Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/276

70 pori Lakes (with the exception of what is forest) comes under it. The higher parts of this country are composed of igneous rocks; from the numerous fractures that generally occur in them it may be expected that mineral and metallic veins will there exist. On Mount Pisgah several veins of quartz, with flakes of mica imbedded, were seen to traverse it; and in the valley of the Doon, below Mount Pisgah, there are many large fragments of quartz and granite. A very cursory examination was made of the bed of the Doon and several other of the streams west of the lakes; mica was discovered in abundance, but no auriferous deposits. Clay-slate and metamorphic rocks occur between the Te Anau and Wakatipu lakes, and minute particles of quartz are found on the Thomson Mountains. Up to the date of survey, this country had not been prospected; supposing that gold exists there, it is not likely to be come at so readily as was the case on the Shotover and Arrow, for the valleys are more open and wide than those of these rivers, and the alluvial deposits are much covered over with the degradation of the mountain sides. The higher parts of the Humboldt and Forbes Mountains seem, from their rounded massive forms, to be composed of granite. Mica-schist flanks the sides of the moun¬ tains surrounding the Shotover and Arrow; it is inclined at almost every angle, and is exceedingly friable in some instances; where it forms the escarpment of a ridge it presents a very contorted appearance. Standing on the Harris Mountains, and looking over to the Upper Shotover and around Murum, a wild, hacked, precipitous scene presents itself, to which it would be difficult to find a parallel.

Means of Communication.—In the open country of the Waiau districts, a packhorse may be taken up or down or across any part of it, and drays can also be taken over the greater part of it. There are two dray-tracks by which it communicates with other districts; one is by the Orawia and round the north side of Twinlaw, and is entirely in Southland; the other is by the valley of the Oreti. It enters Southland near the junction of the Windley and Oreti.

The means of communication in the Wakatipu district is mostly by water; the nature of the country necessitates this. All the valleys open into the lake, and then the shores of the lake are impassable in many places, so that the only way of getting from place to place is by boating. In the Shotover and Arrow districts the rivers flow through gorges too abrupt to allow of their courses being followed; the only way, therefore, of communicating with the upper parts of the district is by crossing over the ridges. The tracts over these are from 4000 to 6000 feet above the sea-level, and the ridges being much broken, a long detour is often necessary so as to keep on the leading ridge, or to get up or down a passable