I will undertake, however, to say positively that we
did not see one atom of granite; all the mountains that I have yet seen
are either volcanic or composed of this sandstone and slate.
When we had reached nearly the base of the mountains, we left our
horses, for we could use them no longer, and, crossing and recrossing
the stream, at length turned up through the bush to our right. This
bush, though very beautiful to look at, is composed of nothing but the
poorest black birch. We had no difficulty in getting through it, for it
had no undergrowth, as the bushes on the front ranges have. I should
suppose we were here between three and four thousand feet above the
level of the sea; and you may imagine that at that altitude, in a valley
surrounded by snowy ranges, vegetation would not be very luxuriant.
There was sufficient wood, however, to harbour abundance of parroquets--
brilliant little glossy green fellows, that shot past you now and again
with a glisten in the sun, and were gone. There was a kind of dusky
brownish-green parrot, too, which the scientific call a Nestor. What
they mean by this name I know not.
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