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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Years in New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Five Years in New Zealand
+       1859 to 1864
+
+Author: Robert B. Booth
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #18068]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Five Years in New Zealand
+
+(1859 to 1864.)
+
+
+BY
+
+ROBERT B. BOOTH, M.Inst.C.E.
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+J. G. HAMMOND & CO., LTD.
+
+Fleet Lane, Old Bailey, E.C.
+
+1912.
+
+
+
+
+Contents.
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+How I came to Emigrate                                             1
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Voyage--Rats on Board--The White Squall--Harpooning
+a Shark--Burial of the Twins--Tropics--Icebergs--Exchange
+of Courtesies in mid-Pacific                                       4
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Port Lyttelton and Christchurch--Call on Friends--Visit Malvern
+Hill                                                              14
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A Period of Uncertainty--Leave for Nelson as Cadets on Sheep Run  19
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Working of a Sheep Run--Scab--C's Departure for Home              25
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Shepherd's Life--Driving Sheep--Killing Wild Sow--Return
+to Christchurch                                                   30
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+I join a Survey Party--Travel to the Ashburton                    36
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Wild Pig Hunting                                                  41
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Cattle Ranching and Stock Riding                                  46
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Take Employment with a Bush Contractor--Serious Illness--Start
+for South and the Gold Diggings                                   51
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Our Eventful Journey to the Gold Diggings                         58
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Life on the Gold Diggings                                         64
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Leave the Diggings--Attempt to Drive Wild Cattle thereto--Return
+to Dunedin                                                        69
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Leave for Mesopotamia--Road-making--Sheep Mustering--Death
+of Dr. Sinclair--Contracts on the Ashburton, etc.                 73
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Winter under the Southern Alps--Frost Bite--Seeking Sheep
+in the Snow--The Runaway                                          80
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Start on Exploring Expedition to the Wanaka Lake                  85
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Exploration Trip continued--Weekas--Inspection of New
+Country--Escape from Fire                                         89
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Death of Parker--Royal Mail robbed by a Cat--Meet with
+Accident fording River                                            94
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The Ghost Story--Benighted in the Snow                            99
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Decide to go to India--Visit Melbourne, etc.--Arrival at Bombay  106
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations.
+
+                                       SEE PAGE
+
+Harpooning a Shark                            7
+
+The Arrival of Lapworth                      16
+
+Pat and His Mail Bag Dislodged by a Cat      96
+
+Killing the Wild Sow                         34
+
+Encounter with Wild Boar                     44
+
+The Baked Steers                             49
+
+Seeking Sheep in the Snow                    81
+
+The Gold Diggings                            67
+
+Peddlars at the Diggings                     67
+
+Mesopotamia Station                          73
+
+Upper Gorge of the Rangitata                 75
+
+Glent Hills Station                          97
+
+
+
+
+Introduction.
+
+
+The islands of New Zealand, discovered by the Dutch navigator, Tasman,
+in 1642, and surveyed and explored by Captain Cooke in 1769, remained
+unnoticed until 1814, when the first Christian Missionaries landed, and
+commenced the work of converting the inhabitants, who, up to that time
+had been cannibals.
+
+The Missionaries had been unusually successful, and prepared the way for
+the first emigrants, who landed at Wellington in the North Island in
+1839. A year later the Maori Chiefs signed a treaty acknowledging the
+Sovereignty of Queen Victoria, and the colonisation of the country
+quickly followed.
+
+The seat of Government was first placed at Auckland, where resided the
+Governor, and there were formed ten provinces under the jurisdiction of
+superintendents. The head of the Government was subsequently transferred
+to Wellington, the provincial system abolished, and their powers
+exercised by local boards directly under the Governor.
+
+The total area of the three islands is about 105,000 square miles, and
+the population, which has been steadily increasing, was in 1865 upwards
+of 700,000.
+
+The Maori race is almost entirely confined to the North Island, and,
+although it was then gradually dying out, numbered about 30,000. They
+are of fine physique, tall and robust, and are said to belong to the
+Polynesian type, probably having come over from the Fiji Islands, or
+some of the Pacific group, in their canoes.
+
+When first discovered they lived in villages or "Pahs," comprising a
+number of small circular huts, with a larger one for the Chief,
+mud-walled and thatched with grass or flax. The pahs usually occupied a
+commanding position, and were fenced round with one or more palisades of
+rough timber.
+
+The Maori dress consisted of a simple robe made of woven flax, an
+indigenous plant growing in profusion over most of the country. They
+practised to a large extent the custom of tattooing their faces and
+bodies, and further decorated themselves with ear-rings of greenstone,
+bone, etc.
+
+Owing to subsequent education and intercourse with Europeans, their
+savage habits have now mostly given way to modern customs.
+
+In 1860 commenced the disastrous Taranaki war, which lasted some years,
+and was caused in the first instance by the encroachment of European
+settlers on the lands originally granted exclusively to the Aborigines.
+Since the settlement of this trouble, peace and prosperity have reigned,
+and the Maoris have become an important item in the community, many of
+them holding positions of trust and office under the Colonial
+Government.
+
+The Province of Canterbury, forming the central portion of the middle
+island, was founded about 1845 by the Irishmen Godley, Harman, and
+others; and the English Church, under Bishop Harpur, was established at
+Christchurch, the capital of the Province.
+
+Otago, in the south, was founded by the Scotch, and the free church
+established at Dunedin. The Province of Nelson formed the upper or
+northern portion of the Island.
+
+It is to these three Provinces that the scenes of the following pages
+refer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has been said that the true and unvarnished history of any person's
+life, no matter how commonplace, would be interesting. It was not
+because I thought that a history of any part of my life would prove
+interesting to others, that I first decided to write the following story
+of the experiences of a young emigrant to New Zealand between the ages
+of 16 and 21. I wrote it many years ago, when all was fresh in my
+memory; then I laid it by. Now when I have retired, after a life's
+service passed in foreign lands, it has been a pleasure to me to recall
+and live over again in memory the scenes of my earliest life.
+
+It may, however, be possible that the account of the adventures,
+successes, and failures of a lad, thrown on his own resources at so
+early an age, may prove of some value to others starting under similar
+circumstances in life's race; and if it in any way shows that the
+Colonies are a good field for a young man who wishes to adopt the life
+that may be open to him there, and who is determined to work steadily,
+keeping always his good name and honour as guiding lights to hold fast
+to and steer by, the story may not be quite useless.
+
+The Colonies are as good to-day as forty years ago, better I should say,
+for they offer more varied openings now than they did then.
+
+The great colonial dependencies of Great Britain were founded and worked
+into power by the emigrants who overflowed thence from the Motherland.
+These, for the most part, took with them little or nothing beyond their
+pluck, energy, strong hearts, and trust in God, and still they go and
+will go. It is a duty they owe to the mother-country as well as to
+themselves, and the great Colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
+are calling for more and more of the right sort of workers to join in
+and take their share in building up great nations, and extending the
+glory and civilising influence of Great Britain over all the world.
+
+I would say to all young men in this country who have no sufficient call
+or opening at home, especially to those who have not succeeded in
+obtaining professional positions, and who wait on, hoping for something
+to turn up, go out while there is yet time, to the great countries
+waiting to welcome you to a man's work and a man's place in the world,
+and don't rest content with an idle, useless, and dependent position
+where you have no place or occupation. Do your plain duty honestly and
+fearlessly. Treat the world well and it will treat you well.
+
+I do not, of course, give this advice to all. There are men who will not
+succeed in the Colonies any better than here. Some will fail anywhere. I
+mean the idle and lazy, the untrustworthy, the drunkard, and the
+incapable; these classes go to the bad quickest in the Colonies. There
+is no place or shelter for them there, where only honest workers are
+wanted or tolerated.
+
+For the man who is prepared to put his hand to anything he finds to do,
+and can be trusted, there is always employment and promotion waiting;
+but for him who is too proud or too lazy to work, or who prefers to
+fritter his time in dissipation and amusement, there is nothing but
+failure and ruin ahead.
+
+My advice does not apply either to those who have _good_ prospects,
+professional or otherwise, in this country, and whose duties call them
+to remain, but to the thousands of the middle and lower classes who are
+not so circumstanced, and it must be remembered that the men who are
+specially and constantly needed in the Colonies are those of the
+labouring and farming classes, or who may intend to adopt that life and
+are fitted for it by health and will. For the artisan and the
+professional who can only work at their own trade or profession, the
+openings naturally are not so plentiful, but there is abundance of
+employment for them until openings occur, if they choose to occupy their
+time otherwise in the meanwhile.
+
+For the young man who can afford the time, and many can, a few years'
+fling in the Colonies would be the best of educations, but he should
+determine to see all that was to be seen on the spot, and take part in
+all that was doing, and not rest content only with a few days' sojourn
+in an hotel here and there, or joining in the gaieties and dissipations
+of the towns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     HOW I CAME TO EMIGRATE.
+
+
+I was one of a family of nine, of which four were sons. My eldest
+brother was destined for the Church; the second had entered a mercantile
+house in Liverpool; and I, who was third on the list, it was my father's
+intention, should be educated for the Royal Engineers, and at the time
+my story opens I was prosecuting my studies for admission to the Academy
+at Woolwich, and had attained the age of sixteen, when my health failed,
+and I was sent home for rest and change. I did not again resume my
+studies, because it was soon after decided that I should emigrate to New
+Zealand.
+
+The decision was principally, if not entirely, due to my own wishes. I
+had long entertained a strong bent to seeing the world for myself, and
+the idea was congenial to my boyish and quixotic notions of being the
+arbiter of my own fortunes. I recollect I was much given to reading
+tales of wild life in America and elsewhere; they contained a peculiar
+attraction for me, and influenced my mind in no small degree detrimental
+to continuing my studies for the Army or any specified profession at
+home.
+
+When I first proposed what was in my mind it created somewhat of a
+sensation in the old home, and my father would not hear of any such
+madness as to throw up my studies after having advanced so far, and go
+away to the antipodes on a mere wild-goose chase, etc. On consulting his
+friends, however, many advised him to let me have my will; others (more
+wisely perhaps) expressed their opinions that I should be forced to
+resume my work, and that the ill-health was imagination, or foxing! (I
+have often since been inclined to agree with the latter supposition.)
+
+The final decision, however, was that I should emigrate to Canterbury,
+New Zealand, in the following April. This colony was at that time about
+fourteen years' old, and was highly thought of as a field for youthful
+enterprise, and it was then the fashion to consider such tendencies as I
+expressed to be an omen of future success which should not be baulked.
+
+A young friend, C----, son of a neighbouring squire, offered to
+accompany me as my chum and partner. He was six years my senior, and had
+had considerable experience in farming, so was considered very suitable
+for a colonial life; whereas I knew literally nothing of farming or
+anything else beyond my school work.
+
+Our preparations were put in hand, and our passages booked by the good
+ship "Mary Anne," to sail from St. Katherine's Docks, London, on April
+29th, 1859.
+
+When all was finally settled my elation was supreme. The feeling that
+school grind was past and gone, that the world was open to me, and that
+I was free to do and act as I would was exhilarating. I felt that I had
+already attained to manhood, and that the world was at my feet, and a
+glorious life before me; well, I suppose most boys prematurely let loose
+would think the same, and I don't know that it is any harm to start
+under the circumstances with a hopeful and happy heart.
+
+The day of parting at length arrived. It was a bright and lovely
+morning, about the middle of April, when I said goodbye to all my
+playmates at the old home, took a last look at the guns and
+fishing-rods, visited the various animals in the stables, gave a loving
+embrace to the great Newfoundland Juno, whom I could not hope to see
+again, submitted to be blessed and kissed by the servants and labourers,
+who had assembled to see me off, and took my seat on the car with my
+father, mother, and eldest brother, for the railway station, where C----
+was to meet us.
+
+C---- and I went direct to Liverpool from Drogheda, to which place my
+eldest brother accompanied us. My father and mother, having business _en
+route_, were to meet us there on the following day.
+
+We had a rough passage to Liverpool, and the steamer was laden with
+cattle and pigs, the stench from which, combined with sea-sickness, was,
+I recollect, a terrible experience, and it was in no enviable condition
+of mind or body we arrived at the Liverpool Docks on a foggy, wet and
+dismal morning. My mercantile brother, Tom, came on board, and had all
+our belongings speedily conveyed to the lodgings we were to occupy
+during our stay. On the following day my father and mother arrived, and
+we spent a few days pleasantly seeing the lions of the great city and
+visiting friends. On arrival at London we found that we had a week or
+more before the ship sailed. Neither my father nor mother had been in
+London before; all was as new to them as to us, and we made the best of
+the time at our disposal.
+
+On the evening of the day before the ship sailed, after seeing our
+luggage on board, and cabins made ready for occupation, we accompanied
+my father, mother, and brother to Euston Station, where they were to bid
+us God-speed. I was in good spirits till then, but when on the railway
+platform, a few minutes before the train started, my dear mother fairly
+broke down, and the tears were stealing down my father's cheeks. The
+less said about such partings the better; it was soon over, and the
+train started. I never saw my dear old father again.
+
+C---- and I, after watching the train disappear, started for the docks,
+and before bed-time had made acquaintance with some of our future
+_compagnons de voyage_.
+
+The scene on deck was confusing and affecting. Upwards of four hundred
+emigrants were on board, and the partings from their friends and
+relatives, the kissings and blessings and cryings, mingled with the
+shouting of sailors, hauling in of cargo and luggage, and general noise
+and confusion incident to starting upon a long voyage, continued without
+intermission until we were fairly under weigh about 11 o'clock at night.
+
+After the unusual exertion and excitement of the day, we both slept
+soundly, and when we awoke next morning, off Gravesend, we were
+disappointed at having missed the "Great Eastern," lately launched and
+then lying in the river.
+
+By 12 noon we were fairly out at sea, with a favourable breeze, and the
+pilot left us in view (it might be the last) of the old country we were
+leaving behind.
+
+Before my eyes again rested on the cliffs of old England I had seen many
+lands and people, had mixed and worked with all sorts and conditions of
+men, had many experiences and adventures; and although I did not find
+the fortune at once which I thought was waiting for me to pick up, I
+found that there is always a fortune, be it great or small, according to
+their deserts, waiting for those who determine to work honestly and
+heartily for it, and that every man's future success or failure depends
+mainly on himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     THE VOYAGE AND INCIDENTS THEREON--RATS ON BOARD, THE WHITE
+     SQUALL, HARPOONING A SHARK, BURIAL OF THE TWINS, A TROPICAL
+     ESCAPADE--ICEBERGS--EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES AT SEA, ETC.
+
+
+The "Mary Anne" was, as I stated, an emigrant ship, and carried on the
+voyage about four hundred men, women, and children, sent out chiefly
+through the Government Emigration Agents. Persons going out in this way
+were assisted by having a portion of their passage paid for them as an
+advance, to be refunded after a certain time passed in the colony. The
+only first-class passengers in addition to C----and myself were two old
+maiden ladies, the Misses Hunt, who, with the doctor and his wife, the
+captain and first-mate, comprised our cabin party. In the second-class
+were three passengers--T. Smith, whose name will frequently appear in
+these pages, and two brothers called Leach, going out to join a rich
+cousin, a sheep farmer in Canterbury. Smith was the son of a wealthy
+squire, with whom, it appeared, he had fallen out respecting some family
+matters, and in a fit of pique left his home and took passage to New
+Zealand. His funds were sufficient to procure him a second-class berth,
+but on representing matters to the captain, who knew something of his
+family, it was arranged that he should join us in the saloon, hence he
+became one of our comrades, and eventually a particular friend.
+
+The captain's name was Ashby, and he soon proved to be a most jolly and
+agreeable companion. The first-mate, Lapworth, also became a favourite
+with us all.
+
+The doctor was usually drunk, or partly so, and led his wife, a kind and
+amiable little lady, a very unpleasant life. The Misses Hunt were
+elderly, amiable, and generally just what they should be.
+
+Our cabins we had (in accordance with the usages of emigrant ships)
+furnished ourselves, and they were roomy and comfortable, but I will not
+readily forget the horror with which I woke up during the first night at
+sea, with an indescribable feeling that I was being crawled over by
+some loathsome things. In a half-wakeful fit, I put out my hand, to find
+it rest upon a huge rat, which was seated on my chest. I started up in
+my bunk, when, as I did so, it appeared that a large family of rats had
+been holding high carnival upon me and my possessions; fully a dozen
+must have been in bed with me. I had no light, nor could I procure one,
+so I dressed and went on deck until morning. As a boy I was fond of
+carpentering, and was considerably expert in that way. My father
+thinking some tools would be useful to me, provided me with a small
+chest of serviceable ones (not the ordinary amateur's gimcracks), and
+this chest I had with me in my cabin. On examination I discovered
+several holes beneath the berth, where no doubt the previous night's
+visitors had entered. I set to work, and with the aid of some deal boxes
+given me by the steward, I had all securely closed up by breakfast,
+where the others enjoyed a hearty laugh at my experience of the night.
+The captain said there were doubtless hundreds of rats on board, and
+seemed to regard the fact with complacency rather than otherwise.
+Sailors consider that the presence of rats is a guarantee of the
+seaworthiness of the ship, and they will never voluntarily take passage
+in a vessel that is not sound.
+
+The captain's supposition proved true enough, and it was not unusual of
+an evening to see these friendly rodents taking an airing on the ropes
+and rigging, and upon the hand-rails around the poop deck, and while so
+diverting themselves, I have endeavoured to shake them overboard, but
+always in vain; they were thoroughbred sailors, knew exactly when and
+where to jump, and flopping on the deck at my feet would disappear, with
+a twist of their tails amidships.
+
+I do not think that the sailors approved of the rats being destroyed,
+and rather preferred their society than otherwise.
+
+We soon settled down to our sea life, and the groans of sickness and the
+screaming of children from between decks ceased in time. Our own party
+of nine had the poop to ourselves, and were very comfortable; we soon
+got to like the life, and generally arranged some way of spending each
+day agreeably. We had a fair library, chess, backgammon, whist, etc.,
+and when we got into the Tropics and had occasional calms, we went out
+in the captain's gig; then further south we had shooting matches at Cape
+pigeons and albatrosses, and in all our amusements the captain and
+Lapworth took part.
+
+There were not many incidents on the voyage worthy of note, but I will
+mention the most interesting of them which I can recollect. The first
+was when we encountered a white squall about a week out from England. It
+was a lovely evening, a slight breeze sending us along some four knots
+under full sail. We were lounging on deck watching the sunset, and
+occupied with our thoughts, when suddenly there was a cry from the "look
+out" in the main fore-top which created an instantaneous and marvellous
+scene of activity on board. It was then that we witnessed the first
+example of thorough seamanship and discipline; the shrill boatswain's
+whistle, the captain shouting a few orders, passed on by the mates, a
+crowd of sailors appearing like magic in the rigging, and in another
+instant the ship riding under bare masts; a deathlike stillness for a
+few seconds, and then a snow white wall of foam, stretching as far as
+the eye could reach, came down upon us with a sweeping wind, striking
+the ship broadsides, and over she went on her beam ends. Half a minute's
+hesitation or bungling would in all probability have sent us over
+altogether. There was a shout to us novices to look out--away went deck
+chairs and tables. The Misses Hunt--poor old ladies--who had been
+quietly knitting unconscious of any coming danger, were unceremoniously
+precipitated into the lee scuppers. I seized the mizen-mast, while C----
+falling foul of a roving hen-coop, grasped it in a loving embrace, and
+accompanied it to some haven of safety, where he stretched himself upon
+it until permitted to walk upright again. The officers and crew appeared
+like so many cats in the facility with which they moved about; so much
+so that deciding to have a try myself, I was instantly sent rolling over
+to the two old ladies, creating a shout of laughter from all hands. The
+squall lasted about half an hour, and was succeeded by a fine night and
+a spanking breeze.
+
+[Illustration: HARPOONING A SHARK.]
+
+Another bit of excitement was the harpooning and capture of a shark
+which had been following the ship for days. This is always an omen of
+ill-luck with sailors, who are very superstitious, believing that a
+shark under such circumstances is waiting for a body dead or alive, and
+will follow the ship until its desire is appeased. They are always,
+therefore, keen to kill a shark when opportunity offers. Fortunately,
+for our purpose, a calm came on while the shark was visiting us, and
+he kept moving about under the stern in a most friendly manner. The plan
+of operations was as follows:--A large junk of pork was made fast to a
+rope and suspended from the stern, letting it sink about a foot under
+the surface. C----, Smith, and I were in the captain's boat, with three
+sailors, under the orders of Lapworth, who had taken his stand
+immediately above with a harpoon. The shark came up, nibbling and
+smelling at the pork, so close to us in the boat that he almost rubbed
+along the side without apparent alarm or taking any notice of our
+presence. He was a monster, nearly nine feet in length, and as he came
+alongside, his back fin rose some inches above the surface. He did not
+seem inclined to seize the pork until Lapworth had it quickly jerked up,
+when the brute made a dash at it, half turning as he did so, and at the
+same instant received the harpoon through his neck. I recollect the
+monster turning over on his back, Lapworth swinging himself over into
+the boat, a little organised commotion among the men, and in a few
+moments running nooses were passed over head and tail, and he was
+hoisted on deck and speedily despatched. The body was cut up and divided
+amongst the crew, some of whom were partial to shark steak. A piece of
+the backbone I secured for myself as a memento of the occasion.
+
+As if to bear out the superstition I have mentioned, a few days
+subsequently a death, or rather two deaths, did actually take place;
+they were the twins and only children of a Scottish shepherd and his
+wife, both on board. Pretty little girls of eight, as I remember them,
+playing about the deck, and favourites with all, they died within a day
+of each other. The father was a gigantic fellow, and I have pleasant
+recollections of him in after years, when time and other children had
+helped to assuage his and his wife's grief for the loss of their two
+darlings at sea by one stroke of illness.
+
+There is something more affecting in a burial at sea than one on land.
+In this instance the little body was wrapped in a white cloth, to which
+a small bag of coals was fastened, and laid upon a slide projecting from
+the stern of the vessel ready for immersion. The captain read the Burial
+Service, all on board standing uncovered. At the words "Dust to dust,"
+etc., the body was allowed to slide into the sea--where it immediately
+disappeared. The mother was too ill to be present, and the father's
+grief was severe, as it might well be, to witness his child laid in so
+lonely a resting place in mid-ocean without sign or mark. The following
+evening a similar scene was enacted when the body of the other little
+sister was committed to the deep, and the father had to be taken away
+before the service was completed.
+
+No ceremonies I ever beheld impressed and affected me so much as the
+burial of the little twins at sea.
+
+While in the Tropics we had occasional calms, sometimes lasting for two
+or three days; the sea was like molten glass, and the sun burnt like a
+furnace. On such occasions we were permitted to row about within a
+reasonable distance of the ship, so that if a breeze suddenly sprang up
+we might not be left behind. Once this very nearly occurred, when we had
+rowed a long way off, after what was supposed to be a whale spouting. We
+suddenly felt a gentle breath of air, and noticed the glassy surface
+giving place to a slight disturbance. We were a mile off the ship, but
+could distinctly hear the summons from aboard, and noticed the sails
+filling. We rowed with all our strength, stripped to the waist, and
+succeeded in getting up when the ship was well under weigh. It was a
+stiff piece of work, and the captain was so concerned and annoyed at our
+disobedience of his orders that he refused to allow us to boat again
+during the voyage. We suffered sorely for our escapade, for not knowing
+the strength of a tropical sun, we exposed ourselves so that the skin
+was burned and peeled off, and we were in misery for several days, while
+our arms and necks were swathed in cotton wool and oil.
+
+After leaving the tropics we had a pleasant voyage and fair winds until
+we rounded the Cape, where we encountered some rough weather, and at 56°
+S.L., it being then almost winter in those latitudes, we passed many
+icebergs of more or less extent. Few of them appeared to be more than
+ten or fifteen feet above water, but the greater portion of such blocks
+are submerged, and considerable caution had to be observed night and day
+to steer clear of them. They were usually observable at first from the
+large number of birds resting on them, causing them to appear like a
+dark speck on the horizon. One of these icebergs (according to an entry
+made in the ship's log) was stated to be five miles long and of great
+height, and we were supposed to have passed it at the latter end of the
+night so near that "a biscuit might be thrown upon it." I am afraid the
+entry was open to criticism, and that the existence, or at any rate, the
+extent of this particular iceberg might have been due to an extra glass
+of grog on the mate's imagination.
+
+We sighted no land during the voyage, except the Peak of Teneriffe, as
+it emerged above a cloud; and but few vessels, and of those only two
+closely. One was a Swedish barque, homeward bound, the other a large
+American clipper ship. We spoke the latter when the vessels were some
+miles apart, but as the courses were parallel, she being bound for
+London, while we were from thence, we gradually neared, when an amusing
+conversation by signals took place. Our captain, by mistake of the
+signaller, invited the Yankee captain to dinner, and the reply from the
+American, who good-naturedly took it as a joke, was "Bad roadstead
+here." Our captain thought they were chaffing him, and had not the
+mistake been discovered in time, the rencontre might not have ended as
+pleasantly as it did. Our captain and second mate went on board the
+Yankee, and their captain returned the visit. While this was proceeding
+the two ships appeared to be sailing round each other, and the sight was
+very imposing. When the ceremonies were over, and a few exchanges of
+newspapers, wines, etc., were made and bearings compared, the vessels
+swung round to their respective courses, up flew the sails, and a
+prolonged cheer from both ships told us this little interchange of
+courtesies in the midst of the South Pacific was at an end.
+
+I think it was the same night that we experienced a very heavy gale; the
+lightning, thunder, rain, and wind were terrific, and the sea ran
+mountains high. I stayed on deck nearly all the night, half perished
+with wet and cold; but such a storm carries with it a peculiar
+attraction, and one which I could not resist. I do not know anything
+more weird and impressive than the chant of the sailors hauling on the
+ropes, mingled with the fierce fury of the storm, and every now and
+again the dense darkness lit up by a vivid flash of lightning; the deck
+appears for the moment peopled by phantoms combined with the fury of the
+elements to bring destruction on the noble little vessel with its
+precious freight struggling and trembling in their grasp.
+
+The following morning the storm had quite abated, but the sea was such
+as can be seen only in mid-ocean. Our little ship (she was only 700
+tons) appeared such an atom in comparison with the enormous mountains of
+water. At one moment we would be perched on the summit of a wave,
+seemingly hundreds of feet high, and immediately below a terrible abyss
+into which we were on the point of sinking; the next we would be placed
+between two mountains of water which seemed going to engulf us.
+
+I always took a place with the sailors on emergencies, to give a hand at
+hauling the ropes, and got to be fairly expert at climbing into the
+rigging. The rope-hauling was done to some chant started by the
+boatswain or one of the sailors--this is necessary to ensure that the
+united strength of the pullers is exerted at the same moment. One of the
+chants I well remember. It was:--
+
+
+     "_Haul_ a bowlin', the 'Mary Anne's' a-_rollin'_.
+     _Haul_ a bowlin', a bowlin' _haul_;
+     _Haul_ a bowlin', the good ship's a-_rollin'_;
+     _Haul_ a bowlin', a bowlin' _haul_."
+
+
+The chant is sung out in stentorian notes by the leader, and on the word
+in italics every man joins in a tremendous and united pull.
+
+Crowds of Cape pigeons and albatrosses accompanied us all across the
+South Pacific. These birds never seem to tire and but rarely rest on the
+water, except when they swoop down and settle a moment to pick up
+something that has been thrown overboard; this is quickly devoured, and
+they are again in pursuit. The albatrosses, some white, some grey, and
+some almost black, are huge birds; some that we shot, and for which the
+boat was sent, measured nine feet from tip to tip of wings.
+
+On August 1st we rounded Stewart's Island, the southern-most of the New
+Zealand group. It is little more than a barren rock, and was not then
+inhabited, whatever it may be now. Although it was the winter season,
+and the latitude corresponded to that of the North of England, we
+remarked how mild and dry was the atmosphere in comparison. Indeed the
+weather was glorious and seemed to welcome us to the land we were coming
+to.
+
+On the 3rd of August we sighted the coast of Canterbury, and at daylight
+on the 4th we found ourselves lying becalmed about 12 miles off Port
+Lyttelton Heads, from whence the captain signalled for a pilot steamer
+to take the ship to harbour. In the clear rare atmosphere, and the pure
+invigorating feeling of that glorious morning, we were all impatient of
+delay. A couple of fishing boats were lying not far off, and we begged
+the captain to let us row out to them and he permitted us,
+conditionally that we returned and kept near the ship, because
+immediately the tug arrived we would start. We rowed to the boats and
+obtained some information from the fishermen, with whom were two of the
+natives, Maori lads; indeed, I think the boat partly belonged to the
+Maoris, for these people do not take service with the white settlers.
+They pointed out to us where the entrance lay, and told us that Port
+Lyttelton was some five miles further down a bay.
+
+Before we returned to breakfast we had decided to anticipate matters by
+going ahead of the ship. We quietly laid in a small supply of food and
+appeared at the cabin table like good and obedient boys. Incidentally,
+one of us asked the captain if it would be easy to row into port, and he
+replied that it would be very risky to attempt it; it was a long way,
+and the wind or a squall might get up at any moment, or the tide might
+be contrary, and he positively forbade us to entertain any such idea.
+All this, however, only increased our desire for the "lark," as we
+called it, and about 9 o'clock, having rowed about quietly for a while,
+we suddenly bade good-bye to the "Mary Anne" and steered straight for
+the Heads, where we had been told Port Lyttelton lay. Our crew consisted
+of Smith, the two Leaches, C----, and myself, with a man named Kelson,
+who was a good oarsman, and we thought he would be useful as an extra
+hand, but he had no notion of our freak when we started, and was
+considerably chagrined when he discovered our real intention; he had a
+young wife on board, whom he feared would be in distress about him.
+
+For some time we pulled away manfully, but at length began with some
+dismay to notice two facts, one, that we were losing sight of the ship,
+and the other that the hills did not appear to be any nearer!
+
+Some one suggested returning, but as that would have looked like funk,
+it was overruled, and we went to the oars with renewed vigour. After
+some hours pulling we had the satisfaction to find that although the
+masts of the ship were scarcely visible we were certainly drawing nearer
+to the land, and could occasionally distinguish waves breaking on the
+rocks. The coast apparently was quite uninhabited, with no sign of life
+on land or sea. We had evidently been working against the tide or some
+current, for we had been rowing steadily from 9 to 4, which would have
+amounted to less than two miles an hour, whereas we could pull five. Our
+course must have been true, as also the directions we received, for on
+entering between the heads we found ourselves in a lovely bay stretching
+away to where we were able to discern the masts of vessels in the
+distance, and soon after a large white object lying upon the shore. To
+satisfy our curiosity and obtain news of our whereabouts we rowed over
+and found that the white object was the carcase of a whale which had
+been washed on shore, and on which several men were engaged cutting it
+up. These speedily discovered our "new chum" appearance, but with true
+Colonial hospitality at once offered us a nip of rum, at the same moment
+somewhat disturbing our equanimity by telling us that if we went on to
+the Port we would be put in choky for leaving the ship before the
+Medical Officer examined her.
+
+It was strange and very pleasant to feel the solid ground under our feet
+after 94 days at sea, and we sat awhile with the whale men before
+resuming our boat. Then we proceeded quietly down the Bay, which was
+very beautiful, the dense and variegated primeval forests clothing the
+lower portions of the hills and fringing the ravines and gullies to the
+shore, the pretty caves and bays lying in sheltered nooks, with a
+mountain stream or cascade to complete the picture, and all undefiled by
+the hand of man. The bold outline of the bare rocky summits, the deep
+blue of the silent calm bay, and the distant view of the little Port of
+Lyttelton picturesquely sloping up the hillside.
+
+Seeing no sign of the ship, and fearing to approach the town, we rowed
+into a little sandy cove, where we fastened the boat and proceeded to
+ascend the hill to endeavour to discover the ship's whereabouts. About
+half-way we came upon a neat shepherd's cottage in one of the most
+picturesque localities imaginable, and commanding a magnificent view of
+the bay and harbour. On calling we found the cottage occupied by the
+shepherd's wife, a pleasant buxom Scots-woman, who immediately proffered
+us food, an offer too tempting to be declined, and we presently sat down
+to our first Colonial meal of excellent home-made bread, mutton, and
+tea, and how delighted we were to taste the fine fresh mutton after many
+weeks of salt junk and leathery fowls on board the "Mary Anne"!
+
+We had finished our hearty dinner, and were giving our loquacious
+hostess all the news we could of the old country, when the ship hove in
+sight, towed by a little tug steamer. We ran for our boat and gave
+chase, but only reached her side as the anchor was being dropped in
+Lyttelton Harbour. We received from the Captain and Lapworth a sound but
+good-humoured rating, but there would be no opportunity of further
+"larks" from the "Mary Anne"! The voyage was over, and a most pleasant
+one it had been, especially for our small party, and I am sure that no
+voyagers to the New World ever had the luck to travel with kinder or
+more sympathetic captain and officers, or with abler seamen, than those
+in command of the good ship "Mary Anne."
+
+Poor Mrs. Kelson was in sore distress about her husband, whom she
+persisted in giving up for lost, and doubtless she looked pretty sharply
+after his movements for a while.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     LYTTELTON AND CHRISTCHURCH.--CALL ON OUR FRIENDS.--VISIT
+     MALVERN HILL.
+
+
+Port Lyttelton at the time was but an insignificant town in comparison
+with what it has since become, although from its confined situation it
+is unlikely ever to attain to any great size. It is the port of the
+capital of the province, Christchurch, from which it is separated by a
+chain of hills. A rough and somewhat dangerous cart road led from it to
+the capital, along and around the hill side, which was twelve miles in
+length, but there was also a bridle track direct across the hills, by
+which the distance was reduced by one-half. This path, however, could be
+used only by pedestrians, or on horseback with difficulty. In 1862 it
+was decided to connect the port with Christchurch by a railway, cutting
+a tunnel through the hill, and the project was completed in 1866. In
+1859 Port Lyttelton was built entirely of wood, the houses being for the
+most part single-storeyed. There was a main street running parallel to
+the beach, with two or three branch streets, running up the hill
+therefrom; there were a few shops, several stores, stables, and small
+inns. The harbour was an open roadstead, and possessed but a primitive
+sort of quay or landing place for boats and vessels of small tonnage.
+
+We were invited on shore by the Leach's sheep-farming cousin, who had
+come to meet them, but we returned on board to sleep. The following
+morning, getting our luggage together, we all four started for
+Christchurch on hired horses, sending our kit round the hill by cart.
+The climb up the bridle path (we had to lead the horses) was a stiff
+pull for fellows just out of a three months' voyage, but we were repaid
+on reaching the top by the magnificent panorama opened out before us. To
+our right was the open ocean, blue and calm, dotted with a few white
+sails; to the left the long low range of hills encircling the bay, and
+on a pinnacle of which we stood. At our feet lay Christchurch, with its
+few well-laid-out streets and white houses, young farms, fences, trees,
+gardens, and all the numerous signs of a prosperous and thriving young
+colony, the little river Avon winding its peaceful way to the sea and
+encircling the infant town like a silver cord, and the muddy Heathcote
+with its few white sails and heavily-laden barges. While beyond
+stretched away for sixty miles the splendid Canterbury Plains bounded in
+their turn by the southern Alps with their towering snow-capped peaks
+and glaciers sparkling in the sun; the patches of black pine forest
+lying sombre and dark against the mountain sides, in contrast with the
+purple, blue, and gray of the receding gorges, changing, smiling, or
+frowning as clouds or sunshine passed over them. All this heightened by
+the extremely rare atmosphere of New Zealand, in which every detail
+stood out at even that distance clear and distinct, made up a picture
+which for beauty and grandeur can rarely be equalled in the world.
+
+Upon arrival at Christchurch we put up at a neat little inn on the
+outskirts of the town, called Rule's accommodation house. It was a
+picture of neatness, cleanliness, and comfort. We found it occupied by
+several squatters of what might be called the better class, who, on
+their occasional business visits to Christchurch, preferred a quiet
+establishment to the larger and more noisy hotels, of which the town
+possessed two.
+
+These gentlemen were clothed in cord breeches and high boots, with
+guernsey smock frocks, in which costume they appeared to live. English
+coats and collars and light boots were luxuries unknown or contemned by
+these hardy sons of the bush, whom we found very pleasant company, but
+who, it was apparent to us before we were many minutes in their society,
+regarded us as very raw material indeed. According to bush custom it was
+usual to dub all fresh arrivals "new chums" until they had
+satisfactorily passed certain ordeals in bush life. They should be able
+to ride a buckjumper, or, at any rate, hold on till the saddle went, use
+a stockwhip, cut up and light a pipe of tobacco with a single wax vesta
+while riding full speed in the teeth of a sou'-wester, and be ready and
+competent to take a hand at any manual labour going.
+
+After dinner some of our new acquaintances entertained us with some
+miraculous tales of bush life, while others looked carelessly on to see
+how far we could be gulled with impunity. An amusing incident, however,
+occurred presently which rapidly increased their respect for the raw
+material. C---- was a young giant, six feet three in his stockings, and
+the last man to put up with an indignity. One of the party--a rough,
+vulgar sort of fellow, who had been romancing considerably, and who
+evidently was not on the most cordial terms with the rest of the
+company--carried his rudeness so far as to drop into C----'s seat when
+the latter had vacated it for a moment. On his return C---- asked him to
+leave it, which the fellow refused to do. C---- put his hand on his
+collar. "Now," said he, "get out! Once, twice, three times"--and at the
+last word he lifted the chap bodily and threw him over the table, whence
+he fell heavily on the floor. He was thoroughly cowed, and with a few
+oaths left the room. It needed only such an incident as this to put us
+on the friendliest terms with them all, and we enjoyed a pleasant
+afternoon and gathered much information.
+
+[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF LAPWORTH.]
+
+The following morning, whilst waiting for breakfast, sitting out on the
+grass in front of the house, we heard a stampede coming along the road
+from the direction of the Fort, and presently there hove in sight
+Lapworth astride a hired nag, coming ahead at a gallop, one hand
+grasping the mane and the other the crupper, while stirrups and reins
+were flying in the wind. In his rear were Bob Stavelly, third mate, and
+the boatswain, astride another animal, Bob steering, and the boatswain
+holding on, seemingly by the tail. Lapworth, a quarter of a mile off,
+was shouting "Stop her! Stop her!" but the mare needed no assistance;
+she evidently understood where she was required to go, and decided to do
+it in her own time and way. Galloping to the grass plot on which we were
+standing she suddenly stopped short and deposited Lapworth ignominiously
+at our feet. The other animal followed suit, but did not succeed in
+clearing itself, and after some tacking Bob and the boatswain got under
+weigh again and steered for the "White Hart," where they were bent on a
+spree.
+
+Christchurch at this time was about fourteen years in existence. It
+consisted of only a few hundred houses, chiefly single-storeyed and
+entirely constructed of timber. The streets were well laid out, broad,
+and on the principle of the best modern towns, but few of them were as
+yet made or metalled. There were not many buildings of architectural
+pretensions, but all were characterised by an air of comfort, neatness,
+and suitability, and it was apparent the rapid strides the young colony
+was making would ere long place it high in the rank of its order. There
+were two churches, a town hall, used on occasion as court house,
+ball-room, or theatre; three hotels, some very presentable shops and
+stores, and a few particularly neat and handsome residences standing in
+luxuriant grounds, such as those occupied by the Superintendent, Bishop,
+Judge, etc. The suburbs were extending on all sides with the fencing in
+of farms, erection of homesteads, and conversion of the native soil into
+land suitable for growing English corn and grass.
+
+Through the rising city wound the little river Avon, only twenty to
+thirty yards in width, spanned by two wooden bridges, and a couple of
+mills had also been erected upon it. The river was only about fifteen
+miles from its source to the sea, and at the time to which I refer was
+almost covered with watercress. This plant was not indigenous; it was
+introduced a few years before by a colonist, who was so partial to the
+vegetable that he brought some roots from home with him, and planted
+them near the source of the river, where he squatted. The watercress
+took so kindly to the soil that it had now covered the river to its
+mouth, and the Colonial Government were put to very considerable annual
+expense to remove it.
+
+As I have already stated, we had been provided with introductions to
+some of the most influential families in Christchurch--namely, the
+Bishop, the Chief Justice Gresson, and some others. The following day we
+made our calls and were most hospitably received, especially by Mr. and
+Mrs. Gresson, who from that time during my stay in New Zealand were my
+constant and valued friends. We were introduced to many of the best
+up-country people, and a month was passed pleasantly visiting about to
+enable us to decide on what line we would take up as a commencement. We
+possessed very little money, so a life of service in some form was an
+absolute necessity at the beginning.
+
+While awaiting events, C---- and I were invited by young Mr. H----, son
+of the Bishop, to visit his sheep station at Malvern Hills, some
+forty-five miles distant across the plains, where we could see what
+station life was like and have some sport after wild pigs, ducks, etc.
+Procuring the loan of a couple of horses we all started early one
+morning, what change of clothes we needed being strapped with our
+blankets before and behind on our saddles, and I carried a gun.
+
+It was an exhilarating ride in the cool, fragrant atmosphere, although a
+description would lead one to think it would be monotonous to ride
+forty-five miles over an almost perfectly flat plain, with no more than
+an occasional shepherd's hut, a mob of sheep, or an isolated homestead
+to break the surrounding view. The plain was almost bare of vegetation,
+beyond short yellow grass here and there burnt in patches, and now and
+then a solitary cabbage tree (a kind of palm) dotted the wide expanse.
+Beyond a few paradise ducks feeding on the burnt patches, or an
+occasional family of wild pigs, we met with no animal life. Quail used
+to be abundant, but the run fires were fast destroying them. We had
+before us the nearing view of the Malvern Hills, the sloping pine
+forests and scrub, with the long, undulating spurs running back to the
+foot of great snow-clad peaks.
