We Threw Many
Stones At Them, And It Was Not Their Fault That They Escaped Unhurt.
Immediately on emerging from the bush we found all vegetation at an end.
We were on the moraine of an old glacier, and saw nothing in front of us
but frightful precipices and glaciers.
There was a saddle, however, not
above a couple of thousand feet higher. This saddle was covered with
snow, and, as we had neither provisions nor blankets, we were obliged to
give up going to the top of it. We returned with less reluctance, from
the almost absolute certainty, firstly, that we were not upon the main
range; secondly, that this saddle would only lead to the Waimakiriri,
the next river above the Rakaia. Of these two points my companion was
so convinced, that we did not greatly regret leaving it unexplored. Our
object was commercial, and not scientific; our motive was pounds,
shillings, and pence: and where this failed us, we lost all excitement
and curiosity. I fear that we were yet weak enough to have a little
hankering after the view from the top of the pass, but we treated such
puerility with the contempt that it deserved, and sat down to rest
ourselves at the foot of a small glacier. We then descended, and
reached the horses at nightfall, fully satisfied that, beyond the flat
beside the riverbed of the Harpur, there was no country to be had in
that direction. We also felt certain that there was no pass to the west
coast up that branch of the Rakaia, but that the saddle at the head of
it would only lead to the Waimakiriri, and reveal the true backbone
range farther to the west. The mountains among which we had been
climbing were only offsets from the main chain.
This might be shown also by a consideration of the volume of water which
supplies the main streams of the Rakaia and the Waimakiriri, and
comparing it with the insignificant amount which finds its way down the
Harpur. The glaciers that feed the two larger streams must be very
extensive, thus showing that the highest range lies still farther to the
northward and westward. The Waimakiriri is the next river to the
northward of the Rakaia.
That night we camped as before, only I was more knowing, and slept with
my clothes on, and found a hollow for my hip-bone, by which contrivances
I slept like a top. Next morning, at early dawn, the scene was most
magnificent. The mountains were pale as ghosts, and almost sickening
from their death-like whiteness. We gazed at them for a moment or two,
and then turned to making a fire, which in the cold frosty morning was
not unpleasant. Shortly afterwards we were again en route for the
station from which we had started. We burnt the flats as we rode down,
and made a smoke which was noticed between fifty and sixty miles off. I
have seen no grander sight than the fire upon a country which has never
before been burnt, and on which there is a large quantity of Irishman.
The sun soon loses all brightness, and looks as though seen through
smoked glass.
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