FURTHER NEWS FROM THE WEST COAST.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 45, 14 April 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

FURTHER NEWS FROM THE WEST COAST.

Discovery Of a Favorable Pass to the Sea above Lake Wanaka, BY DR. JULIUS HA.AST, GOVERNMENT GEOLOGIST TO THE PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY. (From the Lyttelton Times i) ( Concluded.) The general direction of thd river, after its entrance into the fissure, for five miles isN.N.W.; after which it is joined by another river of considerable size, which I have named the "Wills/* coming from a W.S.W. course from Mount Ward. As it was impossible to cross this rivet even in fine weather, being very deep, we had to watch our opportunity to cross to the left bank of the main river, above the junction of the Wills. From this point we travelled for six and a-half miles in a N. vV. direction ; steep mountain sides, vertical cliffs, waterfalls and cataTacts, enlarged by the heavy fYesh, being still the usual features of the country. But we could already observe that we came to lower regions ; totara rimu, matai [black pine] often of fine size, became mixed with the fagus (black birch) forest, which hitherto, without intermission, clothed the mountain sides. iWn trees soon made their appearance, forming small groves in the deep moist valleys, and which, Considering we were still in the heart of the Alps, gave a strange aspect to the scenery around us. At last we left this region of rocks, precipices and cascades behind us, and a fine river entered from the W.S.W. , which I called the 'Burke.' We reached the confluence of it on the evening of February 12, fine weather set in at last, and the barometer showed me that we were only 250 to 300 feet above the sea level The river Burke is broad and deep, and has a slow course at its junction ; the main river, the fall of which is more rapid, having, as at the Wills, thrown a bar across its entrance, by which the level of these tributaries lias been raised. P*rom this spot a most magnificent view over the southern termination of the distant Moorhouse and Gray ranges was obtained, the more beautiful as the ranges on both sides of the valley were covered as heretofore to an altitude of 4,500 feet with forest, and the foreground consisted of fine pine trees, which lower down the valley grew on the banks of the main river. It was only on the morning of the 14th that we were able to continue our journey : the Burke, although a little flooded, we found to be impassable ; and the main river above its junction., after several trials we also found still too high to be crossed ; we had just finished making a catamoran of dead trees to cross the Burke — no flax sticks being obtainable to make a mokihi — when at last the falling of the main river allowed us to cross safely. After the junction of the Burke the course changes again, the river running for seven miles in a N.E. direction, the valley opens more, the fall of the water is much less, offering good fords, so as to allow us to Use the shingle banks to travel on. Now' and then small grass patches of a- few acres in extent appear. It \vm towards the middle of the day when we observed that the river before its junction with another large river, viz., the ' Clarke,' set against its left bank, keeping close under the vertical cliffs to this junction, and that afterwards the united waters continued to flow in the same way. I determined therefore to cross this important river above the junction; but when we cauio to its shingle bed, which is here about one aud a half miles broad, we found the water of the first branch much discolored. The day being hot and the sky cloudless, I mistook this occurrence for the usual discoloring of a glacial stream near its source from the effects of a hot day. We therefore proceeded* and after some difficulty, found a ford over this first branch; but branch after branch succeeded, each one larger than the former, and it was near evening when we were trying to cross the last branch, which proved to be the largest. Several times we failed, but at last succeeded. Although we crossed in the Maori fashion, with a long pole between us, two of my party were washed away when near the opposite bank, and had to swim to shore with their loads on their backs. Had I not ■ taken the precaution to have none but experienced swimmers in my party, a sad accident might here have happened. As I afterwards discovered, the river at our first crossing had been still in a state of fresh; and although on returning from the west coast we found the water low and clear, the river, according to marks set, having fallen considerably, we had still to cross it in five branches, some of them very deep, broad, and swift. The size of this important river which drains the Southern Alps, from opposite the Muller glacier to the N.W. slopes of Mount Ward, is at least equal to that of the Rakaia in the plains. Its valley is about two miles broad, which, six miles above the junction, is divided into two main branches. On the western bank a fine grass flat occurs, about one thousand acres in extent, where we camped, and which is a real oasis in this constant wilderness of forest. This -is without doubt the open gracs country of which some old Maories spoke to me as existing in the interior, judging its *, value not by its extent, bat by the great number of