+
+The station, or homestead, stood on a plateau some fifty feet above the
+plain; it consisted of two huts, mud-walled and thatched with snow
+grass. One of these contained the general kitchen and sleeping room for
+the station hands, the other was the residence of the squatter and his
+overseer. Behind these there were a wool shed for clipping and pressing
+the wool, with sheep yards attached, a stockyard for cattle, and a
+fenced in paddock in which a few station hacks were kept for daily use.
+
+On arrival our first duty was to remove saddles, bridles, and swags and
+lead the horses to some good pasture, where they were each tethered to a
+tussock by thirty yards of fine hemp rope, which they carried tied about
+their necks. Then, after a rough wash in the open, we were soon gathered
+round a hospitable table in the kitchen, where all sat in common to a
+substantial meal of mutton, bread, and tea, the standard food with
+little variation of a squatter's homestead.
+
+Night had closed in by now, and we were soon glad to retire to our
+blankets, and the sweet fresh beds of Manuka twigs laid on the floor of
+Harper's hut, for the temporary accommodation of us visitors. We slept
+like tops till roused at daybreak to breakfast, after which the forenoon
+was spent in being shown over the station and in a climb to the forests,
+where we saw the pine trees being felled, and split up into posts and
+rails. After the midday meal a pig hunt was organised, and a few animals
+were accounted for, falling chiefly to Harper's rifle. (Pig hunting I
+will specially refer to later on.) We passed a pleasant and instructive
+week at Malvern Station, taking a hand in all the routine work, riding
+after the stock, working in the bush, and occasionally taking a
+cross-country ride of fifteen or twenty miles to visit a neighbouring
+station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     A PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY AS TO OCCUPATION.--EVENTUALLY LEAVE FOR
+     NELSON AS CADETS ON A SHEEP RUN.
+
+
+On our return to Christchurch we were beset with a diversity of advice
+not calculated to bring us to a speedy decision. Some advised us to go
+on a sheep run for a year or two as cadets to learn the routine, with a
+view to obtaining thereafter an overseership, and in time a possible
+partnership. Others advised our setting up as carters between the Port
+and Christchurch, while, again, others recommended us to invest what
+money we possessed in land and take employment up country until we had
+saved enough to farm it. All advice was excellent, and had we decided on
+one line it would have been well, or if we had had fewer advisers
+perhaps it would have been better. We were waiting and talking about
+work instead of going at it, living at some expense, and keeping up
+appearances without means to support them. But it was not easy under the
+circumstances to decide. To go upon a sheep station and work as a
+labourer or overseer was very obnoxious to C----. With his home
+experience of farming he expected too much all at once, and naturally I
+was guided by him. Farming on a small scale, even if we had sufficient
+money to buy and work a farm, would not pay. There was not then a large
+enough home market for the crops produced. Land-holders held on, hoping
+that as the wealth of the Colony increased and the town extended and
+peopled, land would proportionately increase in value, and market for
+their produce would be found at home or abroad. But the Colony was then
+very young, and the staple produce of the country upon which everything
+depended was wool, which was only partially developed. The country was
+not then a tenth stocked. Sheep-farming was decidedly the thing to go in
+for whenever we could contrive to do so, but in the meantime what were
+we to take up for a living. The answer should have been simple enough.
+But, however, there is no need to dwell on our petty disappointments;
+they were only what hundreds feel and have felt who have gone to the
+Colonies with too sanguine expectations that it was an easy and pleasant
+road to fortune. That it is a road to fortune is very true, if a young
+man is content and determined to begin at the beginning and go steadily
+on; but it is not always an easy road at first for the youngster who has
+very little or nothing to commence upon, especially if he be a gentleman
+born, and has only his hands to help him. He must put his pride in his
+pocket and learn to be content to be taken at his present value. If he
+does that he will find, that his birth and education will stand to him,
+and that no matter what occupation he may be forced to take up, if his
+life and conduct be manly and reliable he will command as much or more
+respect from his (for the time being) fellow workers as he would do
+under different circumstances. It is a huge mistake to suppose that the
+gentleman lowers himself anywhere--and especially in the Colonies--by
+undertaking any kind of manual labour. I have known the sons of
+gentlemen of good family working as bullock-drivers, shepherds,
+stockdrivers, bushmen, for a yearly wage, and nobody considered the
+employment derogatory. On the contrary, these are the men who get on and
+in time become wealthy.
+
+A sad event occurred about this time, which, as it was in a way
+connected with our ship, I will relate here. It was the custom of
+Government at that time to send out to the Australian Colonies for
+employment as domestic servants, possibly wives for young colonists
+(women being much in the minority), a number of girls from the
+Reformatory Schools in London; and in the "Mary Anne" some twenty or
+thirty of them had arrived. While on board they were under the charge of
+matrons, and on arrival were received in a house maintained at
+Government expense, until they obtained service or were otherwise
+disposed of. This house was under the superintendence of a medical man,
+Dr. T----, whose acquaintance we had made on our first arrival. He was a
+middle-aged man, a thorough gentleman, a bachelor, and a great favourite
+in Christchurch society. Amongst the shipment of young women was a very
+handsome, ladylike, and well-educated girl, and an accomplished
+musician. The doctor was smitten, proposed to her, and married her
+quietly. On the day on which we first heard of the event we happened to
+be sitting with some acquaintances in the public room of the White Hart
+Hotel, when Dr. T---- entered, and walking over to the fire, called for
+a glass of water, nodding to us all round in his usual friendly way. On
+receiving the water, he threw into it and stirred up a powder which he
+took from his pocket, and immediately drank off the mixture. "I've done
+it now," he said; "I have taken strychnine!" and remained standing with
+his back to the fire in an unconcerned manner. We scarcely heeded his
+remark, taking it as a joke, till he suddenly crossed to a sofa, and
+called to us for God's sake to send for a doctor. One was sent for, but
+he arrived too late, if indeed his presence could have been of use at
+any time. A doctor knows how much to take to ensure death. After a few
+fits of convulsions, very terrible to witness, Dr. T---- was a corpse.
+The cause of his committing suicide was due to his discovery, very soon
+after his marriage, of the true character of the woman he had taken to
+his home.
+
+I do not know whether the custom of sending out to the Colonies persons
+of this class still exists, but it certainly cannot be a good one, and I
+fear that but a very small percentage of them really turn over a new
+leaf. There must be now, at any rate, better means of disposing of the
+surplus members of reformatory establishments in the Old Country than
+sending them to run wild amidst the freedom and temptations of the new
+world--a custom as hurtful to them as to the Colony which receives them.
+
+C---- and I at length decided to commence work as carriers; we rented a
+four-acre paddock, and built a small wooden hut, and were in treaty for
+the purchase of the necessary drays and teams, but it was all being done
+in a half-hearted way, as well as in opposition to the best of our
+advisers. C----'s aversion to undertake anything where he was not
+entirely his own master was unconquerable. Doubtless the carrying
+business would have answered very well, for a time at any rate, and
+there was no actual hurry, so long as we were employed and earning a
+living, but it was not to be.
+
+We were invited to meet at dinner at the Chief Justice's a Mr. and Mrs.
+Lee from Nelson Province. Mr. Lee was a large sheep-farmer, and before
+we left that evening we had accepted a most kind invitation from him to
+go to his run for a month or two at any rate, before deciding finally to
+take up the rough and uncertain business we had proposed for ourselves.
+The Judge so strongly advised this course for us both, that C---- could
+not refuse, although he was by no means keen about it. The judge
+explained that the opportunity was an excellent one, and would in all
+probability lead to his (C----'s) being offered the overseership, if he
+decided to take up the life after a fair trial. I did not know then, as
+I did soon after, that C---- had serious intentions of abandoning the
+country before giving it a fair trial; everything he saw was obnoxious
+to him, and he evidently yearned for his home in Ireland and his little
+farm again.
+
+I purchased for my own use a small but powerful bay mare, C---- obtained
+a mount from Mr. Lee, and in the course of a few days we started in
+company with Mr. and Mrs. Lee, all on horseback, for their station of
+Highfield.
+
+Highfield was, as well as I recollect, nearly three hundred miles from
+Christchurch, and we accomplished the distance in a little over a week,
+Mrs. Lee riding with us all the way. Indeed, there was no other means of
+travelling over that wild track, and she was, like most squatters' wives
+in those days, an experienced horsewoman.
+
+Our luggage was carried on three pack horses, which we drove before us,
+and in this manner we accomplished from thirty to forty miles each day.
+
+At night we rested, either at a rough accommodation house (a kind of
+private hotel) or a squatter's station, and during the day's ride we
+sometimes halted for lunch at any convenient locality where we could
+find water to make tea and firewood to boil it with. Then the packs and
+saddles were removed from the horses, which were allowed to roll and
+feed on the native grass while we refreshed the inner man with the usual
+bush fare, of which a sufficient supply was carried with us.
+
+After crossing the Hurunui river, the boundary between Canterbury and
+Nelson, we soon left the plains behind and entered a fine undulating
+country watered by abundant streams and some large rivers, which latter
+could be forded only with considerable care and judgment, being
+sometimes full of quicksands, and always rapid.
+
+On approaching our destination, which, as its name implies, stood on an
+elevated situation, the gorges and river-bed flats, along which our
+track ran, narrowed and became more wooded and picturesque, till we at
+length passed through the narrow precipitous gorge that led us to the
+open plateau upon which the station buildings stood. These comprised the
+dwelling house, a long, low, commodious building, furnished most
+comfortably in English fashion; the men's huts, comprising three
+sleeping rooms, the kitchen and dining-room for the hands, the store,
+dairy, etc., with an enclosed yard, formed one group, while at some
+distance away stood the woolshed and sheep yards, paddocks, stock yards
+for cattle and sheds for cows and working bullocks. In front of the
+dwelling was a pretty and rather extensive garden plot, through the
+centre of which wound a small stream of pure spring water. The entire
+group of buildings, with the garden, paddocks, etc., occupied the centre
+of a piece of undulating land, open towards the south, where a fine view
+of the country over which we had journeyed was visible, and on all other
+sides was bounded by hills, which to the north and west stretched away
+to the Alps. It was a grand site to make a home upon, although I could
+not help the feeling that it was a somewhat lonely one; the nearest
+neighbours were fifteen to twenty miles distant.
+
+Mr. Lee's run comprised about 30,000 acres, principally hills, with
+occasional stretches of flat land upon which the cattle and horses
+grazed, while the sheep fed on the mountain sides.
+
+We speedily fell into the life, and found it exhilarating. Mr. Lee was a
+fine specimen of the English country squire, a good horseman and
+sportsman, and he could put his hand to any kind of work. He had a large
+store and workshop near the yards, where every conceivable thing needed
+for use on a station so far from supplies was kept, and he was an
+excellent carpenter and smith. Indeed, a great portion of the rather
+extensive buildings and yards he had erected himself, with such
+assistance as he could derive from raw station hands, while only such
+articles as doors and windows, furniture, and suchlike were brought from
+Christchurch. The house walls, roofs, and floors were all of green
+timber cut in the neighbouring pine forest. The walls of the living
+houses were composed of a framing of round pine averaging 4 or 5 inches
+thick, covered on the outside with weather boarding, and on the inside
+with laths, the space between of four inches being filled with clay and
+chopped grass, and the whole surface afterwards plastered with clay and
+mud-washed. The roofs were made of pine framing covered with boards and
+pine shingles. The outbuildings were usually built with roughly squared
+framing to which heavy split slabs would be vertically fastened, the
+inside being left rough or plastered with mud as desired; and the roofs
+were of round pine framing covered with rickers (young pine plants) and
+thatched with snow grass. Squatters soon learnt to be their own
+architects, and very good ones many of them turned out.
+
+The country immediately surrounding the station was almost treeless, and
+Mr. Lee was doing a good deal of planting, and had a very fine garden
+under formation. Some two miles to the rear of the station, in a deep
+cleft of the hills, lay a considerable black and white pine forest. It
+is a peculiarity of New Zealand that the pine forests indigenous to that
+country (and which bear no similarity to European pines) are invariably
+found in more or less accurately defined patches, growing thickly and
+never scattered to any appreciable extent. One may ride twenty miles
+through spurs and hills with no vegetation on them, and then suddenly
+stumble on a densely wooded ravine or mountain side so accurately
+contained within itself as to lead one to imagine it had been originally
+planted.
+
+Within twenty miles of Highfield was another station, called Parnassus,
+belonging to Mr. Edward Lee, our Mr. Lee's brother. We soon rode over to
+see him, and made excursions to other neighbours, none living nearer
+than ten miles.
+
+There were upwards of one hundred horses at Highfield, including all
+ages and sexes, of which the main body of course ran wild, while a few
+were kept in paddocks for use. The horse Mrs. Lee rode from Christchurch
+was a new purchase and a very fine animal, named Maseppa, and, strange
+to say, although he carried her perfectly all the journey to Highfield,
+he had now, after a few weeks on the run, developed into a vicious
+buckjumper. One day, when Mr. Lee wanted to ride him, he was driven in
+with the mob and saddled. Immediately he was mounted the brute bucked
+and sent Mr. Lee flying. Fortunately the ground was soft, and he escaped
+with a few bruises. C---- then had a try, with more success, but the
+horse was never safe for a lady to ride, and he was soon after disposed
+of to a stock-rider on the Waiou.
+
+It may be interesting here to give a general sketch of a sheep-farmer's
+life and work on his station, obtained from my experience at Highfield,
+and occasionally on other runs, during my five years' residence in the
+country, and this I will endeavour to do in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     WORKING OF A SHEEP-RUN--SCAB--C----'S DEPARTURE FOR HOME, ETC.
+
+
+The intending squatter might either purchase a sheep run outright, if
+opportunity offered, or if he was fortunate enough to discover a tract
+of unclaimed country, he could occupy it at once by paying the
+Provincial Government a nominal rental, something like half a farthing
+an acre. This would only be the goodwill of the land, which was liable
+to be purchased outright by anybody else direct from Government, at the
+upset price fixed, which in Nelson was one pound per acre for hilly
+land, and two pounds for flat land suitable for cultivation. Nobody
+could purchase outright a run or portion of it while another occupier
+held the goodwill of it without first challenging the latter, who
+retained the presumptive right to purchase.
+
+To protect themselves as much as possible from land being purchased away
+from them, or from being obliged to purchase themselves, goodwill
+holders were in the habit of buying up the best flat land, as well as
+making the land around their homesteads private property. A run so
+divided and cut up would not be so tempting to a rich man, and would
+effectually debar the man of small means, as the present occupier would
+not sell his private property unless at a price which would reimburse
+him for the loss of his interest in the goodwill of the run, and the
+new-comer, if he did not possess the scraps of private property as well
+as the remainder of the run, would be continually harassed by the
+previous owner occupying the best portions, and would be liable to fine
+for trespass, etc.
+
+When a tract of country is occupied for the first time, it will usually
+be found covered with tussocks of grass scattered far apart and lying
+matted and rank on the ground. The first thing to do is to apply the
+match and burn all clean to the roots, and after a few showers of rain
+the grass will begin to sprout from the burnt stumps. Then the sheep are
+turned on to it, and the cropping, tramping, and manuring it receives,
+with occasional further burnings, renders it in a couple of years fair
+grazing country. An even sod takes the place of the isolated tussock,
+and the grass from being wild and unsavoury becomes sweet and tender.
+
+It takes, however, three to five years to transform a wild mountain side
+(if the land be moderately good) into an ordinarily fair sheep-run
+calculated to carry one sheep to every five acres--that is, of course,
+for the native or indigenous grass; the same ground cleared and laid
+down in English grass would carry three to five sheep to the acre.
+
+A settler having obtained his run is bound by Government to stock it
+within a year with a stipulated number of sheep per 1,000 acres, failing
+which he forfeits his claim to possession. A man holding a fairly good
+run of 30,000 acres may feed from 3,000 to 4,000 sheep upon it, making
+due allowance for increase and disability to dispose of surplus stock.
+
+The farming is conducted as follows: The flock is divided into two or
+more parts, in all cases the wethers being kept separate from the ewes
+and lambs, and occupying different portions of the run, the object being
+that the ewes and lambs may have rest, the wethers being liable to be
+driven in for sale or slaughter.
+
+A shepherd is put in charge of each flock, and he resides at some
+convenient place on the boundary, whence it is his duty to walk or ride
+round his boundary at least once a day, and see that no sheep have
+crossed it. If he discovers tracks made during his absence he must
+follow them until he recovers his wanderers.
+
+It is not necessary that a shepherd should see his sheep daily; he may
+not see a third of his flocks for months, unless he wishes to discover
+their actual whereabouts; he has only to assure himself that they have
+not left the run, and it is practically impossible for them to do so
+without leaving their footprints to be discovered on the boundary.
+
+The breeding season is spring and the shearing season summer, which
+corresponds to our winter in England. The usual increase of lambs, if
+the ewes be healthy and strong, is 75 to 95 per cent. in about equal
+proportions of male and female.
+
+When the lambs are about six weeks old the entire flock is driven in for
+cutting, tailing, and earmarking. The tails are cut off and the ear
+nicked or punched with the registered earmark of the station, and a
+certain number of the most approved male lambs are reserved. A good hand
+can cut and mark two thousand lambs per day, and not over one per cent.
+will die from the consequences. When the operation is over, the flock is
+counted out and handed over to the shepherd to take them back to their
+run until the shearing season.
+
+At this time a complete muster is made; all hands turn out on the hills,
+and every sheep is brought in that can be found. Not infrequently in the
+hilly country an exciting chase is had after a wild mob that have defied
+the exertions of the shepherds and their dogs for a considerable time.
+These animals will run up the most inaccessible places, skirt the edges
+of precipices at a height at which they can be discovered only by the
+aid of a telescope, and have been known to maintain their freedom in
+spite of man or dog for years. When at length caught they present a
+ludicrous appearance; their fleeces have become tangled and matted,
+hanging to the ground in ragged tails, and can with difficulty be
+removed, their feet have grown crooked and deformed, and they rarely
+again become domesticated with the flock.
+
+The shearing is carried on in a large shed, divided into pens or small
+compartments, each connected separately with the attached yards. It is
+usually done by contract, the price being £1 to £1 5s. per hundred
+sheep. Each man has his pen, which is cleared out and refilled as often
+as necessary, and at each clearance the number therein are counted to
+his name. The shorn sheep are passed direct to the branding yard, and
+from thence to a common yard, from which all are counted out at
+nightfall for return to the run.
+
+A good shearer will clip one hundred sheep in a day, the average for a
+gang of men being 75.
+
+Upon the fleece being removed it is gathered up by an attendant placed
+for the purpose, and handed over to the sorter, who spreads it upon a
+table and removes dirty and jagged parts, and sometimes it is classed.
+It is then rolled up and thrown into the wool press to be packed for
+export.
+
+The wool bales so pressed measure 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft., and contain
+on an average one hundred fleeces, and each fleece runs from three to
+four pounds in weight. The lambs' wool is pressed separately, and
+commands a higher price than that of the adult sheep.
+
+The hand press is a wooden box, made the size of the canvas bale, which
+is suspended therein by hooks from the open top; the box has a movable
+side, which is loosened out to give exit to the bale when pressed. The
+pressing is done by the feet, assisted by a blunt spade, and the bales
+are generally very creditably turned out, the sheep-farmer priding
+himself on a neatly pressed bale. When pressed the end is sewn up and
+the bale rolled over to a convenient place for branding, when it is
+ready for loading on the dray.
+
+Previous to shearing, the sheep are sometimes driven through a deep
+running stream and roughly washed, to remove sand and grease. Wool
+certified to have been so cleaned will command a higher price than
+unwashed wool.
+
+At the time to which I refer, most of the runs in Nelson Province were
+"unclean"--that is, infected with scab; and it became so general that it
+was considered almost impossible to eradicate. The disease was most
+infectious. A mob of clean, healthy sheep merely driven over a run upon
+which infected sheep had recently fed would almost surely catch the
+disease.
+
+A sheep severely infected with scab becomes a pitiful object. The body
+gets covered with a yellow scaly substance, the wool falls off or is
+rubbed off in patches, the disease causing intense itchiness, the animal
+loses flesh and appetite, and unless relieved sickens and dies.
+
+The Nelson settlers, although they could not hope to speedily eradicate
+the pest, were nevertheless bound by the Provincial Government to adopt
+certain precautions against its spreading. Every station was provided
+with a scab yard and a tank in which the flocks were periodically bathed
+in hot tobacco water, and such animals as were unusually afflicted
+received special attention and hand-dressing. These arrangements
+strictly enforced proved successful to a great extent in keeping the
+disease in check.
+
+Mr. Lee's run was scabby, although not so bad as some of his
+neighbour's, and the strictest precautions were observed to keep it as
+clean as possible.
+
+Upon arrival at Highfield we had immediate opportunity to see for
+ourselves the most interesting part of the working of the run. The
+cutting season had just commenced, and the mustering and shearing would
+ere long follow.
+
+My chum C---- was a particularly smart fellow at everything appertaining
+to this kind of life. He speedily picked up the routine, and made
+himself so generally valuable that Mr. Lee offered him the post of
+overseer, with £60 a year as a beginning, and all found. But C----, on
+the plea that the pay was too small, refused it. This was his great
+mistake, to refuse what ninety-nine men in a hundred would have jumped
+at in his circumstances! It would have been the first step on the
+ladder, and with his abilities and experience he had only to wait a
+certain time to become a partner. But his heart was not in the country,
+and nothing would reconcile him to remaining in it. Within two months of
+our coming to Highfield he determined to return home.
+
+This resolution being taken, nothing would shake it, and the day was
+fixed for his departure. He and I were badly suited I fear to work
+together, and had he had some other chum perhaps he might have agreed
+with the new life better, and turned out a successful colonist; for most
+certainly, although we were not able to see it at the time, he had
+eminent opportunities open to him for becoming one.
+
+I rode twenty miles with him on his way to Christchurch. He was to stay
+the first night at a station twenty-five miles from Highfield. On the
+bank of the Waiou river we parted--we two chums who had come all the way
+from the Old Country to work and stick together. I thought it then hard
+of C----, although I had no right to expect him to stay in New Zealand
+in opposition to his own wishes and judgment to please me. As I watched
+him cross the river and presently disappear between the hills further
+on, a feeling of strange loneliness came over me. Well, I was not much
+more than a child!
+
+I must have sat there ruminating for a considerable time, for when I
+came to myself it was dark, and I remembered that I was in an almost
+trackless region which I had passed through only once before in
+daylight, and in company, when we had a view of the hills to guide us,
+and that I was at least seven miles from the nearest station
+(Rutherford's), but of the exact direction of which I was not certain.
+However, I had been long enough in the country to have passed more than
+one night in the open air, and at the worst this could only happen
+again, and I was provided with a blanket strapped to my saddle. I was
+not, however, to be without bed or supper. I mounted my mare, which had
+been browsing beside me, and gave her her head--the wisest course I
+could have taken. After an hour's sharp walk I discovered lights in the
+distance, which soon after proved to be those of Rutherford's station,
+where I was most hospitably received.
+
+Considerable astonishment was expressed at C----'s--to them--
+unaccountably foolish action in throwing over, after two months' trial,
+an opportunity which most men situated as he was would have worked for
+years to obtain.
+
+C---- reached the Old Country in due time, resumed his small farm,
+married, had a large family, and died a poor man.
+
+The following morning I returned to Highfield feeling myself a better
+man and more independent now that I had myself only to depend on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     SHEPHERD'S LIFE--DRIVING SHEEP TO CHRISTCHURCH--KILLING A WILD
+     SOW--ARRIVAL IN CHRISTCHURCH.
+
+
+I passed nearly a year at Highfield, during which time I made myself
+acquainted with all the routine of a sheep-farmer's life. I learned to
+ride stock, shoe horses, shear sheep, plough, fence, fell and split
+timber, and everything else that an experienced squatter ought to be
+able to do, not omitting the accomplishment of smoking. Mr. Lee then
+offered me what he had offered C----, and I agreed to accept it pending
+a visit I meditated making to Christchurch to consult my friend Mr.
+Gresson about a desire I entertained of entering the Government Land
+Office and to become a surveyor.
+
+I had done my best to like the life of a sheep-farmer, but I was
+becoming weary of it, and something was always prompting me to seek for
+more congenial employment. So far as stockriding, pig-hunting, and
+shooting were concerned, the life was delightful, but such recreations
+could be enjoyed anywhere. To sheep and sheep-farming I conceived a
+growing aversion as a life's work, and although I was prepared to hold
+to it if nothing better to my mind presented itself, I was equally
+determined to find something else if it were possible.
+
+Mr. Lee had three shepherds at this time in charge of flocks, who
+resided in different places at least four miles from each other and from
+the home station. Two of these were the sons of gentlemen in the Old
+Country, and one of them a distant relation. The life of the boundary
+shepherd is a peculiarly lonely one, especially if he be young and
+single. His residence is a little one-roomed hut, sometimes two rooms,
+built of mud and thatched with grass, an earthen floor, with a large
+chimney and fireplace occupying one end. His furniture consists of a
+table, bunk, and a couple of chairs, and if he be an educated man and
+fond of reading he will have a table for his books and writing
+materials. He is supplied monthly with a sack of flour and a bag of tea
+and sugar, salt, etc. His cooking utensils are a kettle, camp oven, and
+frying pan, to which are added a few plates, knives and forks, and two
+or three tin porringers. He always possesses at least one dog and a
+horse, and possibly a cat. The only light is that procured from what is
+called a slush lamp, made by keeping an old bowl or pannikin replenished
+by refuse fat or dripping in which is inserted a thick cotton wick. He
+cooks for himself, washes his own clothes, cuts up his firewood, and
+fetches water for daily use. Such luxuries as eggs, butter, or milk are
+unknown. Perhaps once a month he may have occasion to visit the home
+station, or somebody passing may call at his hut, or he may occasionally
+meet a neighbouring shepherd on his round. With these exceptions he has
+no intercourse with his fellow-beings, and all his affection is bestowed
+on his dog and horse; he would be badly off, indeed, without them.
+
+One of these young men, by name Wren, became a great friend of mine, and
+many a time I visited him or spent a night in his lonely little hut,
+which was located in a small clearing surrounded by dense bush and
+immediately over a small and turbulent stream, which he used to say was
+always good company and prevented his feeling so lonely during the long
+dark nights as he otherwise would. It is strange how in the course of
+time a person will get accustomed to such a lonely life, and many like
+it, but it cannot be good for a young man to have too much of it, and
+fortunately for Wren a few years would see him located at headquarters.
+To take charge of a boundary was part of his education as a cadet.
+
+It was different with the other. He was an unfortunate of that class so
+frequently met with in the Colonies, a "ne'er-do-well" who had while at
+home contracted habits of dissipation, and he was sent out to New
+Zealand under the then very mistaken supposition that he would thereby
+be cured. But there is no permanent cure for such a man; his life may be
+prolonged a little by enforced abstinence, but he will never, or rarely
+ever, recover his power of will so far as to avoid temptation if it
+comes in his way. If it be possible to do such a man any real good,
+there may be some chance for him at home, where he would have the care
+and influence of his friends to support him, but there is no chance for
+him in the Colonies. Such a man will under pressure abstain for months,
+but the moment that pressure is removed he will make for the nearest
+place where his propensity can be indulged, and give himself up to the
+devil body and soul, so long as he has the means to do so, or can obtain
+what he desires by fair means or foul. He knows no shame; all
+honourable and manly feeling has become callous within him; and it is a
+happy release indeed for all connected with him when his pitiable life
+is ended.
+
+It was a custom of Mr. Lee's to send yearly to Christchurch a flock of
+fat wethers for sale, and as I wished to proceed there on the business I
+referred to, I was to be entrusted with the charge of them, in company
+with a Scottish shepherd, by name Campbell, who was a new arrival in the
+country.
+
+The sheep numbered four hundred, and we had to drive them nearly three
+hundred miles, and deliver them in as good condition as when they left.
+We started early in December, the hottest time of the year, carrying
+what we needed for camping out on one pack horse. It was by no means a
+pleasure journey to drive, or rather feed, sheep along for three hundred
+miles at ten to fifteen miles a day, over dry and hot plains with not a
+tree to shelter one, and to stay awake turn about night after night to
+watch them. Mr. Lee accompanied us as far as the Waiou river, over which
+it occupied the best part of a day to cross the sheep, then he left us
+to proceed to Christchurch to seek and bring back the Government Scab
+Inspector to meet us at the Hurunui river, the boundary, and there to
+pass the sheep, otherwise they would not be permitted to enter the
+Canterbury province.
+
+It may appear strange that it would occupy a day to cross 400 sheep over
+a river, but it is a very difficult thing to induce sheep to take to the
+water; indeed, by merely driving them it is impossible. Where the water
+is at all fordable, several men wade in, each carrying a sheep, and when
+half-way across the animals are loosed and sent swimming to the other
+side, but not infrequently this plan fails, by reason of the sheep
+turning and swimming back to the mob, and the operation may have to be
+repeated many times before it is successful. The object is to give the
+mob a lead, and when sheep get a lead they will follow it blindly, no
+matter where it will lead them to. When the river is too deep for
+wading, men on horseback ford or swim over, carrying sheep on their
+saddles, and drop them in midstream till the required lead is obtained.
+As soon as the mob understand they have to go, a panic seems to take
+them, and they make such frantic efforts to rush on that to prevent them
+hurting each other is sometimes impossible. An unfortunate instance of
+this occurred while I was at Highfield. We were driving a large mob of
+sheep to the yards to be dipped, and had to pass them over one side of
+the rocky gorge leading to the Highfield plateau before mentioned. Some
+of the leaders near the edge took alarm, and a few fell over the cliff.
+Seeing their comrades disappear, others followed, and then the whole mob
+made for the precipice, and jumped frantically over. The fall was about
+twenty feet only, but the animals followed each other with such rapidity
+that in a few minutes some three hundred sheep lay in a mass, piled on
+top of each other. It was with great difficulty the dogs and men
+prevented the whole mob following suit, in which case there would have
+been great loss; as it was, nearly one hundred sheep were smothered
+before it was possible to extricate them.
+
+There is another danger to which they are exposed when driving them over
+new ground. There is a small plant, I forget the name of it, but it is
+well known to every shepherd, and grows in luxuriance along some of the
+river beds. It is about a foot high and has dark green leaves. If by any
+chance a mob of hungry sheep are driven into this plant, they will
+attack it ravenously, and in a few minutes they will stagger and fall as
+if intoxicated, and if not immediately attended to they will die. The
+only chance for them is to bleed them by driving in the blade of a small
+knife each side of the nose. The blood will flow black and thick, and
+the animal will speedily recover, but delay is fatal.
+
+We travelled steadily about 15 miles each day, and in due time reached
+the north bank of the Hurunui river, only to find no sign of Mr. Lee or
+the Inspector. This was specially disappointing as our supply of flour
+and sugar was getting very low, and we were promised a fresh supply at
+this point. For several days neither the supplies nor Mr. Lee appeared.
+The little flour remaining was full of maggots, our tea and tobacco were
+finished, and we had to live on mutton boiled in a frying-pan (we were
+obliged to kill a sheep). There was no feeding ground near the river,
+the country having been recently burnt, and so we were obliged to take
+the sheep daily a couple of miles inland, carrying with us some of the
+mutton and water, and drink the latter nearly hot, travelling back to
+the river-bed at nightfall to camp the sheep in an angle between two
+streams, by which means we contrived to obtain a little rest.
+
+One day we varied our food by securing some fresh pork in a somewhat
+novel manner. There were many wild pigs about but we had no means of
+shooting or otherwise killing them. One day while driving our sheep
+inland, we came across a mob of pigs in a dry nallah, all of which
+bolted except a full-grown sow and a litter of young ones, which could
+not run with the herd; and as the mother would not leave them behind,
+she decided to stay, and if need be fight for her family. It was a
+touching picture, no doubt, but there is not much room for sentiment
+when the stomach is empty and the body weary and unsatisfied. The
+prospect of fresh pork that night in lieu of the everlasting mutton, the
+cooking of which we had varied in every way we could devise was very
+tempting, and we set to work to make some plan for capturing the sow;
+the baby piggies were too young and delicate for our taste.
+
+We possessed no weapons but our pocket knives, and they would be of
+small use against so powerful a brute as a wild sow in defence of her
+young. The dogs shirked her neighbourhood altogether. At length, in our
+extremity, we were struck by the idea that we might strangle her with
+one of the tether ropes carried around the horses' necks. We unloosed
+one, and each taking an end thirty feet apart, approached to the
+encounter. To our amazement and joy the sow herself here contributed in
+a quite unexpected manner to her own capture. Immediately the rope was
+within her reach she snapped viciously at it, and retained it in her
+mouth. Discovering that she persisted in holding on, and that the rope
+was far back in her jaws, we shortened hand rapidly, and ran round,
+crossing each other in a circle, keeping the rope taut meanwhile. By
+this means we quickly twisted the rope firmly over her snout, so that
+had she now desired she could not have rid herself of it. The rest was
+easy; we shortened hand till near enough to despatch her with our clasp
+knives. We cut up the beast and carried off as much of the meat as would
+last us some days, and that night supped sumptuously off pork chops.
+
+[Illustration: KILLING THE WILD SOW.]
+
+After ten days of this very undesirable existence, Mr. Lee arrived and
+informed us that the Inspector would be up on the morrow. Very welcome
+news; and we were further gladdened by a fresh supply of the necessaries
+of life which Mr. Lee had brought on a led pack horse. The delay was
+owing to the Inspector having been called away to a distant part of
+Canterbury, and Mr. Lee had a ride of nearly a hundred miles to find
+him.
+
+In those days the postal arrangements were very primitive. Once a week
+only the mails were carried, and some stations distant from the line of
+route were obliged to send a horseman 20 to 50 miles to fetch their
+post.
+
+The sheep were safely crossed on the third day, and we started afresh
+for Christchurch.
+
+We had up to this time been more than a month on the journey, at the
+hottest season, without a tree to shelter us and with only the bare
+ground for a bed. One blanket and one change of clothes had I. Campbell,
+I think, had not so much. For a part of the time mutton and water
+seasoned with dust was our food, and the open sky our covering day and
+night; however, we were none the worse for it, and to a certain extent I
+enjoyed the life, for had I not then rude health and a splendid
+constitution, which subsequently carried me safely through rougher, if
+not more enjoyable, experiences than driving sheep.
+
+The rest of the journey was comparatively easy, and fifteen days saw us
+in Christchurch with the sheep in excellent condition. Here I found
+letters from home awaiting me, those from my father and mother almost
+insisting on my return and to resume my studies. This was due to the
+accounts given them by C----, for I took special care to write in
+glowing terms of everything. The letter had, however, no effect towards
+altering my determination to stay in New Zealand.
+
+Through Judge Gresson's influence I obtained temporary employment under
+the Land Office, but to join permanently would require the payment of a
+fee for which I had not sufficient funds in hand. It was suggested that
+I should write home and ask for assistance, but this I objected to do. I
+merely mentioned the circumstances, leaving the rest to chance, and in
+the meantime I was engaged to accompany a survey party down the coast,
+which would start in a few days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     I JOIN A SURVEY PARTY--TRAVEL TO THE ASHBURTON.
+
+
+The survey party consisted of a Government Surveyor Mr. D----, his
+assistant H----, and myself, with a few labourers, and our destination
+was Lake Ellesmere, some 15 to 20 miles down the coast, where a dispute
+between the squatters and the Provincial Government boundaries was to be
+decided.
+
+We started in a rough kind of two-wheeled cart, into which Mr. D----,
+H----, and I, with our provisions for ten days and the survey
+instruments, were all packed together with our respective swags of
+blankets and the cooking utensils. This vehicle was pulled by one horse,
+and as we had no tents we would have to camp out most of the time.
+
+We reached our destination the same evening, when, tethering the horse,
+we proceeded to make ourselves comfortable for the night round a camp
+fire, whereon we boiled our tea and fried chops, and after placing the
+usual damper under the hot ashes so as to be ready for the morning, we
+rolled our blankets around us and with feet to the fire, slept soundly.
+
+My duties consisted in dragging the chain or humping a theodolite knee
+deep in water or swamp, but I learned much even in this short experience
+which proved of subsequent value.
+
+On our return, Mr. D---- had to diverge to a small farm, if it could be
+called such, owned by two brothers named Drew, having some work to look
+into for them. These Drews were the sons of a clergymen in England, and
+they had lately come to New Zealand with a little money and no
+experience, taken a small tract of land in this swampy wilderness, and
+settled down to farm it. The buildings consisted of a wretched mud hut,
+some twelve feet square, a small yard, and a few pigsties. What a
+habitation it was, and what filth and absence of management was apparent
+all over it! Failure was stamped on these men, and on their
+surroundings; it was clear they could not succeed, and yet they were not
+drunkards or scamps or reckless; on the contrary, they were quiet and
+good-natured, and appeared to be hard-working, although it was
+difficult to see what work they really did.
+
+For two days we stayed here, all five of us sleeping at night on the
+floor of the hut. There were no bunks. I was very glad when that duty
+was over.
+
+These Drews soon after gave up the farm; one died, the other I saw two
+years afterwards, the part-proprietor of a glass and delph shop in
+Christchurch, but only for a time. That inevitable tendency to failure
+engraved on the Drews followed him to the glass shop, and the latter
+became, in due course, the sole property of Drew's partner.
+
+If these men had gone upon a farm or sheep-run for two or three years'
+apprenticeship, investing their money safely meanwhile, they might have
+become in a few more years, prosperous colonists. It was their absolute
+ignorance, added to a want of sufficient means to carry out what they
+undertook to do, that brought depression and failure upon them. And a
+percentage of the emigrants who go to the Colonies act under similar
+circumstances as they did, and from being on arrival strong, hopeful and
+brave, they, from lack of something in themselves or from want of the
+needful advice and sense to adopt it, gradually deteriorate past all
+recovery. I recollect the billiard-marker at one of the Christchurch
+hotels was the younger son of a baronet. He worked as billiard-marker
+for his food, and as much alcohol as he could get. I believe he was
+never unfit to mark, and never quite sober. He died at his post, but not
+before he had learned that he had succeeded to the baronetcy, and seen
+relatives who had come from home to search for and bring him back. It is
+a strange error of judgment which sends such men as this to the
+Colonies, but perhaps those who are responsible consider they are
+justified by the removal of the scapegrace and finally getting rid of
+him by any means.
+
+On our return to Christchurch I met my old friend and fellow voyager T.
+Smith, who had just been appointed overseer of a sheep and cattle
+station down south. He pressed me to accompany him to the locality,
+pending arrival of letters from home, and as I had nothing just then on
+hand, I accepted his invitation. It seemed very apparent that I was fast
+becoming a rolling stone, but though I stuck to nothing long, it was not
+altogether my fault, and I was always at work, increasing my stock of
+experience, such as it was. This departure to Smith's station on the
+Ashburton led me away on an entirely new line for some time.
+
+The station to which Smith had been appointed overseer was about 100
+miles from Christchurch. The owner did not live there, so the entire
+management was in Smith's hands. The route lay across the Canterbury
+plains by a defined cart track, with accommodation houses at certain
+distances along its course, so no camping out was needed.
+
+The Canterbury Plains are supposed to be the finest in the world,
+extending as they do, about 150 miles in length by 40 to 60 in width,
+and over this immense space there was not a forest tree or scarcely a
+shrub of any size to be met with, except a description of palm, called
+cabbage trees, which grow in parts along the river beds, and
+occasionally dot the adjacent plain. The plains are almost perfectly
+flat, with no undulations more than a few feet in height. They are
+intersected every ten to twenty miles by wide shallow river beds, which
+during the summer months, when the warm nor'-westers melt the snow and
+ice on the Alps, are often terrific torrents, impassable for days
+together, while at other times they are shingle interspersed with clear
+rapid streams, more or less shallow, and generally fordable with
+ordinary care. Some of the principal rivers such as the Rakaia,
+Rangatata and Waitaki, are at all times formidable.
+
+The Rakaia bed, for example, is, or was, nearly half a mile wide, a vast
+expanse of shingle, full of treacherous quicksands, in which the course
+of the different streams is altered after every fresh. One might
+approach the Rakaia to-day and find it consist of three or four streams
+from twenty to one hundred yards wide, and not exceeding one to two feet
+in depth; to-morrow it might be a roaring sea a quarter of a mile in
+width, racing at a speed of five to ten miles an hour.
+
+At the crossing of this river, accommodation houses were established at
+each side, both establishments providing expert men and horses who were
+constantly employed seeking for fords and conducting travellers across.
+
+Nowadays, doubtless fine bridges, railways, and smart hotels have taken
+the place of what I am endeavouring to describe as the condition of
+things fifty years ago. The Rakaia is fifty miles from Christchurch, and
+that was our first day's ride. The accommodation house on the north side
+was a weird-looking habitation, a long, low, single-storeyed
+desolate-looking building, partly constructed of mud and partly of green
+timber slabs rough from the forest, but it was, even so, a welcome sight
+after our long monotonous ride.
+
+The house consisted of a small sitting-room or parlour for the better
+class of guests, not uncomfortably furnished, and about twelve feet
+square, two small bedrooms, a kitchen and a bar, the former serving for
+cooking purposes as well as a sitting and a bed-room for those
+travellers who could not afford the luxury or were not entitled to the
+dignity of the parlour. Separated a little way from this tenement was a
+long low shed used as a stable for such animals as their owners could
+afford to pay for so much comfort and a feed, in preference to the usual
+tussock and twenty yards of tether on the well-cropped ground around the
+hostelry.
