"WILD WILL ENDERBY."

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 202, 23 September 1873, Page 7

"WILD WILL ENDERBY."

We have received a copy of the first number of the above work, written by Mr Vincent Fyke. We call Strongly recommend it to the perusal of all who are fond of an interesting story, told by one who has had so favourable an opportunity of forming a thorough acquaintance with the kind of life and scenes lie has chosen to depict. Persons in this part of the Province especially will read with interest his descriptions of scenery—all taken from the DUrtstan district—with which they are perfectly familiar. As a specimen, We append the following excellent sanlplo Of his descriptive power, in -which the author paints, in vivid, glowing language, the gorge between Clyde and Cromwell, where his two principal characters have taken up their abode and “located” a beach claim 1— The gorge whereof 1 have spoken requires a brief description to enable the reader properly to follow the events of this veracious history. Let the reader then picture to himself a vast rift or chasm Some twelve miles in length, and varying from a quarter to half a mile in width, winding between mountains which rear their loftier peaks three to five thousand feet aloft. In some places these stone giants frown perpendicularly hundreds of feet overhead—their scarred breasts rent and torn by many a convulsion of nature, and excoriated by the mightier, though more slowly operating, finger of Time. In other the steep braes, scantily clothed With coarse herbage, slope gently to the ravine. From the precipices, fantastic pinnacles, disjointed and crumbling, and wavering, as it were, in the balance, threaten the passer-by. On the slopes, immense rocks, arrested in mid-career untold centuries ago, await the disintegration of the few grains of sand which now restrain them from continuing their downward course. Below, the ravine is cumbered with huge fragments of the mouldering mountains; now with a confused heap of shattered rocks, and presently with enormous boulders embedded in the gravelly soil, which sometimes expands into a small flat, and anon dwindles to a narrow strip, here overhanging, and there shelving dangerously to the river. For there is a river treacherous, snake-like river—which, by some strange witchery, both attracts and repels the gazer, much as the serpent is said to affect the victim bird. Deep down in the centre of the gorge it pursues its tortuous course, between banks sometimes high above the water, sometimes almost level with its surface. Occasionally it glides smoothly along, with an easy, graceful, undulating motion, murmuring musically the while, as it ripples on tile shingle-strewn beaches, or laps against the projecting crags, which its soft touches have long since despoiled of their pristine angularities-. At such times and places the waters of the Molyneux are pleasant to the eye ; and their Softened cadences—rising and falling with the breeze—are melodious to the ear; But the observant eye may mark, that even in these placid reaches the surface of the river is curiously agitated by circling vortices, which draw in and swallow any floating substances that chance to come near. Whirlpools these, telling of cruel crags and sunken locks, concealed by the Smooth, false waters : whirlpools wherein the stoutest swimmer might not venture, and hope to tell the story of their mysterious recesses. But where the opposing reefs resist the mighty current, the Molyneux rears its savage crest, and roaring, foaming, hissing in very wrath, it dashes fiercely by the rugged obstacles to its progress. Fed by three extensive lakes—the exhaustless reservoirs of vast Alpine ranges—what force can stay or turn aside the Molyneux in its progress to the Ocean I Ages ago its waters cleft their way through the mountains Which then intercepted its course ; and by their resistless, unceasing action WttS thus drained the great network of lakes, whereof the existing representatives—large as is still their area—are mere 1 1 crabholes” by comparison. This picture of sublime desolation is unrelieved by any kindly touch from the hand of Nature. Amidst the fissures of the rocks stunted Kowhai hold precarious tenllre, and trailing “ bush-lawyers,’’ intermingled with coarse “ bracken,” cling lovingly to the rude stones. Fostered by the cool waters of a mountain rivulet, the Kororiko grows by the Side of poisonous Tutu bushes. Upon the arid fiats, patches of Te Matau Kaurow, and of a purple flowering broom, struggle to maintain a Scraggy existence. Besides these Upon the scarped faces of the mountains, nor in the sheltered gullies, nor by the river-side, nor on the terrace battkS—does tree or shrub greet the traveller’s gaiie; But picturesque Savagery hath its attractions; The Dlmstan Gorge is a scene Stlch as Salvator Rosa would have loved to paint ; and if it were brought within the reach of cheap steamboats or Parliamentary trains, it would be thronged with artistic visitors, and vulgarised by gaping tourists.

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