37

C—9

Narrative. The above instructions arrived at Castle Point after my departure, and followed me back to Wellington, where I received them. Having utilised the 9th and 10th January in necessary preliminaries, I left Wellington on the 11th, arriving on the night of the 13th at the Lower Whareama Valley, and camped on the 14th in the valley of the Kaiwhata, about five miles from the coast. I commenced by making a trip up the Kaiwhata as far as the Te Maire Creek, and then down the river to the coast, which occupied three days, after which I started a detailed examination, beginning on the coast and working as far south as Flat Point, and gradually working up the Kaiwhata Eiver and its tributaries, the Little Kaiwhata, Bismarck, and others, till Te Maire Creek and the Brocken Eange were reached. This took from the 18th January to the 20th February, and included packing, collecting of fossils, and camp-work ; during the whole of this time the weather was very bad. From the 21st February to the 25th March I was engaged on the East Coast Eoad section, and in the middle area generally, which includes examination to the coast and south as far as Glenburn, to the southward down the Pahaoa Valley, also the Taipo Eanges, the valley of the Euamahanga, &c. This took up my time till Saturday, 25th March, on which date I received notice to return to Wellington The remaining days were occupied in packing, &c, and on the 29th I arrived in Wellington. Description of the District. The country under examination is situated on the Bast Coast of Wellington, about due east from Carterton and Masterton. On the north the approximate boundaries are the Kaiwhata Eiver and Te Maire Creek, while the west is limited by the ranges of the Brocken and Taipos, the west by the Pacific Ocean, while the southern boundary is a line drawn from Glenburn on the coast to the southern end of the Taipo Eanges. In the instructions the original intention was for the examination to proceed as far south as the Pahaoa Gorge, but the prevalence of broken weather made it impossible to get further south, than above indicated, in the time at my allowance. The block under survey is about twelve miles in length (from the mouth of the Kaiwhata Eiver to Glenburn) and ten in width. The surface of the country is much broken, and is made up of two distinct systems of ranges, both trending in a south-east direction, and consequently parallel. Between them they contain two large valley systems containing the two dominant rivers, the Kaiwhata and Pahaoa, which valleys and rivers are divided by an extensive development of the coast range in a spur trending west till it almost abuts on the range of the Brocken. Of the two systems one is the coast range called the Maungaraki, which, commencing at Glenburn (in this block) keeps the coast till the south side of the Kaiwhata Valley is reached, at which point the range is cut through almost to sea-level by the river coming from the westward. At Glenburn, the range is perhaps at its greatest height, attaining to a point about 1,700 ft. or 1,800 ft. above the sea-level. Its mountainous character is maintained throughout and to the northward its elevation suffers but little till it is crossed by the East Coast Eoad from Carterton to Glenburn, where it descends to 1,000 ft. At this point the whole ridge loses in height and narrows very much and does not recover itself in height and breadth of its development till it nears the Kaiwhata. To the south of this river, without losing height, it occupies a considerable amount of the country, and its ramifications and spurs spread till reaching close to the sea on the east and to the southern portion of the Brocken on the west. The heights within this part are, at this point, little less than 1,400 ft. After crossing the Kaiwhata to the north the range continues on without any diminution in height, the slopes on the coast side of the range are precipitous, while the western side is broken up and flanked by the Kaiwhata. The whole range is characterised by its ruggedness. West of the Pahaoa Valley, and opposite the Maungaraki Mountains, is a range of picturesque mountains of about 2,000 ft. in height, which commences at the junction of the Pahaoa and Wainuioru, about nine miles in a westerly direction from Glenburn, and continues to trend in a north-east direction. There is an important and peculiar break in their continuity. Just before the Kuamahanga Stream, a tributary of the Wainuioru, is reached they suddenly disappear, and the lower-lying country of the Kuamahanga takes their place for a distance of three miles, north of which space the Brocken Eange commences, and continues the line of the southern range, i.e., preserving the direction of the Taipos to the south. The Brocken Eange differs but little geographically from the southern end of the system. The range is rough, and its sky - line presents a most fantastic outline of pinnacles and gulches. Towards the south the height becomes lower till the range merges with the lower elevations to the north of the Kuamahanga. The range of the Brocken has no great width, and the precipitous sides give to it a very striking appearance, standing out from the surrounding country like a huge dyke. It gives out few or no spurs, excepting, perhaps, in the north-east, near the junction of the Te Maire Creek and the Kaiwhata. Continuing to the southern portion of the system, the Taipos are almost identical in physical respects to the range of the Brocken, having the same beetling cliffs and grotesque outlines. They differ, however, in being divided into two sub-parallel ranges, and while the eastern slopes are a series of precipices, the western sides are flanked by spurs and isolated hills, giving the range a very picturesque appearance. The height attained is about 2,000 ft. Included between these two mountain ranges, the Maungaraki, and that of the Taipos and the Brocken, is the low-lying country through which the various rivers and tributaries make their way. The elevation of the valleys does not fall much below, or rise much above, 500 ft. The valley depressions, as a rule, are hilly or undulating; occasionally they are flat. The mountain-system has divided the country dealt with in this report into two distinct parts, the one, the valley of the Kaiwhata, the other, the valley of the Pahaoa, the latter -resulting by the westerly development of