wekas (wood-eens) and kakapos (ground parrots) which up the time of our arrival had here enjoyed an undisturbed existence, and which constitutes this spot a true Maori Elysium. After travelling about two miles over th's open grass fiat we again arrived on the bank of the river below the junction, being here divided into two branches. Although the mountains on both sides continued to be very high and covered with snow, from which numerous waterfalls descend, tde river has now a much slower course, being when flowing in one stream, three hundr- i to four hundred feet broad, and of e size of the Molyneux. Here all the signs of the great flood were visible which had occurred lately, detaining us so long in the gorges. Not only were all the rapids and shingle islands covered with masses of dfiit trees, many of them having still their green foliage, but also along the sides of the river quicksands were prevalent, which sometimes gave us no little trouble. At many places on emerging from the forest on a shingle reach, we were greatly disappointed to find that, after travelling a quarter of the distance over which they extended, we found deep black waters, with quicksands returning so far upwards from the next point, obliging 11s to return to the fovest along the mountain sides, wkere travelling is very difficult. The river after the junetion of the Clarke runs for about nine miles in a W.N. W. direction, when it is joined by a large mountain torrent, coming down in a cataract from the western chain. The banks of the river sometimes extending level for half a mile to the foot of the mountains, are generally covered with dense forest, in ■which the rimu rivals in magnitude the still prevailing black birch. But small patches of open scrub occur also, which, offer occasionally better travelling ground ; the soil on many spots is very good, and the river from the junction of the Clarke to its mouth, favorable for rafting. Now and then a rocky point, the outrunning spurs of the mountains, reaches the river, against which the water sets, and which we had to climb over, but generally a level travelling ground was prevatent. Having passed this important mountain torrent, which in the smallest fresh would be uncrossable, the river agrin changes its direction and runs for six a half miles S.S.W. The forest still continuing to be open, we pursued our way in splendid weather, till we arrived at a point where the river changes its course to the N.W. We bad some trouble to cross this point, rising almost vertically from the water's edge to a great altitude, but having conquered this difficulty, we were gratified to observe that the mountains gradually decreased in altitude, and that we were not far from the sea. For six miles we continued in this N.W. direction, meeting with the usual travelling ground, shingle reaches with backwaters and quicksands ; the forest now beginning to be encumbered with supplejacks, and sometimes mountain sides covered with large blocks of rock, which, as they were very steep, and the whole vegetation interlaced with supplejacks, gave us at times hard wok. We reached at last a spot where the river bed extended in width, and where a large tributary, which I named the Thomas, entered from the N.8., and the valley of which divided the coast range from the higher mountains inland. On February 18th, while crossing the last spur which extended from the coast range into the river, we were at last rejoiced to observe the sea horizon over a large plain covered with dense forest, in which small conical hills, only a few hundred feet high, rose, and with renewed ardour we continued our journey; but we did not anticipate that still a very arduous task lay before us From this point we were about six miles distant from the sea, the distance from the confluence of the river Thomas to the mouth of the main river being ten and a half miles, with a N.W. by N course. The river bed, which tip to the crossing of this last spur, had offered us between the mountains occasional shingle reaches, dry water courses, open scrub, and comparatively good forest travelling, set now against its northern bank, continuing so to its very mouth. As it was impossible to travel along its banks, we had to keep entirely to the forest, which now be came almost impracticable ; at many spots large "kahikatea'' swamps occurred with the usual accompaniment of "kiekie," high, fern and network of supplejack ; at other places the forest consisted of fine rimu trees, but without losing its character of West Coast density which defies description. It occupied us nearly two days to toil and cut our way through this region, till we arrived at a point where the river divided into two branches, of which one rnnning in the above named direction after a course of a mile falls into the sea ; whilst the other, the northern one, the right bank of which was still clothed with forest of the same description, found its exit one and a half miles north of the former. Observing here a good ford of about two hundred yards in width over the northern branch, we crossed to the island, and soon stood in the surf, giving three hearty cheers. It may now be as well to offer a few remarks on the appearance of Jackson's Bay. without doubt the river at the mouth of wuichwe were standing, is sometimes called the Awarua, although the South-west boundary river of our Province bears the same name; but in order to fix its position better, I may observe that the most northern point, about 17 miles distant, bears N. 40 ° E* (probably Aronott'a Point). From here to is. 39 ° W, a distance of about 85 miles, an extensive plain stretches from the sea to the base of the coa^t ranges, containing about 80,000 acres of level land, tho whole, as far *Thia and all tho following bearings aro magetic.