+
+It was a rough place, and a rough lot of characters were not
+unfrequently seen there. The Jack Tar just arrived from the bush or some
+up-country station with a cheque for a year's wages, bent on a spree,
+and standing drinks all round while his money lasted, the Scottish
+shepherd plying liquor and grasping hands for "Auld Lang Syne," the
+wretched debauched crawler, the villainous-looking "lag" from "t'other
+side," the bullock puncher, whose every alternate word was a profane
+oath, the stockrider, in his guernsey shirt and knee boots with
+stockwhip thrown over his shoulder, engaging the attention of those who
+would listen with some miraculous story of his exploits, mine host
+smilingly dealing out the fiery poison, with now and again the presence
+of the dripping forder from the river, come in for his glass of grog and
+pipe before resuming his perilous occupation.
+
+Smith and I put up in the parlour, and when we had dined and lit pipes
+proceeded to look after our horses, after which we paid a visit to the
+kitchen for a little hobnobbing with the motley assemblage collected
+there, and, of course, we stood liquor round in the usual friendly way.
+We soon retired, and ere long the kitchen floor, too, was covered with
+sleepers rolled in their blue or red blankets without which no colonist
+ever travelled.
+
+Early the following morning we were piloted over the river, and in the
+afternoon made the Ashburton, where was a very superior house of
+entertainment, conducted by a Mr. Turton, a man above the general run of
+bush hotel keepers, and who, I believe, subsequently became a rich
+squatter, as he well deserved.
+
+The third day's ride brought us to our destination. There was a
+comfortable rough dwelling house and the usual adjuncts in the way of
+station buildings.
+
+The situation was pleasant, at the opening of a wide gorge at the foot
+of the downs, and a fine stream ran along the front of the enclosure. A
+considerable portion of the run was hilly, and was at that time one of
+the best in the province.
+
+It was on this journey that I first came across the most wonderful
+optical illusions, called mirages, that I had seen, and there is
+something in the atmosphere maybe of the New Zealand plains that lends
+itself specially to the creation of these beautiful phenomena.
+
+We were riding over the open plain on a clear morning, near the
+Ashburton river bed, more than twenty miles from the nearest hills, when
+suddenly within fifty yards of us, appeared a most beautiful calm lake,
+apparently many miles in extent, and dotted with cabbage trees (like
+palms), whose reflections were cast in the water. Neither of us had seen
+the like before, and for a while really believed we were approaching a
+lake, although how such could possibly exist where a few moments before
+had been dry waving grass, was like magic. We rode on, and as we went
+the lake seemed to move with us, or rather to recede as we advanced,
+keeping always the same distance ahead. The phenomenon lasted for about
+a quarter of an hour, and then cleared away as magically as it came.
+
+In the same district I subsequently observed some extraordinary optical
+illusions of a like nature--once, in the direction of the sea where no
+hills or other obstacles intervened, I saw a beautiful inverted
+landscape of mountains, woods, and other objects like castles. The
+picture or reflection seemed suspended in the air, and extended a long
+way on the horizon. It must have been a reflection of some scene far
+from the place where the phenomenon presented itself.
+
+I spent a month with Smith, but as it was the slack time of the year
+there was little routine work on the station, and much of our time was
+passed in amusement.
+
+The best fun was pig hunting, in which we were frequently joined by
+neighbouring squatters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     WILD PIG-HUNTING.
+
+
+It is said that Captain Cook introduced pigs into New Zealand. They were
+at the time I write of, the only wild quadrupeds in the land, except
+rats (for which I believe the country is also indebted to Captain Cook),
+but together they made up for no end of absentees by their prodigious
+powers of breeding.
+
+Most of the middle island was infested with pigs; they principally
+inhabited the low hills and river bed flats and swamps, and would come
+down on to the large plains in herds for feeding on the root of a plant
+called spear grass, to obtain which they would tear up the sward and
+injure large tracts of grazing land.
+
+Their depredations became so extensive that the Provincial Government
+was obliged to take steps for their extermination by letting contracts
+for killing them off, at, I think, sixpence per head, or rather tail,
+and by this means I have known a single district cleared of 8,000 to
+10,000 pigs in a season.
+
+Pig-hunting on the hills is not the inspiriting amusement it is on the
+plains. In the former they must be hunted on foot, and shot down, riding
+being impracticable, while on the plain they were hunted on horseback
+with dogs bred for the purpose, and the huntsman's weapon is only a
+short heavy knife sharpened on both sides to a point like a dagger, and
+suspended in a sheath attached to the waist belt. Spears were sometimes
+used, but they were of a very rough and primitive description, and not
+effective. Pig-sticking on the modern scientific principles was not then
+practised in New Zealand.
+
+For a day's pig-hunting on the plains a party of men on strong and fast
+horses, with a few kangaroo dogs and a bullock dray in attendance,
+formed the hunting party. The location of the herd is previously noted
+and kept quiet. The dogs are held in leash till well within sight, say,
+from half to one mile off. The animals are easily startled, and they
+know that their best chance of safety depends on their reaching the
+hills before their pursuers overtake them.
+
+With a fast horse, giving full-grown pigs a start of a mile, it will be
+all the huntsman can do to pick them up in a gallop of 3 to 5 miles, and
+the best chance in his favour is when there is a herd, and not only a
+single pig or small number of strong hardy fellows. Until pressed the
+herd will keep pretty much together, and if by good management the
+hunters contrive to get to leeward of them as well as to intercept them
+from making direct for the cover of the hills they are sure of good
+sport.
+
+The kangaroo dog (so called) was a cross between a stag-hound and
+mastiff, very fast and powerful, and he ran only by sight. A
+well-trained dog on overhauling his pig will run up on the near side and
+seize the boar by the off lug, thereby protecting himself from being
+ripped by the animal's tusks. Then the hunter should be on the spot to
+jump off his horse and assist the dog by plunging his knife into the
+beast's heart from the off side.
+
+With a good dog the danger to which the experienced hunter is exposed is
+slight. A properly trained, courageous dog will hold the largest boar
+for several minutes in the manner described and will not let him go till
+forced to from sheer exhaustion. But if he is obliged to disengage
+himself before assistance arrives, he will very probably be ripped or
+killed.
+
+The trained bush horse will stand quietly where his rider leaves him,
+never attempting to move further from the spot than to nibble the grass
+will necessitate.
+
+One day, having heard that a large mob of pigs had come down on the
+plains near the gorge of the Rakaia, some fifteen miles off, we at once
+organised a hunt, and two neighbours from another station promised to
+join us.
+
+A rendezvous was fixed upon where we were to meet at daybreak, a bullock
+dray having been sent on the previous night. We were all well mounted
+and equipped with three fine dogs. After riding some ten miles we
+separated, taking up a long line over the plain, and using our field
+glasses to obtain an idea of the position of the herd as soon as
+possible, and thus give us time to arrange a plan of attack before
+coming to too close quarters, the animals being very quick to scent
+danger.
+
+One of our friends, Legge, who was riding on the extreme left, was the
+first to discover the herd, and he galloped up to say that there were a
+considerable number of pigs about two miles further east, scattered
+amongst the cabbage trees near a small river bed. On approaching
+carefully till within view we could count upwards of fifty, and many
+seemed to be large boars; no young pigs were visible. The latter,
+indeed, seldom came far out on the plains, their elders probably fearing
+that in the event of surprise they would not be able to run with the
+rest of the herd.
+
+The whole mob of pigs lay directly between us and the hills, which were
+almost five miles distant, so it became necessary for us to divide and
+make wide detours, so as to obtain a position on their further side
+without being seen. This movement took about an hour, but we succeeded
+under cover of snow grass and cabbage trees in approaching within half a
+mile of the herd, with the hills behind us, before they took the alarm.
+Then all were speedily in motion, but as our position prevented them
+from taking a direct line to shelter, they ran wildly, and so gave us a
+considerable advantage.
+
+The order for attack was now given; the dogs were slipped, and away we
+went like a whirlwind, each singling out a pig and taking the boars
+first, as did the horses.
+
+Owing to our first advantage we picked up with the leaders in a couple
+of miles, and two of the largest boars were immediately seized by the
+dogs close together in a piece of bad marshy ground, covered with snow
+and spear grass, much rooted and honeycombed. Smith, who was first in
+the running, narrowly escaped a broken neck. The huge sixteen hand mare
+he rode planted her feet in a hole and somersaulted, throwing Smith on
+to one of the boars and dog engaged, but the latter was game, and by his
+pluck and smartness saved his master and himself from being ripped, and
+before Smith was fairly on his feet the boar had six inches of steel
+through his heart and his career was ended.
+
+[Illustration: ENCOUNTER WITH WILD BOAR.]
+
+During the few minutes we were here engaged, the other boar, a powerful
+and fierce brute, had forced the dog which seized him some fifty yards
+down a dry gully, and it was clear that unless he was speedily relieved
+the dog would have the worst of the encounter. Smith and I rushed to his
+assistance none too soon. The boar, in his struggles, had already
+slightly ripped the dog on the shoulder, and the blood was streaming
+down his leg and breast, but the plucky hound still held on, lying close
+on the near side, while his teeth were fast through the boar's off lug,
+the latter striving all he could to get his head round and tusk the dog.
+Added to this the position they had contrived to get themselves into
+was unfortunate; the boar was so close to the bank it was impossible to
+reach his off side, and the dog lay so close he could not be touched on
+the other.
+
+Smith was a powerful fellow, and in fun of this kind would have faced a
+boar singlehanded. He called to me that he would rush in and seize the
+boar by his hind legs and try to pull him round, while I watched my
+opportunity to jump between him and the bank. It was our only chance to
+save the dog, at any rate, and luckily it proved successful. As Smith
+laid on I jumped, and although I fell on all fours between the boar and
+the slippery bank, I contrived just in time to drive the knife into his
+heart, and the huge beast rolled over and with a few gasps died. We were
+both exhausted, and the poor dog, when the excitement was over, lay down
+with a low whine, thoroughly done up from exhaustion and loss of blood.
+We washed and bound his wound as well as we could and tied him to a bush
+of snow grass to await the dray.
+
+Legge and Forde had already despatched a large boar and two full-grown
+sows, and were in chase of others. We came up with them when they were
+engaged with a fine young boar which had sheltered and come to bay in a
+clump of thorny scrub (wild Irishman, so called). Neither dogs nor men
+could reach him, and the only plan was to irritate him till he bolted.
+This was difficult, but at length successful, and the beast made a rush
+straight for us. However, he was bent on defence rather than offence,
+and we escaped his tusks. Legge was first mounted and away with one of
+the dogs in chase, but going over the rough, honeycombed ground I
+mentioned he too met with a bad fall which threw him out of the running,
+and now Smith, Forde, and I were in full cry with the two dogs.
+
+By this time both dogs and horses were somewhat blown, whereas the boar
+having had a rest we feared would escape, and reaching a low swampy flat
+he disappeared in a large patch of snow grass and reeds. As we were not
+sure of his exact position, we decided to ride through in line, to
+endeavour to drive him again to the open. In doing so the boar broke
+covert under Forde's horse's legs, and ripped him below the hock. This
+rendered Forde and his horse _hors de combat_, and Smith and I had the
+chase again in our hands. For nearly a mile that boar led us a furious
+dance over villainous ground, through spear grass and swamp, in
+momentary danger of being thrown or torn by thorny shrub, twisting and
+doubling in and out of inaccessible places, but he was beginning to
+show signs of fatigue, and we saw he could not make much fight when once
+the dogs got hold. The latter were in fierce excitement, having lost
+their prey so often. After a final spurt of half a mile they pulled him
+down, and he was easily despatched.
+
+Our bag was now six pigs, of which four were boars, and we had been
+actually hunting for about three hours, including the time spent in
+making the detour. After cutting off a ham and the head of the last
+boar, we carried them back to where we left Forde with his wounded
+horse. Legge had already arrived, and we all sat down to take some food
+while awaiting the arrival of the dray.
+
+The remainder of the herd had reached the hills long since, and there
+was no more sport to be had in the neighbourhood that day. Forde removed
+his saddle and bridle to be sent on the dray and turned his horse loose
+to find his way to the run, while he started on foot to the nearest
+station to procure another mount to carry him home. The rest of us
+proceeded to a flat near the first gorge of the Ashburton, where we
+succeeded in killing five other pigs before the evening closed. Forde's
+horse reached his station as soon as his wounded leg permitted him, but
+the wound being found more serious than anticipated, and that he would
+be lame for life, it was decided to destroy him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     CATTLE RANCHING AND STOCKRIDING.
+
+
+While I stayed at Smith's Station, we made acquaintance with a young
+man, by name Hudson, a son of the famous Railway King. He had come to
+New Zealand a few years previously with slender means and was a pushing,
+energetic fellow. He settled on the Ashburton and set up business as a
+carter, investing his money in a couple of drays and bullock teams, with
+which he contracted to convey wool from the stations to Christchurch,
+returning with stores, etc., and sometimes carting timber from the
+forest and such like. My first day's experience of driving wild cattle
+was in his company.
+
+A stockrider's life is perhaps of all occupations the most enjoyable,
+and there is just that element of risk connected with it that increases
+its fascination, but to make it intelligible to the reader, a sketch of
+the working and management of a cattle station will be necessary.
+
+Although most sheep farmers feed a certain number of cattle to enable
+them to utilise the portions of their run which may be unsuitable for
+grazing, there are some squatters who confine themselves to cattle
+alone, and the produce derived from such stations includes beef, butter,
+cheese, hides, horns, and working stock--that is, bullocks destined for
+use in pulling drays; such entirely taking the places of draught horses
+up country.
+
+A cattle rancher may have from one to two thousand head of cattle
+running wild. Of these, one portion is milch cows, which are daily
+driven in for milking and from which the extensive butter and cheese
+dairies are supplied; another the fat cattle fed for the market, and a
+third, young stock for breaking in as working bullocks. As with sheep,
+the cattle are periodically mustered in the stock yards for branding,
+selections for various purposes, and for sale.
+
+Mustering a large head of wild cattle is exciting work. Half a dozen men
+mounted on well-trained horses, each carrying his stockwhip, start for
+the run. The stockwhip is composed of a lash of plaited raw hide, twelve
+to fifteen feet long, and about one and half inches thick at the belly,
+which is close to the handle. The latter is about nine inches long, made
+of some hard tough wood, usually weighted at the hand end. The
+experienced stockman can do powerful execution with these whips, one
+blow from which is sufficient to cut a slice out of the beast's hide,
+and I have seen an expert cut from top to bottom the side of a nail can
+with a single blow from his whip.
+
+The cattle are spread over perhaps twenty or thirty thousand acres of
+unfenced country, and each man follows his portion of the herd,
+collecting and driving into a common centre. For a time all goes well,
+until some wary or ill-conditioned brute breaks away, followed possibly
+by a number of his comrades, who only need a lead to give the stockman
+trouble. Then commences a chase, and not infrequently it is a chase in
+vain, and the fagged stockman and his jaded steed are obliged to give
+them up for that day, and proceed to hold what he has got in hand.
+
+There is sometimes considerable danger in following up too closely these
+beasts when they begin to show signs of fatigue, as they then often turn
+to bay under the first scrap of shelter, and if the horseman unwarily or
+ignorantly approaches too near in his endeavour to dislodge them, they
+will charge, and the death of the horse or rider may be the result.
+Both, however, are generally too well aware of these little failings to
+endeavour to prevail over a jaded or "baked" beast, and prefer to let
+him rest.
+
+Upon the cattle being yarded, the most exciting operation is the
+capturing and securing of the young beasts requiring to be broken in to
+the yoke. An experienced and expert stockman enters the enclosure
+carrying in his hand a pine sapling, 12 or 15 feet in length, at the end
+of which is a running noose of raw hide or strong hemp rope, attached to
+a strong rope which is passed round a capstan outside the stockyard and
+near to a corner post. With considerable dexterity, not infrequently
+accompanied by personal danger, the man slips the noose over the horns
+of the beast he wishes to secure, when he immediately jumps over the
+rails, and with the assistance of the men outside, winds up the rope
+till the struggling and infuriated animal is fast held in a corner of
+the yard. Another noose is then slipped round the hind leg nearest the
+rails and firmly fastened.
+
+The yard being cleared, a steady old working bullock is now driven
+alongside our young friend, and the two are yoked together neck and
+neck, the trained bullock selected being always the more powerful of the
+two. The ropes are then unfastened and the pair left free to keep
+company for a month or so, by which time the old worker will have
+trained his young charge sufficiently to permit of his being put into
+the body of a team and submitted to the unmerciful charge of the bullock
+puncher (driver). There is no escape for the novice then, yoked fast to
+a powerful beast with others before and behind, and the cruel cutting
+whip over him, in the hands of a man possessing but little sentiment: he
+must obey, and after a time becomes as tractable as the rest. Indeed, it
+is wonderful how intelligent and obedient these animals become under the
+hands of an experienced driver. There is a code of bullock punching
+language they soon get to understand; they answer readily to their
+names, and are, if anything, more sensible, obedient, and manageable
+than horses.
+
+My ride with Hudson, which I referred to, was as hard a day's work as I
+have experienced of the kind. We started from the Ashburton at daybreak,
+and after a quiet canter of five miles, reached an open piece of river
+bed flat, on which were grazing some two hundred head of cattle, amongst
+which were five young bullocks of Hudson's he wished to cut out and
+drive to Moorhouse's station on the Rangitata, about twenty miles
+further south. The cutting out is more difficult than driving the whole
+herd, which will be apparent.
+
+Having entered among them and found the animals we were in search of, we
+proceeded quietly to move them to a common place near the edge, from
+which we meant to drive them, and Hudson, who had considerable
+experience, succeeded after a while in collecting his five beasts in a
+favourable spot for our enterprise. We then took up positions on either
+side, and with a sudden spurt endeavoured to drive them on to the plain.
+We were partially successful, leaving only one of the five behind, and
+we got the other four clear away some miles before they seemed to be
+aware of the absence of their comrades, but with some smart galloping we
+were keeping them well together in the direction we wanted to go. We
+were not, however, destined to continue fortunate for long. After a
+while we unexpectedly came across a herd of fresh cattle, into which our
+charges at once bolted, and it took two hours hard galloping before we
+succeeded in extricating only two of them. With these we were obliged to
+be satisfied; our horses were showing signs of fatigue, and without
+fresh mounts and other assistance it would be impossible to cut out the
+others that day.
+
+[Illustration: THE BAKED STEERS.]
+
+Fortunately those we had went away quietly, and we hoped that no further
+impediment would occur. We were sadly mistaken. For six miles all went
+well, but it was then clear that the animals were getting baked (jaded);
+they were in too good condition for the hard cutting out twice repeated.
+
+On reaching an isolated cabbage tree one deliberately lay down, while
+the other backed against the tree and stood sulkily at bay. Being
+nearest, I ignorantly made at them with the whip, when I was saluted
+with a bellow and a sudden charge, which, had not my horse been more on
+guard than I was, might have maimed one or both of us. The beast, having
+charged, backed again to the tree, and stood with nozzle touching the
+ground, breathing heavily, with sunken flanks and half-glazed eyes, a
+picture of imbecility, recklessness, and fatigue.
+
+Hudson, on coming up, saw it was useless to attempt driving him further,
+and so we left him and the cabbage tree, and resumed our course with one
+bullock, which we actually did succeed in getting to the stockyard as
+night was falling.
+
+Here, unfortunately, we found the yards closed and no one by to open
+them, and whilst I dismounted to take down the rails, the infernal beast
+once more bolted, apparently as fresh as ever, and notwithstanding all
+our endeavours to overhaul him darkness and our jaded horses failed us,
+and we had no resource but to wend our weary way to the homestead, three
+miles up the river, disappointed, dead beat, and hungry.
+
+We were most hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moorhouse, with
+whom for genuine kindness and hospitality few could compare, and they
+invited us to stay with them a day or two, which we gladly agreed to do.
+It was a real treat to pass any time in such a lovely locality and with
+such friends. The homestead was built on the river bed flat, a natural
+park covered with shrubbery palms, pines, and forest trees, along which
+on one side the turbulent Rangitata rushed in a confusion of waterfalls,
+whirlpools, and cascades, amidst huge masses of rock, and beyond which
+rose precipitous hills with their lower portions clothed in richest
+vegetation. The views up the gorge from this point were enchanting, but
+I will take another opportunity of describing some of the mountain
+scenery of the Southern Alps, the grandest in its own peculiar form of
+any in the world.
+
+Mr. Ben Moorhouse was one of three brothers, two of whom were squatters,
+and the eldest superintendent of the Province of Canterbury. They had
+all been some years in Australia, and were exceedingly fine men over six
+feet in height and built in proportion, good shots and experts at most
+games of strength and skill, not amongst the least of which was the
+science of boxing. We were treated the morning after our arrival to a
+lesson with the gloves, subsequently often repeated, and following this
+we had turns each in trying to ride a very clever buckjumper, a late
+purchase.
+
+The faculty of buckjumping is, I believe, almost confined to Australian
+horses, and seems to be bred in them--perhaps the original rough
+breaking was responsible for the vice; but whatever be the cause it was
+then a fact that eight out of every ten horses could and did buckjump,
+and with many of them the vice was incurable. An experienced buckjumper
+will decide as the saddle is being put on him to get rid of it as soon
+as possible without any apparent reason for such reprehensible conduct.
+He will swell himself out so that the girths cannot be fully tightened,
+and when he is mounted will suddenly bound off the ground, throw down
+his head, and prop violently on his fore feet, and this he will continue
+to repeat till the saddle comes on to his withers, and the rider finds
+some other resting place. So long as the saddle keeps its position, and
+the girths hold, there is a chance for the rider, but if they go he
+must, although he frequently goes without them.
+
+There is a special saddle made for buckjumpers, provided with heavy pads
+to prop the knee against, and so prevent the rider from being chucked
+forward, and this is sometimes assisted by securely fastening an iron
+bar with a roll of blanket around it across the pommel of the saddle.
+This presses across the thighs just above the knees, and affords great
+additional security, and a surcingle is strapped over the seat of the
+saddle as a further assistance to the girths.
+
+There is also another plan adopted with a really bad brute--namely, a
+crutch of wood or iron fastened to a martingale below, with two rings
+above, through which the reins are led. This contrivance is to prevent
+the animal lowering his head, which is a necessary movement on his part
+for accomplished bucking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     I UNDERTAKE EMPLOYMENT WITH A BUSH CONTRACTOR--GET SERIOUSLY
+     ILL--START FOR THE SOUTH AND THE GOLD DIGGINGS.
+
+
+I had now been more than a month on the Ashburton, but as I could not
+expect home letters yet for some weeks, and was getting tired of mere
+amusement, I accepted an offer made me to join in a new line of work.
+
+A man named Metcalfe, a relative of a neighbouring squatter, had lately
+started work as a bush contractor, and had just then undertaken to
+construct a number of station buildings for a run holder on the
+Ashburton. Metcalfe was an experienced bushman and a good rough
+carpenter. He asked me to join him and I at once accepted.
+
+We would have to fell and cut up our own timber in the forest, cart it
+down some forty miles, and construct all the works without other
+assistance.
+
+Our first business was to provide a habitation for ourselves in the
+forest, as we required to stay there a month or two while cutting the
+necessary timber. We laid out a space 10 feet by 12 feet, drove in posts
+at the corners, and nailed a strong rail on top, then we felled and
+split up into slabs a number of white pine trees, and set them upwards
+all round with their edges overlapping and nailed them at the top to the
+rail, or, more properly, wall plate, the feet of the slabs being set a
+few inches in the ground. Over this enclosure we made a sloping
+framework of wickers (fine saplings) and covered it with an old tent
+which Metcalfe possessed. At one end of the hut we constructed a wide
+fireplace and chimney in the same manner, and hung up an old blanket
+over the space left for a doorway. The inside of the slab walls and
+chimney we wattled with mud and laths, which we split up, and plastered
+over with mud and chopped grass. We made rough cots with wickers and
+slabs, raised a foot above the ground, so as to form seats as well as
+beds, and covered them with a thick layer of minuka branches, which made
+capital springy mattresses, and over all we laid our blankets. For a
+table we split and dressed fairly smooth a pine slab a foot wide in
+which we bored four holes and inserted therein wicker legs. Our mansion
+was now complete and it had not occupied two days to build.
+
+We rose at daybreak, boiled a kettle of tea, which with cold baked
+mutton and damper formed our breakfast, then to work till 12 o'clock,
+when we took an hour for dinner, and again to work till dark, when we
+adjourned to the hut, and after a visit to the creek for ablutions, and
+seeing that our horses were watered and put on fresh pasture for the
+night, we sat down to supper by a rousing fire, then lit pipes and
+chatted or read till it was time to turn in, when the fire was raked
+over, and the damper of bread inserted under the hot ashes to be ready
+for the morning. During the evening also one of us made the bread; the
+camp oven would be put on the fire with sufficient mutton to last us for
+two or three days. It was a grand life for healthy, strong fellows as we
+were, living and working alone in a virgin forest, with no sound around
+us but the rippling of the brook and the whisper of the wind through the
+foliage of the tall pines, or the ringing of our axes, with every now
+and then the crashing fall of a huge tree.
+
+I should remark here that the black and white pine (so called) of New
+Zealand is not by any means similar to that which grows in Europe. They
+grow straight and tall, it is true, but for fully half their height
+throw out heavy and numerous branches thickly covered all the year round
+with very small evergreen leaves. The trees are easily cut up and split
+into posts and rails, or sawn into boards. At the time I refer to the
+forests were free to all settlers for their home needs on the payment of
+a nominal fee to the Provincial Government.
+
+The timber in due time was felled, cut up, and carted to the station,
+and we removed our camp to the site of the operations. It was a bleak,
+wild place, three miles from the south mail track, and consisted only of
+a small slab hut or two with a wool shed and sheep yards. The owner, Mr.
+T. Moorhouse, had lately purchased the run, and was about to improve and
+reside on it. A description of our life here would not be interesting,
+so I will pass over three months during which we worked steadily and the
+buildings were nearly complete, when one day, as I was nailing the
+shingles on a roof under a powerful sun, I suddenly felt sick and giddy,
+and was obliged to go inside and lie down. The same evening I developed
+a severe attack of gastric fever which three days after turned to a
+kind of brain fever, and for nigh on six weeks I lay betwixt life and
+death. For half of this time I lay on the floor in a corner of the new
+building, the bare ground with a layer of tea leaves for my bed, the
+noise grinding into my brain when I was at all conscious, and only
+Metcalfe (good man that he was) with an old Scottish shepherd to look
+after me when they could find time to do so. No doctor, medicine, or
+attendance of any kind was procurable nearer than sixty miles away, with
+a weekly post. One night, to make me sleep they gave me laudanum (a
+bottle of which Metcalfe had with him for toothache) and the following
+morning I was discovered standing on the brink of an artificial pond
+nearly a quarter of a mile off, barefoot and half naked, to reach which
+I must have walked over places I could not easily have passed in my
+senses. This was when the brain attack came on, and for a week I lay, I
+was told, almost unconscious. Metcalfe contrived to send some
+information to Christchurch, and after I had been down for over three
+weeks Moorhouse arrived and removed me to his own hut, where he looked
+after me for some time. Then he had me carried to and fixed up in his
+dog cart and drove me sixty miles over the plains in a single day to
+Christchurch, where I arrived a good bit more dead than alive, but to
+find a comfortable room, and every attendance and luxury a sick man
+could wish for, prepared for me by my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Gresson.
+I must have taken a good deal of killing in those days, but the drive to
+Christchurch, severe as it was, saved me, and in three weeks I was
+myself again.
+
+When I was convalescent I found letters from home awaiting me. My father
+sent a little money, but wished me to utilise it in paying my passage
+home, and appeared to have lost faith in my doing any good in New
+Zealand; but I was more determined than ever to remain. Was I not
+accumulating colonial experiences, and always found employment of some
+kind awaiting me? and I was still very young--only a little over
+eighteen. The free life I had spent for nearly two years had had its
+effect, and I could not consent to throw it up, at any rate not just
+yet.
+
+The doctors who had attended me expressed their opinions that I had
+overtaxed my strength at work to which I was not accustomed, and forbade
+my undertaking anything of the kind for a while. This of course was
+nonsense, but I saw no reason why I should not enjoy a holiday for a
+month or so in Christchurch till I had settled future plans.
+
+Just at this time I received a letter from Smith, informing me that the
+run he had charge of was sold, and having thereby lost his appointment,
+he was coming to Christchurch _en route_ for Otago on a voyage of
+enterprise, and invited me to join him. This was excellent; the
+wandering disposition was again strong upon me, and I looked forward to
+such a trip to a new part of the country in company with my old friend
+with the keenest delight. I agreed to his proposal at once, and
+immediately he arrived we set to work to make preparations for our
+journey south, although where that journey was to lead us or of what
+might be before us we were profoundly ignorant; but that knowledge or
+want of knowledge enhanced the glory of the movement. We were a couple
+of free lances starting to seek what might turn up, and eventually we
+were led into a new and very interesting experience, even if it did not
+turn out a remunerative one.
+
+After paying my expenses in Christchurch, I possessed about £50 in cash
+and a valuable and well-bred mare. Smith's possessions were about on an
+equivalent. We decided to travel with one pack horse, and for this
+purpose we purchased between us for £15, a notorious buckjumper, called
+"Jack the Devil," and if ever deformity of temper and the lowest vice
+were depicted in an animal's face and bearing, this beast possessed them
+in an eminent degree. Although small and not beautiful to look at, he
+was very powerful, and had he been less vicious his price would have
+been treble what we obtained him for, but nobody cared to own him.
+
+How well I remember the first time he was loaded, how quietly he stood
+with the whites of his eyes rolling and girths swelled until all was
+apparently secure, and then in less time than I can relate, how saddle
+and swags were scattered to the winds.
+
+Smith was a determined fellow and a Yorkshireman to boot, and he had no
+intention of giving in to Jack; on the contrary, this little exhibition
+of devilry made him all the more determined to discover Jack's weak
+point and take the devil out of him.
+
+The pack saddle was gathered up and taken to the harness maker along
+with the animal, and the two were put together in such a manner that if
+he again bucked it off, some part of Jack's personality would have to
+accompany it. The next trial was more successful, and after a few
+attempts he gave in, and from that day he became a most docile pack
+horse.
+
+On the eve of starting we were joined by our mutual friend Legge, who
+had been some years overseer of a station. He was a smart, handy fellow,
+and although he did not contribute much in the way of financial
+assistance, we were glad to have him join our party, knowing him to be
+dependable, plucky, and good-tempered.
+
+At length we started, and after journeying through the scene of our late
+life on the Ashburton and Rangitata, we arrived without adventure at the
+then small town of Timaru on the sea coast, about a hundred miles south.
+
+Here we found the inhabitants in great excitement over news just arrived
+that gold had been discovered in large quantities on the Lindis, about
+one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin in Otago. We, in common
+with every one else, were, of course, immediately infected with the gold
+mania, the more so as we were bent on adventure of any kind that might
+turn up, and here was an unexpected piece of good fortune ready to our
+hands. During our few days sojourn at Timaru we made another addition to
+our party in the person of a man named Fowler, whom, at his urgent
+request, we permitted to accompany us in our now proposed expedition to
+the gold diggings.
+
+We arranged to start at once, and deferred preparations until we would
+arrive at Dunedin, the capital and port of Otago, and which, with fair
+marching, we hoped to reach on the third day.
+
+We travelled in the usual bush fashion, each man with his swags strapped
+before and behind his saddle, Jack the Devil carrying our provisions and
+cooking kit, etc. Upon halting for the night we selected some suitable
+spot near running water where wood for a fire could be obtained. Each
+unsaddled, watered, and tethered out his horse and carried his swags to
+the camping ground, where Jack's load was removed and placed ready for
+use. Then while one fetched water another collected a supply of firewood
+for the night. A roaring fire was made, water boiled for tea, flour and
+water mixed into a paste and fried in dripping or fat, with the meat we
+had brought along with us, or maybe a leg of mutton would be baked in
+the camp oven; and so, within an hour, we four bushmen would be
+squatting comfortably around our fire and enjoying an excellent supper.
+
+The meal being over we carefully washed and put away the utensils and
+food ready for the morning, and after visiting the horses, settled
+ourselves in our respective positions for the night, lit pipes, spun
+yarns, or sang songs, till drowsiness claimed us, and we disappeared
+under our blankets with our saddles for pillows and slept only as those
+who lead the life of a bushman can.
+
+We rose before daybreak, and ere the sun had well appeared had eaten our
+primitive breakfast and were in the saddle for the march. On the evening
+of the third day we reached the Waitaki river, which separates
+Canterbury from Otago, and is the largest in the South Island. The
+Waitaki was never fordable at this point, and passengers were ferried
+across in a small boat behind which the horses were swum. This latter is
+a somewhat dangerous operation unless expertly carried out; a horse
+which may be a powerful swimmer being able to work a swift stream so
+much faster than a boat can be rowed, there is danger that he may strike
+and overturn the latter, and so he must not be allowed to get above or
+ahead of the boat, but be kept in his place immediately behind.
+
+The boat on being started from one bank or shingle spit must have fair
+room to work obliquely to a lower landing place on the opposite side,
+without running foul of shoals or sandspits, and as the current runs
+with great rapidity the voyage across is usually three or four times as
+long as the stream is wide.
+
+At this river we found an accommodation house. I forget the name of the
+occupier, but I well recollect the appearance of the wretched structure,
+and of its landlord and landlady. What a pair of outcasts they looked,
+and how they existed on that wild bed of shingle! Their tastes must have
+been simplicity itself, and little satisfied them here below.
+
+The landlord and his wife, with one other man, who assisted with the
+boat, were the only sojourners on this desert bed. Few travellers stayed
+at their wretched tenement, because being only ten miles from Dunedin
+they were generally able to push on, and partly because the locality did
+not possess pasturage for horses; and so with the exception of what they
+derived from selling an occasional nip of poisonous liquor to a passing
+traveller, their emoluments were derived from the ferry alone.
+
+We were not fortunate enough to arrive in time to cross that evening,
+and were perforce obliged to stay at the accommodation hut till morning,
+or else return half a mile to where pasture was obtainable. The
+landlord, however, produced some hay and oats, and cleaned out his shed,
+in which we were able to put two of the horses, while the others were
+tied out, and so to save time and trouble we decided to make the best of
+what fare we could obtain.
+
+The house comprised one room with a closet or bar off it. In the room,
+which was well enough when lit up by a good fire, we all supped together
+round a rough table with boxes from the bar for seats, our food the
+usual description, the junk of mutton boiled with lumps of dough called
+damper, and the landlady produced some plates, while we used our own
+clasp knives. Soon after, our weary bodies were strewn over the floor
+wherever we could individually select a fairly even spot, and the
+landlady, I believe, retired into the bar.
+
+The following morning we put ourselves, horses, and baggage safely
+across the Waitaki, and by 10 o'clock arrived in Dunedin.
+
+Dunedin was situated, like Port Lyttelton, on rising undulating ground,
+encompassed by an amphitheatre of hills which, to the south, extended to
+a point or promontory and gave shelter to the little harbour. Also, like
+Lyttelton, the latter was an open roadstead, but on the town front was
+bounded by a steep bank from which the narrow strand beneath was reached
+by a wide cutting. The town was quite in its infancy, but already
+possessed some well-laid-out streets and handsome wooden buildings.
+
+As we anticipated, we found the good folk of Dunedin much exercised
+about the gold diggings. They were the first discovered in the country,
+and the town was in a fever of excitement for news of their success or
+otherwise. No very reliable information had come, but such as was
+obtainable appeared sufficiently satisfactory and encouraging to justify
+our making immediate arrangements for transporting ourselves thither.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     OUR EVENTFUL JOURNEY TO THE LINDIS GOLD DIGGINGS.
+
+
+The Lindis was one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin. There
+was no road, and but for a portion of the way up the valley of the
+Waitaki only a rough bullock dray track leading to some isolated sheep
+and cattle stations, beyond which there was literally no track at all.
+The country was mountainous, and early winter having set in, it was
+supposed that much of the higher latitudes would be covered with snow,
+but beyond the fact that numbers of pedestrians had during the past
+fortnight proceeded towards the Lindis, and that a ship-load of diggers
+had arrived from Victoria and were hourly leaving the town, we had
+nothing reliable to guide us. We heard that the few sheep-farmers on the
+route were much opposed to the influx of diggers, and had publicly
+notified that they would not encourage or give them any accommodation on
+their stations. This was alarming for the time, but fortunately the
+information proved correct in only one instance. It led us, however, to
+make such preparation for our journey as would render us to a great
+extent independent of assistance on the way.
+
+We purchased a strong one-horse dray which we loaded with about 10 cwt.
+of provisions, in the form of flour, tea, sugar, salt, ship biscuits, a
+small quantity of spirits for medicinal use and tobacco. Also two small
+calico tents, some cooking utensils and blankets, with bush tools,
+spades, picks, and axes.
+
+Legge's horse had been broken to harness, and mine was an excellent
+draught horse. I omitted to mention that at Timaru I had exchanged my
+mare for a strong gelding which had previously run in the mail cart,
+getting £10 boot. The swap proved a fortunate one for us, as neither
+Smith's nor Fowler's animals had ever been in harness, and "Jack the
+Devil" was out of the question. Legge's horse and mine therefore were
+destined for the dray, tandem fashion, and upon trial they pulled
+splendidly.
+
+When the dray was loaded and covered over with a large waterproof
+tarpaulin, and our two fine horses yoked thereto, it looked a very
+business-like turn-out. Two of us took it in turn to walk beside the
+horses and conduct the team, while the other two rode, accompanied by
+"Jack," his pack-saddle laden with our needs for the day and night
+halts.
+
+One fine morning in June, 1861, we started from Dunedin, with our
+handsome team, the first of its kind that ever travelled the road we
+were going, and we started from the smiling little town amidst the
+cheers and good wishes of those we left behind.
+
+For the first few days all was fairly smooth sailing. We travelled about
+twenty miles each day, camping or resting independently of stations, and
+the track so far being formed by wool drays, was on the whole feasible,
+although we had occasionally to make good the crossings over creeks and
+rivers.
+
+On the evening of the third day we arrived at a small cattle station
+belonging to a Mr. Davis, where were a number of diggers resting for the
+night. Mr. Davis was one of those hospitably inclined to the diggers,
+but as he could not be expected to feed such numbers for nothing, he
+notified that meals would be charged for at one shilling per head. This
+was eagerly and gratefully responded to, and upwards of two hundred men
+were assembled at the station the evening we arrived.
+
+The kitchen and dining hut being unable to accommodate more than twelve
+or fifteen at once, a multitude had to remain outside while each gang
+went in, in turn, to be fed.
+
+Inside the scene was curious. An enormous fire of logs blazed on the
+hearth, which occupied one entire end of the hut, over which were
+suspended two huge pots filled with joints of mutton, beef, and
+doughboys, boiling indiscriminately together. They were frequently being
+removed to the table and others substituted in their place. The pots
+were flanked by large kettles of water, into which, when on the boil, a
+handful or two of tea would be thrown. After a few minutes the decoction
+would be poured into an iron bucket, some milk and sugar added, and
+placed upon the table, where each man helped himself by dipping his
+pannikin therein.
+
+Fortunately the hungry seekers after gold were not particular about
+their meat being a shade over or under cooked; they were glad to accept
+what they got, and indeed right wholesome food it was. The doughboys
+were simply large lumps of dough, made of flour and water, used as a
+substitute for bread, of which a sufficient quantity could not be
+prepared for the immense demand.
+
+We obtained our turn in due time, and after a hearty meal retired to the
+quarters we had pitched upon for the night--viz., a straw shed where we
+rolled our blanket around us and slept soundly.
+
+The following evening, after a severe day's journey, we arrived wet and
+fagged at the next station, Miller and Gooche's. Here a similar scene
+was being enacted, and here, in common with many other diggers, we were
+obliged to remain for several days owing to severe weather setting in.
+
+Miller and Gooche's station was situated at the junction of a tributary
+stream with the Waitaki, at the entrance of a rugged and mountainous
+gorge. From this point our real difficulties were to begin, as we would
+diverge from the main valley we had hitherto followed, and work our way
+over a rough tract of hilly country, up ravines and spurs to the great
+pass, then pretty certain to be covered with snow.
+
+For the four days during which we were detained at this station it
+rained, sleeted, and snowed alternately and unceasingly. There were
+upwards of one hundred and fifty men there, and the station running
+short of flour, a supply had to be procured from Davis's, where luckily
+a large store had been collected.
+
+Most diggers possessed nothing beyond the clothes they wore, with a
+blanket and a kettle, and many had no money wherewith to pay for food,
+so the squatters were obliged to make a virtue of necessity and give
+free where there was no chance of payment, and this they did right
+willingly. As for the diggers, I must say so much for them that, rough
+fellows as they were, they paid freely and gratefully all they could,
+and I did not hear of a single instance of robbery or outrage save one,
+and we were the victims of that. It was merely the abstraction,
+emptying, and replacing on our dray of a case of "Old Tom," all the
+spirits we possessed, and we did not discover the loss until too late
+for any chance of detecting the delinquents.
+
+At Miller and Gooche's we passed four very miserable days. The two small
+huts and the sheep shed were filled to overflowing, and we lay on the
+floor of the latter at night, cold, stiff, dirty, and packed into our
+places like sardines. The rain and sleet, slop, cold, and offensive
+odour combined would need to be experienced to be appreciated; it was
+indescribable and the greatest and most disagreeable of anything I
+experienced before or since of such a mixture.
+
+At length the weather cleared, and in company with another dray just
+arrived from Dunedin, and got up in imitation of ours, we started for
+the pass, not without grave misgivings of what might be before us.
+
+The first day we made five miles. Our route lay along the course of a
+large creek bounded both sides by precipitous hills. The recent rain had
+swollen the stream, and either obliterated or washed away the rough dray
+track, which even at its best was not suited for the passage of a horse
+team. We were therefore obliged to cut a way in and out of the nullah
+wherever we crossed; so some idea may be formed of our day's work. We
+were fortunate in being accompanied by the fresh dray, indeed without
+it, and the assistance given by a number of the diggers who kept with
+us, and with whom we shared our food, I do not think we would have
+succeeded in getting over the Lindis Pass, at any rate not nearly so
+expeditiously as we did. When we came to an exceptionally difficult and
+steep pull, the drays were taken over one at a time with three horses
+yoked, and all hands helping them.
