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

The Grey

page 221

The Grey.

Of the rivers of the "West Coast, the Grey in many respects is the-most important. It forms the northern boundary of "Westland, for a few miles only near its mouth, together with its tributary the Arnold, which issues from Lakes Brunner and Poherua. Lake Brunner (227 feet above the sea level), is a fine sheet of water, being four miles broad and six miles long. It lies in the continuation of the large opening leading from the valley of the Taramakau, west of the- Hohonu range, into the Grey valley, the former channel of a huge glacier, of Which the extensive terminal moraines now form its northern shores. A portion of that glacier branched off five miles south of' Lake Brunner, and followed a broad valley in a north-east direction, in which the small but charming Lake Poherua (345 feet) is now situated. After a few miles in this direction the glacier followed a north, and then north-east course, uniting again with the trunk glacier near its termination. Between and above these two branches, the highest peak of the isolated Tekinoa range stood as an island. In the first part of this publication, I have already pointed out that in comparatively recent times, before the Taramakau had forced its passage through the ranges south of the Hohonu range, it had been flowing by Lake Brunner, and discharged itself as an outlet of this lake into the sea more towards the north, somewhere near the mouth of the River- Kakawau (Saltwater Creek). The watershed between the Taramakau and the two lakes is exceedingly low, and if I can trust to some barometrical observations here made, an unusual rise of 10 or 15 feet in the Taramakau would bring its flood waters again towards Lake- Brunner and its smaller neighbour.