Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/58

40 summit of the hill. These included specimens of the Ranunculus, believed to be Ranunculus traversii, and of Celmisia verbascifolia, Senesio bifistulosus, Ourisia sessilifolia, Ourisia macrocarpa, and one or two other plants which it was impossible to recognise by Hooker’s Handbook, or even with Mr Beverly’s assistance. They are probably new. The view from the hill-top seaward, as may well be imagined, was something to leave a long-lasting impress on the mind, numerous islands being as much a characteristic of Dusky Sound as of Preservation Inlet, with this difference, that they are of larger size, greater elevation, and more variety of contour.

It is not at all unreasonable to suppose that the time will come (and it will come the sooner by the character of the country being more popularly known), when the cities of the Southern Colonies will send excursionists by the hundred, or by the thousand, to see such sights as those presented by Dusky or Milford Sound. There cannot be many places in the world where the sublime can be so readily attained as in this Sound, or that of Milford, accessible as they are by steamers, from end to end, and among what may be said to be a maze of mountains.

It was by the channel to the southward of Long Island that the “Geelong” steamed up towards the head-waters of the Sound. On the map, this passage appears almost too narrow to be navigable, and in reality it is not more than two cables’ length wide, but its depth varies from forty to seventy fathoms. The range on its southward side is, throughout its entire length, almost perpendicular. It forms a fitting prelude to the panorama which presents itself as you approach the head of the Sound, and which we saw not by the morning light, as we had expected, but under the rays of the setting sun. We were not, however, losers by the change. The sun had scarcely sunk sufficiently low in the horizon to cast upon the snow-peaks that peculiar purple tint which is frequently the effect of the light of evening on the West Coast. They were still in their virgin whiteness, gleaming in the sunlight, with the moon behind them, so subdued and pale as to seem almost timid to appear upon the scene. There was still, also, nothing of the dusky character which the name of the Sound implies. The sky was cloudless, and the variegated tints of the forest were even more brilliant than under the mid-day sun. It was only when we had reached the strange looking strait which communicates with Breaksea Sound, that the set sun poured out its purple light upon the hills, and threw our immediate surroundings in the shade. I have not, as a rule, referred to the “New Zealand Pilot,” nor relied upon its valuable information, but a conception of this peculiar arm of the sea can be better communicated by the description there given than by any word-painting, three coats thick. It is said—“The arm connecting Dusky and Breaksea Sounds runs in a N. by W. direction, eight miles, with an average width of half a mile, and is formed by the eastern shores of Resolution Island and the mainland. High precipitous, and wooded mountains rise on either side to heights varying from 3000 to 4000 ft. Soundings were only obtained in the middle of the channel at depths of 200 fathoms, and so perpendicular are the shores that 80 fathoms were found within a few feet of them.” I only know that the picture produced by these facts, and by “demesnes