Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/179

Rh names and the descriptions of each are long since changed. In place of being held by private parties, they are nearly all since formed into large mining companies under the Mines Act, the shareholders in which have witnessed many fluctuations, to their individual loss or profit, as luck directed. Neither will I ask my readers to plod over the ground from the Lyell to Nelson, as was accomplished in those days only by wearied and long-suffering pedestrians. Suffice it to say, our “special,” after much endurance, extending over a period, as far as memory serves, of ten days, reached his destination, Nelson, where he subsequently took part in the doings of the Provincial Council as the representative of the Buller constituency.

I have chosen rather to furnish some later particulars of the road between the Lyell and Nelson, in order that travellers taking the journey now-a-days may be acquainted with the stages, distances, and accommodation to be met with on the way. With this object I now append an account, kindly given me by Mr Moynihan, solicitor, of Westport, of a journey recently made by him on horseback, making the starting point that at which I have left off—the Lyell.

Having been put up very comfortably at the Empire Hotel, Lyell, we pursue our journey to Nelson along the left-hand side of the Buller River. The road here is cut out of the side of the hill, and immediately below him the traveller beholds the surging waters of the largest river on the West Coast of this island. Our horses instinctively seem to know the result of a false step or a capsize over the side. No signs of cultivation appear on the surface of the wild and mountainous country along this road to Fern Flat. Nevertheless there is that which will amply repay the traveller for undertaking such a journey, the surrounding scenery being grand and imposing in the extreme. The noble Buller may be seen careering fiercely and madly on its onward course, to be merged in the South Pacific, such force being caused by its narrowness, and the heavy volume of water swollen by many a mountain torrent. But as it becomes wider, so it becomes more tranquil, forming a complete contrast to its previous state. Higher up, the traveller’s eye is arrested by the most beautiful waterfalls which imagination can conceive, falls which would delight a Turner or a Gully, and worthy of their strongest efforts. Some of them are 150 ft. high. The upper falls form almost a regular and beautiful staircase, as from step to step the water rushes on, a sight to be remembered. If the traveller hath music in his soul, he cannot fail to be impressed with the singing of the various native birds abounding in the neighbouring bush, happy in their liberty, warbling forth their morning praise to the great Creator. Going from the Lyell to Fern Flat, a distance of eighteen miles, there are very few places of human habitation; about seven miles from the Lyell there is an accommodation house kept by one Carter. Opposite, on the right-hand side, most of the digging operations are carried on, principally as the water can be more easily obtained, and we suppose the gold is perhaps a little more plentiful. Arrived on the top of a small hill, about seventeen and a half miles from the Lyell, we are relieved by the prospect which now is about to open before us. In a few minutes the houses and green fields—so pleasing to the eye, wearied by the monotony of the bleak mountain view—