Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/256

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Charteris Bay.
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tunnel bored to the harbour, tapping the Peninsula. Little River has a prosperous future before it, and in time it will be like the rest of the Peninsula—a collection of fine farms,—whose export will be cocksfoot, butter and cheese.


No. 11.—Charteris Bay.

Perhaps the most picturesque of the bays on Lyttelton Harbour is that known as Charteris. It is so called from the surveyor who originally measured its area, and is of very considerable extent. Separated by a spur from the head of Lyttelton Harbour, it is in reality the valley of Mt. Herbert, the highest peak of our Peninsula, whose giant summits are far loftier than those famed heights of which Macaulay sang in his glorious verses that tell of the fiery warning that flashed through England when the Armada was seen approaching. As seen from the bay, Mt. Herbert has two great peaks. The one of greatest altitude is smooth to the summit, and towers in calm serenity over a frowning rocky peak, which at the first glance appears the real monarch, but in reality is some 200ft lower. The saddle between these two is really the commencement of Charteris Bay; and from the very topmost tier of the hard rocks that crown the latter, gushes the spring that is the source of the large creek which finds its way into the harbour in the centre of the bay. It is said this spring is so near the peak that a very little work would cause it to flow in the opposite direction. However, after a somewhat precipitous course it reaches the head of a beautiful valley some three miles in length, along which it rons to the sea, form-