A Further Exploration.

Heavy rain came on while the brothers were examining the Pass, so they returned to their horses and rode back to Goldney's sheep station at the Cass. Mr. Goldney was very much interested in Arthur Dobson's account of the new pass. “I wonder if there's any open grass country over there,” the sheep grazier said; “I'd like to go and see for myself.”

Dobson thereupon offered to take Goldney over with him, as he was anxious to complete his reconnaissance and see what the west country looked like lower down. Of course all this was new, unknown territory to surveyor and settler alike. There were no maps of that part of the country, and the gap between the Waimakiriri on the eastern side of the range and the Taramakau and Arahura on the west, was a virgin land to the Pakeha.