Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/182



EREWITH is given a lithographic sketch of the romantic and very striking scenery at the head of the Waiho River, south of Okarito, Westland. Several years ago these glaciers were visited by the Hon. Wm. Fox, the Premier of the Colony, who was accompanied by Mr Mueller, Chief Surveyor of Westland, and an exceedingly interesting narrative of the visit subsequently appeared in the West Coast Times, from which I quote an extract, which describes some of the scenes to be met with at the Francis Joseph Glacier, and the Fox Glacier in that picturesque neighbourhood. The party passed Ross and went along the bed of the Waiho River, to visit the glacier at its head. They reached a camping ground at the foot of Mount Mueller at evening. The account says:—The scenery was charming The widening river-bed and ever-winding, ever-rushing stream, the changing patches of bush and scrub, the lofty hills backed by the towering mountains clothed in their bright snowy garments, and then the glacier, picturesque and beautiful, bathed in the sunshine and clinging to the mountain with icy hand; blood red blossoming rata contrasting with the dull green bush. On the road up, sketches of the glacier were taken by Mr Fox and Mr Brown. The horses, with the aid of a few strokes of a bill-hook, were all placed in natural stalls in the scrub of the river bank, and fed; fires were lit, dinner cooked, and tents pitched. Breakfast had, and horses fed and watered, the journey afoot up the river was commenced. The highest point attainable by horses is the forks, and a distance of about two miles has to be travelled afoot to reach the glacier. In some places the river seems to have risen about 30 ft., and occasionally to have completely covered the summit of its banks. Approaching nearer, ever changing views of the glacier present themselves; deeper and deeper becomes the bluish green tinge, deepening still more in the depth of fantastic clefts in the icy mass, the tips of its picturesque points or many steeples, one might say, seem to become shaded in mourning for the passing away of the bright white winter snows. The effect of the view of the glacier from a short distance was considerably heightened by the rata on the adjoining hills being covered with their bright red flowers, contrasting with the dull green bushes and the delicately tinted glacier, and all together bathed in a flood of sunshine. The glacier is about half a mile across, the point rising abruptly like a wall, here and there cut into caves, the lower part having at a short distance much the appearance of a grey rock, from the gravel and stones covering it. From a large cave at the southern end flows forth the first of the Waiho, which runs close across the front of the glacier. Upwards for miles