After about ten miles we turned a corner and looked down upon the upper valley of the Rangitata--very grand,very gloomy,and very desolate.
The river-bed,about a mile and a half broad,was now conveying a very large amount of water to sea.
Some think that the source of the river lies many miles higher,and that it works its way yet far back into the mountains;but as we looked up the river-bed we saw two large and gloomy gorges,at the end of each of which were huge glaciers,distinctly visible to the naked eye,but through the telescope resolvable into tumbled masses of blue ice,exact counterparts of the Swiss and Italian glaciers.These are quite sufficient to account for the volume of water in the Rangitata,without going any farther.
The river had been high for many days;so high that a party of men,who were taking a dray over to a run which was then being just started on the other side (and which is now mine),had been detained camping out for ten days,and were delayed for ten days more before the dray could cross.We spent a few minutes with these men,among whom was a youth whom I had brought away from home with me,when I was starting down for Christ Church,in order that he might get some beef from P-'s and take it back again.The river had come down the evening on which we had crossed it,and so he had been unable to get the beef and himself home again.