BYGONE CLIMBS OF EGMONT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 150, 12 November 1912, Page 7

BYGONE CLIMBS OF EGMONT.

To the Editor. Sir,—ln a recent letter from Mr. C. A. Wells, of Coromande], he draws attention to a recently published statment of the failure of his late father, Mr. Benjamin' Wells, to ascend the mountain -by the eastern route. Noticing myself'the same singularly erroneous conclusion, I might be permitted tc say- that not only did the late Mr, Wells and sons succeed in climbing Egmorit by the eastern .roiite,; but he (Mr. Wells) found and followed the identical bush line which was cut' in March, 1855, by Mr. Harry Richmond, Mr., Harry Atkinson and party, inclusive j of Mrs. Arthur. Atkinson, the first lady jto _ ascend Egmont, that line being also u,til- ; ! ised in a subsequent ascent by Lieuten-/ ants Bayly and Whitehead, of the 65th Regiment, with Mr. Des Moulin, of the commissariat department, my brother, myself and others, Lieutenant Bayly being overdone in returning, relinquishing his knapsack. The late Mr. B. Wells found it some years after in the bush where it had been dropped. The island' on which the first expeditions in 1&55 camped I found and identified about t:w6 " years ago in-the -river- Waiwakaijio, about half a mile up the stream frpni ' Kaimiro. .In .a short account I wrote' of the "First lady's ascent of Egmont," which was published in the "News" more' - than two yearsi ago, I also mentioned Mr. B. Wells 1 , having ascended by the ■ eastern spurs,'earrying.blaiiltets and pro-- 1 visions up the mountain to the..-eastern pirfnaele, crossing the'snow ;to the nor'western peaks, descending by 'the Turtle or Tortoise route, traversing the swainp and over the Pouak&i'range to town.— lam, etc;| ■ ' C.W.Wj.