+
+On the morning of the second day we were still four miles from the pass,
+and it took very severe work from men and horses to negotiate the
+remainder of that fast narrowing, steep and rugged bed, and late in the
+afternoon to reach the summit. It was, as we anticipated, covered with
+snow.
+
+The cold that night was intense, and we had difficulty in procuring
+before dark set in enough brushwood to keep up a small fire for more
+than a few hours. It was here we discovered the loss of the "Old Tom"
+which we had meant to save for just such a special occasion as this. Now
+that we were half-frozen and without means of bettering our condition
+for the night, it was proposed to open the first bottle, and have a nip
+round for ourselves and comrades. Our chagrin and disappointment may be
+imagined when we found the twelve bottles to contain only water.
+
+I often wondered how we got through that night; one or two of us alone
+must surely have perished. Our safety lay in our number. We rolled our
+blankets tightly round us and lay down close together on the wet and now
+fast freezing ground, and lit our pipes, and then we slept. Tired as we
+were, nothing could keep sleep from us--even if we were to be frozen
+during it.
+
+For the horses we had collected a little grass and carried it on the
+drays, but they had a bad time of it, and the icicles hung from their
+manes and tails in the morning as they stood shivering with their backs
+turned to the keen mountain blast.
+
+However, we all survived, and were none the worse, and as soon as it was
+light we gathered enough brushwood to make a rousing fire, by which we
+melted the frozen snow and ice from our blankets, and from the harness
+before we could put it on the horses.
+
+We soon finished a hearty breakfast of mutton grilled in the hot ashes,
+and hot tea, and proceeded to get ready for the day's work, which we
+knew would be a heavy one if we were to get over the pass before
+sundown.
+
+It was two miles to the top, but such a two miles to take a horse dray
+over. The gradient was not only very steep and rough, but it was covered
+with six to eighteen inches of snow, except in some few exposed parts
+where it had drifted off and left the surface nearly bare. There was no
+track to guide us beyond a very uncertain and irregular one made by a
+few pedestrians and horses who had preceded us the evening before when
+we had been delayed by the drays.
+
+We decided to take the drays over separately, yoking all four horses to
+each in turn, tandem fashion, by means of ropes with which we were well
+provided. Just as we were about to start the first, a party of diggers
+arrived, who volunteered to push and spoke the wheels. Thanks to these
+men and the game, honest horses, our difficulties were considerably
+lightened. Some went before to clear the snow where it lay thickest, but
+this was soon abandoned as labour in vain.
+
+We found that the utmost efforts of the four horses, assisted by half a
+dozen men, were only sufficient to drag the dray from twenty to fifty
+yards at a spurt, then on stopping to take a breath a log was thrown
+behind the wheels, and after a few moments' rest another spurt was made,
+and so on.
+
+Our progress was so satisfactory that before nightfall both drays were
+safely over the pass and we had proceeded down the opposite side as far
+as an out-station of McLean's, on whose run we now were. Here we learned
+to our joy that we were within twenty-five miles of the reported
+diggings, with a fairly passable track all the way.
+
+Mr. R. McLean was a wealthy sheep farmer who had originally made his
+money on the Australian goldfields. His present attitude therefore
+towards the diggers was considered the more cruel. He had given orders
+at all his out-stations that neither food nor shelter was to be afforded
+them, and upon our arrival at the shepherd's hut aforesaid, the
+occupant, a worthy Scotsman, informed us with regret that we would have
+to arrange for our accommodation in the open, it being as much as his
+place was worth to feed or shelter diggers. This was unpleasant news,
+as we hoped to have taken up our quarters in his hut that night after
+our severe camping out the previous four days.
+
+Although the diggings broke out in McLean's run he had no power to
+prevent the land being worked upon, excepting only such portions of it
+as were private property, but he discouraged and put obstacles in the
+way of the diggers in any form he could, some said because he knew as an
+experienced digger himself that they would not pay. Whether this was the
+case or not, he might have understood the impossibility of stopping a
+gold rush in its infancy, while its value was still an unknown quantity.
+
+Our last stage the following day was for the greater part by one of the
+most picturesque valleys I had yet seen. Mr. McLean had made a very fair
+road from the Lindis Pass boundary to his home station, which latter was
+only some five miles from the diggings, so it was very different
+travelling to what we had experienced on the other side. The track first
+wound along a deep ravine with rugged precipitous sides, mostly clothed
+with evergreen underwood from which huge masses of rock would now and
+then emerge, and sometimes overhanging a rushing torrent which had been
+swelled by the recent heavy rains and thus enhanced the effect on this
+glorious sunny morning. The waterfalls and cascades sparkled in a
+hundred colours, wheeling, foaming, and dashing in a mad race amidst
+huge rocks, till lost in shadow beneath a precipice or overhanging mass
+of variegated bush. The gorge then opened out into a level amphitheatre,
+with the river, grown calm and broad, winding peacefully, and surrounded
+by the mountains in all their enchanting shades of colour, and the
+distant peaks capped with snow.
+
+Then another gorge of more imposing grandeur with a magnificent view
+beyond and through it, closed in turn by a sombre pine forest swept by
+the river, now grown larger and deeper, dancing and racing like a living
+thing in the brilliant sunshine and rare atmosphere of a New Zealand
+morning.
+
+How well I remember the whole trip with all its roughness and all its
+beauty, its very contrasts no doubt helping to impress it upon the
+memory. Such scenes and incidents are difficult to forget, even if one
+would, and each and all are as distinct to my mind in almost every
+detail at this moment as if I had been with them only yesterday, instead
+of more than forty years ago.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     LIFE ON THE GOLD DIGGINGS.
+
+
+And now I will endeavour to picture my impression of the gold diggings
+as they appeared on that same evening.
+
+After passing through one of the most beautiful of the Lindis gorges we
+found ourselves at the entrance of a wide tract of open and undulating
+country, almost bare of anything beyond short yellow grass, encompassed
+on all sides by hills which stretched away westward to the snow-crowned
+mountains. The extent of the open was from one to two miles square, and
+through its centre--or nearly so--the Lindis flowed in a rocky bed.
+Along the river and far up the downs on either side were sprinkled
+hundreds of little tents with their hundreds of fires and rising eddies
+of smoke. The banks of the river were crowded with men at work, some in
+the water, some out, others pitching tents or tending horses, some
+constructing rough furniture, cradles and long Toms for washing gold,
+hundreds of horses tethered among the tents or upon the open, and above
+all the suppressed hum of a busy multitude.
+
+On all new gold diggings it was usual to establish a self-constituted
+form of government among the diggers themselves, which in the absence of
+any regular police force or law of the land was responsible for the
+protection and good conduct of the entire community. Some capable man
+was elected as president and chief, before whom all cases of
+misdemeanour were heard, and whose decisions and powers to inflict
+punishment were final. Under such rule, crude as it was, the utmost good
+conduct usually prevailed, and any glaring instances of robbery or crime
+were not only rare, but severely dealt with.
+
+To this man we reported our arrival, and a camping ground was pointed
+out to us. It was too late to do anything towards preparing a permanent
+camp that night, but at daybreak the following morning we were hard at
+work, and by evening had made ourselves a comfortable hut.
+
+We marked out a rectangle of 12 ft. by 10 ft., the size of our largest
+tent, around which we raised a sod wall two feet high, which we
+plastered inside with mud. Over the walls we rigged up our tent,
+securing it by stays and poles set in triangles at each extremity. At
+one end we built a capacious fireplace and chimney eight feet wide,
+leaving two feet for a doorway. The chimney was built of green sods,
+also plastered within, and our door was a piece of old sacking weighted
+and let fall over the opening. Around the hut we cut a good drain to
+convey away rain water. At the upper end of the hut we raised a rough
+framework of green timber cut from the neighbouring scrub, one foot high
+and six wide, thus taking up exactly half of our house. Upon this we
+spread a plentiful supply of dry grass to form our common bed. Our
+working tools and other gear found place underneath, and with a few
+roughly made stools and the empty "Old Tom" case for a table, our
+mansion was complete.
+
+It was not yet night when our work was done, and some of us strolled
+about to obtain any information available. This was not as satisfactory
+as we could have desired. Very many had been disappointed, gold was not
+found in sufficient quantities to pay, and prospectors were out in every
+direction. It was early yet, however, to condemn the diggings, and the
+grumblers and the disappointed are always present in every undertaking,
+so we comforted ourselves, and sought dinner and the night's sleep we
+were so much in need of.
+
+The usual requisites for a digger are, a spade, pick, shovel, long Tom
+or cradle, and a wide lipped flat iron dish (not unlike an ordinary
+wash-hand basin) for final washing.
+
+The long Tom consists of a wooden trough or race, twelve to fifteen feet
+long and two feet wide; its lower end is fitted into an iron screen or
+grating, fixed immediately above a box or tray of the same size. To work
+the machine it is set so that a stream of water obtained by damming up a
+little of the river is allowed to pass quickly and constantly down the
+race, and through the grating into the box at the other end.
+
+The "stuff" in which the gold is supposed to be is thrown into the race,
+where, by the action of the current of water, the earth, stones, rubbish
+and light matter are washed away and the heavy sand, etc., falls through
+the grating into the box. As frequently as necessary this box is removed
+and another substituted, when the contents are washed carefully by means
+of the basin. By degrees all the sand and foreign matter is washed away,
+leaving only the gold.
+
+The cradle is very similar to what it is named after, a child's swing
+cot. It is simply a suspended wooden box, fitted with an iron grating
+and tray beneath into which the "stuff" is cradled or washed by rocking
+it by hand.
+
+It takes considerable experience of the art of finding gold to enable a
+man to fix on a good site for commencing operations. There are of course
+instances of wonderful luck and unexpected success, but they are very
+much the exception, and form but a diminutive proportion of the fortune
+of any gold diggings. We hear of the man who has found a big nugget and
+made a fortune, but nothing of the thousands who don't find any big
+nuggets, and earn but bare wages or often less.
+
+On most diggings a large proportion of the men are working for wages
+only, and it not infrequently depends on the fortune of the employer
+whether the labourer receives his wages or not. It may be a case of
+general smash. We saw much of this on the Lindis diggings. They were not
+a general success at that time, as we soon discovered to our cost; and
+many who went there wildly hoping to find gold for the picking up, and
+with no means to withstand a reverse, were only too glad to work for
+those who had means to carry on for a while, for their food only.
+
+We procured a long Tom, and spent some days prospecting with variable
+success--_i.e._, we found gold nearly everywhere, each shovelful of
+earth contained gold, but in quantities so generally infinitesimal as to
+be not worth the time spent in working for it. The land was impregnated
+with gold, but the difficulty was to find it in sufficient quantity to
+pay.
+
+We at length fixed upon a claim and set up our gear. From daylight to
+dark we worked day after day, excavating, cradling, and washing, each
+one taking it in turns to look after the horses and tent and fetch food
+from the camp, which was at some distance away. The final washing of the
+stuff was done twice daily, at noon and again at evening, and what an
+exciting and anxious operation this was! How earnestly the decreasing
+sediment was peered at to discover signs of the precious metal! How our
+hearts would jump with delight when a bright yellow grain was
+discovered, appearing for a moment on the dark surface, then more
+careful washing, with beating hearts and necks craning over the fateful
+dish as the mass got less and less, and then the sinking and
+disappointment to find that the day's hard work of four men did not
+bring us five shillings worth of gold! But hope, with the young and
+sanguine, is hard to beat, and the following morning would see us at
+work as cheerily as ever.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLD DIGGINGS.]
+
+A fortnight after our arrival our provisions ran short, and we were
+obliged to have recourse to the stores, of which two had been started by
+an enterprising firm in Dunedin, and soon after we were nearly having a
+famine, owing to the stores themselves running short by reason of the
+drays conveying supplies having been snowed up in crossing the pass.
+McLean was applied to, but he refused, and it was fortunate for him that
+a caravan arrived before the diggers were actually in want.
+
+With this caravan arrived a pedlar and a liquor merchant, two such
+characters as cannot well be found except on a gold diggings. They
+carried with them a plentiful supply of slop clothes, boots, tools, and
+spirits, etc., and as luck--or ill luck--would have it, they pitched
+their camp alongside ours.
+
+One of these men rarely did business without the other. If a digger came
+to purchase a pair of trousers or boots the bargain was never completed
+to the satisfaction of both parties without a glass of spirits at the
+adjacent grog shop to clinch it; and at night, when the diggers would
+drop round the latter for a glass, many pairs of breeches, boots, or
+other articles were disposed of under the happy influence of wine and
+company.
+
+[Illustration: PEDDLARS AT THE DIGGINGS.]
+
+These men are to be met with in all parts of the Colonies where crowds
+are collected, and they are usually of Jewish origin. There was nothing
+objectionable about them; they were simply shrewd, energetic men of
+business, ready without actual dishonesty to take every possible
+advantage of the wants and weaknesses of their fellow men. We had some
+pleasant evenings in their company, and many a jovial song and dance
+they treated us to, for which, no doubt, they succeeded in extracting
+good value for their wind and muscle.
+
+Meat was scarce on the diggings, and at times for days together we had
+none. McLean indeed did not refuse to sell fat cattle, but he demanded
+prohibitive prices, and so it was customary to procure meat from a
+distance.
+
+We had been now two months on the Lindis, our funds instead of
+increasing were diminishing, and we saw little or no hope of a change
+for the better. An exodus had already commenced, and the incomers were
+daily decreasing in number.
+
+After holding a council meeting in our hut, it was decided that our camp
+be broken up, and that we should all return together as far as Davis's
+station, from whence two should proceed to Dunedin with the dray, while
+the other two should purchase some fat beasts and drive them to the
+diggings for sale.
+
+The tents and tools were disposed of to a newly arrived group of
+Australian diggers at a fair enough price, and we disposed of all the
+remaining gear we did not actually need on the return journey, taking
+with us little beyond the empty dray, and all being ready we bade
+farewell to the Lindis diggings, and once more started on our uncertain
+and adventurous travels.
+
+I omitted to mention that during our residence on the Lindis we were
+sadly troubled with rats. There must have been millions in the locality,
+and it was very difficult to guard our food from their depredations.
+During the day they mostly disappeared until sundown, when they came in
+swarms to the tents. Sitting by the fire in the evening I have
+frequently killed a dozen with a short stick as they approached
+fearlessly in search of food, and during the night we got accustomed to
+sharing our common bed with a goodly number of the rascals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     WE LEAVE THE LINDIS--ATTEMPT TO DRIVE FAT CATTLE TO THE
+     DIGGINGS AND FAIL--RETURN TO DUNEDIN.
+
+
+On the return journey we had as much company as when we came, and the
+road was even worse, but the dray being almost empty we experienced less
+difficulty in proceeding. The first day took us out of McLean's run, and
+the second saw us at nightfall on Miller and Gooche's side of the pass,
+which was still snowed over, but the traffic had worked the track up
+into deep slush and mud, and late in the evening we were near losing the
+dray and horses in a swamp we had inadvertently entered while seeking a
+better passage. With the assistance of some friendly diggers we
+succeeded in extricating them, but the unfortunate accident prevented
+our proceeding further that night, and we passed it on the borders of
+the swamp where not an atom of firewood could be obtained. The ground
+was in a puddle of melted snow and mud, not a dry spot to be found. We
+were muddy and wet from head to foot, without the means of making even a
+pannikin of tea, and the night was pitch dark. We just crouched down
+together by the dray, hungry, shivering, and fagged. Sleep, of course,
+was out of the question, and we had constantly to clap our arms to keep
+the blood in circulation. Towards midnight intense frost set in. We
+smoked incessantly; in that, I think, was to a great extent our safety.
+
+We did not remove the harness from the horses, which were tied to the
+dray without any food for the night. The following morning at eleven
+o'clock we arrived at Miller and Gooche's, where we had to melt the ice
+off our leggings and boots before we could remove them--and what a
+breakfast we ate! Nobody who has not experienced what it is to starve on
+a healthy stomach for thirty hours and spend most of that time on a
+mountain pass under snow and frost can understand how we appreciated our
+food.
+
+The next day we reached Davis's, when Fowler and Legge left us for
+Dunedin, and Smith and I arranged with Davis for the purchase of a
+couple of fat steers for £12 10s. each, hoping that if we succeeded in
+driving them to the diggings we would double our money.
+
+In the afternoon we went with Davis to the run, and selected the
+animals, which we drove with a mob to the stockyard. Here we separated
+our pair and put them in another yard for a start in the morning.
+Driving a couple of wild bullocks alone from their run is, as I have
+already explained, by no means an easy task, and Davis warned us that
+these would give us trouble--indeed, I believe he considered us slightly
+mad to attempt to drive the beasts such a distance at all.
+
+On first starting we had no small difficulty in preventing them
+returning to the run, and it cost us some hard galloping to get them
+away on the road to Miller and Gooche's, where it was our intention to
+yard for the night.
+
+We had proceeded to within a mile of the station, when the brutes for
+the twentieth time bolted, on this occasion taking to the hills over
+some low spurs and rocky ground, intersected with ravines and gullies. I
+was riding hard to intercept them when I was suddenly sent flying on to
+my head, turning a somersault on to a rough bank of spear grass. Shaking
+myself together and somewhat recovering from the shock, I discovered the
+tail and stern of my steed projecting above the ground, the remainder of
+him being invisible. It appeared he had planted his fore feet in a deep
+fissure covered with long grass, and just large enough to take in head
+and fore parts. The shock sent me over, as I described, while he
+remained stuck.
+
+It was a ridiculous position, and tired, sore from the spear-grass, and
+annoyed as I was, I could not refrain from a hearty laugh at our
+predicament before attempting to extricate my unhappy quadruped; this I
+succeeded in doing with some difficulty, and found him, with the
+exception of some few scratches, quite unhurt.
+
+I again mounted, but the wily steers had disappeared, and Smith was
+nowhere to be seen, I rode quietly on and presently discovered the
+latter, himself and horse dead beat, and using very unparliamentary
+language at our bad luck, at the beasts, and at gold diggings in
+general.
+
+We had nothing for it but to go back to Miller's for the night. The
+following day we returned to Davis's, where we found the bullocks had
+arrived the night before, and Davis, after a laugh at our misadventures,
+returned us the £25, and the same evening we left for Dunedin. We camped
+some ten miles further down the Waitaki, with a very eccentric personage
+in the form of an old retired clergyman of the Church of England. He
+lived like a hermit in a small hut under the hills, which he had built
+himself, as well as some outbuildings and a capital little bakery, which
+he was very proud of. He cultivated a small plot of ground, where he
+grew potatoes and other vegetables and kept a cow, and he possessed
+several cats and a couple of fine collie dogs. He gave food--especially
+bread--to any traveller passing who needed it, and free quarters for the
+night. He showed us a small canoe in which he was in the habit of
+paddling himself across the river, and was always ready to obey a call
+to any, even distant, station where his services were needed in a case
+of illness, death, or marriage. He was a most entertaining host, and we
+enjoyed the night we spent with him in his curious and lonely
+habitation. We heard that he had suffered some severe domestic calamity,
+which drove him to his present lonely life, but he spent his days in
+doing all the good that lay in his power, and doubtless many a passing
+traveller was the better in more ways than one for meeting the old
+recluse.
+
+On arriving at Dunedin we found that Legge had already disposed of the
+dray satisfactorily, and Smith finding a purchaser for his horse he
+parted with him, thus placing us all in funds. It was decided then that
+Smith and Legge should take the coasting steamer to Port Lyttelton,
+while I proceeded overland with my own horse and "Jack the Devil,"
+arranging to meet at Christchurch. Fowler left us at Dunedin, and we saw
+him no more.
+
+My journey back was uneventful, but happening to meet with Bains, of the
+Post, the original owner of my horse, we exchanged mounts for a
+consideration of £5 transferred from his pocket to mine. He wanted his
+harness horse back, while I needed only a saddle horse, so the exchange
+was a satisfactory one in every way, and enabled me to hasten my journey
+to Christchurch, where I found Legge and Smith awaiting me.
+
+We sold Jack for twice what he cost us, and squared accounts for the
+trip, which, although it did not fulfill the brilliant expectations with
+which we started upon it, was nevertheless an interesting and pleasant
+experience, and one which we would have been sorry to have missed.
+
+I found home letters awaiting me, with renewed requests from my father
+to return while there was time to resume my studies, and offering me
+further assistance if I needed it. I declined all, feeling that I could
+not now renounce the life I had chosen, and it would not be right of me,
+in opposition to his opinion, to accept any financial assistance even
+had I needed it, which was not the case. I had tried most phases of a
+colonial life, had gained a great deal of experience, and knew that I
+could always obtain remunerative employment, and after I had enjoyed a
+little more rambling and freedom I could decide on some fixed line to
+settle down upon. In the meantime there was no immediate hurry, and I
+was very young.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     LEAVE FOR MESOPOTAMIA--ROAD MAKING--SHEEP MUSTERING--DEATH OF
+     DR. SINCLAIR--ROAD CONTRACTS ON THE ASHBURTON--WASHED DOWN STREAM.
+
+
+I had only been a few days in Christchurch when I met a Mr. Butler whom
+I had once before seen up-country. He immediately offered me a post on
+his run at £60 a year, with all expenses paid, which I could hold for as
+long or short time as I needed. This exactly suited me in my present
+circumstances. I accepted his offer and started the following day for
+Mesopotamia, as he had quaintly named his station; it lay between two
+rivers.
+
+[Illustration: MESOPOTAMIA STATION.]
+
+Mr. Samuel Butler was a grandson of the late famous Bishop Butler. He
+had come to New Zealand about a year previously with a small fortune
+which, as he said, he intended to double and then return home, and he
+did so in a remarkably short time. Immediately he landed he made himself
+acquainted with the maps and districts taken up, and rode many hundreds
+of miles prospecting for new country. His energy was rewarded by the
+discovery of the unclaimed piece of mountain land he now occupied near
+the upper gorge of the Rangitata. The run, which comprised about 8,000
+acres, formed a series of spurs and slopes leading from the foot of the
+great range and ending in a broad strip of flat land bounded by the
+Rangitata. Upon two other sides were smaller streams, tributaries of the
+latter--hence the name Mesopotamia (between the rivers) given to it by
+its energetic possessor. Mr. Butler had been established upon the run
+about a year, and had already about 3,000 sheep on it. The homestead was
+built upon a little plateau on the edge of the downs approached by a
+cutting from the flat, and was most comfortably situated and well
+sheltered, as it needed to be, the weather being often exceedingly
+severe in that elevated locality.
+
+Butler was a literary man, and his snug sitting-room was fitted with
+books and easy chairs--a piano also, upon which he was no mean
+performer.
+
+The station hands comprised a shepherd, bullock driver, hutkeeper, and
+two station hands employed in fencing in paddocks, which with Cook, the
+overseer, Butler, and myself made up the total.
+
+At daybreak we all assembled in the common kitchen for breakfast, after
+which we separated for our different employments.
+
+At 12 noon we met again for dinner, and again about 7 p.m. for supper,
+which meal being over, Butler, Cook, and I would repair to the sitting
+room, and round a glorious fire smoked or read or listened to Butler's
+piano. It was the most civilised experience I had had of up-country life
+since I left Highfield and was very enjoyable. I did not, however,
+remain very long at Mesopotamia at that time.
+
+There was a proposal on foot to improve the track leading from the
+Ashburton to the Rangitata on which some heavy cuttings were required to
+be made. I applied for the contract and obtained it at rates which paid
+me very well. My supervisor was a man called Denny, who had been a
+sailor, and I knew him to be a capable and handy fellow, as most sailors
+are. He was quite illiterate--could not even read or write, but he was
+clever and intelligent and had seen a great deal of colonial life and
+some hard times. Every night when supper was over and we sat by the fire
+in our little hut, I read aloud, to his great delectation, and his
+remarks, pert questions, and wonderful memory were remarkable.
+
+This work paid well, and I was soon in a position to make my first
+investment of £100 in sheep, which I placed on terms on Butler's run. To
+explain this transaction: I purchased one hundred two tooth ewes at a
+pound each, upon these I was to receive 45 per cent. increase yearly in
+lambs, half male and half female, and a similar rate of percentage of
+course on the female increase as they attained to breeding age. In
+addition I was to receive £12 10s. per hundred sheep for wool annually.
+It was a good commencement, and I decided to stick to contract work if
+possible, and increase my stock till I had sufficient to enable me to
+obtain a small partnership on a run.
+
+Just at this time there arrived at Mesopotamia a friend of Butler's by
+name Brabazon, an Irishman of good family, it being his intention to
+remain for some time as a cadet to learn sheep farming. He became a
+great personal friend of Cook's and mine, and many a pleasant day we
+spent together when, during intervals of rest, I was able to pay a visit
+to the Rangitata Station.
+
+On the completion of the road contract, the mustering season had begun,
+and I went over with my men to give a hand and remained for a month
+assisting at the shearing, etc.
+
+I think it was at this time that a most sad occurrence took place,
+resulting in the death of Dr. Sinclair, who was travelling for pleasure
+in company with Dr. Haast, Geologist and Botanist to the Government of
+Canterbury. He and Dr. Haast with their party had been staying at
+Mesopotamia for a few days previous to starting on an expedition to the
+upper gorge of the Rangitata. They all left one afternoon, Dr. Sinclair,
+as usual, on foot. He had an unaccountable aversion to mounting a horse,
+and could not be induced to do so when it was possible to avoid it.
+Strange to say, a horse was eventually the cause of his death. He was a
+man of some seventy years of age with snow white hair, a learned
+antiquary and botanist, and old as he was, and in appearance not of
+strong build, he could undergo great fatigue and walk huge distances in
+pursuit of his favourite science.
+
+The party had proceeded in company some few miles up the river, when
+Haast and his men went ahead to select a camping place, leaving Dr.
+Sinclair with a man and horse in attendance to come on quietly and take
+him over the streams, the intended camp being on the opposite side of
+the river.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER GORGE OF THE RANGITATA.]
+
+The plan adopted for crossing a stream, when there is more than one
+person and only a single horse, is as follows: One end of a sufficiently
+long rope is fastened round the animal's neck, the other being held by
+one of the men. One then crosses the stream on horseback, when he
+dismounts, and the horse is hauled back by means of the rope, when
+another mounts, and so on. In this instance the attendant rode over
+first, but the stream being somewhat broader than the rope was long, the
+latter was pulled out of Dr. Sinclair's hands. The man then tried to
+turn the horse back loose, but the animal, finding himself free, bolted
+for the run. Dr. Sinclair called to the man that he would ford the
+stream on foot, and although, as the attendant stated, he warned him
+against attempting to do so, he immediately entered, but the current was
+too powerful and quickly washed him off his feet. It was now nearly dark
+and the man said that although he ran as fast as he was able down the
+stream, he was unable to see anything of the Doctor. This was the
+miserable story the station hand gave in at the homestead when he
+arrived an hour afterwards.
+
+All hands turned out, and having mounts in the paddock, Cook and
+Brabazon were soon in the saddle galloping towards the fording place.
+Striking the stream some distance below where the accident occurred,
+both sides were carefully searched, as they worked up. When within a
+quarter of a mile of the ford Cook discovered the body of the Doctor
+lying stranded with head and shoulders under water. Life, of course, was
+extinct. He was drawn gently from the stream and laid on the shingle
+just as the foot men arrived with torches. It was a sad spectacle, this
+fine old man we all loved and respected so much, only a few hours before
+full of life and health, now a ghastly corpse, his hair and long white
+beard lying dank over his cold white face and glaring eyes. The scene
+was rendered all the more weird and awful by the surroundings, the still
+dark night, the rushing water, and overhanging cliffs under the red
+glare of the torches. His body was laid across one of the saddles while
+one walked on each side to keep it from falling, and so they returned to
+the station that lonely four miles in the dead of night.
+
+He was laid in the woolshed and a watch placed on guard, and early in
+the morning a messenger was despatched to Dr. Haast with the sad
+tidings. His party were at first alarmed at his non-appearance the
+previous evening, but at length took it for granted that he must have
+returned to the station, and felt confident that with his attendant and
+a horse he could not possibly have come to any harm, the river being
+easily fordable on horseback, or even on foot by a strong man, but of
+course such a clumsy mistake as employing too short a rope never struck
+anybody. The attendant who was responsible was one of the hands employed
+on ditching and fencing, and possibly was not much experienced at river
+fording, and he said the Doctor delayed so long botanising that darkness
+was upon them by the time they reached the fording place.
+
+Dr. Sinclair's remains were interred the following day about a mile from
+the homestead on the flat near the south bank of the Rangitata, where
+his tomb doubtless may now be seen, his last earthly resting place; and,
+dear old man, with all his strong antipathy to horses, what would he
+have thought could he have known that one was destined at last to be the
+cause of his death?
+
+As a set-off against the previous sad story I may relate an amusing one,
+in which I was myself a principal actor, and which occurred soon after
+my arrival at Mesopotamia. Butler was much exercised about some
+experimental grass-growing he was carrying on about three miles from the
+station, on the further side of one of the boundary streams I first
+referred to, where he had recently secured another slice of country.
+
+Early one morning I had started alone on foot for the paddocks, where
+Butler and Cook were to meet me later, riding, and if I found the stream
+too high to ford on foot, I was to await their arrival.
+
+On reaching the river it was so swollen as to be unsafe to attempt
+fording, and so, lighting my pipe, I sat down under the shelter of a
+large boulder, and presently fell asleep. When I woke up, after some
+considerable time, and remembered where I was, I feared that Cook and
+Butler must have passed while I slept, and was on the point of returning
+to the station, when I observed two horsemen a long way down stream,
+apparently searching for something. I speedily understood what was on
+foot. My friends were laboriously seeking for my dead body, having
+naturally supposed, when they could not find me at the paddock, that I
+had tried to ford the river and been washed away. The idea of these two
+men spending the morning hunting for a supposed drowned man, who was
+enjoying a sound sleep near them all the time, was so ludicrous that I
+could not refrain from an immoderate fit of laughter when they arrived.
+
+Butler was hot-tempered, and anything approaching to ridicule where he
+himself was concerned was a mortal insult. He turned pale with passion
+and rode off, and I do not think he ever entirely forgave me for not
+being drowned when he had undertaken so much trouble to discover my
+body.
+
+It was at Mesopotamia that I noticed so many remains of that extinct
+bird, the "Moa," and it appeared that some of the species had inhabited
+that locality not very many years previously. Indeed, some old Maoris I
+had met on the Ashburton said they remembered the bird very well. It was
+not uncommon to come across a quantity of bones, and near by them a heap
+of smooth pebbles which the bird had carried in his craw for digestive
+purposes, and I recollect one day employing a number of the bones in
+making a footway over a small creek.
+
+A complete skeleton of the Moa bird is to be seen in the British
+Museum.
+
+I had now obtained a fresh contract for making cuttings, draining
+swamps, and bridging over some ten miles in the Lower Ashburton gorge
+and Valley, and I was busily engaged all the summer and autumn. There
+were some extensive patches of swampy ground where great difficulty was
+experienced in passing the heavy wool drays, and to make a feasible road
+over them was one of my tasks, and an interesting one it proved, giving
+some scope to my engineering ability. Having laid out the proposed line
+of road over the marsh, I cut from it at right angles, and some 300 feet
+in length, a channel wide and deep enough, I calculated, to convey away
+the flood water during heavy rains, and from the upper end of this
+channel I cut four feeding drains, two running along the road line, and
+two diagonally, all four meeting at the top end of the main channel;
+over the latter, at this point, I constructed a wooden bridge of rough
+green timber from the forest, distant about eight miles. I sunk a row of
+heavy round piles or posts about a foot in diameter at each side of the
+channel, which was fifteen feet wide, securing them with heavy
+transverse beams spiked on to their tops; over this I laid heavy round
+timber stretchers, about nine inches in diameter and four in number,
+upon which were spiked closed together a flooring of stout pine saplings
+from two and a half to four inches thick. The floor between these was
+then covered with a thick layer of brushwood, topped with earth and
+gravel. The road embankment was then carried on from each side till the
+swamp was cleared. I am particular about describing this, as it was my
+first attempt at bridge building and draining, and of all the thousands
+of bridges I have since constructed, I do not think any one of them
+interested me more keenly than these in the Ashburton Valley when I was
+a lad of nineteen. The bridges and roads over the marshes proved quite
+satisfactory, and it was a real delight to me when the first teams of
+wool drays passed over safely. I was at the same time engaged on the
+cuttings, and got some of them completed before the severe winter set
+in.
+
+I was so busy this season that much of my time was necessarily spent in
+supervising between the forest and the work, and I had a rough hut
+erected at the former, where I could live during my visits.
+
+Once, on passing to the forest, I met with an amusing accident. I was
+riding a huge sixteen-hand black mare and had heavy swags of blankets
+strapped before and behind the saddle, in addition to which I carried a
+new axe, some cooking utensils and a large leg and loin of mutton, which
+I had called for at the station, fearing that my men were out of meat.
+Near the forest I had to cross a small stream with steep banks. There
+had been heavy rain the previous night, and the little stream was a
+rushing torrent, and as I forded it, the water reached to the girths.
+The opposite bank was steep and slippery, and the huge animal laboured
+so in negotiating it that the girths snapped, and the entire saddle,
+with myself, slipped over her tail into the rushing stream. In this
+manner we were carried down; immersed to nearly my armpits, but securely
+attached, for some two hundred yards, before I was able to extricate
+myself and incumbrances by seizing a branch as we swept by a bend in the
+stream.
+
+With some difficulty I succeeded in getting all out safely and
+fortunately on the right side. The mare was quietly feeding where she
+had emerged.
+
+Where the work went on in the valley I had a couple of tents for my gang
+of navvies, some of whom were sailors. I always found these excellent
+workers, and specially handy and clever in many ways, where a mere
+landsman would be at fault. I worked with them, and shared everything as
+one of themselves, even to a single nip of rum I allowed to each man
+once a day. They treated me with every respect, and I had not, so far as
+I can recollect, a single instance of serious trouble with any of them.
+They received good wages, and earned them, and if any man among them had
+been found guilty of reprehensible conduct, the others would have
+supported me at once in clearing him from the camp. When the day's work
+was over, these sailor navvies would all bear a hand to get matters
+right for the night and the next day. Mutton was put in the oven, bread
+made, and placed under the ashes, firewood collected, and water in the
+kettle ready for putting on the fire at daybreak, then the nip of rum
+and pipe alight, and yarns or songs would be told or sung in turn, till
+the blankets claimed us.
+
+This was a very severe winter, and as the snow began to lie heavily I
+was perforce obliged to stop work for a month or two, and for that time
+I accepted an invitation from Cook and Brabazon to keep them company at
+Mesopotamia. Butler had left for Christchurch, where he would remain for
+an indefinite time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     WINTER UNDER THE SOUTHERN ALPS--FROST-BITE--SEEKING SHEEP IN
+     THE SNOW--THE RUNAWAY.
+
+
+In winter in these high latitudes, such as the Upper Rangitata, lying at
+the foot and immediately eastward of the great Alpine range behind which
+the winter sun dipped at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it was intensely
+cold, and instances of frost-bite were not uncommon. I recollect a poor
+young fellow, a bullock-driver on a neighbouring station, getting
+frost-bitten one night when he had lost his way in the snow. He knew
+nothing of it until he arrived at the station in the morning, when, on
+removing his boots his feet felt numb and dead, and no amount of rubbing
+had any effect in inducing a return of circulation. It soon transpired
+that his toes were frost-bitten. A messenger was despatched to the
+Ashburton in hope of finding a doctor, but in vain, and the lad was sent
+to Christchurch, 150 miles, in a covered dray. This, of course, took a
+considerable time, and when he arrived gangrene had set in, and both
+feet had to be amputated above the ankles.
+
+When the snow falls in large quantities it becomes an anxious time for
+the sheep farmer, and if the flocks are not strong and healthy they are
+sure to suffer. In snowstorms, the sheep will seek the shelter of some
+hill or spur, collecting together on the lee side, and here they are
+sometimes drifted over, when if the snow does not remain beyond a
+certain period they are mostly safe. As the snow drifts over them the
+heat of their bodies keeps it melted within a certain area, while the
+freezing and increase of drift and falling snow continue above and
+beyond the circle. In this manner a compartment is formed underneath in
+which the animals live and, to some extent, move about. The existence of
+these habitations is discovered by the presence of small breathing holes
+on the surface leading from below like chimneys, and sheep will live in
+this manner for a fortnight or so. When they have eaten up all the grass
+and roots available they will feed on their own wool, which they tear
+off each other's backs, and chew for the grease contained in it.
+
+For a fortnight we had been completely snowed up at Mesopotamia. Upon
+the homestead flat the snow was four feet deep, through which we cut and
+kept clear a passage between the huts, and for fifty yards on one side
+to the creek, where through a hole in the ice we drew water for daily
+use. Fortunately we had abundance of food and a mob of sheep had
+previously been driven into one of the paddocks to be retained in case
+of emergency. The confined life was trying. We read, played cards,
+practised daily with the boxing gloves, and missed sorely the outdoor
+exercise. One day, however, we had a benefit of the latter which was a
+new experience to all of us.
+
+The overseer was getting anxious about the sheep. Once or twice distant
+bleating had been heard, but for some days it had ceased, and as he
+wished to satisfy himself of the safety of his flocks, we decided to
+make a party and go in search of them.
+
+When last seen, before the heavy snow began to fall, the flocks of ewes
+and lambs were two miles from the homestead on the lea of the great spur
+forming the north extremity of the run, and it was in this direction the
+bleating was heard.
+
+We arranged our party as follows: Cook, Brabazon, and I, with two
+station hands, were to start early the following morning, while two men
+remained at the huts to be on the look out for us, and if we were late
+in returning they had orders to follow up in our snow trail and meet us.
+
+We each dressed as lightly as possible, and provided ourselves with
+stout pine staffs to assist us in climbing and feeling our way over
+dangerous localities. Each of us carried a parcel of bread and meat, and
+a small flask of spirits was taken for use only in case of urgent
+necessity.
+
+An expedition of this kind is always attended with danger. Travelling
+through deep snow is exceedingly tiring, and the glare and glistening
+from its surface tends to induce sleepiness. Many a man has lost his
+life from these causes combined when but a short distance from safety.
+
+[Illustration: SEEKING SHEEP IN THE SNOW.]
+
+We started in Indian file, the foremost man breaking the snow and the
+others placing their feet in his tracks. When the leader, whose work was
+naturally the heaviest, got tired, he stepped aside, and the next in
+file took up the breaking, while the former fell into the rear of all,
+which is, of course, the easiest.
+
+Proceeding thus, we went on steadily for some hours, our route being by
+no means straight, as we had to utilise our knowledge of the ground and
+avoid dangerous and suspicious places. The aspect of a piece of country
+considerably changes in surface appearance under a heavy covering of
+snow where deep and extensive drifts have formed.
+
+Notwithstanding our deviations and undulating course, we made the summit
+of the great spur at midday. Such a scene as here opened out before us
+is difficult to describe. If it had been a flat plain with the usual
+domestic accessories there would be only a dreary circumscribed and more
+or less familiar picture, but here we were among the silent mountains
+untouched by the hand of man, in the clearest atmosphere in the
+universe, with magnificent and varying panoramas stretching away from us
+on every side. To the north we could see far into the upper gorge of the
+Rangitata, with its precipices and promontories receding point by point
+in bold outline to the towering peaks forty miles beyond, and below it
+the wide flats of the great river, with its broad bed and streams so
+rapid that they could not be frozen over. On the east the low undulating
+downs stretching away towards the plains, while westward they ran in
+huge spurs to the foot of the Alpine range, towering 13,000 feet above
+us. Turning southward was seen the lower gorge, with its hills almost
+meeting in huge precipitous spurs, with stretches of pine forests
+clothing their slopes.
+
+Turn where we would over those immense panoramas all was white, pure,
+dazzling, glittering white, with a deathlike stillness over all. No
+life, no colour, save a streak of grey-blue on the broad river bed, and
+the shadow thrown by the mountains in the depths of their frowning
+gorges. The cold grey cloudless sky itself was scarcely any contrast. It
+was a magnificent wilderness of snow, and we viewed it spell-bound till
+our eyes ached with the glare and we felt a strange desire to lie down
+and sleep.
+
+Such is invariably the attendant sensations under these circumstances,
+whence the danger. If one once gives way to the drowsiness and longing
+for rest, he is gone. The sleep comes quickly, but it is a sleep from
+which there is no awakening--hence the precautions taken on such an
+expedition to have as large a party of strong men as possible to assist
+each other in case of failure. The need for such caution was fully
+verified in our case.
+
+We were fortunate in discovering a number of sheep on the leeward of the
+spur where the snow had drifted off and lay comparatively light, and
+some were feeding off the tops of tall snow grass which remained
+uncovered. In other places numbers were living under the snow as the
+breathing holes testified. The visit and inspection were as satisfactory
+as we hoped, and after a short rest and hasty lunch, we started on our
+return journey, which, as it would be in our old tracks, and for the
+most part downhill, would be very much easier than the previous one.
+
+It was well that our homeward journey was easier, or the trip would not
+have ended as satisfactorily as it did. We all felt on starting that we
+had had nearly enough work, and looked forward longingly to the snug
+huts two miles distant. It was now half-past one, and by three o'clock
+darkness and severe frost would set in (indeed, it was freezing all
+day). We originally trusted to reach the station by that hour, but we
+had delayed longer with the sheep than we should have.
+
+We proceeded manfully and had accomplished about half the distance when
+Cook, who had been exhibiting signs of weariness, suddenly "sat down in
+his tracks," and asked for some grog, which was given him. This revived
+him somewhat, and we again got under weigh, keeping him in the rear, but
+after a little while he again succumbed, and said he could go no
+further. He was quite happy, only looked a bit dazed, said he was tired
+and sleepy, and begged us to go on, and send a man and horse for him.
