The West Coast Sounds

No visitor to Maoriland in January should miss the U.S.S. Company's excursions to the Sounds. No more delightful trip could be imagined than the excursion round the coast to Milford Sound, and thence back overland to the Sutherland Falls, Lakes Te Anau, Manapouri, and Wakatipu.

On seeing a portrait of John Milton, Dryden wrote:—

Three poets in three distant Ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty, in both the last.
The force of Nature could no further go:
To make a third she joined the former two.

This figure might well be applied to the three countries, Norway, Switzerland, and Maoriland. Nature made the noble fjords of Norway, the beauteous lakes and majestic mountains of Switzerland, and then as her force could go no further, to make the ords and

Lake Ada, Milford Sound

Mitre Peak, Milford

Pembroke Peak, Milford Sound

Morris, photos

The Arthur Riveer, Milford Sound

The trip to the Sounds lasts about ten days, and as they are close together the steamer reposes most of the time on the calm bosom of these land-locked fjords. There are altogether thirteen sounds from Preservation Inlet to Milford. It is useless to attempt a description. It would be "to paint the lily." The scenery is indescribably grand, and as Goethe has well said, "Beauty is a hovering, shining, shadowy form, the outline of which no definition holds." Majesty is here in repose: there is but little of the contrast notice-able in other parts of New Zealand; but as Ruskin wisely observes, "Contrast increases the splendour of beauty, but it disturbs its influence; it adds toits attractiveness, but diminishes its power "

In George Sound a regatta is held, and throughout the trip the evenings are enlivened by concerts and dances. Professional musicians are engaged for each excursion, and the captain and officers spare no pains to minister to the pleasure of tourists

Bowen Falls, Milford Sound

Wheeler and Son, photo

View from Harrison's Cove, Milford Sound

Doubtful Sound is remarkable for its beauty and its labyrinthine inner shore-line. A tourist track of magnificent scenic valué leads from the head of the Sound to Lake Manapouri (11 miles).

Milford Sound is the most sublime of all the New Zealand Fjords. It is about 10 miles in length confined for the whole of its winding course between stupendous cliffs. In some places these vast preci pices rise vertically for at least three ikree-quartersof a mile, and slope back the refrom to snowy peaks Mitre Peak is over 5500 feet above the Sound; Mt. Pembroke is 6710 feet high and is belted with glaciers Near the head of Milford Sound is Mt. Tutoko (9042 feet), from which issues a splendid glacier.

The vegetation—pines. Flowering littoral plants, ferns, palms, etc.—in Milford and the other Sounds is semi tropical in its wonderful luxuriance Another great beauty of the Sounds the myriad waterfalls.

If the visitor has the time, heshould make arrangements to journey overland from Milford Sound to the Sutherland Falls, and along the delightful Clinton Valley to Te Anau; he should travel by steamer up this lake visit Lake Manapouri, and see the beauties sur rounding the head of Lake Wakatipu and then journey to Queenstown, Lakes Wanaka, and Hawea. Thetripcan be continued by vehicle from Wanaka, over the Lindis Pass, to Mount Cook (138 miles). The whole itinerary here outlined forms the most perfectlyen-chanting trip in any part of the world.

The Sutherland Falls, 1904 Feet

Photos by Morris

Map of the South Island, New Zealand

Invercargill