A Very Heavy Fresh
Had Come Down, So As To Render The River Impassable Even In The Punt.
The Punt
Can only work upon one stream; but in a heavy fresh the streams
are very numerous, and almost all of
Them impassable for a horse without
swimming him, which, in such a river as the Rakaia, is very dangerous
work. Sometimes, perhaps half a dozen times in a year, the river is
what is called bank and bank; that is to say, one mass of water from one
side to the other. It is frightfully rapid, and as thick as pea soup.
The river-bed is not far short of a mile in breadth, so you may judge of
the immense volume of water that comes down it at these times. It is
seldom more than three days impassable in the punt. On the third day
they commenced crossing in the punt, behind which we swam out horses;
since then the clouds had hung unceasingly upon the mountain ranges, and
though much of what had fallen would, on the back ranges, be in all
probability snow, we could not doubt but that the Rangitata would afford
us some trouble, nor were we even certain about the Ashburton, a river
which, though partly glacier-fed, is generally easily crossed anywhere.
We found the Ashburton high, but lower than it had been; in one or two
of the eleven crossing-places between our afternoon and evening resting-
places we were wet up to the saddle-flaps - still we were able to proceed
without any real difficulty. That night it snowed, and the next morning
we started amid a heavy rain, being anxious, if possible, to make my own
place that night.
Soon after we started the rain ceased, and the clouds slowly uplifted
themselves from the mountain sides. We were riding through the valley
that leads from the Ashburton to the upper valley of the Rangitata, and
kept on the right-hand side of it. It is a long, open valley, the
bottom of which consists of a large swamp, from which rise terrace after
terrace up the mountains on either side; the country is, as it were,
crumpled up in an extraordinary manner, so that it is full of small
ponds or lagoons - sometimes dry, sometimes merely swampy, now as full of
water as they could be. The number of these is great; they do not,
however, attract the eye, being hidden by the hillocks with which each
is more or less surrounded; they vary in extent from a few square feet
or yards to perhaps an acre or two, while one or two attain the
dimensions of a considerable lake. There is no timber in this valley,
and accordingly the scenery, though on a large scale, is neither
impressive nor pleasing; the mountains are large swelling hummocks,
grassed up to the summit, and though steeply declivitous, entirely
destitute of precipice. Truly it is rather a dismal place on a dark
day, and somewhat like the world's end which the young prince travelled
to in the story of "Cherry, or the Frog Bride." The grass is coarse and
cold-looking - great tufts of what is called snow-grass, and spaniard.
The first of these grows in a clump sometimes five or six feet in
diameter and four or five feet high; sheep and cattle pick at it when
they are hungry, but seldom touch it while they can get anything else.
Its seed is like that of oats. It is an unhappy-looking grass, if grass
it be. Spaniard, which I have mentioned before, is simply detestable;
it has a strong smell, half turpentine half celery. It is sometimes
called spear-grass, and grows to about the size of a mole-hill, all over
the back country everywhere, as thick as mole-hills in a very mole-hilly
field at home. Its blossoms, which are green, insignificant, and ugly,
are attached to a high spike bristling with spears pointed every way and
very acutely; each leaf terminates in a strong spear, and so firm is it,
that if you come within its reach, no amount of clothing about the legs
will prevent you from feeling its effects. I have had my legs marked
all over by it. Horses hate the spaniard - and no wonder. In the back
country, when travelling without a track, it is impossible to keep your
horse from yawing about this way and that to dodge it, and if he
encounters three or four of them growing together, he will jump over
them or do anything rather than walk through. A kind of white wax,
which burns with very great brilliancy, exudes from the leaf. There are
two ways in which spaniard may be converted to some little use. The
first is in kindling a fire to burn a run: a dead flower-stalk serves
as a torch, and you can touch tussock after tussock literally [Greek
text which cannot be reproduced] lighting them at right angles to the
wind. The second is purely prospective; it will be very valuable for
planting on the tops of walls to serve instead of broken bottles: not a
cat would attempt a wall so defended.
Snow-grass, tussock grass, spaniard, rushes, swamps, lagoons, terraces,
meaningless rises and indentations of the ground, and two great brown
grassy mountains on either side, are the principal and uninteresting
objects in the valley through which we were riding. I despair of giving
you an impression of the real thing. It is so hard for an Englishman to
divest himself, not only of hedges and ditches, and cuttings and
bridges, but of all signs of human existence whatsoever, that unless you
were to travel in similar country yourself you would never understand
it.
After about ten miles we turned a corner and looked down upon the upper
valley of the Rangitata - very grand, very gloomy, and very desolate.
The river-bed, about a mile and a half broad, was now conveying a very
large amount of water to sea.
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