Over the Tararua Ranges.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3123, 7 February 1889, Page 2

Over the Tararua Ranges.

The residents.'of the Wairarftpa.; Lave often looked towards' jblie -west < - and scanned the line- of mountains;- '•'■ known as the Tararua'ranges, man-.',-;: tied in the cold season -with a heavy/ f drape of snow. Few -persons' have;" - ■[■ had the time or perhaps the inclination : to. explore this back-country. ,;<■ It is so pleasant to walk the oven and well-made roads of the townships -.- that the thought of scaling steep and ■- ■., rugged his, cutting one's way:;. through the bush, and crossing - the ;'■ rivers, deters many," But such; per-;,-; ; sons: .would never make explorers;. •'-. To ,thp lover of nature; to the young, ; : I man fond of rugged soeneiyiaud'not.' v I afraid'-, to /rough - it,;, a -week* nr the 's . .:;•; ranges is. full of mterest.; •Ha man ,;'4 has the physical: constitutions; it? wuTi;? repaylhim.- The pleasure;may;be:>; ; ;:";'. toil, b'nt lae-wili the W : - grandeur. ,of .'muoh; ot:-the'.; scenery;; ,£ .': can[form ho.ooneeption;6f; extent! of liUly.'.; corintryi .Heretiybuhave;; ; K pa;aMjiaoutt^

selves,' and melting away'in'mists in ' :' tliu distance;' immense uar- . gorges, furious torrents, leaping .' i^fcasoades,,oooftsional terraces,; and '■ ever before the eye a bush so dense - that-it is next to impossible to get throughtit. On the mountain tops ' the scenery is awfully grand; away . down at the foot runs a river looking liko a winding strealcof silver a? the . sun's rays light upon it. Then over the lower hills the townships cau be seen,' the Louses having tho .: appearance of toys surroundod by a check work of green fields, showing the extent of land cultivated. Afar off can also be seen the waters of the oceau, Cook's Strait, thoKaikoras of the South Island, and the country

skirting the Straits. Standing ,on those heights in the rarified and invigorating air the mind is absorbed in pleasing wonder at the imposing and beautiful panorama, the toil of l tlio journey is forgotten, and you . " wonder how it is possible to live such , *|hundrum life year after year trying SJftekeoutan existence in tho plains ' It is iinpossibo to impart to the reader by -writing any conception of the lofty feelings inspired by such grandeur. Even looking at the gigantic upheavals around, the mind is impressed with the awfulnessof the vast commotions which have taken place in days long gone by. The prospectors sent out by the Groytown Prpspecting Association made their way last week right through from Greytown to Otaki, about 1G miles in a direct line, but not far short of 100 miles with the rough and circuitous course they had to travel. Mr Hewitt, in giving a a description of the country on the mountain tops, says the soil is of a plastic clay of about two feet thick. Upon this is a coating of moss from eighteen inches to four] dfct deep, and this exists for about feet downwards- from the summit, makim; the journey very hard as the feet sink several inches every step. On the top of the ranges in some places there are flats, and the clay and moss form deep bogs. On some of the peaks are basins of snow water. At the present time, ' that the snow has melted, a kind of ice plant abounds, about the size of a daisy, the leaves of which are like little pieces of courso flannel, ; small stunted birch trees are so thickly studded together that in places the traveller can walk ou the top of them, and these are covered with a plant similar to that known as " old man's whiskers." A species of toi-toi exists in abundance, having a frosty surface on the leaves. Green grasshoppers abound on the top of the ranges in : myriads, about three inches long. A very little bird like a lark is very plentiful in these high regions. In the snow water a brownish beetle abounds. Mr Hewitt describes the view from the top of Mount Hector jus grand in the extreme, Napier and Jmmganui coming into the field of OBservation.—Standard, -