+This was what we feared. He was too far gone to remember that a horse
+could not walk where we had come. There was nothing for it but to carry,
+or assist him as best we could, and keep him moving, for if we had left
+him he would have frozen dead in half an hour. With this fear we
+received new strength, and two by two, we half carried and half dragged
+him for some distance when we were met by the hut keeper, and the
+remaining station hand, an old man, by name Darby--who, as agreed, had
+left to seek us, fearing some accident. With this additional assistance
+Cook was carried the remaining distance, and laid, now quite asleep, on
+a cot, where we rubbed his extremities with snow, till circulation
+returned, and then let him sleep, which he did, and indeed which we all
+did, until very late the following day.
+
+The same winter a sad accident occurred on a run south of Canterbury,
+belonging to two brothers, by name, I think, McKenzie. They went alone
+to visit their sheep in the snow, and when returning, the elder got
+tired and could not proceed. He contentedly sat down, desiring his
+brother to go on to the station and send him assistance. The latter,
+fearing nothing, left him, and when the assistance arrived the man was
+found dead.
+
+The close of winter was now coming on, and the snow was fast thawing
+from the mountains, while the river flats were almost clear where drifts
+had not formed. With the thaw the Rangitata came down in great volume, a
+sea of yellow foaming water a quarter of a mile in width.
+
+During the time we were snowed up the mob of horses came almost every
+day to the stock yard for rock salt and we now took the opportunity to
+retain three, as the ground was clear enough for riding. I had brought
+with me from Christchurch a new purchase in the form of a big rawboned
+gelding, fresh off board ship from Melbourne, and had turned him to
+graze with the other horses on the run. He was now in splendid
+condition.
+
+When we were all mounted the gelding showed some inclination to buck,
+but went away quietly after all, and we cantered along to the bank of
+the river. Returning, we wished to try the paces of our nags, and
+started for a race. My animal then showed his temper, and after a few
+bucks, which did not unseat me, he fairly bolted. I had only a light
+snaffle on him, while his mouth was like iron. The bridle, too, was old
+as ill-luck would have it, or I might have succeeded in stopping him;
+but after a few moments of vain endeavour to do so, the rein broke at
+the ring of the snaffle, and he was free. With a vicious shake of the
+head he threw the bit from his mouth and headed for the downs, where I
+knew there was a large tract of burnt "Irishman" scrub, into which, if
+he took me, I would be torn to pieces.
+
+In an instant's thought I decided to get clear of him, then kicking my
+feet, as I thought, out of the stirrups, I sprang off. I remembered
+nothing more till I woke up, two hours later, in a cot in the hut, with
+an aching head and stiff back. The others said I could not have cleared
+both feet from the stirrups when I jumped, for it seemed to them that I
+was dragged for an instant. At any rate, I struck the ground on the back
+of my head and shoulders, and lay stunned; they first thought me
+lifeless. The huts were near, and I was carried up and resuscitated. The
+following day I was sufficiently recovered to give the gelding a lesson
+in running away he had cause to remember.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     START ON AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE WANAKA LAKE.
+
+
+We had just now capital pig-hunting. The severity of the snow sent the
+animals into the flats, where we shot them down, riding being
+impracticable.
+
+My visit being ended and the weather favourable, I proceeded to
+Christchurch preparatory to resuming work. I was accompanied by a young
+man named Evans, a stockrider from one of the Ashburton stations, and on
+arriving at the Rakaia, being in a hurry, we foolishly tried to ford the
+river without a guide, as I had frequently done at other times. The
+river was quite fordable, but the streams were fairly deep, taking the
+horses some way above the girths. We had nearly crossed the largest when
+my horse suddenly went down, and in an instant we were swimming in a
+swift current nearly to the waist. Evans's horse followed the other's
+example. They were both good swimmers, and took us out safely on the
+side from which we entered, some 300 yards down stream. Another try
+under the forder's guidance was successful, but the accident detained us
+at the north bank accommodation house for the night.
+
+In addition to the completion of the Ashburton gorge road, I obtained a
+contract from a wealthy runholder in the neighbourhood to put up many
+miles of wire fencing, then just coming into use for dividing the runs,
+and also for the erection of several outstation buildings, all of which
+I had completed before the middle of the summer season, and I was in
+treaty for further work when I received an offer from Mr. T. Moorhouse,
+at whose station I had been so ill, to accompany him on an exploring
+trip to the head of the Wanaka Lake, in Otago Province. He had taken up
+(or imagined he had done so) some sheep country there, and the
+expedition was for the purpose of inspecting his newly acquired
+possessions. Nobody had yet seen this country, or at any rate, been on
+it.
+
+The journey would be about 300 miles, in addition to the voyage up the
+lake by boat, about twenty miles. It would be a new experience for me,
+and I was delighted with the offer, the more so that I would receive a
+good return for my time with all expenses paid, and I was glad to have
+an opportunity of again visiting the Lindis and the country far beyond
+my late travels, during the summer, when all would look its best and
+camping out be a real pleasure.
+
+As we were not to start for ten days, I went to Christchurch to receive
+payment for work, and I was anxious to purchase a good saddle horse in
+place of my big mare, which was too clumsy and heavy for our proposed
+ride to Otago. On the day on which I purchased the animal there was an
+auction sale of walers in the town, and I was sitting on the stockyard
+rails, looking on, when I saw a jockey riding a powerful bay up and down
+in front of the stand. This jockey proved to be an old acquaintance, and
+although some 60 years of age, was still an excellent rider. He was a
+popular little fellow, a character in his way, and was known by the name
+of "Old Bob." I was on the point of speaking to him, when the horse he
+rode was called for sale, and Bob was desired to show off his paces. For
+a turn or two the animal behaved well, and the bidding was brisk, when
+apparently, without any cause he bucked violently. I think Bob held on
+for four or five bucks, then the saddle went forward, and he was shot
+off, striking the hard road on his head. He seemed to roll up or double
+up, or something, and lay still, several people rushed to him, but he
+was past all help, his skull was split in two.
+
+On my return to Moorhouse's our preparations were soon completed. In
+addition to our saddle horses we selected for pack animals as well as
+for occasional riding two of the best of the station hacks; one of them
+carried stores and some cooking utensils, while the other was laden with
+clothes and blankets. We travelled lightly, it being our intention to
+put up at stations or accommodation houses as much as possible till we
+arrived at our destination.
+
+The route we followed was for the first 150 miles the same as that
+described in our journey to the diggings. We moved much faster and in
+six days reached Miller and Gooche's, the former of whom was now on the
+station. McGregor Miller was one of the finest men I had seen, a
+Hercules in strength and build, and as jolly and hospitable as he was a
+perfect gentleman. We stayed two days with him. The station as well as
+the country presented very different aspects to what they did on my
+previous visit. A new house had been built and furnished comfortably,
+and the surroundings were fast being improved under the guiding hand of
+the "boss," who worked with his men as one of themselves, and easy-going
+fox-hunting squire as he was in the old country a couple of years
+since, he could handle an axe, spade, or shovel with the best of them.
+
+On the first day's ride from here we went over the Lindis Pass, the
+scene of so much hardship to us diggers, and on to McClean's station,
+where we received a hearty Scotch welcome and an excellent dinner, and
+sat up late with the old gentleman discussing whiskey toddy and chatting
+over old times. The Moorhouses and McCleans were old friends, and had
+been together in Australia on the diggings many years before. He was
+not, I recollect, much impressed with Moorhouse's speculation, but as he
+had a run at the south of the Wanaka and a homestead there he arranged
+for our reception and for a boat to take us a portion of the voyage up
+the lake.
+
+The next day's ride lay through the scene of the late Lindis diggings,
+but not a vestige of the encampments remained beyond the ruins of the
+hut walls and excavations. The gold diggings proved a failure, and
+within a few months of our leaving them they were deserted. They were, I
+understood, subsequently re-opened by a company who employed machinery
+with more success than was possible with manual labour.
+
+The country beyond this was bleak and uninteresting, until the following
+evening when we arrived at the Molyneux river, where it flowed out of
+the south end of the Wanaka Lake. We were here again in the midst of
+mountains and very near to the great Alpine range which towered above us
+and which, although it was midsummer, was capped in snow.
+
+Upon the opposite side of the river, and on the shore of the lake, stood
+the very fine group of station buildings erected by Mr. Robert McClean.
+His people having been advised of our coming, a boat was sent across,
+behind which we swam our horses, and were soon comfortably fixed for the
+night and hospitably received by the overseer, who had a boat ready to
+convey us the following day twenty-five miles up the lake to another
+station formed there.
+
+The Molyneux struck me as being the clearest water I had ever seen; it
+was quite colourless, and though of great depth, even here at its
+source, the bottom was distinctly visible from the boat. It was a grand
+river, large and deep enough to float a small steamer.
+
+Early the following morning we saw a large timber raft come down the
+lake and enter the Molyneux. There were extensive forests at the head of
+the lake, and an energetic contractor had engaged men to cut timber
+there, which he was now floating down the river to the coast some 200
+miles distant. The raft was forty feet square, composed of rough round
+logs bound together and covered with a load of split and sawn timber,
+forming altogether a very valuable cargo. The contractor and four other
+men stood on the raft, each provided with a life belt, which he wore
+ready for accident, and fastened to the side of the raft lay several
+coils of stout rope with grappling hooks attached, by which they would
+be able to anchor by throwing the hooks round some object on the bank.
+
+Notwithstanding these precautions there was considerable danger in
+navigating the river in some parts, where occurred rapids and rocks, and
+occasionally as we were informed, a raft would get overturned or broken
+up, in which case the men in charge would have to swim for their lives
+or drown unless they had taken the precaution to provide themselves with
+lifebelts.
+
+We left our horses and most of the impedimenta there, and about mid-day
+took boat with three of the McClean men to assist at the oars. The boat
+was a fine one and carried a light sail, which unfortunately was no use
+to us, the little wind there was being dead ahead.
+
+The Wanaka is, I believe, the largest and most beautiful lake in New
+Zealand. On one side, for nearly the entire length, it was bounded by
+steep hills, for the greater part clothed with forest and undergrowth
+crowned by noble promontories and headlands. Above and beyond were seen
+the mountains receding away to the snow line in their various and
+changing colours. The opposite side was more homely and less grand in
+outline, but still very lovely. The low hills were broken by extensive
+tracts of undulating or flat land, where flocks of sheep or herds of
+cattle grazed, bordered by sedges and marshes with flocks of wild duck
+in all the enjoyment of an undisturbed existence.
+
+Looking up the lake to where the mountains seemed to meet, the colouring
+and grandeur of the scene was sublime. Since I voyaged up the Wanaka I
+have seen mountain scenery in many other lands, but I cannot call to
+mind anything which for beauty and grandeur surpasses that by which I
+was now surrounded. It had, may be, a peculiar wildness of its own not
+elsewhere to be met with, except in the Himalayas, and no doubt much of
+the effect is due to the exceeding rarity of the atmosphere, and hence
+the greater extent of landscape which can be observed at once.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     EXPLORATION TRIP CONTINUED--WEEKAS--INSPECTION OF NEW
+     COUNTRY--ESCAPE FROM FIRE.
+
+
+It was some time after dark when we arrived at Wynne's Station, which
+was situated in a bend behind a promontory, and not observable until
+close upon it. The owner was absent, but we were received by the
+overseer, Mr. Brand, and his assistants, two young gentlemen cadets. The
+run, which was recently taken up, was suited only for cattle which
+grazed on the extensive flats reaching inwards between the mountain
+ranges and the undulating hills. The mountain sides were too rough and
+scrubby for sheep as yet till fires had reduced the wild growth of small
+brush and induced grass to spread.
+
+The homestead being yet in its infancy, all was crude and rough, but its
+surroundings were delightful. It stood on a small flat not yet denuded
+of the original wild growth which lay in heaps half burnt, or in
+scattered clumps, the cleared portions being partly ploughed up. The
+flat was enclosed by a semicircle of steep hills covered with rocks and
+brushwood in the wildest luxuriance, and almost impossible of passage
+even to pedestrians. The stockyards lay away some distance, and they,
+with the run generally, were approached by boats, of which three fine
+ones lay hauled up in front of the homestead. Indeed, a great deal of
+the work of the station was done by boat, including the fetching of
+supplies, bringing timber from the forest and firewood from an island in
+the lake, and visiting remote parts of the run only accessible inland by
+a rough and circuitous cattle track impracticable for a dray.
+
+Mr. Brand did not think much of Moorhouse's spec. He had seen the
+country, but had not been on it, and did not think it good or extensive
+enough to be worked alone. He offered not only to lend us a fine boat
+for the remainder of the journey, but to accompany us himself to the
+forest which was adjacent to our quest, having to convey some stores to
+his men there. It was arranged that on the third day we would proceed
+thither, and in the meantime I lent a hand at anything going on, and
+amused myself sketching, an occupation I was very fond of, and I had
+already collected a considerable number of views taken on the Rangitata
+and other places.
+
+We left in the afternoon, intending to camp about ten miles up. We
+numbered five in all, and the boat was fairly well laden with stores for
+the forest. The pull was a stiff one and we took no sail, the wind at
+this season always blowing down the lake. It was some time after dark
+when we reached our proposed camping place, a narrow strand of white
+shingle sprinkled with clusters of shrubbery backed with thick
+underwood, which afforded shelter and firewood. The boat was made fast,
+and materials for supper and a huge fire were speedily under weigh. We
+were much pestered here with weekas (woodhens) who carried off most of
+our food which was not securely covered by night. These birds are the
+most persistent thieves, nearly as large as a common fowl, of a browny
+colour, gamy looking, with long legs and very short wings, the latter
+only serving to assist them in running, for they cannot fly. They are to
+be found in every New Zealand bush, and unless travellers take the
+precaution to place provisions or any articles, edible or not, out of
+their reach, they will not long remain in ignorance of their proximity.
+When living in the forest I have frequently amused myself killing these
+birds in the following manner, while sitting at my camp fire at night. I
+procured two short sticks, at the end of one I attached a bit of red
+cloth or rag to be used as a lure. They are the most curious birds in
+existence, and this together with their thieving propensities is so
+powerful that when their desires for appropriation are excited they
+possess little or no fear. I would sit by the fire holding out the red
+rag, when in a few moments a slight rustle would be heard from the
+branches. After a little the bird would step boldly into the open
+firelight stretching his neck and cocking his head knowingly as he
+approached in a zig-zag way the object of his curiosity and desire.
+
+So soon as he would come sufficiently near, and his attention was taken
+up with the bright object he hoped to possess, whack would descend the
+other stick on his head, and his mortal career of theft was at an end.
+Then I would roast the two drumsticks, having separated them from the
+body, skinning them, and eating them for supper; they are the only part
+of the bird fit for food.
+
+The remainder of the body is boiled down for oil, which is invaluable
+for boots of any kind, making them waterproof and pliable.
+
+I have frequently killed six or eight weekas in a single evening at my
+camp fire. I did not, however, eat all the drumsticks.
+
+We were up betimes, and after a hearty breakfast started for our last
+pull to the head of the lake, which we reached in the forenoon. The
+heaviest part of the work, however, had yet to come--namely, pulling the
+boat a mile up the stream which flows into the lake. This was
+unavoidable, as the land each side was an impassable swamp. For the last
+half-mile the current was so swift we could make no headway against it
+with the oars, and the water being only from one to two feet deep, we
+got out and waded, hauling the boat by hand to the landing place. Here
+we had to transfer provisions from the boat to our own backs and trudge
+on foot over nearly two miles of rough and partly swampy ground to the
+forest where Brand had his hut, in which we intended to camp that night.
+It was fairly late in the afternoon when we reached the hut, and we were
+not sorry to relieve ourselves of our burdens and partake of food.
+
+It was a rough camp, and as wild a situation as one could find, and it
+was a rough-looking lot of men that night who occupied it, in the depth
+of a black pine forest with the glaring light of a huge fire
+illuminating the recesses of the overhanging trees and dense underwood,
+increasing the darkness beyond, with the ominous cry of the mawpawk and
+laughing jackass only breaking the dead stillness. We were soon rolled
+in our blankets around the fire, and slept like men who had earned their
+rest.
+
+The following day we rested and prepared for our excursion into the new
+country, and expecting to be absent two days took with us enough food
+for so long. In addition to our blankets we carried each a bag of ship
+biscuits, some tea, sugar, and cooked mutton, with a small kettle and
+two tin panakins.
+
+The first day we proceeded nearly five miles up the valley, which was
+from 1/2 to 3/4 mile wide, much of it swampy and scored by deep-water
+channels, many of which were now dry, but partly covered or concealed by
+long tussock roots more or less burnt. On each side were low rugged
+hills covered with dense scrub, some portions of which had been burnt by
+fires which had crept up there from lower down the lake. Where the fire
+had done its work the ground was a foot deep in ashes and charred bits
+of timber, while studded about, or covered over with burnt debris were
+innumerable half burnt stumps; altogether it was not a locality one
+would select for a pleasant walk.
+
+In some few places where rain had washed away the ashes the tussock
+roots were beginning to sprout, and it was not difficult to see that in
+course of time there would be an improvement in the land, but there was
+not much of it on the flats, while the hills would be for years almost
+impracticable. Besides, it was exceedingly difficult of access and stock
+would in all probability require to be transported thither by boat.
+
+We were now walking over country in its pure native wildness; the first
+human beings, certainly the first civilised ones, who had ever trod upon
+it. We spent two days exploring as far in every direction as we could
+go, and as we went we steadily applied the match, setting fire to bush
+and grass alike, thus making our progress very evident to those in the
+forest and all down the lake. We were in a fearful state of filth,
+notwithstanding that we had washed ourselves in the clear stream daily,
+the ashes got ground into our skins and even the application of fine
+sand in lieu of soap would not eradicate it, only causing rawness with
+accompanying smarting. Moorhouse was really to blame for this, for, vain
+man that he was, he carried a little pocket looking-glass by which we
+discovered the condition we were in. Had he left the glass behind we
+would probably have remained black and happy till our return.
+
+On the last day we had a close shave for our lives. We were crossing a
+narrow bushy point, the upper portion of which had caught a returning
+fire, and it was coming down upon us with the wind, with a deafening
+roar and volumes of smoke. Our chance of safety lay in getting into the
+open and across the water before the fire reached us, and we were
+nearly, very nearly caught. The bush grew denser as we went on, and was
+filled with "lawyers," which impeded our progress, so that in our
+extremity to tear ourselves away we left most of our scanty clothing and
+somewhat of our skins in their clutches, while a fresh breeze springing
+up, increased the pace of the terrible fire which came roaring towards
+us in a wall of flame, sparks and smoke, which had already nearly
+blinded us, the trees snapping, creaking, and falling behind us like
+reports of artillery. Singed, torn, and half naked, we just succeeded
+in escaping being charred as completely as any stump on the hills.
+
+The "lawyer" (so-called) is a creeping, or rather climbing, plant common
+to the New Zealand bush. It grows in long thread-like tendrils, as thick
+as whip cord, armed with myriads of sharp hooked thorns turned
+backwards. The tendrils grow hundreds of feet in length, stretching from
+branch to branch, and often forming a maze or web extending over a large
+area. A person getting entangled in their embraces rarely escapes with a
+whole skin, and never with a whole coat.
+
+We returned the evening of the third day as black as sloes, and with
+only a few shreds of singed clothes on our backs, thoroughly worn out
+with hard walking and insufficient sustenance. We remained one day for
+repairs and then, in company with Brand, had a glorious sail down the
+lake to Wynne's station.
+
+Our return journey to Christchurch was without incident save one, worth
+mentioning. This was where we were both nearly drowned crossing the
+Lindis in a flood.
+
+Moorehouse, I believe, sold his interest in the Wanaka district for a
+song.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     DEATH OF PARKER--ROYAL MAIL ROBBED BY A CAT--MEET WITH ACCIDENT
+     CROSSING RIVER.
+
+
+During our absence a sad occurrence took place, which I will record
+here. A Mr. Parks, a Government surveyor, and well-to-do sheep farmer on
+the Ashburton, had been engaged during the previous year in making
+surveys on the Rakia and Ashburton, and on his staff was a young man
+named Parker. This lad was another instance of the ideas some home
+people entertain, that for a youngster without intellect, energy, or
+application sufficient to obtain him entrance to a profession in
+England, the Colonies are the proper place. In their opinion he must get
+on there, or at any rate, he will be got rid of. The latter may be true
+enough, but as regards the former, the proofs are few indeed.
+
+Parker was a weak, good natured, feckless lad, about eighteen or twenty
+years of age, and the only thing he appeared to be able to make anything
+of was playing the fiddle. Wherever he went his violin accompanied him.
+While fiddling he was happy, but it was pitiful to watch him trying to
+work at or take an interest in any employment which he could neither
+appreciate nor understand.
+
+The survey party had proceeded up the gorge of the Rakia, and were
+absent about a fortnight, when Mr. Parks, requiring to send back to his
+station for some instrument he had forgotten, and Parker being the least
+useful hand on the survey, he decided to send him. The distance was
+twenty miles, and the route was across the open plain leading for a part
+of the way along the river. He was to go on foot, and put up the first
+night at Grey's station, about half-way.
+
+Between the Camp and Grey's the path led along the bank of the Rakia,
+which was here very steep, upwards of a hundred feet perpendicularly
+above the riverbed, and occasionally subject to landslips.
+
+A week passed without the return of Parker, and Mr. Parks, getting
+concerned for the lad's safety, despatched a messenger for information,
+when it was found that Parker had not appeared either at Grey's, or his
+own station, and for another week inquiries were made for him in every
+direction in vain.
+
+At about the end of the second week from the date of Parker leaving the
+survey camp, a shepherd of Grey's, happening to descend into the Rakia
+river bed in search of some wandering sheep, came upon a roll of red
+blankets lying at the foot of a landslip. Going up, he found it to
+contain the body of a man half decomposed, and being eaten by rats. Upon
+the ground alongside was a pocket-book containing writing and a pencil.
+
+The shepherd, taking the pocket-book, returned speedily to Grey's. Upon
+examination the book was found to contain a diary of five days, written
+by the unfortunate Parker, before he died of starvation, thirst, and a
+broken leg, at the foot of the landslip.
+
+From the entries it appeared that he had been fiddling along (in his
+usual absent manner, no doubt) very close to the edge of the Rakia bank,
+when a portion of it gave way under his feet, and he fell sliding and
+tumbling until he reached the bottom on a bed of shingle, his leg
+broken, and his body bruised and shattered. He succeeded in loosening
+the swag of blankets he had strapped on his back, wrapped them round him
+and lay down, occasionally calling, and always hoping against hope that
+some one would discover him. It was a vain hope, poor chap--not twice in
+a year's space was a human being seen on that wild river bed. He lived
+for five days in the agonies of hunger, thirst and despair, not even a
+drop of water could he reach, although the river ran within twenty yards
+of him, and at last death mercifully put an end to his misery.
+
+I now returned to work, continuing at the same time the study of my
+books, which I kept at the Ashburton, to fit me for the duties of
+surveyor and contractor. I was deriving a good return from my sheep and
+could add yearly to their number. During the remainder of the summer and
+autumn I worked steadily at bush work, hut-building and run-fencing, and
+when the winter set in I rigged up a hut in the forest, where I lived
+alone and earned a good return for my time in felling and cutting-up
+firewood for which I received from the squatters--I think--ten shillings
+a cord, 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft. The Ashburton Valley road had been
+greatly improved, and the weekly mail which hitherto ran between
+Christchurch and Dunedin was now made bi-weekly, and the stations on the
+Ashburton and Rangitata gorges arranged for a regular postman on
+horseback to fetch the mail from the Ashburton immediately on arrival,
+in lieu of the old plan of having it conveyed from one station to
+another by private messengers.
+
+I recollect a ridiculous accident which happened to one of these mail
+carriers, who had been despatched to fetch mails across the plains. I do
+not think I mentioned that there were numbers of wild cats to be met
+with all over the country. They were not indigenous, but domestic
+animals or their descendants gone wild, and with their wild existence
+they engendered a considerable addition of strength and fierceness. The
+shepherd's dog was the natural enemy of these animals.
+
+On the occasion to which I refer, the messenger, an old Irish servant of
+Mr. Rowley's, was riding quietly on one of the station hacks, a horse
+called "Old Dan," a noted buckjumper in his day. Heavy saddle bags with
+the posts were suspended on either side, in addition to various packages
+tied on fore and aft. Suddenly Pat's dog put up a cat and went away in
+full chase. The plain was quite open, with no trees or shrubs nearer
+than the river bed, half a mile distant. The cat finding herself hard
+pressed, and despairing of reaching the river-bed before the dog would
+catch her, spied old Dan with Paddy and the post thereupon, and
+conceived that her only chance of safety lay in mounting too. No sooner
+thought than done. She doubled, sprang on old Dan's tail and fastened
+her claws in his hinder parts. Dan not approving of such treatment, set
+to bucking. First Pat went off, then the saddle bags and parcels,
+followed by puss. Old Dan finding himself free, ran for his life, the
+cat after him, and the dog after the cat, leaving poor Pat on the ground
+to watch the trio as they disappeared from sight.
+
+[Illustration: PAT AND HIS MAIL-BAG DISLODGED BY A CAT.]
+
+Pat had over ten miles to travel and carry the bags and parcels as best
+he could, and return the next day for the saddle. The story of how the
+cat robbed H.M. Mail was long laughed over on the Ashburton, and Paddy
+was unmercifully chaffed for his part in the performance.
+
+I was busily employed till late in the following autumn finishing the
+works I had in hand, and lived a portion of the time at Glent hills, Mr.
+Rowley's hill station, where I had a considerable contract for wire
+fencing with which Mr. Rowley was dividing up into extensive sections
+the wide valley in which lay the lakes Emma and Clearwater.
+
+[Illustration: GLENT HILLS STATION.]
+
+During the summer I joined once again in the general mustering, and
+lived on the mountain sides for days and nights together. It was here
+I contrived to catch some cold which caused a singing like the bleating
+of sheep in my right ear, and for which I subjected myself to the very
+doubtful advice and care of old "Blue Gum Bill," the shepherd who was
+for the time being my comrade. "Blue Gum" was a "lag," that is, a
+ticket-of-leave convict, from Australia. One of his hands, I forget
+which, had been amputated, and in lieu thereof he had affixed a stump of
+blue gum wood, with an iron hook inserted at the end. As is not unusual
+in such cases, "Blue Gum" could do more with this iron hook than many
+men could accomplish with a hand. He was a character in his way, and
+whatever may have been the cause of his enforced exile from the Old
+Country many years before, he was now a most exemplary old fellow, for
+whom I entertained a great respect and liking.
+
+He said he could cure my ear, into which he assured me some small animal
+had entered, and it would be necessary, in the first place to kill it,
+when the noise would naturally cease. He made me lie down with my
+bleating ear uppermost, and proceeded to fill it with as much strong
+tobacco juice as it would hold. This operation he repeated several
+times, and appeared greatly disappointed on my complaining that the
+animal still continued musical. The ear troubled me for a long time, and
+eventually the hearing became impaired. Whether the fact that I never
+more than half recovered my hearing in that ear, and that for many years
+it has been almost completely deaf, is due to "Blue Gum's" doctoring or
+not, is scarcely worth entering into now.
+
+When the winter had really set in, I started to pay a visit (my last it
+turned out) to my friends in Mesopotamia. On arriving at the Rangitata I
+met the wool drays on their return journey from Christchurch, waiting
+while one of the men was on horseback seeking for a ford, in which
+occupation he asked my assistance. The river was a little swollen and
+discoloured, and the course of the main stream had been altered during
+the flood. While seeking a fording place I unluckily got into a
+quicksand, and in an instant I was under the mare, while she was
+plunging on her side in deep water. I had released my feet from the
+stirrups upon entering, and was free thus far. I had hold of the tether
+rope round her neck, and presently we were both out, and as I thought
+safely. I mounted again, and after getting the drays safely over, I rode
+on to the station. Here, on putting my foot to the ground I found I
+could not stand, and from a queer feeling about the left knee, it was
+apparent that I had been kicked while under the plunging mare. For nigh
+three weeks I was unable to walk, and to this day I feel the effect of
+that kick.
+
+I was, perforce, obliged now to keep quiet, and was not over-sorry, for
+the quarters were comfortable, and I was with my friends, and had
+leisure to read and work. Our evenings by the fire were very enjoyable,
+and many a story and song went round, or Butler would play while we
+smoked.
+
+One evening, I recollect, he told us a very remarkable ghost story, the
+best authenticated, as he said, he had ever heard, and to those who
+entertain the belief that the spirits of the departed have power to
+revisit this earth for the accomplishment of any special purpose, the
+story will be interesting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     THE GHOST STORY--BENIGHTED IN THE SNOW.
+
+
+Two young men--we will call them Jones and Smith, for
+convenience--emigrated to New South Wales. They each possessed
+sufficient money to start them, as they hoped, as young squatters, and
+in due time they obtained what they sought.
+
+Jones became the owner of a small cattle ranch fifty miles from
+Melbourne, while Smith commenced sheep farming in partnership with an
+experienced runholder, forty miles further inland.
+
+The friends occasionally visited each other, but in those days the
+settlers were few and months often passed without the cattle rancher
+seeing his friend or anybody to speak to beside the one man he retained
+on the station as hutkeeper, stockman, and general factotum.
+
+It was about two years after Jones had settled on his ranch that his
+friend Smith, requiring to visit Melbourne, decided to take Jones on his
+way and stop a night with him.
+
+He left his homestead early and arrived at the ranch late in the
+afternoon. As he rode near he saw Jones sitting on the stockyard
+toprail, apparently enjoying an evening pipe. On calling to him Jones
+jumped down, but instead of coming to meet his friend he ran into the
+bush (wood) close to the stockyard. Smith, supposing he was playing a
+joke, dismounted and followed him; but neither hunting nor calling had
+any effect--Jones was not to be found. Smith, thinking he might be
+taking some short cut to the hut, which was a little way off, mounted
+and proceeded thither. Here, again, he was disappointed, and on enquiry
+from the hutkeeper learned from him that his master had left for
+Melbourne and England a month previously, and that he--the
+hutkeeper--was in charge till his return. Smith, not liking the man or
+his manner, pretended to accept his statement, and said nothing about
+having just seen his master. After taking some refreshment and a slight
+rest he proceeded on his way to Melbourne, where on enquiry at hotels
+and shipping offices he learnt that his friend had not been seen in
+Melbourne for a long time, and had not taken his passage for England.
+
+He then told his story to a mutual acquaintance, who agreed to return
+with him and endeavour to discover what was wrong before taking steps.
+Together they journeyed back, and on coming within sight of the stock
+yard there was Jones sitting on the rail in his previous position, and,
+as before, jumped down and ran into the bush.
+
+Smith and his companion now made an extensive examination of the
+locality, but were unable to discover anything to assist them. They then
+proceeded to the hut as if they had just arrived from Melbourne, and
+without mentioning that they had seen his master, got into general
+conversation with the hutkeeper, but failed to elicit anything beyond
+what he had previously stated, adding only that he did not expect his
+employer's return for five or six months.
+
+They remained at the station that night and left early in the morning,
+apparently for Smith's homestead, but when they had ridden out of sight
+of the hut they wheeled and returned to Melbourne by another route.
+
+The idea that occupied their minds at this point was that Jones was
+insane, probably led thereto by his lonely life; that he was wandering
+about in the bush in the neighbourhood of the hut, which he continued to
+visit, as they had seen, and that he had, with a madman's acuteness,
+purposely misled the hutkeeper about his going to England. Smith and his
+companion feared to mention their suspicions to the hutkeeper, believing
+that he would not remain alone on the station if he thought that a
+maniac was about. Seeing Jones a second time, apparently in his usual
+health, had divested their minds of any suspicion that the hutkeeper had
+deceived them, or was in any way responsible, and the real facts as they
+subsequently turned out had not presented themselves to their minds.
+
+They decided now to place the matter in the hands of the police. There
+were at that time (and no doubt still are) retained under the Australian
+police force a number of native trackers, called the "Black Police."
+These men were a species of human bloodhounds, and could follow a trail
+by scent or marks indistinguishable by the white man.
+
+On representing the case to the chief of the police, that officer
+deputed a detective and a couple of constables, with a number of the
+"Black Police" to accompany Smith and his friend to Jones's ranch. They
+took a circuitous route, arriving as before at the stockyard without
+giving information to the hutkeeper, but at the same time directing two
+men to approach the hut unseen and watch it till further directions.
+
+When the party on this occasion approached the stockyard Jones was not
+occupying his usual seat on the rails. The black trackers, on being
+shown the place and their work explained to them, they at once commenced
+the hunt. One of them presently picked up a rail which was lying near by
+on which he pointed out certain marks, calling them "white man's hair"
+and "white man's blood." Then after examining the ground around the
+stockyard they took up the trail leading into the bush at a point where
+Jones was seen to go. Working up this for some two hundred yards and
+pointing out various signs as they proceeded, they arrived at a small
+slimy lagoon or pond, on the edge of which they picked up something they
+called "white man's fat." Some of them now dived into the pond, where
+they discovered the body of Jones, or what remained of it.
+
+The hutkeeper was immediately arrested, but denied any knowledge of the
+matter. After consigning the body of the unfortunate rancher to a
+hurried grave, the prisoner was taken to Melbourne, where he was tried
+for the murder of his master, and when he was convicted and sentenced,
+he confessed that he had crept up behind Jones when he sat smoking on
+the stockyard rail and killed him by a blow on the head with the rail
+picked up by the black trackers, that he then dragged the body to the
+bush, and threw it into the lagoon. I do not recollect whether Butler
+told us if the real object of the murder transpired, but the murderer
+turned out to be a ticket-of-leave convict well known to the police. The
+peculiarity of the story lay in the fact that the apparition of Jones
+twice appearing to his friend, and on one occasion to a stranger also,
+was sworn to in Court during the trial.
+
+I was obliged, owing to business, to leave Mesopotamia in midwinter, and
+to save a very circuitous journey I decided to travel down the gorge of
+the Rangitata some twenty-five miles, to the station I referred to once
+before belonging to Mr. B. Moorehouse. The route lay partly along the
+mountain slopes overhanging the river, and then diverged across a pass
+as I had been carefully instructed, but there was no roadway, only a
+bridle path now pretty sure to be covered with snow, and there was no
+shelter of any kind over the whole distance. Although I had never made
+the journey, my former experiences gave me every confidence that I would
+be able to find my way without much trouble, and taking with me only a
+scrap of bread and meat and a blanket I started as soon as it was light
+enough to see, certain in my mind that I would reach Moorehouse's early
+in the afternoon. The first few miles through the run I knew so well I
+got along without trouble, but further on the difficulties began. It was
+impossible, owing to the slushy and slippery as well as uneven nature of
+the ground, to get out of a slow walk, and frequently I had to double on
+my tracks to negotiate a swampy nullah, and often to dismount and lead
+my animal over nasty places which he funked as much as I did.
+
+By midday I had got over about half the distance, when I made the
+serious mistake of continuing down the gorge instead of turning over the
+saddle or pass to which I had been specially directed; but I was misled
+by sheep walks leading on towards the gorge, while the footpath over the
+pass was entirely obliterated by snow. I did not discover my mistake
+until I could go no further; the sheep walks led only to the shelter of
+some huge precipices, which here approached close to the river on either
+side, narrowing the stream to a fourth of its usual volume, and
+confining it in a rocky channel through which it thundered furiously.
+
+The noise was deafening, and the position one of the grandest and
+wildest I had ever beheld, but I could not afford the time just then for
+sentiment. It was already getting dark, and I had scarcely a foot to
+stand on. It seemed indeed, for a moment, that I would not be able to
+turn my horse, which I was leading, on the narrow path we had now got on
+to, and if I succeeded in doing that I would have a considerable
+distance to retrace before reaching safe ground, a false step would send
+us headlong a couple of hundred feet into a rushing torrent, if we
+escaped being smashed on the rocks before we got there. I do not think I
+ever felt so lonely or alarmed, but I had to act, and that quickly.
+Fortunately my horse was a steady one, well accustomed to climbing over
+bad places, and no doubt the coming darkness and weird surroundings did
+not affect him as they did me, and my anxiety after all was then more on
+his account than my own, for without him I knew I could feel my way back
+alone.
+
+As I moved to turn, the horse twisted round as if on a pivot and
+followed me like a cat, indeed he could see the track better than I
+could, and exhibited little nervousness as he crept along with his nose
+near the ground, and testing every step before he trusted the weight of
+his body on it. I was very thankful when we at length emerged from that
+frowning and dark chasm as it now appeared, with the foaming water away
+in its black depths and an icy wind blowing directly from it.
+
+But what were we to do now? In the darkness it would be impossible to
+either go onward or return the way I had come, and the fact that I was
+benighted, and in a very nasty position too, now struck me clearly; but
+there was nothing for it but to make the best of a bad job.
+
+Outside the narrow gorge it was considerably lighter, and I had no
+difficulty in finding my way a bit up towards the pass, where I
+fortunately discovered a patch of tall snow grass between the tussocks
+of which the ground had been partly sheltered from the snow, and near
+this I stumbled on a quantity of "Irishman" scrub which had recently
+been burnt and was easily broken down. So far this was lucky, for it
+secured me the means of making a fire, without which it would have been
+impossible, I believe, to live till the morning, which was still some
+sixteen hours distant.
+
+I tethered my horse to a tussock, and selecting a couple of large ones,
+knotted their tops together, forming thereby a little room about four
+feet long by two wide. In this I cut and spread some more snow grass and
+pushed my saddle and blanket to one end. This did not occupy many
+minutes, and now I had to break down and collect firewood to last me
+during the night. When all was done I felt terribly hungry, the little
+bit of food I had brought with me I had eaten early in the day, and the
+fact that I had not a morsel left increased my longing for it.
+Fortunately I had a supply of tobacco and a box of wax vestas, and I
+smoked continuously. I dared not attempt to lie down to sleep, for I had
+not covering enough to keep me warm, and indeed I felt no desire for
+sleep. I was too much concerned about the night; if heavy snow fell I
+would find it very difficult to move, even when daylight appeared, and
+it was now falling in a half-hearted sort of way. My poor horse stood as
+near the fire as he could, without any food, and shivering, and I was
+constantly standing up and clapping my arms and stamping my feet if the
+fire got low, then, when a bit warmed, I would crouch inside my den and
+sometimes I dozed, only to waken up from sheer cold and resume my
+exercise. After some hours I had the satisfaction to notice that the
+snow had ceased falling, and a brighter night, with frost, had set in.
+This was pleasant, as the probability of being snowed up was no longer
+to be apprehended, but the biting cold was terrible, and I knew that if
+I succumbed to sleep, I would be frost-bitten.
+
+I scarcely know how I got through the night; one never does. I must have
+had periods of unconsciousness, and the heat emanating from the hot
+ashes, and what fire I was able to keep going, saved me. Had it not been
+for that, I could not have survived, and it was a piece of extraordinary
+luck my lighting on a patch of snow grass and scrub in that wild and
+desolate pass.
+
+How I longed for daylight may be imagined, and the first tinge of light
+I noticed on the horizon was a welcome sight indeed. My firewood was
+long since burnt away, but the ashes were yet warm, and I thrust in my
+hands till I revived some life into them, and was able to collect more
+brushwood which I carried over, and had a rousing fire, and was enabled
+to get the saddle on to my horse. I was now undecided whether to retrace
+my steps to Mesopotamia or endeavour to find my way to Moorehouse's; on
+the latter, however, I decided, as I judged I was midway between the
+two, and started to explore the pass, leading my horse. The exercise
+revived us both, and I succeeded in finding the trail I needed. The
+journey was simple after what I had experienced on the other side, and I
+had the satisfaction of meeting one of Moorehouse's shepherds before the
+day was much older, who accompanied me to the station, and who would
+scarcely believe that I had passed the night where I did.
+
+I found Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moorehouse at home, and was, as always, most
+hospitably received, and soon found myself with a change of kit, seated
+before an excellent meal, to which after thirty hours fasting I did
+ample justice. After that I slept till morning.
+
+On my arrival at Christchurch an offer was made to me to join an
+expedition to the Fiji Islands, just then creating some interest as a
+possible place for colonists. The previous year some explorer had
+brought from thence a ship load of curiosities, including war clubs and
+spears of hard polished and carved wood, mats and numerous other
+articles in use among the cannibal tribes, and an exhibition of them was
+held in the Town Hall. I now learnt that an acquaintance of mine, a Mr.
+Gibson, had chartered a small vessel called the "Ocean Queen," 40 tons
+burthen, and intended to sail in her, with his young wife, for the Fiji
+Islands. Also that four other men had joined him in the enterprise. I
+knew Gibson to be a plucky fellow, but when it transpired that neither
+he nor the others possessed money beyond what the voyage would cost
+them, and that what they intended to do when they arrived at the Fiji
+Islands was to be left to chance, the proposed expedition assumed a
+different complexion. The Judge denounced it as sheer madness, specially
+for a man to take his wife to such a place. It was true that some
+missionaries had settlements there, but these are generally safe, as the
+savages, as a rule, fear and respect the missionaries of the Great
+Spirit, be it that of the white man or the black, and they know that the
+missionaries mean no harm to them or their possessions, but it would be
+very different in the case of a number of white men arriving unprotected
+in a small boat with the intention of settling on their land. However,
+nothing would dissuade Gibson and his party. Whether the "Ocean Queen"
+arrived at the Fiji Islands was never known. Certainly she and the party
+who sailed in her were never again heard of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     DECIDE TO GO TO INDIA--VISIT MELBOURNE, ETC.
+
+
+For the following six months I kept steadily to work. I was gradually
+adding to my stock of sheep, and had nothing occurred to disturb me I
+should doubtless have continued at work and in time have become a
+veritable squatter. I was able to command constant employment in any
+colonial capacity, and had been more than once offered the overseership
+of a run, but the old distaste for the life of a sheep-farmer was as
+strong as ever.
