During a fresh,the Rakaia is not fordable,at any rate,no one ought to ford it;but the two first-named rivers may be crossed,with great care,in pretty heavy freshes,without the water going higher than the knees of the rider.It is always,however,an unpleasant task to cross a river when full without a thorough previous acquaintance with it;then,a glance at the colour and consistency of the water will give a good idea whether the fresh is coming down,at its height,or falling.When the ordinary volume of the stream is known,the height of the water can be estimated at a spot never before seen with wonderful correctness.
The Rakaia sometimes comes down with a run--a wall of water two feet high,rolling over and over,rushes down with irresistible force.Iknow a gentleman who had been looking at some sheep upon an island in the Rakaia,and,after finishing his survey,was riding leisurely to the bank on which his house was situated.Suddenly,he saw the river coming down upon him in the manner I have described,and not more than two or three hundred yards off.By a forcible application of the spur,he was enabled to reach terra firma,just in time to see the water sweeping with an awful roar over the spot that he had been traversing not a second previously.This is not frequent:a fresh generally takes four or five hours to come down,and from two days to a week,ten days,or a fortnight,to subside again.
If I were to speak of the rise of the Rakaia,or rather of the numerous branches which form it;of their vast and wasteful beds;the glaciers that they spring from,one of which comes down half-way across the river-bed (thus tending to prove that the glaciers are descending,for the river-bed is both ABOVE and BELOW the glacier);of the wonderful gorge with its terraces rising shelf upon shelf,like fortifications,many hundred feet above the river;the crystals found there,and the wild pigs--I should weary the reader too much,and fill half a volume: