Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . ad been at sea all his lifeand never been wrecked, till the WaimakaririRiver did it. Once across, we rode up the Bealey. The gorgewound among steep mountains clothed in greatpart with the southern beech ; waterfalls werefrequent, and fine views of snow-capped we got to the divide called Arthurs Passwhere are three small tarns lying on a massof old moraine, which seems to fill the space be-tween two parallel ranges. From one side of thisthe waters flow east, and from the other this alpine meado
Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . ad been at sea all his lifeand never been wrecked, till the WaimakaririRiver did it. Once across, we rode up the Bealey. The gorgewound among steep mountains clothed in greatpart with the southern beech ; waterfalls werefrequent, and fine views of snow-capped we got to the divide called Arthurs Passwhere are three small tarns lying on a massof old moraine, which seems to fill the space be-tween two parallel ranges. From one side of thisthe waters flow east, and from the other this alpine meadow was beautiful with flowers :giant celmisias with satiny-white petals like enor-mous daisies, mingled with snow-white gentians,and the wonder of the Alps—the mountain lily.*It is a pure white kingcup with goldencentre, the leaves as large as saucers, and oftenthe flowers are two or three inches across. Asusual in the New Zealand mountains, most flowerswere white. The plants here are specially interest-ing, because of the meeting of outliers from east * Ranunctdics NEAR THE BEALEY. THROUGH THE OTIRA. 7 and west. To a very large extent the westernspecies do not grow on the east, except in certainplaces such as the Kaikouras, where the forestis very like a western forest. Farther south still,tree-ferns and pines occur ; but, speaking broadly^^the ranges on the east liave beech forest, whilethe west has pine forest and a sub-tropical floraof its own. The road ziz-zagged in loops down a steepdescent above a torrent. Bare, forbidding rocksand screens of loose stones ran up on one side, andpresently we arrived at a place where they hadall run down in a terrific rock-slide. The roadwas gone. A forlorn coach and one or two buggieshad been abandoned there, but already a narrowtrack was scratched across the face of the led the horses over the sliding mass, and gainedthe undamaged road beyond. The road-menderstold us of the violence of yesterdays storm whichhad wreck
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