as I could observe* covered with dense forests in which timu (red pine) and kahikatea (white pine) are the prevailing trees. At the latter point, a large open valley comes from ths south, which with many other rivers has anr'sted to form this extensive plain, which, in fact, is only the large unilad delta of dif-fe:-3.it rivers which here enter the sea. F?t to the south two other po'nts -were to be observed, of which the first, t>e termination of a mountain, bore S. 52 ° W., t':e o'her a very distant one, more resembling a sloping table land, S. 45 ° W. ; two rocky islands, the smaller and nearer ene being about five miles distant, was lying S. 79 ° W* from our r 'Vow, vrfcilst a larger one rising just above the taahorizov, bore £5.62° W. The coast rn~e no:th of tr.e river, abou 1 ; four fhous-- ' to five thousand hzt high, resembling v-jmuch the "the thirteen mile bush" range w?.s nearly to the summit of the highest eminences covered with orest, whilst its continuation 0.1 9 coutl embank rose to an altitude of about six thousand to six thousand five hundred f it. eqUflly clothed with forest to the usual ho' ht. As far as the eye could re :ch f!1 the mountains were covered with den e forest, and no peaks visible above six thousand five hundred feet high, except one single comical mountain, partly covered ■with snow, which aose prominently S. 24 ° W. over the coast range. Another peculiar fer.ture was a number of small conical hills which rose above the alluvial plains distant distant from any other mountains, and of which I have to spe:Jk more fully when tr itinor o f the geology of this part of the province. I may thus fairly state that with the exception of a small flat of eight hundred to one t iusr.nd acres near tie he:.d of tae Makarora, and one of the same exent on the right bank of the Clarke, ro gr .ss land is arywb re to be found, fagus (ble-ok birch) fo e3t on the mountains, mixed with p'.nes in the lower r _:ions, is the only covering of the country to an altitude of four thousand five hundred feet, nut notwithstanding I think that in future years a large portion of it may be made available. Having only seen the southern mouth of the river, I cannot judge of the other entrance, but during our stay at the sea shore, the weather bein? extremely fine, a whale bo.it or other small vessel could easily have crossed the bar, finding sufficient shelter in a small backwater on the south side, but it is very possible that the mouth of the north branch, which brings the larger amount of water to the sea, would probably offer a better entrance. The river is only for a short distance affected by the tid^s. its fall to the last half mile being still considerable. Being very short of provisions we had to return immediately, and were so fortunate as to be still favored with fine weather, till we were two days' journey from the Clarke, when the weather became again unsettled, so we ttavelled on with all speed, crossed the Clarke just in time, found our small provisioe depot in good order, and arrived at thn junction of the Burke on the evening oe February the 25th. Showery weather had set in, which fortunately rose the rivers only slightly, so that although thr crossing was often not without difficulty, and we had to travel continually in the rain, we arrived at our starting point, the Makarora bush, on the evening of March 2nd, having been nearly six weeks absent. The geology of the county traversed by me has proved to be exceedingly interesting, ano notv/ahstanding I fear to extend the limits of this report to too great a length, I cannot omit to give a general outline of it. In a former report- A^hich I had the honor to lay before you last October, I remarked that a zone of volcanic and eruptive rocks stretched almost without interruption from Timaru to the Kaikoras, surrounding Banks' Peninsula in our Province, like the segment of a circle. After many observations which I was able to make during this journey, I may now state that the sedimentary rocks west of this zone strike geneeally in its direction ; and that the further the observer recedes from the zone, the moie the roeds become motamorphic. Whilst the mutamorphic rocks in the Otago Province generally dip at a low angle, we find that as soon as we approach the volcanic region in our Province, that they become more elevated. Whilst at the mouth of the Makarora on its eastern side, mecamorphic rocks are still to be foond, which strike nrarly N. and S., with a dip of 71 deg. towards E. Ten miles higher up the river true old clay slates and sandstones make tneir appearance which have not been at all affected by pluaonic action. For a loag time the strata, consisting of the same sandstones and slates, run parallel with the rent or fissure varying in their strike between N. and S., and N.N.E. to S.W., with a dip of 61 to 82 degrees generally towards E., althcugh western dips occur also. Ecst of the fissure tovrares Brcwster we meet only sandstones and slates, flag stones and pebble beds, whilst on the western side, opposite this enormous mountain, the rocks have already a much greater metamorphic appearance being very micacious, with numerous quartz layers between them, and intersected by a great many quartz veins. If it m ere not over precipitate, I would prdnounce my conviction that this remarkable rent, where the rocks at many spots are dissimilar on both sides, notwithstanding their equal strike anu dip, has in a great measure been occasioned by a large eruptive zone, which runs on its western side parallel to it, at a distance of two or three miles. It consists of gjeenstones of great variety, traps with a crypto-crystalline structure, diorites highly crystalline, diocinc porphyries, with large crystals of white felspar ("albite, and crystals of black hornblende and amy<;daloids with very Interesting crystals and concretions. They have broken through the stratified rocks, sending veins through them in all directions. At the contact the changes are highly instructive, iine fissile slatac aru changed into a black homogenous rock, or they resemble those of the schaalsteins of the European continent. Sandstones have been changed into cherts of different colors, and all the rocks in the neighborhood have been