It can be seen from
the top of Banks Peninsula, and for a few hundred yards somewhere near
Timaru, and over a good deal of the Mackenzie country, but nowhere else
on the eastern side of this settlement, unless from a great height. It
is, however, well worth any amount of climbing to see. No one can
mistake it. If a person says he THINKS he has seen Mount Cook, you may
be quite sure that he has not seen it. The moment it comes into sight
the exclamation is, "That is Mount Cook!"--not "That MUST be Mount
Cook!" There is no possibility of mistake. There is a glorious field
for the members of the Alpine Club here. Mount Cook awaits them, and he
who first scales it will be crowned with undying laurels: for my part,
though it is hazardous to say this of any mountain, I do not think that
any human being will ever reach its top.
I am forgetting myself into admiring a mountain which is of no use for
sheep. This is wrong. A mountain here is only beautiful if it has good
grass on it. Scenery is not scenery--it is " country," subaudita voce
"sheep." If it is good for sheep, it is beautiful, magnificent, and all
the rest of it; if not, it is not worth looking at.
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