Vegetation is luxuriant--most abominably and unpleasantly luxuriant (for
there is no getting through it)--at the very top. The reason of this
is, that the nor'-westers, coming heavily charged with warm moisture,
deposit it on the western side of the great range, and the saddles, of
course, get some of the benefit. As we were going up the river, we
could see the gap at the end of it, covered with dense clouds, which
were coming from the N.W., and which just lipped over the saddle, and
then ended. There are some beautiful lakes on the Hurunui, surrounded
by lofty wooded mountains. The few Maories that inhabit this settlement
travel to the West Coast by way of this river. They always go on foot,
and we saw several traces of their encampments--little mimis, as they
are called--a few light sticks thrown together, and covered with grass,
affording a sort of half-and-half shelter for a single individual. How
comfortable!



CHAPTER VI



Hut--Cadets--Openings for Emigrants without Capital--For those who bring
Money--Drunkenness--Introductions--The Rakaia--Valley leading to the
Rangitata--Snow-grass and Spaniard--Solitude--Rain and Flood--Cat--
Irishman--Discomforts of Hut--Gradual Improvement--Value of Cat.

I am now going to put up a V hut on the country that I took up on the
Rangitata, meaning to hibernate there in order to see what the place is
like. I shall also build a more permanent hut there, for I must have
someone with me, and we may as well be doing something as nothing. I