efore the most
popular. The banks of the pretty little river Avon, upon which
Christchurch is built, are thickly fringed with weeping willows,
interspersed with a few other trees, and with clumps of tohi, which is
exactly like the Pampas grass you know so well in English shrubberies.
I don't think I have ever told you that it has been found necessary here
to legislate against water-cress. It was introduced a few years since,
and has spread so rapidly as to become a perfect nuisance, choking every
ditch in the neighbourhood of Christchurch, blocking up mill-streams,
causing meadows to be flooded, and doing all kinds of mischief.

Towards Riccarton, about four miles out of town, the Avon shows like a
slender stream a few inches wide, moving sluggishly between thick beds
of water-cress, which at this time of year are a mass of white blossom.
It looks so perfectly solid that whenever I am at Ilam, an insane desire
to step on it comes over me, much to F----'s alarm, who says he is
afraid to let me out of his sight, lest I should attempt to do so.
I have only seen one native "bush" or forest yet, and that is at
Riccarton. This patch of tall, gaunt pines serves as a landmark for
miles. Riccarton is one of the oldest farms in the colony, and I am told
it possesses a beautiful garden. I can only see the gable-end of a house
peeping out from among the trees as I pass. This bush is most carefully
preserved, but I believe that every high wind injures it.

Christchurch is very prettily situated; for although it stands on a
perfectly flat plain, towards the sea there are the Port Hills, and the
town itself is picturesque, owing to the quantities of trees and the
irregular form of the wooden houses; and as a background we have
the most magnificent chain of mountains--the back-bone of the
island--running from north to south, the highest peaks nearly always
covered with snow, even after such a hot summer as this has been. The
climate is now delicious, answering in time of year to your September;
but we have far more enjoyable weather than your autumns can boast of.
If the atmosphere were no older than the date of the settlement of the
colony, it could not feel more _youthful_, it is so light and bright,
and exhilarating! The one drawback, and the only one, is the north-west
wind; and the worst of it is, that it blows very often from this
point. However, I am assured that I have not yet seen either a "howling
nor'-wester," nor its exact