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ber for which had been cut and sawn while we lay in Cuttle Cove, in Preservation Inlet. Two streams of considerable size enter the head of Milford Sound, the Cleddau River from the S.S.E., and the Arthur River from the S.W. A well timbered flat about a mile in extent lies between them, but has been principally formed by the materials brought down by the first-mentioned stream, consisting of shingle and stratified sands. It is evidently a river valley deposit, and its surface slopes up the valley of the Cleddau River, forming benches four to six feet above the highest floods. This flat (and a few hundred acres on islands in the lower part of the Arthur River) is the only land at the head of Milford Sound that could possibly be made available for any purpose.

Below the narrow part of the Sound around Anila Bay there is another small portion of level land, but it is a mere strip by the water's edge along the base of steep ranges of hills. Fresh Water Basin, in which we were moored, is an expansion of the main channel of the Cleddau River lying between the before-mentioned flat and a vertical precipice of rock, but closed in from the up-sound winds by Cemetery Point. We lay within a few hundred yards of the foot of a cascade 540 feet in vertical height. The grand scale of the surrounding scenery detracts, however, from the imposing effect which this fall would have in any other situation. The volume of water is very considerable, especially after heavy rains, forming a stream for a hundred yards between the foot of the fall and the edge of the sea 40 feet in width, and, judging from the flood mark, sometimes 18 to 20 feet in depth. The occasional flooding and the continued dashing of wind and spray from the falling water have prevented the growth of scrub on a small plot of about an acre in extent, which from a distance presents the pleasant, because an unusual sight on this coast, of a grassy knoll. The surface of this plot is covered with hummocks, not unlike graves, which doubtless has suggested the name Cemetery.

For several days after our arrival in Milford Sound we had continued bad weather, with thunder and snow storms on the mountains, so that little could be done beyond examining the shores of the Sound. On the 10th August, however, the weather promised well in the forenoon, so that I started up the Valley of the Cleddau River, but in the afternoon it began to snow heavily, so that I had to return after getting about five miles from the mouth. It was rough and cold work, as the channel is blocked by large boulders, so that it was necessary to cross and re-cross the river very frequently. The valley has a very rapid fall, but it is crossed by no ledges of rock or other obstacles than the large boulders derived from ancient morains, with which the valley is partially blocked up. The floor of the valley is composed of the detrital matter, the rock only showing at the sides where it forms steeply inclined slopes, grooved and scratched like those of the Sound. Of course it would be quite useless to search for gold in a valley having this character, even where excavated in an auriferous formation, which it is not, as the detritus has undergone no assortment in the true rocky floor to which it would be necessary to sink, may be many hundred feet beneath the surface. Three valleys join to form the main valley of the Cleddau River, but they all seem to originate among precipitous mountains, and give no hope of an easy passage to the eastern side. Four miles up the river, on a tributary from the south-east, I found the recent camping-place of a party of diggers. They had laboriously cut a track through the thicket along the side of the river, so that I infer that it had been flooded at the time of their visit, and that they could not follow its channel as I had done. Both the Cleddau and the Arthur River appear to be liable to tremendous floods, as the line of river-drift can be traced back in the woods to the height of 20 feet above their usual level. During these floods the valley would be quite impassable, as the tributary streams could not be flooded. Next day, when examining Deep Water Basin, which lies between the mouth of Arthur River and the wooded flat, we found another camping-place, at which there was— “Nugget, 5th June, 1833, R. D. K,” carved on a tree, probably by the same party of men that were up the river; also in Harrison Cove, which is the entrance to the valley that leads to Pembroke Peak, we found another of their camping places of still later date.

The geological structure of the mountains around Milford Sound is more complicated than in any other part of the West Coast that I have examined. The prevailing rock is syenitic gneiss, associated with mica schist greenstone porphyry, and felspathic schist, succeeded towards the lower part of the Sound by fine grained gneiss of newer age, felstones, quartzites, and clay slates. No metallic ores were observed, but several might be expected to occur among the last-mentioned group of strata, if a locality were found to have been traversed by fissures in which vein-stone could form. When sailing about the Sound, we frequently saw large shoals of the cow fish, which is an immense Porpoise ten to twelve feet in length. They swim with great speed, raising their large back fin out of the water every few minutes; and sometimes leaping several feet clear of the surface. I shot one, but having no harpoon could not secure him before he sunk. Several seals were also seen about the mouth of the Sound, but, though easily shot, it was impossible to secure them, the water being so deep close to the shore, as they also sink when dead. Fish are not so abundant in Milford Sound as they