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Geology of the Provinces of Canterbury and Westland, New Zealand : a report comprising the results of official explorations

The Selwyn

The Selwyn.

Another river, the Selwyn, is of similar dimensions to the former. Its principal sources are situated on the eastern slopes of the Thirteen-mile-Bush range. It consists of four main branches, the most northerly of which, the Hawkins, rising in Russell's peak in the Malvern hills; the second, the "Wai-aniwa-niwa, has its sources near the saddle leading into the Selwyn near Hart's coal-mine. It drains a swampy district lying in the centre of the Malvern Hills. The Wakaepa, or Selwyn proper, rises on the eastern slopes of Big Ben, and after flowing through the Malvern hills in a succession of picturesque gorges, where it receives some important additions from the western slopes of the Thirteen-mile-Bush range, and the high banks of the Rakaia near Fighting hill, it enters the Canterbury plains, where it flows along the depression between the two huge shingle-fans formed by the Rakaia and "Waimakariri, emptying its-elf into Lake Ellesmere, into which it has already advanced its delta considerably. The most southerly branch of the Selwyn is the Hororata, coming from Snowy peak in the Rockwood ranges, and joining the Selwyn 10 miles below the entrance of the latter into the Canterbury plains. After a continuance of fine weather, the channel of this river, on the plains, is generally dry with only here and there small water holes in its wide shingle bed.