+
+It was in the month of May, 1864, when I received a letter from my
+brother in Bombay, saying that there were excellent openings in the
+engineering line there, to which he had interest enough to help me, and
+he pressed me to go to Bombay and try my luck. My brother was then
+representative of a large mercantile firm at Bombay.
+
+I think neither he nor the others at home had ever divested themselves
+of the idea that I was not succeeding, and never would succeed in New
+Zealand, because I had not at once made a fortune out of nothing, or
+discovered gold for the picking up. Of course, they were not right. I
+had, considering my youth and ignorance on going out to New Zealand,
+done admirably. It was necessary to undergo a term of probation and
+education for the work of a sheep-farmer or any other in the Colony, and
+this I had not only accomplished, but I had been, and was, making money
+and a living, and had fair prospects before me should I decide to adopt
+the life of a squatter permanently. I consulted my friends and some of
+them were for following my brother's advice, but something within myself
+kept prompting me in the same direction, and I began to feel more and
+more that I had mistaken my vocation, and that I was bound to try before
+it would be too late to get into the swing of the more congenial
+employment for which I was longing.
+
+The wandering spirit, too, mastered me once more, and I wished now to
+see India and all I had heard and read of that wonderful land, as I had
+originally desired to see New Zealand.
+
+I did not decide hastily. I was aware that my leaving New Zealand now
+would to some extent throw me back, if at any time in the future I
+decided to return, but I was still very young, not yet 22, and a year or
+two would make very little difference, and I knew that if I returned to
+New Zealand I could always command immediate employment. I decided at
+length to see India at any rate, and I wrote to my brother to that
+effect.
+
+The disposal of my sheep, horses, and other small possessions, was soon
+accomplished, and one fine morning in May 1864, I found myself at Port
+Lyttelton, accompanied by a number of old chums who had come to see me
+off by the steamboat to Dunedin, from whence I was to proceed by mail to
+Melbourne, and from thence to Bombay by the P. and O.
+
+I felt sad indeed to look my last (it might be for ever) on the shores
+of Canterbury, where I had passed five happy years, endeared to me all
+the more on account of the varied and adventurous life I had led, and
+the good friends and companions I was leaving behind, and I leaned on
+the bulwarks of the little steamer as we passed out of the lovely bay
+and saw the shepherd's hut, high up on the cliff, where we wanderers
+from the ship five years before had been entertained by the Scotch
+housewife to our first New Zealand dinner, then on to where we visited
+the whalers and the head to which we rowed in the Captain's gig. The
+whole scene arose before me afresh; where were we all scattered to? I
+longed to do it all over again, and be with the old mates; and here I
+was, a lonely wanderer once more, leaving all to go away to begin a new
+life in a strange land. It was not easy, but I tried hard to think I was
+doing right.
+
+By the time we passed out of the Heads it had grown dark, and my reverie
+was broken by the supper bell, and Burton (a friend who was going to
+Australia on a pleasure trip) telling me to rouse up, have some food,
+and make myself pleasant. How carefully I followed his advice during the
+next six weeks!
+
+We reached Dunedin the following evening and had to remain there for a
+few days for the departure of the Melbourne mail boat. This time Burton
+and I contrived to spend very pleasantly. He was a wealthy young
+squatter, and I had a good sum of money with me, in fact, I was becoming
+a bit reckless; but I could not have foreseen that an accident would
+retain me far longer on the voyage to India than I supposed, and I saw
+little harm in enjoying myself with the money I had earned and saved.
+What kind of guardian angel was in charge of me from this time I cannot
+say, but he must have been an excessively pleasant and jolly one, for
+under his guidance I enjoyed a most delightful time.
+
+Dunedin had improved marvellously since I had last seen it; it was
+already a town of considerable pretensions and possessed a theatre and
+several good hotels. On the fourth day we left for Melbourne in the s.s.
+"Alhambra," and now I believed that I had done with New Zealand for good
+and all, but I was mistaken.
+
+After three days at sea we encountered south of Tasmania a terrific gale
+during which the shaft of the screw was broken, and the Captain had no
+resource but to return to Dunedin under sail, an operation which
+occupied seven days, to the great disgust of all on board.
+
+At Dunedin we were again delayed for three days till another boat
+started which took us to Melbourne.
+
+The voyage was pleasant and we steamed in nearly a calm sea close along
+the Tasmanian coast and through the Bass Straits, sighting land all the
+way from thence. Tasmania presented quite an English appearance after
+New Zealand, and we could trace the neat towns and well-wooded country
+dotted with homesteads and farms.
+
+Melbourne possesses a very fine and well protected harbour, but the
+surroundings sadly lacked the native beauty of New Zealand. The
+countries present very different aspects to the new-comer; while New
+Zealand can boast of some of the wildest and grandest scenery in the
+world, that of New South Wales is almost the reverse, being homely and
+of a natural park-like appearance, which, although beautiful in a
+certain sense, is monotonous after the wild contrasts of plains and
+mountain, forests and rivers of New Zealand.
+
+Melbourne proper lay some five miles from the port, which then possessed
+a fine wooden pier, alongside of which and in the adjacent roadstead,
+lay many fine merchant vessels and steamers awaiting their cargoes of
+wool, etc. The port and city were connected by a railway, the first
+constructed in Australia, and almost parallel with it wound the River
+Yarrow, so named from its usually muddy or yellow colour.
+
+We proceeded to Melbourne by rail and put up at one of the principal
+hotels. Here we discovered that our accident had caused us to miss the
+China mail boat which was to have conveyed us to Point de Galle, and I
+would now have almost a whole month to remain at Melbourne. This news
+was I fear more welcome than otherwise. I wished to see something of
+Melbourne, and here was the opportunity forced upon me, so I decided to
+make the very most of my time.
+
+Melbourne, even at this period, was a considerable city, handsome and
+well laid out on the most approved modern principles, with straight and
+spacious streets and squares, and possessing throughout architecture
+equal to that of the best modern English towns, in addition to some
+really magnificent public buildings. A considerable portion of the city
+stood on a gentle slope, and along many of the streets between the
+roadway and the footpaths, ran continuous streams of pure spring water,
+over which, when in flood, foot passengers were taken by carriage.
+
+Along the banks of the Yarrow were lovely gardens and extensive parks,
+and many a pleasant row I had under the shade of the huge pine and gum
+trees. The river frequently overflowed its banks and submerged the
+low-lying country between the city and the port, at which times I have
+travelled by train while the rails were under water. Some of the suburbs
+and watering places around Melbourne, such as St. Kilda, were
+exceedingly picturesque.
+
+A railway was just then opened from Melbourne to Ballarat, the scene of
+the famous gold diggings to which Melbourne is primarily indebted for
+her present magnificence and prosperity. Extensive quartz crushing by
+machinery was then being carried out, and a visit to the locality was
+most interesting. We made many excursions up country, and altogether
+thoroughly enjoyed our time. So much so indeed that had another accident
+detained me longer I would not have felt any regret.
+
+Early in August I started by the P. and O. mail boat for Ceylon, with
+mutual regrets on Burton's part and on my own that our pleasant holiday
+was ended. I never met Burton again.
+
+At King George's Sound, Northern Australia, was a small coaling station,
+possessing only a score or so of houses or stores, and one hotel
+so-called. On arrival we went on shore and were immediately greeted by a
+number of the most wretched specimens of humanity I had yet seen. They
+were diminutive in stature, perfectly naked with the exception of a
+dirty rag of blanket twisted about the shoulders and waist, out of the
+folds of which issued a wreath of smoke from the fire stick without
+which the Australian aboriginal rarely leaves his or her wigwam. Their
+hair was plastered down on the head with thick ochre paint, and they
+were disgustingly filthy and altogether unpleasant to look at. They
+invariably asked for "sixpence," which amount seemed to represent the
+sum of their earthly happiness, and with most of them was the only word
+of English they could speak.
+
+The men all carried boomerangs, a flat curved stick which they threw for
+our edification, and sixpences, very scientifically, and contrived to
+dispose of a good many to the passengers. We saw with them also some
+skins of that rare and handsome bird the emu, now I believe becoming
+very scarce.
+
+A most remarkable thing about King George's Sound is the utter waste and
+wildness of the country, not a sign of life or cultivation. The few
+natives who inhabit this wild region subsist principally on roots and
+such wild fruits as are obtainable, or on birds which they can kill with
+their boomerangs. They are very little, if at all, superior to the lower
+animals, and I believe there is no institution of marriage or
+acknowledgment of domestic relations among them.
+
+One thing, however, there was as a set off against all the rest--namely,
+the extraordinary wealth of flowers which grew thickly amongst the
+thousand varieties of rare ferns all over the land. What would be held
+as the most delicate hothouse plants in England here formed a brilliant
+carpet in their wild luxuriance. We literally walked knee deep in
+exotics.
+
+We carried large bundles of them on board, when we left that night after
+a stay of only twelve hours.
+
+Point de Galle was reached on the twelfth day, and here the mail steamer
+from Calcutta by which I was to proceed to Bombay had already arrived. A
+few of us went on shore with small caps on our heads and some with
+cabbage tree hats, but we speedily discovered they would not do. The
+heat on shore was intense, a muggy, stifling heat, which to us
+Australians was killing. We were guided to the Bazaar, and introduced to
+several hotels by some five score natives, whose numbers increased as we
+proceeded, and were augmented by numerous sellers of sun toppee,
+pugarees, etc. We were speedily provided each with a tropical headpiece
+with a long tail of white muslin therefrom which hung down the back.
+
+After a substantial "tiffin" in a large shady room, under the swaying
+punkah (the first I had seen), it was proposed by some of our sable
+friends that we should visit the tea gardens, one of the lions of Galle,
+and I, forgetting all about the boat, was on the point of joining the
+movement, having taken a seat in the conveyance for the purpose, when my
+good angel, by some means I have now forgotten, informed me that the
+steamer for Bombay would start in ten minutes.
+
+I jumped from the carriage and ran full speed with a crowd of attendant
+blacks in full cry at my heels, shot into the first boat I came to and
+reached the steamer as the screw commenced to turn.
+
+In four days we arrived at Bombay, where, in due course, I entered State
+Service, and where I remained for thirty-five years, but my life and
+experiences there may possibly form the subject of another story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed by J.G. HAMMOND and Co., Ltd., 32-36, Fleet Lane, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Five Years in New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth
+
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Five Years In New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Years in New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Five Years in New Zealand
+       1859 to 1864
+
+Author: Robert B. Booth
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #18068]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>Five Years in New Zealand</h1>
+
+<h2>(1859 to 1864.)</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>ROBERT B. BOOTH, M.Inst.C.E.</h2>
+
+<h4>LONDON:</h4>
+
+<h3>J. G. HAMMOND &amp; CO., LTD.</h3>
+
+<h4>Fleet Lane, Old Bailey, E.C.</h4>
+
+<h4>1912.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#Introduction"><span class="smcap">Introduction.</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> I</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">How I came to Emigrate</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> II</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">The Voyage&mdash;Rats on Board&mdash;The White Squall&mdash;Harpooning
+a Shark&mdash;Burial of the Twins&mdash;Tropics&mdash;Icebergs&mdash;Exchange
+of Courtesies in mid-Pacific</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> III</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Port Lyttelton and Christchurch&mdash;Call on Friends&mdash;Visit Malvern Hill</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IV</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">A Period of Uncertainty&mdash;Leave for Nelson as Cadets on Sheep Run</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> V</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Working of a Sheep Run&mdash;Scab&mdash;C's Departure for Home</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VI</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Shepherd's Life&mdash;Driving Sheep&mdash;Killing Wild Sow&mdash;Return to Christchurch</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VII</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">I join a Survey Party&mdash;Travel to the Ashburton</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VIII</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Wild Pig Hunting</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IX</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Cattle Ranching and Stock Riding</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> X</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Take Employment with a Bush Contractor&mdash;Serious Illness&mdash;Start for South and the Gold Diggings</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XI</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Our Eventful Journey to the Gold Diggings</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XII</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Life on the Gold Diggings</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIII</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Leave the Diggings&mdash;Attempt to Drive Wild Cattle thereto&mdash;Return to Dunedin</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIV</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Leave for Mesopotamia&mdash;Road-making&mdash;Sheep Mustering&mdash;Death of Dr. Sinclair&mdash;Contracts on the Ashburton, etc.</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XV</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Winter under the Southern Alps&mdash;Frost Bite&mdash;Seeking Sheep in the Snow&mdash;The Runaway</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVI</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Start on Exploring Expedition to the Wanaka Lake</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVII</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Exploration Trip continued&mdash;Weekas&mdash;Inspection of New Country&mdash;Escape from Fire</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVIII</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Death of Parker&mdash;Royal Mail robbed by a Cat&mdash;Meet with Accident fording River</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIX</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">The Ghost Story&mdash;Benighted in the Snow</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XX</a>
+<ul>
+	<li class="subitem">Decide to go to India&mdash;Visit Melbourne, etc.&mdash;Arrival at Bombay</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#List_of_Illustrations"><span class="smcap">List of Illustrations.</span></a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="List_of_Illustrations" id="List_of_Illustrations"></a>List of Illustrations.</h2>
+
+<div class="picindex">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#image007.jpg">Harpooning a Shark</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image016.jpg">The Arrival of Lapworth</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image034.jpg">Killing the Wild Sow</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image044.jpg">Encounter with Wild Boar</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image049.jpg">The Baked Steers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image067.jpg">The Gold Diggings</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image067a.jpg">Peddlars at the Diggings</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image073.jpg">Mesopotamia Station</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image075.jpg">Upper Gorge of the Rangitata</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image081.jpg">Seeking Sheep in the Snow</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image096.jpg">Pat and His Mail Bag Dislodged by a Cat</a></li>
+<li><a href="#image097.jpg">Glent Hills Station</a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="Introduction" id="Introduction"></a>Introduction.</h2>
+
+<p>The islands of New Zealand, discovered by the Dutch navigator, Tasman,
+in 1642, and surveyed and explored by Captain Cooke in 1769, remained
+unnoticed until 1814, when the first Christian Missionaries landed, and
+commenced the work of converting the inhabitants, who, up to that time
+had been cannibals.</p>
+
+<p>The Missionaries had been unusually successful, and prepared the way for
+the first emigrants, who landed at Wellington in the North Island in
+1839. A year later the Maori Chiefs signed a treaty acknowledging the
+Sovereignty of Queen Victoria, and the colonisation of the country
+quickly followed.</p>
+
+<p>The seat of Government was first placed at Auckland, where resided the
+Governor, and there were formed ten provinces under the jurisdiction of
+superintendents. The head of the Government was subsequently transferred
+to Wellington, the provincial system abolished, and their powers
+exercised by local boards directly under the Governor.</p>
+
+<p>The total area of the three islands is about 105,000 square miles, and
+the population, which has been steadily increasing, was in 1865 upwards
+of 700,000.</p>
+
+<p>The Maori race is almost entirely confined to the North Island, and,
+although it was then gradually dying out, numbered about 30,000. They
+are of fine physique, tall and robust, and are said to belong to the
+Polynesian type, probably having come over from the Fiji Islands, or
+some of the Pacific group, in their canoes.</p>
+
+<p>When first discovered they lived in villages or "Pahs," comprising a
+number of small circular huts, with a larger one for the Chief,
+mud-walled and thatched with grass or flax. The pahs usually occupied a
+commanding position, and were fenced round with one or more palisades of
+rough timber.</p>
+
+<p>The Maori dress consisted of a simple robe made of woven flax, an
+indigenous plant growing in profusion over most of the country. They
+practised to a large extent the custom of tattooing their faces and
+bodies, and further decorated themselves with ear-rings of greenstone,
+bone, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to subsequent education and intercourse with Europeans, their
+savage habits have now mostly given way to modern customs.</p>
+
+<p>In 1860 commenced the disastrous Taranaki war, which lasted some years,
+and was caused in the first instance by the encroachment of European
+settlers on the lands originally granted exclusively to the Aborigines.
+Since the settlement of this trouble, peace and prosperity have reigned,
+and the Maoris have become an important item in the community, many of
+them holding positions of trust and office under the Colonial
+Government.</p>
+
+<p>The Province of Canterbury, forming the central portion of the middle
+island, was founded about 1845 by the Irishmen Godley, Harman, and
+others; and the English Church, under Bishop Harpur, was established at
+Christchurch, the capital of the Province.</p>
+
+<p>Otago, in the south, was founded by the Scotch, and the free church
+established at Dunedin. The Province of Nelson formed the upper or
+northern portion of the Island.</p>
+
+<p>It is to these three Provinces that the scenes of the following pages
+refer.</p>
+
+<hr class='smler' />
+
+<p>It has been said that the true and unvarnished history of any person's
+life, no matter how commonplace, would be interesting. It was not
+because I thought that a history of any part of my life would prove
+interesting to others, that I first decided to write the following story
+of the experiences of a young emigrant to New Zealand between the ages
+of 16 and 21. I wrote it many years ago, when all was fresh in my
+memory; then I laid it by. Now when I have retired, after a life's
+service passed in foreign lands, it has been a pleasure to me to recall
+and live over again in memory the scenes of my earliest life.</p>
+
+<p>It may, however, be possible that the account of the adventures,
+successes, and failures of a lad, thrown on his own resources at so
+early an age, may prove of some value to others starting under similar
+circumstances in life's race; and if it in any way shows that the
+Colonies are a good field for a young man who wishes to adopt the life
+that may be open to him there, and who is determined to work steadily,
+keeping always his good name and honour as guiding lights to hold fast
+to and steer by, the story may not be quite useless.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonies are as good to-day as forty years ago, better I should say,
+for they offer more varied openings now than they did then.</p>
+
+<p>The great colonial dependencies of Great Britain were founded and worked
+into power by the emigrants who overflowed thence from the Motherland.
+These, for the most part, took with them little or nothing beyond their
+pluck, energy, strong hearts, and trust in God, and still they go and
+will go. It is a duty they owe to the mother-country as well as to
+themselves, and the great Colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
+are calling for more and more of the right sort of workers to join in
+and take their share in building up great nations, and extending the
+glory and civilising influence of Great Britain over all the world.</p>
+
+<p>I would say to all young men in this country who have no sufficient call
+or opening at home, especially to those who have not succeeded in
+obtaining professional positions, and who wait on, hoping for something
+to turn up, go out while there is yet time, to the great countries
+waiting to welcome you to a man's work and a man's place in the world,
+and don't rest content with an idle, useless, and dependent position
+where you have no place or occupation. Do your plain duty honestly and
+fearlessly. Treat the world well and it will treat you well.</p>
+
+<p>I do not, of course, give this advice to all. There are men who will not
+succeed in the Colonies any better than here. Some will fail anywhere. I
+mean the idle and lazy, the untrustworthy, the drunkard, and the
+incapable; these classes go to the bad quickest in the Colonies. There
+is no place or shelter for them there, where only honest workers are
+wanted or tolerated.</p>
+
+<p>For the man who is prepared to put his hand to anything he finds to do,
+and can be trusted, there is always employment and promotion waiting;
+but for him who is too proud or too lazy to work, or who prefers to
+fritter his time in dissipation and amusement, there is nothing but
+failure and ruin ahead.</p>
+
+<p>My advice does not apply either to those who have <i>good</i> prospects,
+professional or otherwise, in this country, and whose duties call them
+to remain, but to the thousands of the middle and lower classes who are
+not so circumstanced, and it must be remembered that the men who are
+specially and constantly needed in the Colonies are those of the
+labouring and farming classes, or who may intend to adopt that life and
+are fitted for it by health and will. For the artisan and the
+professional who can only work at their own trade or profession, the
+openings naturally are not so plentiful, but there is abundance of
+employment for them until openings occur, if they choose to occupy their
+time otherwise in the meanwhile.</p>
+
+<p>For the young man who can afford the time, and many can, a few years'
+fling in the Colonies would be the best of educations, but he should
+determine to see all that was to be seen on the spot, and take part in
+all that was doing, and not rest content only with a few days' sojourn
+in an hotel here and there, or joining in the gaieties and dissipations
+of the towns.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">How I Came to Emigrate.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I was one of a family of nine, of which four were sons. My eldest
+brother was destined for the Church; the second had entered a mercantile
+house in Liverpool; and I, who was third on the list, it was my father's
+intention, should be educated for the Royal Engineers, and at the time
+my story opens I was prosecuting my studies for admission to the Academy
+at Woolwich, and had attained the age of sixteen, when my health failed,
+and I was sent home for rest and change. I did not again resume my
+studies, because it was soon after decided that I should emigrate to New
+Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>The decision was principally, if not entirely, due to my own wishes. I
+had long entertained a strong bent to seeing the world for myself, and
+the idea was congenial to my boyish and quixotic notions of being the
+arbiter of my own fortunes. I recollect I was much given to reading
+tales of wild life in America and elsewhere; they contained a peculiar
+attraction for me, and influenced my mind in no small degree detrimental
+to continuing my studies for the Army or any specified profession at
+home.</p>
+
+<p>When I first proposed what was in my mind it created somewhat of a
+sensation in the old home, and my father would not hear of any such
+madness as to throw up my studies after having advanced so far, and go
+away to the antipodes on a mere wild-goose chase, etc. On consulting his
+friends, however, many advised him to let me have my will; others (more
+wisely perhaps) expressed their opinions that I should be forced to
+resume my work, and that the ill-health was imagination, or foxing! (I
+have often since been inclined to agree with the latter supposition.)</p>
+
+<p>The final decision, however, was that I should emigrate to Canterbury,
+New Zealand, in the following April. This colony was at that time about
+fourteen years' old, and was highly thought of as a field for youthful
+enterprise, and it was then the fashion to consider such tendencies as I
+expressed to be an omen of future success which should not be baulked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A young friend, C&mdash;&mdash;, son of a neighbouring squire, offered to
+accompany me as my chum and partner. He was six years my senior, and had
+had considerable experience in farming, so was considered very suitable
+for a colonial life; whereas I knew literally nothing of farming or
+anything else beyond my school work.</p>
+
+<p>Our preparations were put in hand, and our passages booked by the good
+ship "Mary Anne," to sail from St. Katherine's Docks, London, on April
+29th, 1859.</p>
+
+<p>When all was finally settled my elation was supreme. The feeling that
+school grind was past and gone, that the world was open to me, and that
+I was free to do and act as I would was exhilarating. I felt that I had
+already attained to manhood, and that the world was at my feet, and a
+glorious life before me; well, I suppose most boys prematurely let loose
+would think the same, and I don't know that it is any harm to start
+under the circumstances with a hopeful and happy heart.</p>
+
+<p>The day of parting at length arrived. It was a bright and lovely
+morning, about the middle of April, when I said goodbye to all my
+playmates at the old home, took a last look at the guns and
+fishing-rods, visited the various animals in the stables, gave a loving
+embrace to the great Newfoundland Juno, whom I could not hope to see
+again, submitted to be blessed and kissed by the servants and labourers,
+who had assembled to see me off, and took my seat on the car with my
+father, mother, and eldest brother, for the railway station, where C&mdash;&mdash;
+was to meet us.</p>
+
+<p>C&mdash;&mdash; and I went direct to Liverpool from Drogheda, to which place my
+eldest brother accompanied us. My father and mother, having business <i>en
+route</i>, were to meet us there on the following day.</p>
+
+<p>We had a rough passage to Liverpool, and the steamer was laden with
+cattle and pigs, the stench from which, combined with sea-sickness, was,
+I recollect, a terrible experience, and it was in no enviable condition
+of mind or body we arrived at the Liverpool Docks on a foggy, wet and
+dismal morning. My mercantile brother, Tom, came on board, and had all
+our belongings speedily conveyed to the lodgings we were to occupy
+during our stay. On the following day my father and mother arrived, and
+we spent a few days pleasantly seeing the lions of the great city and
+visiting friends. On arrival at London we found that we had a week or
+more before the ship sailed. Neither my father nor mother had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> in
+London before; all was as new to them as to us, and we made the best of
+the time at our disposal.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the day before the ship sailed, after seeing our
+luggage on board, and cabins made ready for occupation, we accompanied
+my father, mother, and brother to Euston Station, where they were to bid
+us God-speed. I was in good spirits till then, but when on the railway
+platform, a few minutes before the train started, my dear mother fairly
+broke down, and the tears were stealing down my father's cheeks. The
+less said about such partings the better; it was soon over, and the
+train started. I never saw my dear old father again.</p>
+
+<p>C&mdash;&mdash; and I, after watching the train disappear, started for the docks,
+and before bed-time had made acquaintance with some of our future
+<i>compagnons de voyage</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The scene on deck was confusing and affecting. Upwards of four hundred
+emigrants were on board, and the partings from their friends and
+relatives, the kissings and blessings and cryings, mingled with the
+shouting of sailors, hauling in of cargo and luggage, and general noise
+and confusion incident to starting upon a long voyage, continued without
+intermission until we were fairly under weigh about 11 o'clock at night.</p>
+
+<p>After the unusual exertion and excitement of the day, we both slept
+soundly, and when we awoke next morning, off Gravesend, we were
+disappointed at having missed the "Great Eastern," lately launched and
+then lying in the river.</p>
+
+<p>By 12 noon we were fairly out at sea, with a favourable breeze, and the
+pilot left us in view (it might be the last) of the old country we were
+leaving behind.</p>
+
+<p>Before my eyes again rested on the cliffs of old England I had seen many
+lands and people, had mixed and worked with all sorts and conditions of
+men, had many experiences and adventures; and although I did not find
+the fortune at once which I thought was waiting for me to pick up, I
+found that there is always a fortune, be it great or small, according to
+their deserts, waiting for those who determine to work honestly and
+heartily for it, and that every man's future success or failure depends
+mainly on himself.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">The Voyage and Incidents Thereon&mdash;Rats on Board, the White
+Squall, Harpooning a Shark, Burial of the Twins, a Tropical
+Escapade&mdash;Icebergs&mdash;Exchange of Courtesies at Sea, etc.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The "Mary Anne" was, as I stated, an emigrant ship, and carried on the
+voyage about four hundred men, women, and children, sent out chiefly
+through the Government Emigration Agents. Persons going out in this way
+were assisted by having a portion of their passage paid for them as an
+advance, to be refunded after a certain time passed in the colony. The
+only first-class passengers in addition to C&mdash;&mdash;and myself were two old
+maiden ladies, the Misses Hunt, who, with the doctor and his wife, the
+captain and first-mate, comprised our cabin party. In the second-class
+were three passengers&mdash;T. Smith, whose name will frequently appear in
+these pages, and two brothers called Leach, going out to join a rich
+cousin, a sheep farmer in Canterbury. Smith was the son of a wealthy
+squire, with whom, it appeared, he had fallen out respecting some family
+matters, and in a fit of pique left his home and took passage to New
+Zealand. His funds were sufficient to procure him a second-class berth,
+but on representing matters to the captain, who knew something of his
+family, it was arranged that he should join us in the saloon, hence he
+became one of our comrades, and eventually a particular friend.</p>
+
+<p>The captain's name was Ashby, and he soon proved to be a most jolly and
+agreeable companion. The first-mate, Lapworth, also became a favourite
+with us all.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor was usually drunk, or partly so, and led his wife, a kind and
+amiable little lady, a very unpleasant life. The Misses Hunt were
+elderly, amiable, and generally just what they should be.</p>
+
+<p>Our cabins we had (in accordance with the usages of emigrant ships)
+furnished ourselves, and they were roomy and comfortable, but I will not
+readily forget the horror with which I woke up during the first night at
+sea, with an indescribable feeling that I was being crawled over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> by
+some loathsome things. In a half-wakeful fit, I put out my hand, to find
+it rest upon a huge rat, which was seated on my chest. I started up in
+my bunk, when, as I did so, it appeared that a large family of rats had
+been holding high carnival upon me and my possessions; fully a dozen
+must have been in bed with me. I had no light, nor could I procure one,
+so I dressed and went on deck until morning. As a boy I was fond of
+carpentering, and was considerably expert in that way. My father
+thinking some tools would be useful to me, provided me with a small
+chest of serviceable ones (not the ordinary amateur's gimcracks), and
+this chest I had with me in my cabin. On examination I discovered
+several holes beneath the berth, where no doubt the previous night's
+visitors had entered. I set to work, and with the aid of some deal boxes
+given me by the steward, I had all securely closed up by breakfast,
+where the others enjoyed a hearty laugh at my experience of the night.
+The captain said there were doubtless hundreds of rats on board, and
+seemed to regard the fact with complacency rather than otherwise.
+Sailors consider that the presence of rats is a guarantee of the
+seaworthiness of the ship, and they will never voluntarily take passage
+in a vessel that is not sound.</p>
+
+<p>The captain's supposition proved true enough, and it was not unusual of
+an evening to see these friendly rodents taking an airing on the ropes
+and rigging, and upon the hand-rails around the poop deck, and while so
+diverting themselves, I have endeavoured to shake them overboard, but
+always in vain; they were thoroughbred sailors, knew exactly when and
+where to jump, and flopping on the deck at my feet would disappear, with
+a twist of their tails amidships.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think that the sailors approved of the rats being destroyed,
+and rather preferred their society than otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>We soon settled down to our sea life, and the groans of sickness and the
+screaming of children from between decks ceased in time. Our own party
+of nine had the poop to ourselves, and were very comfortable; we soon
+got to like the life, and generally arranged some way of spending each
+day agreeably. We had a fair library, chess, backgammon, whist, etc.,
+and when we got into the Tropics and had occasional calms, we went out
+in the captain's gig; then further south we had shooting matches at Cape
+pigeons and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> albatrosses, and in all our amusements the captain and
+Lapworth took part.</p>
+
+<p>There were not many incidents on the voyage worthy of note, but I will
+mention the most interesting of them which I can recollect. The first
+was when we encountered a white squall about a week out from England. It
+was a lovely evening, a slight breeze sending us along some four knots
+under full sail. We were lounging on deck watching the sunset, and
+occupied with our thoughts, when suddenly there was a cry from the "look
+out" in the main fore-top which created an instantaneous and marvellous
+scene of activity on board. It was then that we witnessed the first
+example of thorough seamanship and discipline; the shrill boatswain's
+whistle, the captain shouting a few orders, passed on by the mates, a
+crowd of sailors appearing like magic in the rigging, and in another
+instant the ship riding under bare masts; a deathlike stillness for a
+few seconds, and then a snow white wall of foam, stretching as far as
+the eye could reach, came down upon us with a sweeping wind, striking
+the ship broadsides, and over she went on her beam ends. Half a minute's
+hesitation or bungling would in all probability have sent us over
+altogether. There was a shout to us novices to look out&mdash;away went deck
+chairs and tables. The Misses Hunt&mdash;poor old ladies&mdash;who had been
+quietly knitting unconscious of any coming danger, were unceremoniously
+precipitated into the lee scuppers. I seized the mizen-mast, while C&mdash;&mdash;
+falling foul of a roving hen-coop, grasped it in a loving embrace, and
+accompanied it to some haven of safety, where he stretched himself upon
+it until permitted to walk upright again. The officers and crew appeared
+like so many cats in the facility with which they moved about; so much
+so that deciding to have a try myself, I was instantly sent rolling over
+to the two old ladies, creating a shout of laughter from all hands. The
+squall lasted about half an hour, and was succeeded by a fine night and
+a spanking breeze.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image007.jpg" id="image007.jpg"></a><img src="images/image007.jpg" width='700' height='485' alt="Harpooning a Shark" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Harpooning a Shark</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Another bit of excitement was the harpooning and capture of a shark
+which had been following the ship for days. This is always an omen of
+ill-luck with sailors, who are very superstitious, believing that a
+shark under such circumstances is waiting for a body dead or alive, and
+will follow the ship until its desire is appeased. They are always,
+therefore, keen to kill a shark when opportunity offers. Fortunately,
+for our purpose, a calm came on while the shark was visiting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>us, and
+he kept moving about under the stern in a most friendly manner. The plan
+of operations was as follows:&mdash;A large junk of pork was made fast to a
+rope and suspended from the stern, letting it sink about a foot under
+the surface. C&mdash;&mdash;, Smith, and I were in the captain's boat, with three
+sailors, under the orders of Lapworth, who had taken his stand
+immediately above with a harpoon. The shark came up, nibbling and
+smelling at the pork, so close to us in the boat that he almost rubbed
+along the side without apparent alarm or taking any notice of our
+presence. He was a monster, nearly nine feet in length, and as he came
+alongside, his back fin rose some inches above the surface. He did not
+seem inclined to seize the pork until Lapworth had it quickly jerked up,
+when the brute made a dash at it, half turning as he did so, and at the
+same instant received the harpoon through his neck. I recollect the
+monster turning over on his back, Lapworth swinging himself over into
+the boat, a little organised commotion among the men, and in a few
+moments running nooses were passed over head and tail, and he was
+hoisted on deck and speedily despatched. The body was cut up and divided
+amongst the crew, some of whom were partial to shark steak. A piece of
+the backbone I secured for myself as a memento of the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>As if to bear out the superstition I have mentioned, a few days
+subsequently a death, or rather two deaths, did actually take place;
+they were the twins and only children of a Scottish shepherd and his
+wife, both on board. Pretty little girls of eight, as I remember them,
+playing about the deck, and favourites with all, they died within a day
+of each other. The father was a gigantic fellow, and I have pleasant
+recollections of him in after years, when time and other children had
+helped to assuage his and his wife's grief for the loss of their two
+darlings at sea by one stroke of illness.</p>
+
+<p>There is something more affecting in a burial at sea than one on land.
+In this instance the little body was wrapped in a white cloth, to which
+a small bag of coals was fastened, and laid upon a slide projecting from
+the stern of the vessel ready for immersion. The captain read the Burial
+Service, all on board standing uncovered. At the words "Dust to dust,"
+etc., the body was allowed to slide into the sea&mdash;where it immediately
+disappeared. The mother was too ill to be present, and the father's
+grief was severe, as it might well be, to witness his child laid in so
+lonely a resting place in mid-ocean without sign or mark. The following
+evening a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> similar scene was enacted when the body of the other little
+sister was committed to the deep, and the father had to be taken away
+before the service was completed.</p>
+
+<p>No ceremonies I ever beheld impressed and affected me so much as the
+burial of the little twins at sea.</p>
+
+<p>While in the Tropics we had occasional calms, sometimes lasting for two
+or three days; the sea was like molten glass, and the sun burnt like a
+furnace. On such occasions we were permitted to row about within a
+reasonable distance of the ship, so that if a breeze suddenly sprang up
+we might not be left behind. Once this very nearly occurred, when we had
+rowed a long way off, after what was supposed to be a whale spouting. We
+suddenly felt a gentle breath of air, and noticed the glassy surface
+giving place to a slight disturbance. We were a mile off the ship, but
+could distinctly hear the summons from aboard, and noticed the sails
+filling. We rowed with all our strength, stripped to the waist, and
+succeeded in getting up when the ship was well under weigh. It was a
+stiff piece of work, and the captain was so concerned and annoyed at our
+disobedience of his orders that he refused to allow us to boat again
+during the voyage. We suffered sorely for our escapade, for not knowing
+the strength of a tropical sun, we exposed ourselves so that the skin
+was burned and peeled off, and we were in misery for several days, while
+our arms and necks were swathed in cotton wool and oil.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the tropics we had a pleasant voyage and fair winds until
+we rounded the Cape, where we encountered some rough weather, and at 56&deg;
+S.L., it being then almost winter in those latitudes, we passed many
+icebergs of more or less extent. Few of them appeared to be more than
+ten or fifteen feet above water, but the greater portion of such blocks
+are submerged, and considerable caution had to be observed night and day
+to steer clear of them. They were usually observable at first from the
+large number of birds resting on them, causing them to appear like a
+dark speck on the horizon. One of these icebergs (according to an entry
+made in the ship's log) was stated to be five miles long and of great
+height, and we were supposed to have passed it at the latter end of the
+night so near that "a biscuit might be thrown upon it." I am afraid the
+entry was open to criticism, and that the existence, or at any rate, the
+extent of this particular iceberg might have been due to an extra glass
+of grog on the mate's imagination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We sighted no land during the voyage, except the Peak of Teneriffe, as
+it emerged above a cloud; and but few vessels, and of those only two
+closely. One was a Swedish barque, homeward bound, the other a large
+American clipper ship. We spoke the latter when the vessels were some
+miles apart, but as the courses were parallel, she being bound for
+London, while we were from thence, we gradually neared, when an amusing
+conversation by signals took place. Our captain, by mistake of the
+signaller, invited the Yankee captain to dinner, and the reply from the
+American, who good-naturedly took it as a joke, was "Bad roadstead
+here." Our captain thought they were chaffing him, and had not the
+mistake been discovered in time, the rencontre might not have ended as
+pleasantly as it did. Our captain and second mate went on board the
+Yankee, and their captain returned the visit. While this was proceeding
+the two ships appeared to be sailing round each other, and the sight was
+very imposing. When the ceremonies were over, and a few exchanges of
+newspapers, wines, etc., were made and bearings compared, the vessels
+swung round to their respective courses, up flew the sails, and a
+prolonged cheer from both ships told us this little interchange of
+courtesies in the midst of the South Pacific was at an end.</p>
+
+<p>I think it was the same night that we experienced a very heavy gale; the
+lightning, thunder, rain, and wind were terrific, and the sea ran
+mountains high. I stayed on deck nearly all the night, half perished
+with wet and cold; but such a storm carries with it a peculiar
+attraction, and one which I could not resist. I do not know anything
+more weird and impressive than the chant of the sailors hauling on the
+ropes, mingled with the fierce fury of the storm, and every now and
+again the dense darkness lit up by a vivid flash of lightning; the deck
+appears for the moment peopled by phantoms combined with the fury of the
+elements to bring destruction on the noble little vessel with its
+precious freight struggling and trembling in their grasp.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning the storm had quite abated, but the sea was such
+as can be seen only in mid-ocean. Our little ship (she was only 700
+tons) appeared such an atom in comparison with the enormous mountains of
+water. At one moment we would be perched on the summit of a wave,
+seemingly hundreds of feet high, and immediately below a terrible abyss
+into which we were on the point of sinking;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the next we would be placed
+between two mountains of water which seemed going to engulf us.</p>
+
+<p>I always took a place with the sailors on emergencies, to give a hand at
+hauling the ropes, and got to be fairly expert at climbing into the
+rigging. The rope-hauling was done to some chant started by the
+boatswain or one of the sailors&mdash;this is necessary to ensure that the
+united strength of the pullers is exerted at the same moment. One of the
+chants I well remember. It was:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div>"<i>Haul</i> a bowlin', the 'Mary Anne's' a-<i>rollin'</i>.</div>
+<div><i>Haul</i> a bowlin', a bowlin' <i>haul</i>;</div>
+<div><i>Haul</i> a bowlin', the good ship's a-<i>rollin'</i>;</div>
+<div><i>Haul</i> a bowlin', a bowlin' <i>haul</i>."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The chant is sung out in stentorian notes by the leader, and on the word
+in italics every man joins in a tremendous and united pull.</p>
+
+<p>Crowds of Cape pigeons and albatrosses accompanied us all across the
+South Pacific. These birds never seem to tire and but rarely rest on the
+water, except when they swoop down and settle a moment to pick up
+something that has been thrown overboard; this is quickly devoured, and
+they are again in pursuit. The albatrosses, some white, some grey, and
+some almost black, are huge birds; some that we shot, and for which the
+boat was sent, measured nine feet from tip to tip of wings.</p>
+
+<p>On August 1st we rounded Stewart's Island, the southern-most of the New
+Zealand group. It is little more than a barren rock, and was not then
+inhabited, whatever it may be now. Although it was the winter season,
+and the latitude corresponded to that of the North of England, we
+remarked how mild and dry was the atmosphere in comparison. Indeed the
+weather was glorious and seemed to welcome us to the land we were coming
+to.</p>
+
+<p>On the 3rd of August we sighted the coast of Canterbury, and at daylight
+on the 4th we found ourselves lying becalmed about 12 miles off Port
+Lyttelton Heads, from whence the captain signalled for a pilot steamer
+to take the ship to harbour. In the clear rare atmosphere, and the pure
+invigorating feeling of that glorious morning, we were all impatient of
+delay. A couple of fishing boats were lying not far off, and we begged
+the captain to let us row out to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> them and he permitted us,
+conditionally that we returned and kept near the ship, because
+immediately the tug arrived we would start. We rowed to the boats and
+obtained some information from the fishermen, with whom were two of the
+natives, Maori lads; indeed, I think the boat partly belonged to the
+Maoris, for these people do not take service with the white settlers.
+They pointed out to us where the entrance lay, and told us that Port
+Lyttelton was some five miles further down a bay.</p>
+
+<p>Before we returned to breakfast we had decided to anticipate matters by
+going ahead of the ship. We quietly laid in a small supply of food and
+appeared at the cabin table like good and obedient boys. Incidentally,
+one of us asked the captain if it would be easy to row into port, and he
+replied that it would be very risky to attempt it; it was a long way,
+and the wind or a squall might get up at any moment, or the tide might
+be contrary, and he positively forbade us to entertain any such idea.
