Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/77

Rh The circumstances were favourable for proceeding at once to the head of Lake M'Kerrow. That is to say, the wind was blowing freshly from the northward, and we took advantage of it rather than linger to examine the extent and quality of the level country on either side of the stream; but it is an advantage which can apparently be had eight days out of ten, for the beaches of the lake would indicate that the wind blows more frequently, or more fiercely, from the north and west, than from other directions, and it is a recognised feature of the meteorology of the coast that the wind during the day, draws up from seaward through the Sounds. For instance, on the day we entered Milford Sound, there was but a very slight sea-breeze outside—almost a dead calm—yet it blew up the Sound with a freshness equal to a considerable percentage of the steaming powers of the "Geelong." The lower part of the river is something similar in its extent, its curve, and the character of its banks, to the Matau branch of the river Clutha; and, as we ascertained on the return journey, there are other particulars in which the "straths" of the Hollyford may lay claim to a resemblance to Kaitangata and the Clutha island. The water was comparatively clear, such débris as the detrition of the hills may supply finding its way into the lake, which, from its depth, is a reservoir of no small capacity. On quitting the narrow vista formed by the banks of the river, and on entering the lake, a better conception can be formed of the level country which intervenes between it and the sea, and which the river intersects. I think Dr Hector estimates the extent of that piece of country at 4000 acres, but that estimate—and it is an under-estimate, if anything—does not include the river flats a few miles distant in Kaipo Bay, nor any of the level country contiguous to Big Bay, and which is apparently approachable from this, the lower end of the lake. It is not safe to hazard an unprofessional opinion, but these districts together—and they are scarcely distinct—cannot contain less than 15,000 or 20,000 acres—timbered of course, but level, and, after the process of clearing, arable. A feature of this end of the lake is its pleasant, white, gravelly beach—a beach which, on the east side, seems to extend nearly to the head of its waters. On the west side the ranges are steeper, though there is no great room for comparison; and cliff's bearing vegetation to the water's edge, stand abruptly out of the lake, as they do, in nearly all cases, in the Sounds. There was an assumption, but it could only be an assumption—for there is no authority for it—that there was level ground along each side of the lake, almost to its head. Instead of that, except at its seaward end, and for the area described, its banks slope at too great an angle to make the cultivation of the ground possible, even when cleared, save in a few detached spots. The average height of the ranges on either side is from 2000 to 3000 ft.; and towards the headwaters, they are either the spurs or sides of ranges, which rise to nearly double that height and are snow-clad. Indeed, by these details, the lake, as a whole, resembles very much some of the Sounds which present some of the more subdued types of the peculiar scenery of the Otagan portion of the West Coast. It is, in many essential characteristics a Sound, but a Sound which has at some period been separated from the sea by a convulsion within the grand convulsions which have given character to this coast; or if