Page:Through South Westland.djvu/293

Rh we saw our friends’ buggy slowly making its way down the wide river-bed, we hailed them and helped to gather as much fruit as they wanted; and then they departed, leaving the valley empty once more, except for ourselves. In the peaceful evening light we rode back, carrying a supply of fruit, and ate our supper as the long, purple shadows of the mountains leaned across the river-bed, and mounted slowly over the opposite forest.

Next day we started to climb the mountain immediately behind the homestead. We had viewed it from a distance, and could see that it rose by a succession of gigantic stairs with very rugged outlines, to black rock and snow some 6,000 feet above us. Transome had already gone up some distance on one spur, where quantities of the magnificent Ranunculus Lyallii grew among the rocks. This gigantic white king-cup will not grow to any perfection on the plains, but just below snowline attains an immense size. The stems are much branched, and the flowers are often two and three inches across, the leaves frequently attaining fifteen inches, and carrying in their cup-shaped hollows quite a quantity of water.

We made our way by the waterfall and up through fern and undergrowth for the first 1,000 feet, and then through an easier bit, where the trees had been burnt and stood dead and stark. From here we got a better view of the ledges; the cliffs between appearing to be several hundred feet and much broken. As we sat resting, a kea