Haast.

The next river of importance is the Haast. It has, with the exception' of the Taramakau, the largest course of any river in Westland, its most distant source, at the head of the Lands-borough, being about forty-four miles from its mouth. Although the sources issuing from small glaciers near Haast's Pass, are neither so important nor so far distant as the former, they may be first alluded to, as being near that remarkable break in the Southern Alps, by which this river system was first explored by me. A small creek takes its rise from a swampy flat on Haast's Pass, about two miles long and half-a-mile broad, which, at its northern termination, joins a larger water-course, coming from the west. The united stream now flows in a northerly direction, and receives numerous tributaries, of which the most important is one from the east, issuing from a glacier on the western slopes of Mount Brewster. A few miles lower down, the page 229Wills, an important branch, joins it on the same side, draining the western, slopes of the high snow-covered peaks at the head of the Hunter river, whilst to miles lower down, the Bourke, a large stream coming from the west augments the volume of the river considerably For five miles more the Haast continues its northerly course, when it enters a broad valley running at a right angle to it, and having a general east and west direction. Here it is joined by the waters of the Landsborough, a broad glacier river, the main sources of which come from Mount Ward and some other peaks of the central chain Its course of a length of about 15 miles, with a westerly direction. ^* Near the junction of these two confluents, another important branch, principally draining the southern flanks of the Hooker and Gray ranges, and which I have named the Clarke, unites with the Haast It has a nearly south-west course, and near its head waters, Docherty's Pass is situated. After this junction, the valley of the Haast trends for about eight miles to the west-north-west, when, after having received a considerable affluent from the north, it turns again at right angles to the south-west, keeping this course for about eight miles when for the remaining 13 miles, it again resumes its former west-north-west course.