Blind Bay, of paying a flying visit to both those localities. Thus, on 30th of July I had a splendid view of the lofty Taranaki mountain (Mount Egmont), 8270 feet high, and was enabled to study, among the sugar-loaf rocks of the Taranaki coast, the peculiarities of the trachytic lava of this the most regular in shape of the volcanic peaks of New Zealand. After a stormy passage through Cook's Straits, we landed on 1st August at Wellington, and reached Nelson on the 3rd.
"I was received in the most cordial manner by the denizens of Nelson, who, while the Novara lay at anchor at Auckland, had extended to the members of the Expedition a most cordial invitation.
"The provincial Government, under the advice of the excellent superintendent, J. P. Robinson, Esq., had already issued the requisite instructions to enable me to make the utmost possible use of the time at my disposal for geological survey, and had chartered for me the steamer Tasmanian Maid, so as to enable me to visit with all possible dispatch the most important formations on the shores of Blind and Golden Bays.
"The geological field which is opened up on the Middle Island, was entirely new as compared with the Northern Island. In the neighbourhood of Nelson, the Southern Alps send off outliers, in the shape of mountain-chains, 5000 and 6000 feet high, covered in winter with deep snow, as far as Cook's Straits. The western chains are composed of primary
crystalline rocks, granite, gneiss, micaceous and hornblend slate, quartz, and clay slate, whereas sedimentary sandstone, chalk, and almost vertical stratifications, constitute the chief formations observable in the eastern chain. Between these older formations, however, among the valleys and depressions, occur later stratifications, including brown coal or peat.
"A succession of splendid weather was gladly hailed as an evidence of the renowned climate of Nelson, and my very first excursions opened to me such interesting subjects of inquiry, that I was fain to decide on prolonging till September the month's visit I had originally determined on restricting myself to. I was thus enabled to examine more minutely the various gold and coal-fields near Nelson, as also the copper-mines on the Dun Mountains, and at all events to represent on a chart the geological features of the northern part of the province.
"The results of the investigations into the mineral wealth of this province were on the whole eminently favourable. I could not indeed confirm the sanguine anticipations of some mining speculators, of the inexhaustible, though as yet unrevealed, treasures of copper in the Dun Mountains, although, adjoining the rather meagre copper-bearing strata, there were instances of abundance of chromate of iron, which promised a considerable return. Above all, however, there still remained to be visited the gold-fields of the Aorere and Tetakaka valleys at Golden Bay, the quantity already extracted from which, as well as its purity, satisfied me that capital might secure
a splendid return here by a more extended and systematic mode of working, and that the discovery of this, the first of the New Zealand gold-fields, is but the commencement of a series of such along the range of hills which traverses the Middle Island; discoveries which, though perhaps not on so extensive a scale as those of Australia and California, must nevertheless tend to raise higher and higher the rank of New Zealand among the gold-producing countries of the earth. Lastly, it was found that in the province of Nelson, side by side with the ordinary strata in which the brown coal occurs in North Island, were beds of coal of a very superior quality. The excellent but unfortunately very limited coal-fields of Pakawau give ground for anticipating that in other localities it may very probably be possible to discover larger and more easily-worked beds, and my friend Haast has, in fact, since my visit discovered such on Buller-and-Grey river, on the Western shore of the province of Nelson.
"During my stay in Nelson my collections waxed in amount to an unusual degree. In vain had I attempted while in North Island to discover remains of the gigantic extinct bird of New Zealand, or the bones of the Dinornis and Palapteryx, Moa of the natives. These researches met with far greater success in Middle Island. The chalk valleys of the Aorere valley furnished us with splendid specimens of these singular and rare remains of birds. Not merely were individual bones daily discovered, through the indefatigable exertions of my friend Haast, but from time to time entire
skeletons more or less perfect. Besides these, I was presented with a very valuable complete skeleton of the Palapteryx ingens (Owen), from the Nelson Museum, so that the collection of remains[58] of the Moa, which I brought back with me to Vienna, is scarcely, if at all, inferior to the valuable series of relics of an extinct race of birds which at present adorns the British Museum.