impregnated with ferruginous matter. But I may also observe that the charge in the great axis of the island, running probably parallel with the Southern Alps, will, without doubt, play equally a greal par} in the formation of the fissure. East of this eruptive zone, -which four miles below the junctisn of the Clarke with the Haast, strikes across to the northern b*ink. esdimentary roeks have, although metamorphic, not such a typical character, that we can name them real mica slate, gneiss, &c. ; their structure is sometimes crystolline, although the former characteristics of sedimentary rocks are not entirely effaced ; but west of this eruptive zone, which forms the summit of the highest peaks S.W. of Mount Brewster, the strata begin to assume a real metamorphic appearance. Dioritic slates are followed by very thin bedded mica slates, which, advancing west, become more and more crystollinc, striking twelve miles from the sea from N.N.W. to S.S.E., and dipping alternately to both sides with an angle between 16° and 18°. Advancing towards the coast, these micaschists change insensibly to true gneiss, which near the western termination of the coast range, proves to be a true gneiss-granite, almost vertical, but now invariably dipping to the east. When viewing first the isolated conical hills rising so conspicuously above the plains, I was reminded of similar hills in tho Nelson province, on the plains of the river Grey, rising there to a much greater altitude, and which consist of true granites. My examiration has shown that these hills in the plains of Jackson's Bay consists of the sam« rocks ; one of these hills rising about 500 feet above the plain, near the river, three miles from the sea, and which I called "Moiquito Hill " (it well deserved the name) consists for the greater part of a beautiful white granite with large crystals of white felspar (orthocias) white quartz and black mica. At

other places the mica is replaced by magnificent well formed crystals of black hornblende. I observed also zones where, besides black mida, white mica in large concretions occur. Another granite, without doubt of younger owgin, passes through that first described in large veias, being i'-iely grained, and of a black and white cold? ; bdth again are intersected by veins of beautiful cristalline quaTtz. There is not the least doubt that this granitic zone has greatly assisted in the metamorphism and upheaval of the rocks on the western side of our province, and I am happy to see that some former conclusions to which I arrived by induction have thus been verified. Till at present I have not spoken of any indications of gold, and what may be auriferous rocks. Here again the structure of our province differs entirely from that of our more fortunate southern neighbor, the large volcanic zone having influenced the structure of its more immediate neighborhood. I may, notwithstanding, state that there is notthe least doubt that a very large portion of our west coast ranges will prove to be auriferous, although resembling more the Nelson mountains on its western part, and in which ultimately, rich' goldfields will be discovered. We were unfortunately detained so long by rain in the gofges that our provisions were sadly diminisked, notwithstanding the greatest economy ; and thus I was compelled to leave the mining tools behind, which we had earned with us so far. The main river, after the junction of the Clarke, is a true shingle river, where it would be difficult to come to auriferous deposits, but many streams will prove to be auriferous ; amongst others, the Thomas and many smaller ones. "When in this region we could not lose a single day to ascend one of these tributaries, every spare moment being fully occupied with surveying and geological examination. Should you think it advisable to have this western part of the province prospected, it would be necessary to send a vessel round from Lyttelton, with a good sized cisape and a few Maories, so that provisions couk be taken up the main rivers. We prospected only at one spot before we re-crossed the saddle, vb., at the confluence of the Burke. We devoted a few hours to it, and, notwithstanding the spot was rather unfavorably having to take our washing stuff from between loose stone in the river bed, we found in nearly every dish a few minute specs of gold, so thet, technically speaking, the "color" was obtained. That the western tributaries of the J\lakarora and the Wilkinare auriferous, has since been proved by some parties of diggers, who, only through want of provision, had to return ; but starting in a few days to examine more closelv this part of the province, I hope soon to report more satisfactorily on the subject. The collection of geological specimens for our museum has hitherto been, very small, the rou^hn?ss of the ground not allowing us to crxry any quantity back with us ; notwithstanding, I procured a set of complete but very small specimens, showing the gradations from the granite and gneiss granite into the true gray wacke rocks. la " Botany," actively assisted by Mr W. Youni;, and one of my companions, Mr R. Holmes, I have been able to collect many interesting undescribed specimens, which will not only be valuable for completing more fully Dr J. Hook's admirable New Zealand " Flora," but will also offer a valuable addition to our herbarium. For the "Zoological" department I preserve several fine specimens of the " Strigops " (kakapo) not only for our own museum, but also for exchange with other collections. 1 was besides so fortunate as to obtain au Apterix (kiwi) of small size, which I believe, will prove to be a new species. Finally, allow me to acknowledge thankfully the ml and the exertions of Mr W. Young, who, with great perseverance and under manifold difficulties, conducted the topographic.il survey ; and of every member of my party, everybody submitting cheerfully to the small rations, which the long-coutinued wet weath r compelled us to enforce, and without which it would have been impossible .0 obtain the d:sired result. I have the honor, sir, to remain, Your most obedient servant, Julius Haast, Ph. D., &c, Provincial Geologist. To His Honor W. S. Moorhouse, Esq., Superintendent, Province of Canterbury, New Zealand.