CANTERBURY AND WESTLAND RAILWAY.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 89, 12 September 1874, Page 3

CANTERBURY AND WESTLAND RAILWAY.

We have already noticed the journey made by Mr J. Evans in search of a pass for a railway between the east and west coasts of ■his island. The following full description of the journey is given by the West Coast Times :—

Mr James Evans returned last evening safe and sound, after one of the most adventurous attempts to solve the mystery of the supposed pass, to which we have on previous occasions referred, that could well be conceived. As we stated when we last alluded to the subject, he had arranged to have the company of MrMcLeod, an excellent bushman, but unfortunately the latter had a lame foot, and at the last moment had to abandon the journey. Nothing daunted, on the 14th ult, Mr Evans set out alone, if we except a canine companion that proved of most material use during the excursion. On reaching the Waitahi, he left his horse there, and shouldered his swag up the Big Wanganui, following it up till he reached the forks, where the three streams, to which we alluded previously, diverged in three different directions. He followed the branch leading 10 the eastward, and found easy flats along its banks with a very gradual rise, the only difficulty being one fall of about thirty feet. After following the stream for about twelve miles he met with three springs running from rocks within a few feet of each other. The first was cold, and threw out about a Government sluice-head and a-half. The other, as Mr Evans describes it, was about as hot as "'■asherwomeu use when commencing to wash, just about as warm as anyone can well put their hands into. It had a soapy feel, and the stones over which it flowed were covered with a kind of yellow slime, slippery to the touch. The stones in the neighbourhood of the aperture were hotter than the waters.

The latter smelt strongly of sulphur, and the smell of them, Mr Evans assured our re_ porter, could be perceived at a distance of four miles in the direction the wind was blowing. He camped near these springs under his fly, in a natural cave, in wasahoHow that made an admirable fireplace, and proved of inestimable service during his detention. Whilst here the fearful weather occurred that we suffered from on the Oast, and the shelter was most welcome. As a matter of curiosity, as well as of comfort, on discovering these springs he washed his hands in the hot water, and at the time felt no ill effects, but in two hours or so after he had a prickly kind of pain in his fingers, and subsequently both bis hands blistered, and he suffered severe burning pains in them for two days. He at last bethought himself of the virtues of Maori hen oil, and after well rubbing them with this he felt no pain afterwards. We may say that kakas and Maori hens were in plenty, and the dog that he had with him caught any quantity, bo tame were the kakas that these were caught by the dog with as great or greater ease than the Maori hens, when on the ground. Near the springs in question he found a beautiful perfect hexagonal crystal, which can be inspected by the curious, but whether it is a rare specimen or what it is we confess we do not know. A well-defined quartz reef also cropped up in the vicinity from which he broke pieces, but did not see any gold in them. The formation was of rotten blue slate. The timber in this part was abundant, but small. The river was blocked-up with enormous rocks and boulders. He determined to leave his camp as it was, and pushed on up the * river, though a heavy snow was falling, and a dense fog prevailed. As the snow fell it melted, but notwithstanding these difficulties he made eight miles that day, and was wet through to the skin, his trousers being frozen to his legs. He was compelled then to turn back, and was very glad to seek shelter in his cave, strip his wet clothes off, and dry both them and himself at the fire in the natural fireplace above alluded to. Here his detention commenced. On Thursday last, the 29th instant, he was woke about three o’clock in the morning by a most unearthly noise, as though large rocks were tumbling about in his immediate vicinity, and he got up, but the weather had cleared, it was a beautiful night, and he turned in again. In about a quarter of an honr or twenty minutes afterwards the noises were repeated, and it seemed as though the cave in which he was was about to fall in. He got up at once, got some breakfast, and started up the river before daybreak. After following it some distance he came to what he describes as the most beautiful sight he ever witnessed. The river had run between mountain gorges, but at the point he now reached two huge mountains, as he estimates them between 6000 ft and 6000 ft high, sheeted with ice of inconceivable thickness, rose on each side, whilst the river was frozen over all, but escaped through a natural arch in the ice of as perfect construction as the most accomplished architect could design, The sun had just risen, and was shining on them, the sisrht presented being beautiful and grand beyond all description. We omitted to :say that the thickness of the ice from what may be termed the keystone of the arch to the top of the frozen surface was fully thirty feet. Mr Evans clambered on to the top, snow then lying about two inches deep, and followed it for four hours, the snow gradually increasing as he progressed, till at last it was between two and three feet in depth, and was evidently the rain that he had encountered previously, eongealed into snow in the higher atmosphere. Whilst making his way along the ice, the giant ice mountains as before described, on each side, he saw a smoke rising ahead of him, and on arriving at the spot, found it to come from a perfectly circular hole in the ice, of from four to five feet in diameter, and on lying down and listening over it, he could hear the running underneath. He rolled up a “huge snowball, and pushed it down the chasm, in order to form some idea of its depth. Several seconds elapsed before he could hear it strike the water, so the depth must have been enormous. He was beginning to be afraid least he might slip through some weak part of the ice, covering a hole like this, and accordingly edged to one side. When very near there, a kind of inclination took place, leading to a cave or rift, as far as he could see about thirty feet in height, and three feet wide. The sue was shining brightly, right into it, and its sides were all ice, glittering like plate-glass in the sunlight. Another large snowball was manufactured, and sent down the inclined plane into the mouth of the cave, when it disappeared and in a few seconds a noise like thunder intimated that it too had fallen into the river flowing beneath. As a proof that man’s footsteps have rarely, if ever trodden where Mr Evans penetrated to, a kaka flew down, and in the most familiar fashion perched on his shoulder, evidently having no fear of its human enemy. It was at once destroyed, and helped to form a supper that night. At this period our hardy explorer’s nerves began to fail him ; and no wonder. Alone, with such extraordinary nature around him—liable at any moment to be sent into eternity through an ice-hole, or otherwise—he wisely resolved to return. At the same time he feels perfectly confident, if he could have mounted the adjacentridge, that he could then have seen both sides of the range, and only the weather balked him of his hope. He says that he believes a very short tunnel would connect the two sides of the range, though of this he cannot of course be certain, and that it could be achieved without touching on tbe frozen regions last referred to. He L..., ful’y resolved to pay the place a visit again about Christmas next, but has had enough of such excursions in the present season. The ice of what

he presumes to be river, at the furthest point he reached, was nearly as high as the frozen mountains that hedged it in on each side. On reaching his camp again he found one of the hot springs dried up, though the stones ■were quite warm, and he attributed this to a volcanic convulsion, that also roused him from his sleep in the manner previously stated. He calculates that the point he reached was fifty-five miles along the river, and fully forty-five miles, as the crow flies, from the sea. He says that he cannot in the faintest manner depict the glorious beauty of some of the scenes he saw, and to use his own words, “ any photographers going up there would make an independent pile out of the views

they could take,” There is no difficulty in getting over the major part of the journey. At the highest point he reached he looked on the back part of Mount Cook. Lengthy as this notice is, we could have extended to nearly double had we time, but in the meantime any who desire further information cannot do better than obtain further particulars from the plucky explorer’s own lips,