First,there is the river,flowing very rapidly upon a bed of large shingle,with alternate rapids and smooth places,constantly forking and constantly reuniting itself like tangled skeins of silver ribbon surrounding lozenge-shaped islets of sand and gravel.On either side is a long flat composed of shingle similar to the bed of the river itself,but covered with vegetation,tussock,and scrub,with fine feed for sheep or cattle among the burnt Irishman thickets.The flat is some half-mile broad on each side the river,narrowing as the mountains draw in closer upon the stream.It is terminated by a steep terrace.Twenty or thirty feet above this terrace is another flat,we will say semicircular,for I am generalising,which again is surrounded by a steeply sloping terrace like an amphitheatre;above this another flat,receding still farther back,perhaps half a mile in places,perhaps almost close above the one below it;above this another flat,receding farther,and so on,until the level of the plain proper,or highest flat,is several hundred feet above the river.I have not seen a single river in Canterbury which is not more or less terraced even below the gorge.The angle of the terrace is always very steep:I seldom see one less than 45degrees.One always has to get off and lead one's horse down,except when an artificial cutting has been made,or advantage can be taken of some gully that descends into the flat below.Tributary streams are terraced in like manner on a small scale,while even the mountain creeks repeat the phenomena in miniature:the terraces being always highest where the river emerges from its gorge,and slowly dwindling down as it approaches the sea,till finally,instead of the river being many hundred feet below the level of the plains,as is the case at the foot of the mountains,the plains near the sea are considerably below the water in the river,as on the north side of the Rakaia,before described.
第32章 CHAPTER VII(6)（1 / 3）