+All this, however, only increased our desire for the "lark," as we
+called it, and about 9 o'clock, having rowed about quietly for a while,
+we suddenly bade good-bye to the "Mary Anne" and steered straight for
+the Heads, where we had been told Port Lyttelton lay. Our crew consisted
+of Smith, the two Leaches, C&mdash;&mdash;, and myself, with a man named Kelson,
+who was a good oarsman, and we thought he would be useful as an extra
+hand, but he had no notion of our freak when we started, and was
+considerably chagrined when he discovered our real intention; he had a
+young wife on board, whom he feared would be in distress about him.</p>
+
+<p>For some time we pulled away manfully, but at length began with some
+dismay to notice two facts, one, that we were losing sight of the ship,
+and the other that the hills did not appear to be any nearer!</p>
+
+<p>Some one suggested returning, but as that would have looked like funk,
+it was overruled, and we went to the oars with renewed vigour. After
+some hours pulling we had the satisfaction to find that although the
+masts of the ship were scarcely visible we were certainly drawing nearer
+to the land, and could occasionally distinguish waves breaking on the
+rocks. The coast apparently was quite uninhabited, with no sign of life
+on land or sea. We had evidently been working against the tide or some
+current, for we had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> rowing steadily from 9 to 4, which would have
+amounted to less than two miles an hour, whereas we could pull five. Our
+course must have been true, as also the directions we received, for on
+entering between the heads we found ourselves in a lovely bay stretching
+away to where we were able to discern the masts of vessels in the
+distance, and soon after a large white object lying upon the shore. To
+satisfy our curiosity and obtain news of our whereabouts we rowed over
+and found that the white object was the carcase of a whale which had
+been washed on shore, and on which several men were engaged cutting it
+up. These speedily discovered our "new chum" appearance, but with true
+Colonial hospitality at once offered us a nip of rum, at the same moment
+somewhat disturbing our equanimity by telling us that if we went on to
+the Port we would be put in choky for leaving the ship before the
+Medical Officer examined her.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange and very pleasant to feel the solid ground under our feet
+after 94 days at sea, and we sat awhile with the whale men before
+resuming our boat. Then we proceeded quietly down the Bay, which was
+very beautiful, the dense and variegated primeval forests clothing the
+lower portions of the hills and fringing the ravines and gullies to the
+shore, the pretty caves and bays lying in sheltered nooks, with a
+mountain stream or cascade to complete the picture, and all undefiled by
+the hand of man. The bold outline of the bare rocky summits, the deep
+blue of the silent calm bay, and the distant view of the little Port of
+Lyttelton picturesquely sloping up the hillside.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing no sign of the ship, and fearing to approach the town, we rowed
+into a little sandy cove, where we fastened the boat and proceeded to
+ascend the hill to endeavour to discover the ship's whereabouts. About
+half-way we came upon a neat shepherd's cottage in one of the most
+picturesque localities imaginable, and commanding a magnificent view of
+the bay and harbour. On calling we found the cottage occupied by the
+shepherd's wife, a pleasant buxom Scots-woman, who immediately proffered
+us food, an offer too tempting to be declined, and we presently sat down
+to our first Colonial meal of excellent home-made bread, mutton, and
+tea, and how delighted we were to taste the fine fresh mutton after many
+weeks of salt junk and leathery fowls on board the "Mary Anne"!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We had finished our hearty dinner, and were giving our loquacious
+hostess all the news we could of the old country, when the ship hove in
+sight, towed by a little tug steamer. We ran for our boat and gave
+chase, but only reached her side as the anchor was being dropped in
+Lyttelton Harbour. We received from the Captain and Lapworth a sound but
+good-humoured rating, but there would be no opportunity of further
+"larks" from the "Mary Anne"! The voyage was over, and a most pleasant
+one it had been, especially for our small party, and I am sure that no
+voyagers to the New World ever had the luck to travel with kinder or
+more sympathetic captain and officers, or with abler seamen, than those
+in command of the good ship "Mary Anne."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mrs. Kelson was in sore distress about her husband, whom she
+persisted in giving up for lost, and doubtless she looked pretty sharply
+after his movements for a while.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Lyttelton and Christchurch.&mdash;Call on Our Friends.
+&mdash;Visit Malvern Hill</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Port Lyttelton at the time was but an insignificant town in comparison
+with what it has since become, although from its confined situation it
+is unlikely ever to attain to any great size. It is the port of the
+capital of the province, Christchurch, from which it is separated by a
+chain of hills. A rough and somewhat dangerous cart road led from it to
+the capital, along and around the hill side, which was twelve miles in
+length, but there was also a bridle track direct across the hills, by
+which the distance was reduced by one-half. This path, however, could be
+used only by pedestrians, or on horseback with difficulty. In 1862 it
+was decided to connect the port with Christchurch by a railway, cutting
+a tunnel through the hill, and the project was completed in 1866. In
+1859 Port Lyttelton was built entirely of wood, the houses being for the
+most part single-storeyed. There was a main street running parallel to
+the beach, with two or three branch streets, running up the hill
+therefrom; there were a few shops, several stores, stables, and small
+inns. The harbour was an open roadstead, and possessed but a primitive
+sort of quay or landing place for boats and vessels of small tonnage.</p>
+
+<p>We were invited on shore by the Leach's sheep-farming cousin, who had
+come to meet them, but we returned on board to sleep. The following
+morning, getting our luggage together, we all four started for
+Christchurch on hired horses, sending our kit round the hill by cart.
+The climb up the bridle path (we had to lead the horses) was a stiff
+pull for fellows just out of a three months' voyage, but we were repaid
+on reaching the top by the magnificent panorama opened out before us. To
+our right was the open ocean, blue and calm, dotted with a few white
+sails; to the left the long low range of hills encircling the bay, and
+on a pinnacle of which we stood. At our feet lay Christchurch, with its
+few well-laid-out streets and white houses, young farms, fences, trees,
+gardens, and all the numerous signs of a prosperous and thriving young
+colony, the little river Avon winding its peaceful way to the sea and
+encircling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> the infant town like a silver cord, and the muddy Heathcote
+with its few white sails and heavily-laden barges. While beyond
+stretched away for sixty miles the splendid Canterbury Plains bounded in
+their turn by the southern Alps with their towering snow-capped peaks
+and glaciers sparkling in the sun; the patches of black pine forest
+lying sombre and dark against the mountain sides, in contrast with the
+purple, blue, and gray of the receding gorges, changing, smiling, or
+frowning as clouds or sunshine passed over them. All this heightened by
+the extremely rare atmosphere of New Zealand, in which every detail
+stood out at even that distance clear and distinct, made up a picture
+which for beauty and grandeur can rarely be equalled in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Upon arrival at Christchurch we put up at a neat little inn on the
+outskirts of the town, called Rule's accommodation house. It was a
+picture of neatness, cleanliness, and comfort. We found it occupied by
+several squatters of what might be called the better class, who, on
+their occasional business visits to Christchurch, preferred a quiet
+establishment to the larger and more noisy hotels, of which the town
+possessed two.</p>
+
+<p>These gentlemen were clothed in cord breeches and high boots, with
+guernsey smock frocks, in which costume they appeared to live. English
+coats and collars and light boots were luxuries unknown or contemned by
+these hardy sons of the bush, whom we found very pleasant company, but
+who, it was apparent to us before we were many minutes in their society,
+regarded us as very raw material indeed. According to bush custom it was
+usual to dub all fresh arrivals "new chums" until they had
+satisfactorily passed certain ordeals in bush life. They should be able
+to ride a buckjumper, or, at any rate, hold on till the saddle went, use
+a stockwhip, cut up and light a pipe of tobacco with a single wax vesta
+while riding full speed in the teeth of a sou'-wester, and be ready and
+competent to take a hand at any manual labour going.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner some of our new acquaintances entertained us with some
+miraculous tales of bush life, while others looked carelessly on to see
+how far we could be gulled with impunity. An amusing incident, however,
+occurred presently which rapidly increased their respect for the raw
+material. C&mdash;&mdash; was a young giant, six feet three in his stockings, and
+the last man to put up with an indignity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> One of the party&mdash;a rough,
+vulgar sort of fellow, who had been romancing considerably, and who
+evidently was not on the most cordial terms with the rest of the
+company&mdash;carried his rudeness so far as to drop into C&mdash;&mdash;'s seat when
+the latter had vacated it for a moment. On his return C&mdash;&mdash; asked him to
+leave it, which the fellow refused to do. C&mdash;&mdash; put his hand on his
+collar. "Now," said he, "get out! Once, twice, three times"&mdash;and at the
+last word he lifted the chap bodily and threw him over the table, whence
+he fell heavily on the floor. He was thoroughly cowed, and with a few
+oaths left the room. It needed only such an incident as this to put us
+on the friendliest terms with them all, and we enjoyed a pleasant
+afternoon and gathered much information.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image016.jpg" id="image016.jpg"></a><img src="images/image016.jpg" width='700' height='484' alt="The Arrival of Lapworth" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Arrival of Lapworth</span>.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, whilst waiting for breakfast, sitting out on the
+grass in front of the house, we heard a stampede coming along the road
+from the direction of the Fort, and presently there hove in sight
+Lapworth astride a hired nag, coming ahead at a gallop, one hand
+grasping the mane and the other the crupper, while stirrups and reins
+were flying in the wind. In his rear were Bob Stavelly, third mate, and
+the boatswain, astride another animal, Bob steering, and the boatswain
+holding on, seemingly by the tail. Lapworth, a quarter of a mile off,
+was shouting "Stop her! Stop her!" but the mare needed no assistance;
+she evidently understood where she was required to go, and decided to do
+it in her own time and way. Galloping to the grass plot on which we were
+standing she suddenly stopped short and deposited Lapworth ignominiously
+at our feet. The other animal followed suit, but did not succeed in
+clearing itself, and after some tacking Bob and the boatswain got under
+weigh again and steered for the "White Hart," where they were bent on a
+spree.</p>
+
+<p>Christchurch at this time was about fourteen years in existence. It
+consisted of only a few hundred houses, chiefly single-storeyed and
+entirely constructed of timber. The streets were well laid out, broad,
+and on the principle of the best modern towns, but few of them were as
+yet made or metalled. There were not many buildings of architectural
+pretensions, but all were characterised by an air of comfort, neatness,
+and suitability, and it was apparent the rapid strides the young colony
+was making would ere long place it high in the rank of its order. There
+were two churches, a town hall, used on occasion as court house,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>ball-room, or theatre; three hotels, some very presentable shops and
+stores, and a few particularly neat and handsome residences standing in
+luxuriant grounds, such as those occupied by the Superintendent, Bishop,
+Judge, etc. The suburbs were extending on all sides with the fencing in
+of farms, erection of homesteads, and conversion of the native soil into
+land suitable for growing English corn and grass.</p>
+
+<p>Through the rising city wound the little river Avon, only twenty to
+thirty yards in width, spanned by two wooden bridges, and a couple of
+mills had also been erected upon it. The river was only about fifteen
+miles from its source to the sea, and at the time to which I refer was
+almost covered with watercress. This plant was not indigenous; it was
+introduced a few years before by a colonist, who was so partial to the
+vegetable that he brought some roots from home with him, and planted
+them near the source of the river, where he squatted. The watercress
+took so kindly to the soil that it had now covered the river to its
+mouth, and the Colonial Government were put to very considerable annual
+expense to remove it.</p>
+
+<p>As I have already stated, we had been provided with introductions to
+some of the most influential families in Christchurch&mdash;namely, the
+Bishop, the Chief Justice Gresson, and some others. The following day we
+made our calls and were most hospitably received, especially by Mr. and
+Mrs. Gresson, who from that time during my stay in New Zealand were my
+constant and valued friends. We were introduced to many of the best
+up-country people, and a month was passed pleasantly visiting about to
+enable us to decide on what line we would take up as a commencement. We
+possessed very little money, so a life of service in some form was an
+absolute necessity at the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>While awaiting events, C&mdash;&mdash; and I were invited by young Mr. H&mdash;&mdash;, son
+of the Bishop, to visit his sheep station at Malvern Hills, some
+forty-five miles distant across the plains, where we could see what
+station life was like and have some sport after wild pigs, ducks, etc.
+Procuring the loan of a couple of horses we all started early one
+morning, what change of clothes we needed being strapped with our
+blankets before and behind on our saddles, and I carried a gun.</p>
+
+<p>It was an exhilarating ride in the cool, fragrant atmosphere, although a
+description would lead one to think it would be monotonous to ride
+forty-five miles over an almost perfectly flat plain, with no more than
+an occasional shepherd's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> hut, a mob of sheep, or an isolated homestead
+to break the surrounding view. The plain was almost bare of vegetation,
+beyond short yellow grass here and there burnt in patches, and now and
+then a solitary cabbage tree (a kind of palm) dotted the wide expanse.
+Beyond a few paradise ducks feeding on the burnt patches, or an
+occasional family of wild pigs, we met with no animal life. Quail used
+to be abundant, but the run fires were fast destroying them. We had
+before us the nearing view of the Malvern Hills, the sloping pine
+forests and scrub, with the long, undulating spurs running back to the
+foot of great snow-clad peaks.</p>
+
+<p>The station, or homestead, stood on a plateau some fifty feet above the
+plain; it consisted of two huts, mud-walled and thatched with snow
+grass. One of these contained the general kitchen and sleeping room for
+the station hands, the other was the residence of the squatter and his
+overseer. Behind these there were a wool shed for clipping and pressing
+the wool, with sheep yards attached, a stockyard for cattle, and a
+fenced in paddock in which a few station hacks were kept for daily use.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival our first duty was to remove saddles, bridles, and swags and
+lead the horses to some good pasture, where they were each tethered to a
+tussock by thirty yards of fine hemp rope, which they carried tied about
+their necks. Then, after a rough wash in the open, we were soon gathered
+round a hospitable table in the kitchen, where all sat in common to a
+substantial meal of mutton, bread, and tea, the standard food with
+little variation of a squatter's homestead.</p>
+
+<p>Night had closed in by now, and we were soon glad to retire to our
+blankets, and the sweet fresh beds of Manuka twigs laid on the floor of
+Harper's hut, for the temporary accommodation of us visitors. We slept
+like tops till roused at daybreak to breakfast, after which the forenoon
+was spent in being shown over the station and in a climb to the forests,
+where we saw the pine trees being felled, and split up into posts and
+rails. After the midday meal a pig hunt was organised, and a few animals
+were accounted for, falling chiefly to Harper's rifle. (Pig hunting I
+will specially refer to later on.) We passed a pleasant and instructive
+week at Malvern Station, taking a hand in all the routine work, riding
+after the stock, working in the bush, and occasionally taking a
+cross-country ride of fifteen or twenty miles to visit a neighbouring
+station.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">A Period of Uncertainty as to Occupation.&mdash;Eventually Leave for
+Nelson as Cadets on a Sheep Run.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On our return to Christchurch we were beset with a diversity of advice
+not calculated to bring us to a speedy decision. Some advised us to go
+on a sheep run for a year or two as cadets to learn the routine, with a
+view to obtaining thereafter an overseership, and in time a possible
+partnership. Others advised our setting up as carters between the Port
+and Christchurch, while, again, others recommended us to invest what
+money we possessed in land and take employment up country until we had
+saved enough to farm it. All advice was excellent, and had we decided on
+one line it would have been well, or if we had had fewer advisers
+perhaps it would have been better. We were waiting and talking about
+work instead of going at it, living at some expense, and keeping up
+appearances without means to support them. But it was not easy under the
+circumstances to decide. To go upon a sheep station and work as a
+labourer or overseer was very obnoxious to C&mdash;&mdash;. With his home
+experience of farming he expected too much all at once, and naturally I
+was guided by him. Farming on a small scale, even if we had sufficient
+money to buy and work a farm, would not pay. There was not then a large
+enough home market for the crops produced. Land-holders held on, hoping
+that as the wealth of the Colony increased and the town extended and
+peopled, land would proportionately increase in value, and market for
+their produce would be found at home or abroad. But the Colony was then
+very young, and the staple produce of the country upon which everything
+depended was wool, which was only partially developed. The country was
+not then a tenth stocked. Sheep-farming was decidedly the thing to go in
+for whenever we could contrive to do so, but in the meantime what were
+we to take up for a living. The answer should have been simple enough.
+But, however, there is no need to dwell on our petty disappointments;
+they were only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> what hundreds feel and have felt who have gone to the
+Colonies with too sanguine expectations that it was an easy and pleasant
+road to fortune. That it is a road to fortune is very true, if a young
+man is content and determined to begin at the beginning and go steadily
+on; but it is not always an easy road at first for the youngster who has
+very little or nothing to commence upon, especially if he be a gentleman
+born, and has only his hands to help him. He must put his pride in his
+pocket and learn to be content to be taken at his present value. If he
+does that he will find, that his birth and education will stand to him,
+and that no matter what occupation he may be forced to take up, if his
+life and conduct be manly and reliable he will command as much or more
+respect from his (for the time being) fellow workers as he would do
+under different circumstances. It is a huge mistake to suppose that the
+gentleman lowers himself anywhere&mdash;and especially in the Colonies&mdash;by
+undertaking any kind of manual labour. I have known the sons of
+gentlemen of good family working as bullock-drivers, shepherds,
+stockdrivers, bushmen, for a yearly wage, and nobody considered the
+employment derogatory. On the contrary, these are the men who get on and
+in time become wealthy.</p>
+
+<p>A sad event occurred about this time, which, as it was in a way
+connected with our ship, I will relate here. It was the custom of
+Government at that time to send out to the Australian Colonies for
+employment as domestic servants, possibly wives for young colonists
+(women being much in the minority), a number of girls from the
+Reformatory Schools in London; and in the "Mary Anne" some twenty or
+thirty of them had arrived. While on board they were under the charge of
+matrons, and on arrival were received in a house maintained at
+Government expense, until they obtained service or were otherwise
+disposed of. This house was under the superintendence of a medical man,
+Dr. T&mdash;&mdash;, whose acquaintance we had made on our first arrival. He was a
+middle-aged man, a thorough gentleman, a bachelor, and a great favourite
+in Christchurch society. Amongst the shipment of young women was a very
+handsome, ladylike, and well-educated girl, and an accomplished
+musician. The doctor was smitten, proposed to her, and married her
+quietly. On the day on which we first heard of the event we happened to
+be sitting with some acquaintances in the public room of the White Hart
+Hotel, when Dr. T&mdash;&mdash; entered, and walking over to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> fire, called for
+a glass of water, nodding to us all round in his usual friendly way. On
+receiving the water, he threw into it and stirred up a powder which he
+took from his pocket, and immediately drank off the mixture. "I've done
+it now," he said; "I have taken strychnine!" and remained standing with
+his back to the fire in an unconcerned manner. We scarcely heeded his
+remark, taking it as a joke, till he suddenly crossed to a sofa, and
+called to us for God's sake to send for a doctor. One was sent for, but
+he arrived too late, if indeed his presence could have been of use at
+any time. A doctor knows how much to take to ensure death. After a few
+fits of convulsions, very terrible to witness, Dr. T&mdash;&mdash; was a corpse.
+The cause of his committing suicide was due to his discovery, very soon
+after his marriage, of the true character of the woman he had taken to
+his home.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know whether the custom of sending out to the Colonies persons
+of this class still exists, but it certainly cannot be a good one, and I
+fear that but a very small percentage of them really turn over a new
+leaf. There must be now, at any rate, better means of disposing of the
+surplus members of reformatory establishments in the Old Country than
+sending them to run wild amidst the freedom and temptations of the new
+world&mdash;a custom as hurtful to them as to the Colony which receives them.</p>
+
+<p>C&mdash;&mdash; and I at length decided to commence work as carriers; we rented a
+four-acre paddock, and built a small wooden hut, and were in treaty for
+the purchase of the necessary drays and teams, but it was all being done
+in a half-hearted way, as well as in opposition to the best of our
+advisers. C&mdash;&mdash;'s aversion to undertake anything where he was not
+entirely his own master was unconquerable. Doubtless the carrying
+business would have answered very well, for a time at any rate, and
+there was no actual hurry, so long as we were employed and earning a
+living, but it was not to be.</p>
+
+<p>We were invited to meet at dinner at the Chief Justice's a Mr. and Mrs.
+Lee from Nelson Province. Mr. Lee was a large sheep-farmer, and before
+we left that evening we had accepted a most kind invitation from him to
+go to his run for a month or two at any rate, before deciding finally to
+take up the rough and uncertain business we had proposed for ourselves.
+The Judge so strongly advised this course for us both, that C&mdash;&mdash; could
+not refuse, although he was by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> no means keen about it. The judge
+explained that the opportunity was an excellent one, and would in all
+probability lead to his (C&mdash;&mdash;'s) being offered the overseership, if he
+decided to take up the life after a fair trial. I did not know then, as
+I did soon after, that C&mdash;&mdash; had serious intentions of abandoning the
+country before giving it a fair trial; everything he saw was obnoxious
+to him, and he evidently yearned for his home in Ireland and his little
+farm again.</p>
+
+<p>I purchased for my own use a small but powerful bay mare, C&mdash;&mdash; obtained
+a mount from Mr. Lee, and in the course of a few days we started in
+company with Mr. and Mrs. Lee, all on horseback, for their station of
+Highfield.</p>
+
+<p>Highfield was, as well as I recollect, nearly three hundred miles from
+Christchurch, and we accomplished the distance in a little over a week,
+Mrs. Lee riding with us all the way. Indeed, there was no other means of
+travelling over that wild track, and she was, like most squatters' wives
+in those days, an experienced horsewoman.</p>
+
+<p>Our luggage was carried on three pack horses, which we drove before us,
+and in this manner we accomplished from thirty to forty miles each day.</p>
+
+<p>At night we rested, either at a rough accommodation house (a kind of
+private hotel) or a squatter's station, and during the day's ride we
+sometimes halted for lunch at any convenient locality where we could
+find water to make tea and firewood to boil it with. Then the packs and
+saddles were removed from the horses, which were allowed to roll and
+feed on the native grass while we refreshed the inner man with the usual
+bush fare, of which a sufficient supply was carried with us.</p>
+
+<p>After crossing the Hurunui river, the boundary between Canterbury and
+Nelson, we soon left the plains behind and entered a fine undulating
+country watered by abundant streams and some large rivers, which latter
+could be forded only with considerable care and judgment, being
+sometimes full of quicksands, and always rapid.</p>
+
+<p>On approaching our destination, which, as its name implies, stood on an
+elevated situation, the gorges and river-bed flats, along which our
+track ran, narrowed and became more wooded and picturesque, till we at
+length passed through the narrow precipitous gorge that led us to the
+open plateau upon which the station buildings stood. These comprised the
+dwelling house, a long, low, commodious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> building, furnished most
+comfortably in English fashion; the men's huts, comprising three
+sleeping rooms, the kitchen and dining-room for the hands, the store,
+dairy, etc., with an enclosed yard, formed one group, while at some
+distance away stood the woolshed and sheep yards, paddocks, stock yards
+for cattle and sheds for cows and working bullocks. In front of the
+dwelling was a pretty and rather extensive garden plot, through the
+centre of which wound a small stream of pure spring water. The entire
+group of buildings, with the garden, paddocks, etc., occupied the centre
+of a piece of undulating land, open towards the south, where a fine view
+of the country over which we had journeyed was visible, and on all other
+sides was bounded by hills, which to the north and west stretched away
+to the Alps. It was a grand site to make a home upon, although I could
+not help the feeling that it was a somewhat lonely one; the nearest
+neighbours were fifteen to twenty miles distant.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lee's run comprised about 30,000 acres, principally hills, with
+occasional stretches of flat land upon which the cattle and horses
+grazed, while the sheep fed on the mountain sides.</p>
+
+<p>We speedily fell into the life, and found it exhilarating. Mr. Lee was a
+fine specimen of the English country squire, a good horseman and
+sportsman, and he could put his hand to any kind of work. He had a large
+store and workshop near the yards, where every conceivable thing needed
+for use on a station so far from supplies was kept, and he was an
+excellent carpenter and smith. Indeed, a great portion of the rather
+extensive buildings and yards he had erected himself, with such
+assistance as he could derive from raw station hands, while only such
+articles as doors and windows, furniture, and suchlike were brought from
+Christchurch. The house walls, roofs, and floors were all of green
+timber cut in the neighbouring pine forest. The walls of the living
+houses were composed of a framing of round pine averaging 4 or 5 inches
+thick, covered on the outside with weather boarding, and on the inside
+with laths, the space between of four inches being filled with clay and
+chopped grass, and the whole surface afterwards plastered with clay and
+mud-washed. The roofs were made of pine framing covered with boards and
+pine shingles. The outbuildings were usually built with roughly squared
+framing to which heavy split slabs would be vertically fastened, the
+inside being left rough or plastered with mud as desired; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> the roofs
+were of round pine framing covered with rickers (young pine plants) and
+thatched with snow grass. Squatters soon learnt to be their own
+architects, and very good ones many of them turned out.</p>
+
+<p>The country immediately surrounding the station was almost treeless, and
+Mr. Lee was doing a good deal of planting, and had a very fine garden
+under formation. Some two miles to the rear of the station, in a deep
+cleft of the hills, lay a considerable black and white pine forest. It
+is a peculiarity of New Zealand that the pine forests indigenous to that
+country (and which bear no similarity to European pines) are invariably
+found in more or less accurately defined patches, growing thickly and
+never scattered to any appreciable extent. One may ride twenty miles
+through spurs and hills with no vegetation on them, and then suddenly
+stumble on a densely wooded ravine or mountain side so accurately
+contained within itself as to lead one to imagine it had been originally
+planted.</p>
+
+<p>Within twenty miles of Highfield was another station, called Parnassus,
+belonging to Mr. Edward Lee, our Mr. Lee's brother. We soon rode over to
+see him, and made excursions to other neighbours, none living nearer
+than ten miles.</p>
+
+<p>There were upwards of one hundred horses at Highfield, including all
+ages and sexes, of which the main body of course ran wild, while a few
+were kept in paddocks for use. The horse Mrs. Lee rode from Christchurch
+was a new purchase and a very fine animal, named Maseppa, and, strange
+to say, although he carried her perfectly all the journey to Highfield,
+he had now, after a few weeks on the run, developed into a vicious
+buckjumper. One day, when Mr. Lee wanted to ride him, he was driven in
+with the mob and saddled. Immediately he was mounted the brute bucked
+and sent Mr. Lee flying. Fortunately the ground was soft, and he escaped
+with a few bruises. C&mdash;&mdash; then had a try, with more success, but the
+horse was never safe for a lady to ride, and he was soon after disposed
+of to a stock-rider on the Waiou.</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting here to give a general sketch of a sheep-farmer's
+life and work on his station, obtained from my experience at Highfield,
+and occasionally on other runs, during my five years' residence in the
+country, and this I will endeavour to do in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Working of a Sheep-Run--Scab&mdash;C&mdash;&mdash;'s Departure for Home,
+etc.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The intending squatter might either purchase a sheep run outright, if
+opportunity offered, or if he was fortunate enough to discover a tract
+of unclaimed country, he could occupy it at once by paying the
+Provincial Government a nominal rental, something like half a farthing
+an acre. This would only be the goodwill of the land, which was liable
+to be purchased outright by anybody else direct from Government, at the
+upset price fixed, which in Nelson was one pound per acre for hilly
+land, and two pounds for flat land suitable for cultivation. Nobody
+could purchase outright a run or portion of it while another occupier
+held the goodwill of it without first challenging the latter, who
+retained the presumptive right to purchase.</p>
+
+<p>To protect themselves as much as possible from land being purchased away
+from them, or from being obliged to purchase themselves, goodwill
+holders were in the habit of buying up the best flat land, as well as
+making the land around their homesteads private property. A run so
+divided and cut up would not be so tempting to a rich man, and would
+effectually debar the man of small means, as the present occupier would
+not sell his private property unless at a price which would reimburse
+him for the loss of his interest in the goodwill of the run, and the
+new-comer, if he did not possess the scraps of private property as well
+as the remainder of the run, would be continually harassed by the
+previous owner occupying the best portions, and would be liable to fine
+for trespass, etc.</p>
+
+<p>When a tract of country is occupied for the first time, it will usually
+be found covered with tussocks of grass scattered far apart and lying
+matted and rank on the ground. The first thing to do is to apply the
+match and burn all clean to the roots, and after a few showers of rain
+the grass will begin to sprout from the burnt stumps. Then the sheep are
+turned on to it, and the cropping, tramping, and manuring it receives,
+with occasional further burnings, renders it in a couple of years fair
+grazing country. An even sod takes the place of the isolated tussock,
+and the grass from being wild and unsavoury becomes sweet and tender.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It takes, however, three to five years to transform a wild mountain side
+(if the land be moderately good) into an ordinarily fair sheep-run
+calculated to carry one sheep to every five acres&mdash;that is, of course,
+for the native or indigenous grass; the same ground cleared and laid
+down in English grass would carry three to five sheep to the acre.</p>
+
+<p>A settler having obtained his run is bound by Government to stock it
+within a year with a stipulated number of sheep per 1,000 acres, failing
+which he forfeits his claim to possession. A man holding a fairly good
+run of 30,000 acres may feed from 3,000 to 4,000 sheep upon it, making
+due allowance for increase and disability to dispose of surplus stock.</p>
+
+<p>The farming is conducted as follows: The flock is divided into two or
+more parts, in all cases the wethers being kept separate from the ewes
+and lambs, and occupying different portions of the run, the object being
+that the ewes and lambs may have rest, the wethers being liable to be
+driven in for sale or slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>A shepherd is put in charge of each flock, and he resides at some
+convenient place on the boundary, whence it is his duty to walk or ride
+round his boundary at least once a day, and see that no sheep have
+crossed it. If he discovers tracks made during his absence he must
+follow them until he recovers his wanderers.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary that a shepherd should see his sheep daily; he may
+not see a third of his flocks for months, unless he wishes to discover
+their actual whereabouts; he has only to assure himself that they have
+not left the run, and it is practically impossible for them to do so
+without leaving their footprints to be discovered on the boundary.</p>
+
+<p>The breeding season is spring and the shearing season summer, which
+corresponds to our winter in England. The usual increase of lambs, if
+the ewes be healthy and strong, is 75 to 95 per cent. in about equal
+proportions of male and female.</p>
+
+<p>When the lambs are about six weeks old the entire flock is driven in for
+cutting, tailing, and earmarking. The tails are cut off and the ear
+nicked or punched with the registered earmark of the station, and a
+certain number of the most approved male lambs are reserved. A good hand
+can cut and mark two thousand lambs per day, and not over one per cent.
+will die from the consequences. When the operation is over, the flock is
+counted out and handed over to the shepherd to take them back to their
+run until the shearing season.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At this time a complete muster is made; all hands turn out on the hills,
+and every sheep is brought in that can be found. Not infrequently in the
+hilly country an exciting chase is had after a wild mob that have defied
+the exertions of the shepherds and their dogs for a considerable time.
+These animals will run up the most inaccessible places, skirt the edges
+of precipices at a height at which they can be discovered only by the
+aid of a telescope, and have been known to maintain their freedom in
+spite of man or dog for years. When at length caught they present a
+ludicrous appearance; their fleeces have become tangled and matted,
+hanging to the ground in ragged tails, and can with difficulty be
+removed, their feet have grown crooked and deformed, and they rarely
+again become domesticated with the flock.</p>
+
+<p>The shearing is carried on in a large shed, divided into pens or small
+compartments, each connected separately with the attached yards. It is
+usually done by contract, the price being &pound;1 to &pound;1 5s. per hundred
+sheep. Each man has his pen, which is cleared out and refilled as often
+as necessary, and at each clearance the number therein are counted to
+his name. The shorn sheep are passed direct to the branding yard, and
+from thence to a common yard, from which all are counted out at
+nightfall for return to the run.</p>
+
+<p>A good shearer will clip one hundred sheep in a day, the average for a
+gang of men being 75.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the fleece being removed it is gathered up by an attendant placed
+for the purpose, and handed over to the sorter, who spreads it upon a
+table and removes dirty and jagged parts, and sometimes it is classed.
+It is then rolled up and thrown into the wool press to be packed for
+export.</p>
+
+<p>The wool bales so pressed measure 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft., and contain
+on an average one hundred fleeces, and each fleece runs from three to
+four pounds in weight. The lambs' wool is pressed separately, and
+commands a higher price than that of the adult sheep.</p>
+
+<p>The hand press is a wooden box, made the size of the canvas bale, which
+is suspended therein by hooks from the open top; the box has a movable
+side, which is loosened out to give exit to the bale when pressed. The
+pressing is done by the feet, assisted by a blunt spade, and the bales
+are generally very creditably turned out, the sheep-farmer priding
+himself on a neatly pressed bale. When pressed the end is sewn up and
+the bale rolled over to a convenient place for branding, when it is
+ready for loading on the dray.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Previous to shearing, the sheep are sometimes driven through a deep
+running stream and roughly washed, to remove sand and grease. Wool
+certified to have been so cleaned will command a higher price than
+unwashed wool.</p>
+
+<p>At the time to which I refer, most of the runs in Nelson Province were
+"unclean"&mdash;that is, infected with scab; and it became so general that it
+was considered almost impossible to eradicate. The disease was most
+infectious. A mob of clean, healthy sheep merely driven over a run upon
+which infected sheep had recently fed would almost surely catch the
+disease.</p>
+
+<p>A sheep severely infected with scab becomes a pitiful object. The body
+gets covered with a yellow scaly substance, the wool falls off or is
+rubbed off in patches, the disease causing intense itchiness, the animal
+loses flesh and appetite, and unless relieved sickens and dies.</p>
+
+<p>The Nelson settlers, although they could not hope to speedily eradicate
+the pest, were nevertheless bound by the Provincial Government to adopt
+certain precautions against its spreading. Every station was provided
+with a scab yard and a tank in which the flocks were periodically bathed
+in hot tobacco water, and such animals as were unusually afflicted
+received special attention and hand-dressing. These arrangements
+strictly enforced proved successful to a great extent in keeping the
+disease in check.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lee's run was scabby, although not so bad as some of his
+neighbour's, and the strictest precautions were observed to keep it as
+clean as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Upon arrival at Highfield we had immediate opportunity to see for
+ourselves the most interesting part of the working of the run. The
+cutting season had just commenced, and the mustering and shearing would
+ere long follow.</p>
+
+<p>My chum C&mdash;&mdash; was a particularly smart fellow at everything appertaining
+to this kind of life. He speedily picked up the routine, and made
+himself so generally valuable that Mr. Lee offered him the post of
+overseer, with &pound;60 a year as a beginning, and all found. But C&mdash;&mdash;, on
+the plea that the pay was too small, refused it. This was his great
+mistake, to refuse what ninety-nine men in a hundred would have jumped
+at in his circumstances! It would have been the first step on the
+ladder, and with his abilities and experience he had only to wait a
+certain time to become a partner. But his heart was not in the country,
+and nothing would reconcile him to remaining in it. Within two months of
+our coming to Highfield he determined to return home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This resolution being taken, nothing would shake it, and the day was
+fixed for his departure. He and I were badly suited I fear to work
+together, and had he had some other chum perhaps he might have agreed
+with the new life better, and turned out a successful colonist; for most
+certainly, although we were not able to see it at the time, he had
+eminent opportunities open to him for becoming one.</p>
+
+<p>I rode twenty miles with him on his way to Christchurch. He was to stay
+the first night at a station twenty-five miles from Highfield. On the
+bank of the Waiou river we parted&mdash;we two chums who had come all the way
+from the Old Country to work and stick together. I thought it then hard
+of C&mdash;&mdash;, although I had no right to expect him to stay in New Zealand
+in opposition to his own wishes and judgment to please me. As I watched
+him cross the river and presently disappear between the hills further
+on, a feeling of strange loneliness came over me. Well, I was not much
+more than a child!</p>
+
+<p>I must have sat there ruminating for a considerable time, for when I
+came to myself it was dark, and I remembered that I was in an almost
+trackless region which I had passed through only once before in
+daylight, and in company, when we had a view of the hills to guide us,
+and that I was at least seven miles from the nearest station
+(Rutherford's), but of the exact direction of which I was not certain.
+However, I had been long enough in the country to have passed more than
+one night in the open air, and at the worst this could only happen
+again, and I was provided with a blanket strapped to my saddle. I was
+not, however, to be without bed or supper. I mounted my mare, which had
+been browsing beside me, and gave her her head&mdash;the wisest course I
+could have taken. After an hour's sharp walk I discovered lights in the
+distance, which soon after proved to be those of Rutherford's station,
+where I was most hospitably received.</p>
+
+<p>Considerable astonishment was expressed at C&mdash;&mdash;'s&mdash;to
+them&mdash;unaccountably foolish action in throwing over, after two months'
+trial, an opportunity which most men situated as he was would have
+worked for years to obtain.</p>
+
+<p>C&mdash;&mdash; reached the Old Country in due time, resumed his small farm,
+married, had a large family, and died a poor man.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning I returned to Highfield feeling myself a better
+man and more independent now that I had myself only to depend on.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Shepherd's Life&mdash;Driving Sheep to Christchurch&mdash;Killing a Wild
+Sow&mdash;Arrival in Christchurch</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I passed nearly a year at Highfield, during which time I made myself
+acquainted with all the routine of a sheep-farmer's life. I learned to
+ride stock, shoe horses, shear sheep, plough, fence, fell and split
+timber, and everything else that an experienced squatter ought to be
+able to do, not omitting the accomplishment of smoking. Mr. Lee then
+offered me what he had offered C&mdash;&mdash;, and I agreed to accept it pending
+a visit I meditated making to Christchurch to consult my friend Mr.
+Gresson about a desire I entertained of entering the Government Land
+Office and to become a surveyor.</p>
+
+<p>I had done my best to like the life of a sheep-farmer, but I was
+becoming weary of it, and something was always prompting me to seek for
+more congenial employment. So far as stockriding, pig-hunting, and
+shooting were concerned, the life was delightful, but such recreations
+could be enjoyed anywhere. To sheep and sheep-farming I conceived a
+growing aversion as a life's work, and although I was prepared to hold
+to it if nothing better to my mind presented itself, I was equally
+determined to find something else if it were possible.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lee had three shepherds at this time in charge of flocks, who
+resided in different places at least four miles from each other and from
+the home station. Two of these were the sons of gentlemen in the Old
+Country, and one of them a distant relation. The life of the boundary
+shepherd is a peculiarly lonely one, especially if he be young and
+single. His residence is a little one-roomed hut, sometimes two rooms,
+built of mud and thatched with grass, an earthen floor, with a large
+chimney and fireplace occupying one end. His furniture consists of a
+table, bunk, and a couple of chairs, and if he be an educated man and
+fond of reading he will have a table for his books and writing
+materials. He is supplied monthly with a sack of flour and a bag of tea
+and sugar, salt, etc. His cooking utensils are a kettle, camp oven, and
+frying pan, to which are added a few plates,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> knives and forks, and two
+or three tin porringers. He always possesses at least one dog and a
+horse, and possibly a cat. The only light is that procured from what is
+called a slush lamp, made by keeping an old bowl or pannikin replenished
+by refuse fat or dripping in which is inserted a thick cotton wick. He
+cooks for himself, washes his own clothes, cuts up his firewood, and
+fetches water for daily use. Such luxuries as eggs, butter, or milk are
+unknown. Perhaps once a month he may have occasion to visit the home
+station, or somebody passing may call at his hut, or he may occasionally
+meet a neighbouring shepherd on his round. With these exceptions he has
+no intercourse with his fellow-beings, and all his affection is bestowed
+on his dog and horse; he would be badly off, indeed, without them.</p>
+
+<p>One of these young men, by name Wren, became a great friend of mine, and
+many a time I visited him or spent a night in his lonely little hut,
+which was located in a small clearing surrounded by dense bush and
+immediately over a small and turbulent stream, which he used to say was
+always good company and prevented his feeling so lonely during the long
+dark nights as he otherwise would. It is strange how in the course of
+time a person will get accustomed to such a lonely life, and many like
+it, but it cannot be good for a young man to have too much of it, and
+fortunately for Wren a few years would see him located at headquarters.
+To take charge of a boundary was part of his education as a cadet.</p>
+
+<p>It was different with the other. He was an unfortunate of that class so
+frequently met with in the Colonies, a "ne'er-do-well" who had while at
+home contracted habits of dissipation, and he was sent out to New
+Zealand under the then very mistaken supposition that he would thereby
+be cured. But there is no permanent cure for such a man; his life may be
+prolonged a little by enforced abstinence, but he will never, or rarely
+ever, recover his power of will so far as to avoid temptation if it
+comes in his way. If it be possible to do such a man any real good,
+there may be some chance for him at home, where he would have the care
+and influence of his friends to support him, but there is no chance for
+him in the Colonies. Such a man will under pressure abstain for months,
+but the moment that pressure is removed he will make for the nearest
+place where his propensity can be indulged, and give himself up to the
+devil body and soul, so long as he has the means to do so, or can obtain
+what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> desires by fair means or foul. He knows no shame; all
+honourable and manly feeling has become callous within him; and it is a
+happy release indeed for all connected with him when his pitiable life
+is ended.</p>
+
+<p>It was a custom of Mr. Lee's to send yearly to Christchurch a flock of
+fat wethers for sale, and as I wished to proceed there on the business I
+referred to, I was to be entrusted with the charge of them, in company
+with a Scottish shepherd, by name Campbell, who was a new arrival in the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The sheep numbered four hundred, and we had to drive them nearly three
+hundred miles, and deliver them in as good condition as when they left.
+We started early in December, the hottest time of the year, carrying
+what we needed for camping out on one pack horse. It was by no means a
+pleasure journey to drive, or rather feed, sheep along for three hundred
+miles at ten to fifteen miles a day, over dry and hot plains with not a
+tree to shelter one, and to stay awake turn about night after night to
+watch them. Mr. Lee accompanied us as far as the Waiou river, over which
+it occupied the best part of a day to cross the sheep, then he left us
+to proceed to Christchurch to seek and bring back the Government Scab
+Inspector to meet us at the Hurunui river, the boundary, and there to
+pass the sheep, otherwise they would not be permitted to enter the
+Canterbury province.</p>
+
+<p>It may appear strange that it would occupy a day to cross 400 sheep over
+a river, but it is a very difficult thing to induce sheep to take to the
+water; indeed, by merely driving them it is impossible. Where the water
+is at all fordable, several men wade in, each carrying a sheep, and when
+half-way across the animals are loosed and sent swimming to the other
+side, but not infrequently this plan fails, by reason of the sheep
+turning and swimming back to the mob, and the operation may have to be
+repeated many times before it is successful. The object is to give the
+mob a lead, and when sheep get a lead they will follow it blindly, no
+matter where it will lead them to. When the river is too deep for
+wading, men on horseback ford or swim over, carrying sheep on their
+saddles, and drop them in midstream till the required lead is obtained.
