PROSPECTING IN THE MOUNT COOK RANGES.

Grey River Argus, Volume III, Issue 138, 29 November 1866, Page 2

PROSPECTING IN THE MOUNT COOK RANGES.

(Eroin the Wef/flaml Observer, November lo.) We reported last week the return of Hassing and JJpcherty, who had been out for a modi prospecting in the neighborhood of Okarita. On undertaking "the prospecting torn- from which they have just returned, and which has not resulted, in the discovery of anything justifying highly favorable reports, they started from! the first creek of any size flowing into thejiSf" Okarita lagoon to the southward of thj||L stream wliich joins it at Canoe Point!^?* Taking n boat up for about a mile, they at, that point entered a nianukau flat, about a mile and a half broad and about fourmiles long, running 'parallel to the sea^ the ground being generally swampy, but Avith gravel underneath." Striking, up, from the southern corner of this flat, and reaching a well defined, razor-backect ridge, they continue to follow that lictge until they struck the lake, blazing a track for the greater part of the way. Tlieip plan usually was, to go on with,a-.toma-hawk and tools one day, blazing the track as they went, and returning on the following clay for their swags. Proceeding along this ridge, they vcanght a sheep° which they killed and consumed, ancltheyalso saw traces of cattle, which had apparently been very-recently in the neighborhood. How the -sheep cauio there is a mystery. The cattle were probably some," of the few wliich the slaughtermen have occasionally running out in -the vicinity- of tho Witiho and Waitaki. In the baick waters of the -lake they were also able to, catch a number of eels and kaka bulls, or. Maori trout, and subsequently they caught, alive several kiwis, which they brought with them on their return. What appeared to be the smoke of a camp was* seen in the neighborhood of the. lake, in a direction different from that vi which Macdonald : s party are at work, but there were no traces of recent prospectors^ nor-, were there, except in. ,> the vicinity of .the lake and of the Five-mile Creek, by which they returned, the slightest traces of prospecting or of previous visitors tq the tract of country winch they traversed. From tho lake they continued through a piece of fine table land bush until they reached the headwaters of the Five-mile stream. As they proceeded they sunk; holes in different creeks and other j>laces but could not get bottom on account of the water. In each case, however, they found abundance of black saaid, : and in, one instance a comparatively good prospect, but generally theirSprbspects,. thus imperfectly made, were /confined to the color or little more, .jJjjxcep't ■ -the hills contiguous to the lake£- where the reef becomes apparent, the district waj3 entirely of cement formation. The bush they describe as generally admitting of easy travelling at any part beyond the shore belt of timber, which is much more dehsQ and impenetrable than rf the interior, in consequence, no doubt of th,e milderatmosphere of the coast encouraging a richer vegetation. Following down: the waters of the Five-Mile --Greek,' or the ridge between that and the '-Three-Mile Creek, they reached the beach hear Blanchard's bridge, after an- absence of thirty- ' two days, during seventeen of which rain had fallen, considerably interfering with their progress. Through not prominently successful in prospecting on tins occasion they have sufficient faith to encourage them to remain in the clistrictfor a time trusting to renew at a future date, and.with better results, the work of explorin« the country. 5