Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/268

62 by the Shotover, and at a further distance of 6 miles by the Arrow. Its general direction up to this is east by north; it then bends towards the south, and at the same place enters an abrupt rocky gorge, through which it has a very tortuous course of 18 miles before entering the Clutha Valley. After a further course of 5 miles through it, the Kawarau joins the Clutha just before the latter enters the gorge of the Dunstan Mountains. The general direction of the Kawarau is from west to east; its confluence with the Clutha is nearly due east of where it leaves the Wakatipu Lake; the distance in a straight line is 23 miles, following the course of the river it will be 32 miles. The Kawarau drains about the same extent of country as the Upper Clutha River, and, as in this case the nature of the watershed is similar, they may be considered as of nearly equal volume at their junction. So great a body of water as the Kawarau possesses would, in favourable circumstances, have been of service in the inland navigation of the country, but there are various obstacles in connection with this river which render this impracticable: these are the rapid current, the narrow and tortuous channel, and the reefs of rocks which cross the channel at several places, besides at its exit from the lake.

The rivers that contribute principally to the Kawarau are the Dart, Rees, Greenstone, Von, Lochy, Shotover, and Arrow; of these the first five flow into the Wakatipu Lake.

The Dart is considerably the largest of the tributaries just mentioned; it issues in one stream from a deep wooded gorge west of Earnslaw, and at a distance, in a straight line, of 16 miles nearly due north of the head of the Wakatipu Lake, into which it flows; the bearing of the gorge and the size of the river there both indicate that it has its sources on or about the boundary-line between Otago and Canterbury. The glaciers of the Forbes and the Humboldt Mountains are situated on the opposite sides of the Upper Dart. That its supply depends almost entirely on melted snow and ice is evident from the great fluctuations that characterise its volume. Immediately below the gorge the channel widens out to a shingle-bed of from half a mile to a mile wide; this breadth is maintained on to the lake, a distance of 20 miles by the river. During the survey, the river ran over this shingle-bed in several streams; but flood débris showed that it is sometimes all covered.

The Rees enters the head of the Wakatipu Lake only a few yards east of the Dart. Like the latter, it also issues from a wooded gorge, at a distance, in a straight line, of 16 miles from the head of the lake. It has its upper sources in the ice and snow fields of the Forbes and Richardson Mountains. The flat