These old river channels,or at any rate channels where portions of the rivers have at one time come down,are everywhere about the plains,but the nearer you get to a river the more you see of them;on either side the Rakaia,after it has got clear of the gorge,you find channel after channel,now completely grassed over for some miles,betraying the action of river water as plainly as possible.The rivers after leaving their several gorges lie,as it were,on the highest part of a huge fanlike delta,which radiates from the gorge down to the sea;the plains are almost entirely,for many miles on either side the rivers,composed of nothing but stones,all betraying the action of water.These stones are so closely packed,that at times one wonders how the tussocks and fine,sweet undergrowth can force their way up through them,and even where the ground is free from stones at the surface I am sure that at a little distance below stones would be found packed in the same way.One cannot take one's horse out of a walk in many parts of the plains when off the track--I mean,one cannot without doing violence to old-world notions concerning horses'feet.
I said the rivers lie on the highest part of the delta;not always the highest,but seldom the lowest.There is reason to believe that in the course of centuries they oscillate from side to side.For instance,four miles north of the Rakaia there is a terrace some twelve or fourteen feet high;the water in the river is nine feet above the top of this terrace.To the eye of the casual observer there is no perceptible difference between the levels,still the difference exists and has been measured.I am no geologist myself,but have been informed of this by one who is in the Government Survey Office,and upon whose authority Ican rely.