Finding the Pass.

Leaving their horses secured, the brothers followed up the alpine river next day to its source in the mountains. The water ended in a high and rather swampy flat. This proved to be a pass, but that fact was not made clear until the following day. The Dobsons camped on the flat for the night (12th March). Next day they tramped along the saddle and found that the flat ended at an ancient glacial moraine which lay across the valley. Down below this and to the left a strong torrent came dashing down a defile from a high mountain on the south. This lofty peak, a glacier-hung height, Arthur Dobson named “Mt. Rolleston,” after the Hon. William Rolleston. The wild river ran down over huge confused masses of moraine rocks and plunged between high precipices into a defile which became a long narrow valley between the forested ranges. This, as it was afterwards ascertained, was the head of the Otira River, flowing down into the vast woods of Westland to join the Taramakau.