledge. The present Secretary of State for the Colonies (the Earl of Kimberley) has, at my instance, invited the attention of the Royal Geographical Society to this subject. I have also to announce that the Admiralty, in consequence of my representations, intend to publish new and corrected charts, on an enlarged scale, of the West Coast of New Zealand.

“The ‘Clio’ left Milford Sound on the morning of the 17th February, and on the same afternoon struck on her port-bow upon a sunken rock, unnoticed in the existing charts, near the middle of the second reach of Bligh Sound. Had the accident occurred amidships, she would probably have at once gone down, with all on board. As it was, the ship made water so fast through the leak on the port-bow that she was immediately put back, and anchored in Bounty Haven, at the head of Bligh Sound. The pumps kept the water down, while the divers, with two of whom the ‘Clio’ was fortunately furnished, examined, and the carpenters stopped the leak. I was very glad to be of some service in this emergency, by pointing out, from my knowledge of their foliage, the best timber trees in the forests covering the slopes of the mountains around this harbour. A party of seamen and marines was sent on shore to provide sufficient wood for such repairs as enabled the ‘Clio’ to put to sea again in the course of a fortnight. Meanwhile, we were absolutely cut off from all communication with the rest of the world; for the repeated attempts to discover a pass leading directly from the settlements in the Province of Otago to the sounds on its south-western coasts, have hitherto completely failed, owing to the inaccessible character of the intervening forests and mountains. In 1863 Dr Hector, hoping to discover some mode of communication with the inhabited districts on the east of the dividing range, forced his way up the valley of the Cleddaw River, which flows into the head of Milford Sound. After a toilsome scramble of two days, his further progress was barred by almost perpendicular cliffs of some 5000 ft. in height, with snowy peaks rising several thousand feet higher. However, Dr Hector afterwards found his way by a rugged and circuitous path from Martin’s Bay (nearly forty miles north of Bligh Sound) to Queenstown, on Loch Wakatipu; and he now volunteered to attempt the same route again, with messages from myself to the Colonial Government, and from Commodore Stirling to the officer commanding H.M.S. ‘Virago’ at Wellington. Accordingly, on the night of our disaster, he sailed in the launch of the ‘Clio,’ which returned after an absence of five days, and reported that Dr Hector, with two seamen sent by the Commodore to attend him, had been safely landed on the 19th at Martin’s Bay, and had set out forthwith on their journey across the mountains. It may here be mentioned that a river named the Kaduku (or Hollyford), with a difficult bar at its mouth, runs into Martin’s Bay from Lake M‘Kerrow (or Kakapo), on the northern shore of which a few adventurous settlers from Otago have lately planted themselves.

“On the 27th February we were agreeably surprised by the arrival in Bligh Sound of a small steamer, the ‘Storm Bird,’ despatched to our assistance by the Colonial