forming a kind of link in the giant chain, we saw a low neck between two stout roundbacked grey-coloured mountains, and from this neck one of the branches of the Awatere takes its rise; another branch a little higher passes from another and a higher pass, and seemingly a steeper one, so we determined to try the one to the right. The ascent was not difficult, spear grass was the only impediment. I remarked on the summit of the mountain to the right curious semi-cylindrical aperture that struck me as being probably the extinct crater of a volcano. Around us I noticed several varieties of plants and flowers. Some European and some entirely new to me. A visit to ‘Tuapeka’s’ Pass’ would amply repay the botanist, and might well redeem the ‘flora of New Zealand’ from the reproach of barrenness. I must mention for the benefit of the traveller, that, of flax which is not elsewhere found within twenty miles of the pass, a new and very superior variety grows almost on its summit.

At length, standing upon loose shingle of broken freestone, we looked down from the summit of the pass. The view we had so anxiously expected was merely narrow valley running south; the descending it was not long nor difficult, and stock of any kind might pass over it in safety. We now pushed on, anxiously expecting at every turn to see some plain, or the bush old ‘Kai-koura’ had mentioned, this however was evidently not his route, and night closed in after we had walked some six or seven miles from the pass, and with it rain. We had travelled on till dark, and there was neither toi, flax, nor sticks to build a shelter; so, thoroughly wet and cold, we spent a cheerless Christmas eve, our only consolation being that I had noticed a yellow flower (asphodel?), which is plentiful on the southern plain, and is new found north of the Kaikouras. This led me to believe that we had indeed penetrated the mountain barrier, and almost achieved our purpose. The morning of the 25th was destined to convince me that I was right in my surmises; we were afloat: by day dawn, and hurrying on in search of a spot to kindle a fire and warm and dry ourselves, to our great joy our next mile down ‘Guidesdale’ showed us the Waiuau or Clarence river, before us; the sun too shone out at the moment and brought up the valleys and the streams at their meeting, and on the whole we thought that our morning’s wish of a happy Christmas had been more neatly gratified than we had anticipated. We crossed the Waiuau without any difficulty just above where the ‘Guide’ falls into it; there is here a shingle bank on each side, and one shingle bank opposite; there are two or three small rocks in the stream near the south bank. What little small upper one, in a line between the shingly island and the opposite shingle bank, is plainly visible I should have no hesitation in crossing, especially were I coming from the south, when the traveller would have the advantage of fording with the current. The bottom here is good hard gravel, the water was scarcely knee deep when we forded it, and not very rapid; the rock was fully a foot out of water; the river rose a foot or eighteen inches within a quarter of an hour after we crossed, and became turbid with the fresh, but next morning it was clear and as low as ever. Having crossed we encamped by a blazing fire, and did our best to celebrate Christmas day; after remaining some hours at the camp we walked along the downs to a low neck of land some four miles below the entrance of Guidesdale on the south side of the Clarence. Standing upon it I at once saw that my object was attained. Before me lay the low downs of the Waiuau-na, whilst a water-course rising below my feet, running S. by W., led directly to them; unfortunately the clouds hung low to the south and precluded all distant view; but we both thought that we could plainly discern the waters of the Waiuan-a; and the downs that I now saw before me completely corresponded to those I had passed when a fortnight before I had forged the Waiuau-un on my way from the southward. My position also was fixed by a dark range of mountains with patches of snow about six miles distant bearing due west, which I had also seen from the Waiuau-a. In fine, I was perfectly satisfied that the ‘Leader,’ as I named the stream at my feet, was identical with the Tuabakia mentioned before; or in any case, that the Leader falls into the Waiuau within five miles of the ford where I crossed it, and from which I now was only separated by about fifteen miles of open grass country as nearly as I could estimate. It was evident that no further obstacle existed, and as I turned again east, traversed ‘Whaleington Downs’ to our camping place. I only thought of returning home with as little delay as possible, as our provisions were low and my time but limited.

I have only to add that about ten miles down the river it apparently makes a sudden bend to the N.E., while beyond it to the S.E., you see through an opening in the hills that (running from the southward Kaikouras or Looker-on) form its southern boundary, the low hills and downs at the back of Amuri; this probably is one of the two old native passes; the tootle pass and the black birch kaikapo bush between the Clarence and the Awatere mentioned to me by ‘Kaikoras,’ must be to the east of ‘Barefells’ Pass,’ where the offshoots of the Kaikouras come more ground and are higher, yet I doubt not could be penetrated by following some branch of the Awatere.

I will not now trespass upon your patience much longer. Four days brought us from our furthest point to Mr. Bedggood’s; we set fire to those places on which the spear grass or an accumulation of old herbage rendered walking difficult, which will render the road much more easy to the future traveller; indeed I am quite satisfied that the Waiuau-may be gained in four days, whence Lyttelton may with great ease be reached in four more.

I may as well mention that I found nothing new in the way of ornithology; in my journey I saw one specimen of the cuckoo on the grass land between the Hurunui and the Waiuau-a, also five young hawks in a nest built on the ground, which I mention as they were all of different sizes, a circumstance which I have often noticed in kakas nests, and which I believe is common with New Zealand birds; the old natives told me that kakapos were numerous in the inland birch woods; my journey, however, left me through open country, I did not find any. The kiwi, the natives said, was rare, but sometimes found near the sources of the Awatere, where one night I imagined that I recognized its cry. Woodhens and blue whistling and paradise ducks formed our chief food in the latter part of our expedition, and indeed we had little else to eat; they were all very tame: as to the former, their commonness was often provoking; they would walk up to us at our fireside and help themselves to anything they might fancy, quite regardless of consequences. My dog killed more of them than we could eat; and on one occasion I saw one of them, in defence of its young, fly at the dog with such courage, that the event of the battle was for a moment doubtful; another I remarked gazing with cool curiosity at the murder of its companion by my dog, seemingly quite unconscious of its own imminent fate, which soon overtook it. Of the moa, my kind surmise I saw neither bones nor relics of any extinct leviathan Centaury. To the plants and shrubs I have already enumerated, I may recapitulate amongst others a most magnificent broom, whose lilac blossoms cover the whole shrub