RAILWAY ROUTE EXPLORATION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1896, 3 September 1874, Page 2

RAILWAY ROUTE EXPLORATION.

[VJSST COAST TIMES, SEPT. 2.] Mr James Evans returned last evening safe and sound, after one of the moat 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 Mr M'Leod, an excellent buahman, 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 Mb 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 folio wed the branch leading to the eastward, and found easy flats alocg 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 water, as Mr Evans describes it, was about as hot as washerwomen 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 neighborhood of the aperture were hotter than the waters. The latter smelt strongly of sulphur, and the smell of them, Mr Evaus assured our reporter, 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 which was a hollow that made an admirable tire-place, and proved of inestimable service during his detention. Whilst here the fearful weather occurred that we suffered from on the Coast, 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 atter he had a kind of prickly pain in his fingers, and subsequently both hi 3 hands blistered, and he suffered severe burning pains in them for two days. He at last bethought himself 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. So 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 i the springs in question he found abeautiful ■ 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 i 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 r part was abundant, but small. The river i was blocked-up tvi'h enormous rocks and i boulders. He was determined to leave his i 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 i 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 inst. , he was awoke about three , o'clock in the morning by a most unearthly noise, as though large rocks were , tumbling about in his immediate vicinity, i 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 hour or . twenty minutes afterwards the noises were .; repeated, and it seemed as though the : cave, in which he was, was about to fall in. H egot up at once, got some break- ; fast, and started up the river before daybreak. After following it up somedis- ; : tance he came to. what he describes as the most beautiful sight he ever witnessed.: The river had run between mountain gorge?, but at the point he now reached two huge mountains, as he estimates \ them, between 5000 ft and 6000 ft high,' i sheeted with ice of inconceivable thickness, rose on each side, whilst the river j 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 sight presented being beautiful, and grand beyond all description. We omitted to say that the thickness of the ice from what may be termed the key stone of the arch to the top of the frozen surface, was fully 30ft. Mr Evans clambered on to the top, snow, then lying about 2in deep, and followed it for four hours, the snow gradually increasing as he progressed, till at lost it was between 2ft and 3ft in depth, and was evidently the rain that he had encountered pre-t viously, congealed into s»no\v 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 4ft to sft in diameter, and on lying down and listening over it, he could hear the river 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 wa3 beginning to be afraid lest 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 30ft in height, and 3ft wide. The sun wa3 shining brightly, right into it, and its sides were all ice glittering like plate-glass in the snn-light. 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 had too fallen into the river flowing beneath. As a proof that man's fool-steps have rarely, if ever, trodden where Mr Evans's penetrated to, a kaka flew down and in the most familiar fashion perched on his shoulders,, evidently having ho 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 natura around him ; liable at any moment to be sent into eternity through an ice-hole, or otherwise, and he wisely resolved to return. At the same time he feels pretty ; confident if he could have mounted the adjacent ridge that he could then have seen both sides of the range, and that only weather baulked 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 the frozen regions last referred to. He has fully 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 the 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 ihe hot springs dried up, though; the stonea were quite warm, and he attributes 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. 55 miles /along the; river, and fully 45 miles, as the crow flies from the aea. :