+As soon as the mob understand they have to go, a panic seems to take
+them, and they make such frantic efforts to rush on that to prevent them
+hurting each other is sometimes impossible. An unfortunate instance of
+this occurred while I was at Highfield. We were driving a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> mob of
+sheep to the yards to be dipped, and had to pass them over one side of
+the rocky gorge leading to the Highfield plateau before mentioned. Some
+of the leaders near the edge took alarm, and a few fell over the cliff.
+Seeing their comrades disappear, others followed, and then the whole mob
+made for the precipice, and jumped frantically over. The fall was about
+twenty feet only, but the animals followed each other with such rapidity
+that in a few minutes some three hundred sheep lay in a mass, piled on
+top of each other. It was with great difficulty the dogs and men
+prevented the whole mob following suit, in which case there would have
+been great loss; as it was, nearly one hundred sheep were smothered
+before it was possible to extricate them.</p>
+
+<p>There is another danger to which they are exposed when driving them over
+new ground. There is a small plant, I forget the name of it, but it is
+well known to every shepherd, and grows in luxuriance along some of the
+river beds. It is about a foot high and has dark green leaves. If by any
+chance a mob of hungry sheep are driven into this plant, they will
+attack it ravenously, and in a few minutes they will stagger and fall as
+if intoxicated, and if not immediately attended to they will die. The
+only chance for them is to bleed them by driving in the blade of a small
+knife each side of the nose. The blood will flow black and thick, and
+the animal will speedily recover, but delay is fatal.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled steadily about 15 miles each day, and in due time reached
+the north bank of the Hurunui river, only to find no sign of Mr. Lee or
+the Inspector. This was specially disappointing as our supply of flour
+and sugar was getting very low, and we were promised a fresh supply at
+this point. For several days neither the supplies nor Mr. Lee appeared.
+The little flour remaining was full of maggots, our tea and tobacco were
+finished, and we had to live on mutton boiled in a frying-pan (we were
+obliged to kill a sheep). There was no feeding ground near the river,
+the country having been recently burnt, and so we were obliged to take
+the sheep daily a couple of miles inland, carrying with us some of the
+mutton and water, and drink the latter nearly hot, travelling back to
+the river-bed at nightfall to camp the sheep in an angle between two
+streams, by which means we contrived to obtain a little rest.</p>
+
+<p>One day we varied our food by securing some fresh pork in a somewhat
+novel manner. There were many wild<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> pigs about but we had no means of
+shooting or otherwise killing them. One day while driving our sheep
+inland, we came across a mob of pigs in a dry nallah, all of which
+bolted except a full-grown sow and a litter of young ones, which could
+not run with the herd; and as the mother would not leave them behind,
+she decided to stay, and if need be fight for her family. It was a
+touching picture, no doubt, but there is not much room for sentiment
+when the stomach is empty and the body weary and unsatisfied. The
+prospect of fresh pork that night in lieu of the everlasting mutton, the
+cooking of which we had varied in every way we could devise was very
+tempting, and we set to work to make some plan for capturing the sow;
+the baby piggies were too young and delicate for our taste.</p>
+
+<p>We possessed no weapons but our pocket knives, and they would be of
+small use against so powerful a brute as a wild sow in defence of her
+young. The dogs shirked her neighbourhood altogether. At length, in our
+extremity, we were struck by the idea that we might strangle her with
+one of the tether ropes carried around the horses' necks. We unloosed
+one, and each taking an end thirty feet apart, approached to the
+encounter. To our amazement and joy the sow herself here contributed in
+a quite unexpected manner to her own capture. Immediately the rope was
+within her reach she snapped viciously at it, and retained it in her
+mouth. Discovering that she persisted in holding on, and that the rope
+was far back in her jaws, we shortened hand rapidly, and ran round,
+crossing each other in a circle, keeping the rope taut meanwhile. By
+this means we quickly twisted the rope firmly over her snout, so that
+had she now desired she could not have rid herself of it. The rest was
+easy; we shortened hand till near enough to despatch her with our clasp
+knives. We cut up the beast and carried off as much of the meat as would
+last us some days, and that night supped sumptuously off pork chops.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image034.jpg" id="image034.jpg"></a><img src="images/image034.jpg" width='700' height='474' alt="Killing the Wild Sow" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Killing the Wild Sow</span>.</p>
+
+<p>After ten days of this very undesirable existence, Mr. Lee arrived and
+informed us that the Inspector would be up on the morrow. Very welcome
+news; and we were further gladdened by a fresh supply of the necessaries
+of life which Mr. Lee had brought on a led pack horse. The delay was
+owing to the Inspector having been called away to a distant part of
+Canterbury, and Mr. Lee had a ride of nearly a hundred miles to find
+him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In those days the postal arrangements were very primitive. Once a week
+only the mails were carried, and some stations distant from the line of
+route were obliged to send a horseman 20 to 50 miles to fetch their
+post.</p>
+
+<p>The sheep were safely crossed on the third day, and we started afresh
+for Christchurch.</p>
+
+<p>We had up to this time been more than a month on the journey, at the
+hottest season, without a tree to shelter us and with only the bare
+ground for a bed. One blanket and one change of clothes had I. Campbell,
+I think, had not so much. For a part of the time mutton and water
+seasoned with dust was our food, and the open sky our covering day and
+night; however, we were none the worse for it, and to a certain extent I
+enjoyed the life, for had I not then rude health and a splendid
+constitution, which subsequently carried me safely through rougher, if
+not more enjoyable, experiences than driving sheep.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the journey was comparatively easy, and fifteen days saw us
+in Christchurch with the sheep in excellent condition. Here I found
+letters from home awaiting me, those from my father and mother almost
+insisting on my return and to resume my studies. This was due to the
+accounts given them by C&mdash;&mdash;, for I took special care to write in
+glowing terms of everything. The letter had, however, no effect towards
+altering my determination to stay in New Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>Through Judge Gresson's influence I obtained temporary employment under
+the Land Office, but to join permanently would require the payment of a
+fee for which I had not sufficient funds in hand. It was suggested that
+I should write home and ask for assistance, but this I objected to do. I
+merely mentioned the circumstances, leaving the rest to chance, and in
+the meantime I was engaged to accompany a survey party down the coast,
+which would start in a few days.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">I join a Survey Party&mdash;Travel to the Ashburton</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The survey party consisted of a Government Surveyor Mr. D&mdash;&mdash;, his
+assistant H&mdash;&mdash;, and myself, with a few labourers, and our destination
+was Lake Ellesmere, some 15 to 20 miles down the coast, where a dispute
+between the squatters and the Provincial Government boundaries was to be
+decided.</p>
+
+<p>We started in a rough kind of two-wheeled cart, into which Mr. D&mdash;&mdash;,
+H&mdash;&mdash;, and I, with our provisions for ten days and the survey
+instruments, were all packed together with our respective swags of
+blankets and the cooking utensils. This vehicle was pulled by one horse,
+and as we had no tents we would have to camp out most of the time.</p>
+
+<p>We reached our destination the same evening, when, tethering the horse,
+we proceeded to make ourselves comfortable for the night round a camp
+fire, whereon we boiled our tea and fried chops, and after placing the
+usual damper under the hot ashes so as to be ready for the morning, we
+rolled our blankets around us and with feet to the fire, slept soundly.</p>
+
+<p>My duties consisted in dragging the chain or humping a theodolite knee
+deep in water or swamp, but I learned much even in this short experience
+which proved of subsequent value.</p>
+
+<p>On our return, Mr. D&mdash;&mdash; had to diverge to a small farm, if it could be
+called such, owned by two brothers named Drew, having some work to look
+into for them. These Drews were the sons of a clergymen in England, and
+they had lately come to New Zealand with a little money and no
+experience, taken a small tract of land in this swampy wilderness, and
+settled down to farm it. The buildings consisted of a wretched mud hut,
+some twelve feet square, a small yard, and a few pigsties. What a
+habitation it was, and what filth and absence of management was apparent
+all over it! Failure was stamped on these men, and on their
+surroundings; it was clear they could not succeed, and yet they were not
+drunkards or scamps or reckless; on the contrary, they were quiet and
+good-natured, and appeared to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> be hard-working, although it was
+difficult to see what work they really did.</p>
+
+<p>For two days we stayed here, all five of us sleeping at night on the
+floor of the hut. There were no bunks. I was very glad when that duty
+was over.</p>
+
+<p>These Drews soon after gave up the farm; one died, the other I saw two
+years afterwards, the part-proprietor of a glass and delph shop in
+Christchurch, but only for a time. That inevitable tendency to failure
+engraved on the Drews followed him to the glass shop, and the latter
+became, in due course, the sole property of Drew's partner.</p>
+
+<p>If these men had gone upon a farm or sheep-run for two or three years'
+apprenticeship, investing their money safely meanwhile, they might have
+become in a few more years, prosperous colonists. It was their absolute
+ignorance, added to a want of sufficient means to carry out what they
+undertook to do, that brought depression and failure upon them. And a
+percentage of the emigrants who go to the Colonies act under similar
+circumstances as they did, and from being on arrival strong, hopeful and
+brave, they, from lack of something in themselves or from want of the
+needful advice and sense to adopt it, gradually deteriorate past all
+recovery. I recollect the billiard-marker at one of the Christchurch
+hotels was the younger son of a baronet. He worked as billiard-marker
+for his food, and as much alcohol as he could get. I believe he was
+never unfit to mark, and never quite sober. He died at his post, but not
+before he had learned that he had succeeded to the baronetcy, and seen
+relatives who had come from home to search for and bring him back. It is
+a strange error of judgment which sends such men as this to the
+Colonies, but perhaps those who are responsible consider they are
+justified by the removal of the scapegrace and finally getting rid of
+him by any means.</p>
+
+<p>On our return to Christchurch I met my old friend and fellow voyager T.
+Smith, who had just been appointed overseer of a sheep and cattle
+station down south. He pressed me to accompany him to the locality,
+pending arrival of letters from home, and as I had nothing just then on
+hand, I accepted his invitation. It seemed very apparent that I was fast
+becoming a rolling stone, but though I stuck to nothing long, it was not
+altogether my fault, and I was always at work, increasing my stock of
+experience, such as it was. This departure to Smith's station on the
+Ashburton led me away on an entirely new line for some time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The station to which Smith had been appointed overseer was about 100
+miles from Christchurch. The owner did not live there, so the entire
+management was in Smith's hands. The route lay across the Canterbury
+plains by a defined cart track, with accommodation houses at certain
+distances along its course, so no camping out was needed.</p>
+
+<p>The Canterbury Plains are supposed to be the finest in the world,
+extending as they do, about 150 miles in length by 40 to 60 in width,
+and over this immense space there was not a forest tree or scarcely a
+shrub of any size to be met with, except a description of palm, called
+cabbage trees, which grow in parts along the river beds, and
+occasionally dot the adjacent plain. The plains are almost perfectly
+flat, with no undulations more than a few feet in height. They are
+intersected every ten to twenty miles by wide shallow river beds, which
+during the summer months, when the warm nor'-westers melt the snow and
+ice on the Alps, are often terrific torrents, impassable for days
+together, while at other times they are shingle interspersed with clear
+rapid streams, more or less shallow, and generally fordable with
+ordinary care. Some of the principal rivers such as the Rakaia,
+Rangatata and Waitaki, are at all times formidable.</p>
+
+<p>The Rakaia bed, for example, is, or was, nearly half a mile wide, a vast
+expanse of shingle, full of treacherous quicksands, in which the course
+of the different streams is altered after every fresh. One might
+approach the Rakaia to-day and find it consist of three or four streams
+from twenty to one hundred yards wide, and not exceeding one to two feet
+in depth; to-morrow it might be a roaring sea a quarter of a mile in
+width, racing at a speed of five to ten miles an hour.</p>
+
+<p>At the crossing of this river, accommodation houses were established at
+each side, both establishments providing expert men and horses who were
+constantly employed seeking for fords and conducting travellers across.</p>
+
+<p>Nowadays, doubtless fine bridges, railways, and smart hotels have taken
+the place of what I am endeavouring to describe as the condition of
+things fifty years ago. The Rakaia is fifty miles from Christchurch, and
+that was our first day's ride. The accommodation house on the north side
+was a weird-looking habitation, a long, low, single-storeyed
+desolate-looking building, partly constructed of mud and partly of green
+timber slabs rough from the forest, but it was, even so, a welcome sight
+after our long monotonous ride.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The house consisted of a small sitting-room or parlour for the better
+class of guests, not uncomfortably furnished, and about twelve feet
+square, two small bedrooms, a kitchen and a bar, the former serving for
+cooking purposes as well as a sitting and a bed-room for those
+travellers who could not afford the luxury or were not entitled to the
+dignity of the parlour. Separated a little way from this tenement was a
+long low shed used as a stable for such animals as their owners could
+afford to pay for so much comfort and a feed, in preference to the usual
+tussock and twenty yards of tether on the well-cropped ground around the
+hostelry.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rough place, and a rough lot of characters were not
+unfrequently seen there. The Jack Tar just arrived from the bush or some
+up-country station with a cheque for a year's wages, bent on a spree,
+and standing drinks all round while his money lasted, the Scottish
+shepherd plying liquor and grasping hands for "Auld Lang Syne," the
+wretched debauched crawler, the villainous-looking "lag" from "t'other
+side," the bullock puncher, whose every alternate word was a profane
+oath, the stockrider, in his guernsey shirt and knee boots with
+stockwhip thrown over his shoulder, engaging the attention of those who
+would listen with some miraculous story of his exploits, mine host
+smilingly dealing out the fiery poison, with now and again the presence
+of the dripping forder from the river, come in for his glass of grog and
+pipe before resuming his perilous occupation.</p>
+
+<p>Smith and I put up in the parlour, and when we had dined and lit pipes
+proceeded to look after our horses, after which we paid a visit to the
+kitchen for a little hobnobbing with the motley assemblage collected
+there, and, of course, we stood liquor round in the usual friendly way.
+We soon retired, and ere long the kitchen floor, too, was covered with
+sleepers rolled in their blue or red blankets without which no colonist
+ever travelled.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following morning we were piloted over the river, and in the
+afternoon made the Ashburton, where was a very superior house of
+entertainment, conducted by a Mr. Turton, a man above the general run of
+bush hotel keepers, and who, I believe, subsequently became a rich
+squatter, as he well deserved.</p>
+
+<p>The third day's ride brought us to our destination. There was a
+comfortable rough dwelling house and the usual adjuncts in the way of
+station buildings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The situation was pleasant, at the opening of a wide gorge at the foot
+of the downs, and a fine stream ran along the front of the enclosure. A
+considerable portion of the run was hilly, and was at that time one of
+the best in the province.</p>
+
+<p>It was on this journey that I first came across the most wonderful
+optical illusions, called mirages, that I had seen, and there is
+something in the atmosphere maybe of the New Zealand plains that lends
+itself specially to the creation of these beautiful phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>We were riding over the open plain on a clear morning, near the
+Ashburton river bed, more than twenty miles from the nearest hills, when
+suddenly within fifty yards of us, appeared a most beautiful calm lake,
+apparently many miles in extent, and dotted with cabbage trees (like
+palms), whose reflections were cast in the water. Neither of us had seen
+the like before, and for a while really believed we were approaching a
+lake, although how such could possibly exist where a few moments before
+had been dry waving grass, was like magic. We rode on, and as we went
+the lake seemed to move with us, or rather to recede as we advanced,
+keeping always the same distance ahead. The phenomenon lasted for about
+a quarter of an hour, and then cleared away as magically as it came.</p>
+
+<p>In the same district I subsequently observed some extraordinary optical
+illusions of a like nature&mdash;once, in the direction of the sea where no
+hills or other obstacles intervened, I saw a beautiful inverted
+landscape of mountains, woods, and other objects like castles. The
+picture or reflection seemed suspended in the air, and extended a long
+way on the horizon. It must have been a reflection of some scene far
+from the place where the phenomenon presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>I spent a month with Smith, but as it was the slack time of the year
+there was little routine work on the station, and much of our time was
+passed in amusement.</p>
+
+<p>The best fun was pig hunting, in which we were frequently joined by
+neighbouring squatters.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Wild Pig-hunting.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It is said that Captain Cook introduced pigs into New Zealand. They were
+at the time I write of, the only wild quadrupeds in the land, except
+rats (for which I believe the country is also indebted to Captain Cook),
+but together they made up for no end of absentees by their prodigious
+powers of breeding.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the middle island was infested with pigs; they principally
+inhabited the low hills and river bed flats and swamps, and would come
+down on to the large plains in herds for feeding on the root of a plant
+called spear grass, to obtain which they would tear up the sward and
+injure large tracts of grazing land.</p>
+
+<p>Their depredations became so extensive that the Provincial Government
+was obliged to take steps for their extermination by letting contracts
+for killing them off, at, I think, sixpence per head, or rather tail,
+and by this means I have known a single district cleared of 8,000 to
+10,000 pigs in a season.</p>
+
+<p>Pig-hunting on the hills is not the inspiriting amusement it is on the
+plains. In the former they must be hunted on foot, and shot down, riding
+being impracticable, while on the plain they were hunted on horseback
+with dogs bred for the purpose, and the huntsman's weapon is only a
+short heavy knife sharpened on both sides to a point like a dagger, and
+suspended in a sheath attached to the waist belt. Spears were sometimes
+used, but they were of a very rough and primitive description, and not
+effective. Pig-sticking on the modern scientific principles was not then
+practised in New Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>For a day's pig-hunting on the plains a party of men on strong and fast
+horses, with a few kangaroo dogs and a bullock dray in attendance,
+formed the hunting party. The location of the herd is previously noted
+and kept quiet. The dogs are held in leash till well within sight, say,
+from half to one mile off. The animals are easily startled, and they
+know that their best chance of safety depends on their reaching the
+hills before their pursuers overtake them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With a fast horse, giving full-grown pigs a start of a mile, it will be
+all the huntsman can do to pick them up in a gallop of 3 to 5 miles, and
+the best chance in his favour is when there is a herd, and not only a
+single pig or small number of strong hardy fellows. Until pressed the
+herd will keep pretty much together, and if by good management the
+hunters contrive to get to leeward of them as well as to intercept them
+from making direct for the cover of the hills they are sure of good
+sport.</p>
+
+<p>The kangaroo dog (so called) was a cross between a stag-hound and
+mastiff, very fast and powerful, and he ran only by sight. A
+well-trained dog on overhauling his pig will run up on the near side and
+seize the boar by the off lug, thereby protecting himself from being
+ripped by the animal's tusks. Then the hunter should be on the spot to
+jump off his horse and assist the dog by plunging his knife into the
+beast's heart from the off side.</p>
+
+<p>With a good dog the danger to which the experienced hunter is exposed is
+slight. A properly trained, courageous dog will hold the largest boar
+for several minutes in the manner described and will not let him go till
+forced to from sheer exhaustion. But if he is obliged to disengage
+himself before assistance arrives, he will very probably be ripped or
+killed.</p>
+
+<p>The trained bush horse will stand quietly where his rider leaves him,
+never attempting to move further from the spot than to nibble the grass
+will necessitate.</p>
+
+<p>One day, having heard that a large mob of pigs had come down on the
+plains near the gorge of the Rakaia, some fifteen miles off, we at once
+organised a hunt, and two neighbours from another station promised to
+join us.</p>
+
+<p>A rendezvous was fixed upon where we were to meet at daybreak, a bullock
+dray having been sent on the previous night. We were all well mounted
+and equipped with three fine dogs. After riding some ten miles we
+separated, taking up a long line over the plain, and using our field
+glasses to obtain an idea of the position of the herd as soon as
+possible, and thus give us time to arrange a plan of attack before
+coming to too close quarters, the animals being very quick to scent
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>One of our friends, Legge, who was riding on the extreme left, was the
+first to discover the herd, and he galloped up to say that there were a
+considerable number of pigs about two miles further east, scattered
+amongst the cabbage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> trees near a small river bed. On approaching
+carefully till within view we could count upwards of fifty, and many
+seemed to be large boars; no young pigs were visible. The latter,
+indeed, seldom came far out on the plains, their elders probably fearing
+that in the event of surprise they would not be able to run with the
+rest of the herd.</p>
+
+<p>The whole mob of pigs lay directly between us and the hills, which were
+almost five miles distant, so it became necessary for us to divide and
+make wide detours, so as to obtain a position on their further side
+without being seen. This movement took about an hour, but we succeeded
+under cover of snow grass and cabbage trees in approaching within half a
+mile of the herd, with the hills behind us, before they took the alarm.
+Then all were speedily in motion, but as our position prevented them
+from taking a direct line to shelter, they ran wildly, and so gave us a
+considerable advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The order for attack was now given; the dogs were slipped, and away we
+went like a whirlwind, each singling out a pig and taking the boars
+first, as did the horses.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to our first advantage we picked up with the leaders in a couple
+of miles, and two of the largest boars were immediately seized by the
+dogs close together in a piece of bad marshy ground, covered with snow
+and spear grass, much rooted and honeycombed. Smith, who was first in
+the running, narrowly escaped a broken neck. The huge sixteen hand mare
+he rode planted her feet in a hole and somersaulted, throwing Smith on
+to one of the boars and dog engaged, but the latter was game, and by his
+pluck and smartness saved his master and himself from being ripped, and
+before Smith was fairly on his feet the boar had six inches of steel
+through his heart and his career was ended.</p>
+
+<p>During the few minutes we were here engaged, the other boar, a powerful
+and fierce brute, had forced the dog which seized him some fifty yards
+down a dry gully, and it was clear that unless he was speedily relieved
+the dog would have the worst of the encounter. Smith and I rushed to his
+assistance none too soon. The boar, in his struggles, had already
+slightly ripped the dog on the shoulder, and the blood was streaming
+down his leg and breast, but the plucky hound still held on, lying close
+on the near side, while his teeth were fast through the boar's off lug,
+the latter striving all he could to get his head round and tusk the dog.
+Added to this the position they had contrived to get themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> into
+was unfortunate; the boar was so close to the bank it was impossible to
+reach his off side, and the dog lay so close he could not be touched on
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>Smith was a powerful fellow, and in fun of this kind would have faced a
+boar singlehanded. He called to me that he would rush in and seize the
+boar by his hind legs and try to pull him round, while I watched my
+opportunity to jump between him and the bank. It was our only chance to
+save the dog, at any rate, and luckily it proved successful. As Smith
+laid on I jumped, and although I fell on all fours between the boar and
+the slippery bank, I contrived just in time to drive the knife into his
+heart, and the huge beast rolled over and with a few gasps died. We were
+both exhausted, and the poor dog, when the excitement was over, lay down
+with a low whine, thoroughly done up from exhaustion and loss of blood.
+We washed and bound his wound as well as we could and tied him to a bush
+of snow grass to await the dray.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image044.jpg" id="image044.jpg"></a><img src="images/image044.jpg" width='700' height='518' alt="Encounter with Wild Boar" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Encounter with Wild Boar</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Legge and Forde had already despatched a large boar and two full-grown
+sows, and were in chase of others. We came up with them when they were
+engaged with a fine young boar which had sheltered and come to bay in a
+clump of thorny scrub (wild Irishman, so called). Neither dogs nor men
+could reach him, and the only plan was to irritate him till he bolted.
+This was difficult, but at length successful, and the beast made a rush
+straight for us. However, he was bent on defence rather than offence,
+and we escaped his tusks. Legge was first mounted and away with one of
+the dogs in chase, but going over the rough, honeycombed ground I
+mentioned he too met with a bad fall which threw him out of the running,
+and now Smith, Forde, and I were in full cry with the two dogs.</p>
+
+<p>By this time both dogs and horses were somewhat blown, whereas the boar
+having had a rest we feared would escape, and reaching a low swampy flat
+he disappeared in a large patch of snow grass and reeds. As we were not
+sure of his exact position, we decided to ride through in line, to
+endeavour to drive him again to the open. In doing so the boar broke
+covert under Forde's horse's legs, and ripped him below the hock. This
+rendered Forde and his horse <i>hors de combat</i>, and Smith and I had the
+chase again in our hands. For nearly a mile that boar led us a furious
+dance over villainous ground, through spear grass and swamp, in
+momentary danger of being thrown or torn by thorny shrub, twisting and
+doubling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> in and out of inaccessible places, but he was beginning to
+show signs of fatigue, and we saw he could not make much fight when once
+the dogs got hold. The latter were in fierce excitement, having lost
+their prey so often. After a final spurt of half a mile they pulled him
+down, and he was easily despatched.</p>
+
+<p>Our bag was now six pigs, of which four were boars, and we had been
+actually hunting for about three hours, including the time spent in
+making the detour. After cutting off a ham and the head of the last
+boar, we carried them back to where we left Forde with his wounded
+horse. Legge had already arrived, and we all sat down to take some food
+while awaiting the arrival of the dray.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of the herd had reached the hills long since, and there
+was no more sport to be had in the neighbourhood that day. Forde removed
+his saddle and bridle to be sent on the dray and turned his horse loose
+to find his way to the run, while he started on foot to the nearest
+station to procure another mount to carry him home. The rest of us
+proceeded to a flat near the first gorge of the Ashburton, where we
+succeeded in killing five other pigs before the evening closed. Forde's
+horse reached his station as soon as his wounded leg permitted him, but
+the wound being found more serious than anticipated, and that he would
+be lame for life, it was decided to destroy him.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Cattle Ranching and Stockriding.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>While I stayed at Smith's Station, we made acquaintance with a young
+man, by name Hudson, a son of the famous Railway King. He had come to
+New Zealand a few years previously with slender means and was a pushing,
+energetic fellow. He settled on the Ashburton and set up business as a
+carter, investing his money in a couple of drays and bullock teams, with
+which he contracted to convey wool from the stations to Christchurch,
+returning with stores, etc., and sometimes carting timber from the
+forest and such like. My first day's experience of driving wild cattle
+was in his company.</p>
+
+<p>A stockrider's life is perhaps of all occupations the most enjoyable,
+and there is just that element of risk connected with it that increases
+its fascination, but to make it intelligible to the reader, a sketch of
+the working and management of a cattle station will be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Although most sheep farmers feed a certain number of cattle to enable
+them to utilise the portions of their run which may be unsuitable for
+grazing, there are some squatters who confine themselves to cattle
+alone, and the produce derived from such stations includes beef, butter,
+cheese, hides, horns, and working stock&mdash;that is, bullocks destined for
+use in pulling drays; such entirely taking the places of draught horses
+up country.</p>
+
+<p>A cattle rancher may have from one to two thousand head of cattle
+running wild. Of these, one portion is milch cows, which are daily
+driven in for milking and from which the extensive butter and cheese
+dairies are supplied; another the fat cattle fed for the market, and a
+third, young stock for breaking in as working bullocks. As with sheep,
+the cattle are periodically mustered in the stock yards for branding,
+selections for various purposes, and for sale.</p>
+
+<p>Mustering a large head of wild cattle is exciting work. Half a dozen men
+mounted on well-trained horses, each carrying his stockwhip, start for
+the run. The stockwhip is composed of a lash of plaited raw hide, twelve
+to fifteen feet long, and about one and half inches thick at the belly,
+which is close to the handle. The latter is about nine inches long, made
+of some hard tough wood, usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> weighted at the hand end. The
+experienced stockman can do powerful execution with these whips, one
+blow from which is sufficient to cut a slice out of the beast's hide,
+and I have seen an expert cut from top to bottom the side of a nail can
+with a single blow from his whip.</p>
+
+<p>The cattle are spread over perhaps twenty or thirty thousand acres of
+unfenced country, and each man follows his portion of the herd,
+collecting and driving into a common centre. For a time all goes well,
+until some wary or ill-conditioned brute breaks away, followed possibly
+by a number of his comrades, who only need a lead to give the stockman
+trouble. Then commences a chase, and not infrequently it is a chase in
+vain, and the fagged stockman and his jaded steed are obliged to give
+them up for that day, and proceed to hold what he has got in hand.</p>
+
+<p>There is sometimes considerable danger in following up too closely these
+beasts when they begin to show signs of fatigue, as they then often turn
+to bay under the first scrap of shelter, and if the horseman unwarily or
+ignorantly approaches too near in his endeavour to dislodge them, they
+will charge, and the death of the horse or rider may be the result.
+Both, however, are generally too well aware of these little failings to
+endeavour to prevail over a jaded or "baked" beast, and prefer to let
+him rest.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the cattle being yarded, the most exciting operation is the
+capturing and securing of the young beasts requiring to be broken in to
+the yoke. An experienced and expert stockman enters the enclosure
+carrying in his hand a pine sapling, 12 or 15 feet in length, at the end
+of which is a running noose of raw hide or strong hemp rope, attached to
+a strong rope which is passed round a capstan outside the stockyard and
+near to a corner post. With considerable dexterity, not infrequently
+accompanied by personal danger, the man slips the noose over the horns
+of the beast he wishes to secure, when he immediately jumps over the
+rails, and with the assistance of the men outside, winds up the rope
+till the struggling and infuriated animal is fast held in a corner of
+the yard. Another noose is then slipped round the hind leg nearest the
+rails and firmly fastened.</p>
+
+<p>The yard being cleared, a steady old working bullock is now driven
+alongside our young friend, and the two are yoked together neck and
+neck, the trained bullock selected being always the more powerful of the
+two. The ropes are then unfastened and the pair left free to keep
+company for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> a month or so, by which time the old worker will have
+trained his young charge sufficiently to permit of his being put into
+the body of a team and submitted to the unmerciful charge of the bullock
+puncher (driver). There is no escape for the novice then, yoked fast to
+a powerful beast with others before and behind, and the cruel cutting
+whip over him, in the hands of a man possessing but little sentiment: he
+must obey, and after a time becomes as tractable as the rest. Indeed, it
+is wonderful how intelligent and obedient these animals become under the
+hands of an experienced driver. There is a code of bullock punching
+language they soon get to understand; they answer readily to their
+names, and are, if anything, more sensible, obedient, and manageable
+than horses.</p>
+
+<p>My ride with Hudson, which I referred to, was as hard a day's work as I
+have experienced of the kind. We started from the Ashburton at daybreak,
+and after a quiet canter of five miles, reached an open piece of river
+bed flat, on which were grazing some two hundred head of cattle, amongst
+which were five young bullocks of Hudson's he wished to cut out and
+drive to Moorhouse's station on the Rangitata, about twenty miles
+further south. The cutting out is more difficult than driving the whole
+herd, which will be apparent.</p>
+
+<p>Having entered among them and found the animals we were in search of, we
+proceeded quietly to move them to a common place near the edge, from
+which we meant to drive them, and Hudson, who had considerable
+experience, succeeded after a while in collecting his five beasts in a
+favourable spot for our enterprise. We then took up positions on either
+side, and with a sudden spurt endeavoured to drive them on to the plain.
+We were partially successful, leaving only one of the five behind, and
+we got the other four clear away some miles before they seemed to be
+aware of the absence of their comrades, but with some smart galloping we
+were keeping them well together in the direction we wanted to go. We
+were not, however, destined to continue fortunate for long. After a
+while we unexpectedly came across a herd of fresh cattle, into which our
+charges at once bolted, and it took two hours hard galloping before we
+succeeded in extricating only two of them. With these we were obliged to
+be satisfied; our horses were showing signs of fatigue, and without
+fresh mounts and other assistance it would be impossible to cut out the
+others that day.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image049.jpg" id="image049.jpg"></a><img src="images/image049.jpg" width='700' height='475' alt="The Baked Steers" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Baked Steers</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately those we had went away quietly, and we hoped that no further
+impediment would occur. We were sadly mistaken. For six miles all went
+well, but it was then clear that the animals were getting baked (jaded);
+they were in too good condition for the hard cutting out twice repeated.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching an isolated cabbage tree one deliberately lay down, while
+the other backed against the tree and stood sulkily at bay. Being
+nearest, I ignorantly made at them with the whip, when I was saluted
+with a bellow and a sudden charge, which, had not my horse been more on
+guard than I was, might have maimed one or both of us. The beast, having
+charged, backed again to the tree, and stood with nozzle touching the
+ground, breathing heavily, with sunken flanks and half-glazed eyes, a
+picture of imbecility, recklessness, and fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>Hudson, on coming up, saw it was useless to attempt driving him further,
+and so we left him and the cabbage tree, and resumed our course with one
+bullock, which we actually did succeed in getting to the stockyard as
+night was falling.</p>
+
+<p>Here, unfortunately, we found the yards closed and no one by to open
+them, and whilst I dismounted to take down the rails, the infernal beast
+once more bolted, apparently as fresh as ever, and notwithstanding all
+our endeavours to overhaul him darkness and our jaded horses failed us,
+and we had no resource but to wend our weary way to the homestead, three
+miles up the river, disappointed, dead beat, and hungry.</p>
+
+<p>We were most hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moorhouse, with
+whom for genuine kindness and hospitality few could compare, and they
+invited us to stay with them a day or two, which we gladly agreed to do.
+It was a real treat to pass any time in such a lovely locality and with
+such friends. The homestead was built on the river bed flat, a natural
+park covered with shrubbery palms, pines, and forest trees, along which
+on one side the turbulent Rangitata rushed in a confusion of waterfalls,
+whirlpools, and cascades, amidst huge masses of rock, and beyond which
+rose precipitous hills with their lower portions clothed in richest
+vegetation. The views up the gorge from this point were enchanting, but
+I will take another opportunity of describing some of the mountain
+scenery of the Southern Alps, the grandest in its own peculiar form of
+any in the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ben Moorhouse was one of three brothers, two of whom were squatters,
+and the eldest superintendent of the Province of Canterbury. They had
+all been some years in Australia, and were exceedingly fine men over six
+feet in height and built in proportion, good shots and experts at most
+games of strength and skill, not amongst the least of which was the
+science of boxing. We were treated the morning after our arrival to a
+lesson with the gloves, subsequently often repeated, and following this
+we had turns each in trying to ride a very clever buckjumper, a late
+purchase.</p>
+
+<p>The faculty of buckjumping is, I believe, almost confined to Australian
+horses, and seems to be bred in them&mdash;perhaps the original rough
+breaking was responsible for the vice; but whatever be the cause it was
+then a fact that eight out of every ten horses could and did buckjump,
+and with many of them the vice was incurable. An experienced buckjumper
+will decide as the saddle is being put on him to get rid of it as soon
+as possible without any apparent reason for such reprehensible conduct.
+He will swell himself out so that the girths cannot be fully tightened,
+and when he is mounted will suddenly bound off the ground, throw down
+his head, and prop violently on his fore feet, and this he will continue
+to repeat till the saddle comes on to his withers, and the rider finds
+some other resting place. So long as the saddle keeps its position, and
+the girths hold, there is a chance for the rider, but if they go he
+must, although he frequently goes without them.</p>
+
+<p>There is a special saddle made for buckjumpers, provided with heavy pads
+to prop the knee against, and so prevent the rider from being chucked
+forward, and this is sometimes assisted by securely fastening an iron
+bar with a roll of blanket around it across the pommel of the saddle.
+This presses across the thighs just above the knees, and affords great
+additional security, and a surcingle is strapped over the seat of the
+saddle as a further assistance to the girths.</p>
+
+<p>There is also another plan adopted with a really bad brute&mdash;namely, a
+crutch of wood or iron fastened to a martingale below, with two rings
+above, through which the reins are led. This contrivance is to prevent
+the animal lowering his head, which is a necessary movement on his part
+for accomplished bucking.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">I Undertake Employment with a Bush Contractor&mdash;Get Seriously
+Ill&mdash;Start for the South and the Gold Diggings.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I had now been more than a month on the Ashburton, but as I could not
+expect home letters yet for some weeks, and was getting tired of mere
+amusement, I accepted an offer made me to join in a new line of work.</p>
+
+<p>A man named Metcalfe, a relative of a neighbouring squatter, had lately
+started work as a bush contractor, and had just then undertaken to
+construct a number of station buildings for a run holder on the
+Ashburton. Metcalfe was an experienced bushman and a good rough
+carpenter. He asked me to join him and I at once accepted.</p>
+
+<p>We would have to fell and cut up our own timber in the forest, cart it
+down some forty miles, and construct all the works without other
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Our first business was to provide a habitation for ourselves in the
+forest, as we required to stay there a month or two while cutting the
+necessary timber. We laid out a space 10 feet by 12 feet, drove in posts
+at the corners, and nailed a strong rail on top, then we felled and
+split up into slabs a number of white pine trees, and set them upwards
+all round with their edges overlapping and nailed them at the top to the
+rail, or, more properly, wall plate, the feet of the slabs being set a
+few inches in the ground. Over this enclosure we made a sloping
+framework of wickers (fine saplings) and covered it with an old tent
+which Metcalfe possessed. At one end of the hut we constructed a wide
+fireplace and chimney in the same manner, and hung up an old blanket
+over the space left for a doorway. The inside of the slab walls and
+chimney we wattled with mud and laths, which we split up, and plastered
+over with mud and chopped grass. We made rough cots with wickers and
+slabs, raised a foot above the ground, so as to form seats as well as
+beds, and covered them with a thick layer of minuka branches, which made
+capital springy mattresses, and over all we laid our blankets. For a
+table we split and dressed fairly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> smooth a pine slab a foot wide in
+which we bored four holes and inserted therein wicker legs. Our mansion
+was now complete and it had not occupied two days to build.</p>
+
+<p>We rose at daybreak, boiled a kettle of tea, which with cold baked
+mutton and damper formed our breakfast, then to work till 12 o'clock,
+when we took an hour for dinner, and again to work till dark, when we
+adjourned to the hut, and after a visit to the creek for ablutions, and
+seeing that our horses were watered and put on fresh pasture for the
+night, we sat down to supper by a rousing fire, then lit pipes and
+chatted or read till it was time to turn in, when the fire was raked
+over, and the damper of bread inserted under the hot ashes to be ready
+for the morning. During the evening also one of us made the bread; the
+camp oven would be put on the fire with sufficient mutton to last us for
+two or three days. It was a grand life for healthy, strong fellows as we
+were, living and working alone in a virgin forest, with no sound around
+us but the rippling of the brook and the whisper of the wind through the
+foliage of the tall pines, or the ringing of our axes, with every now
+and then the crashing fall of a huge tree.</p>
+
+<p>I should remark here that the black and white pine (so called) of New
+Zealand is not by any means similar to that which grows in Europe. They
+grow straight and tall, it is true, but for fully half their height
+throw out heavy and numerous branches thickly covered all the year round
+with very small evergreen leaves. The trees are easily cut up and split
+into posts and rails, or sawn into boards. At the time I refer to the
+forests were free to all settlers for their home needs on the payment of
+a nominal fee to the Provincial Government.</p>
+
+<p>The timber in due time was felled, cut up, and carted to the station,
+and we removed our camp to the site of the operations. It was a bleak,
+wild place, three miles from the south mail track, and consisted only of
+a small slab hut or two with a wool shed and sheep yards. The owner, Mr.
+T. Moorhouse, had lately purchased the run, and was about to improve and
+reside on it. A description of our life here would not be interesting,
+so I will pass over three months during which we worked steadily and the
+buildings were nearly complete, when one day, as I was nailing the
+shingles on a roof under a powerful sun, I suddenly felt sick and giddy,
+and was obliged to go inside and lie down. The same evening I developed
+a severe attack of gastric fever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> which three days after turned to a
+kind of brain fever, and for nigh on six weeks I lay betwixt life and
+death. For half of this time I lay on the floor in a corner of the new
+building, the bare ground with a layer of tea leaves for my bed, the
+noise grinding into my brain when I was at all conscious, and only
+Metcalfe (good man that he was) with an old Scottish shepherd to look
+after me when they could find time to do so. No doctor, medicine, or
+attendance of any kind was procurable nearer than sixty miles away, with
+a weekly post. One night, to make me sleep they gave me laudanum (a
+bottle of which Metcalfe had with him for toothache) and the following
+morning I was discovered standing on the brink of an artificial pond
+nearly a quarter of a mile off, barefoot and half naked, to reach which
+I must have walked over places I could not easily have passed in my
+senses. This was when the brain attack came on, and for a week I lay, I
+was told, almost unconscious. Metcalfe contrived to send some
+information to Christchurch, and after I had been down for over three
+weeks Moorhouse arrived and removed me to his own hut, where he looked
+after me for some time. Then he had me carried to and fixed up in his
+dog cart and drove me sixty miles over the plains in a single day to
+Christchurch, where I arrived a good bit more dead than alive, but to
+find a comfortable room, and every attendance and luxury a sick man
+could wish for, prepared for me by my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Gresson.
+I must have taken a good deal of killing in those days, but the drive to
+Christchurch, severe as it was, saved me, and in three weeks I was
+myself again.</p>
+
+<p>When I was convalescent I found letters from home awaiting me. My father
+sent a little money, but wished me to utilise it in paying my passage
+home, and appeared to have lost faith in my doing any good in New
+Zealand; but I was more determined than ever to remain. Was I not
+accumulating colonial experiences, and always found employment of some
+kind awaiting me? and I was still very young&mdash;only a little over
+eighteen. The free life I had spent for nearly two years had had its
+effect, and I could not consent to throw it up, at any rate not just
+yet.</p>
+
+<p>The doctors who had attended me expressed their opinions that I had
+overtaxed my strength at work to which I was not accustomed, and forbade
+my undertaking anything of the kind for a while. This of course was
+nonsense, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> I saw no reason why I should not enjoy a holiday for a
+month or so in Christchurch till I had settled future plans.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time I received a letter from Smith, informing me that the
+run he had charge of was sold, and having thereby lost his appointment,
+he was coming to Christchurch <i>en route</i> for Otago on a voyage of
+enterprise, and invited me to join him. This was excellent; the
+wandering disposition was again strong upon me, and I looked forward to
+such a trip to a new part of the country in company with my old friend
+with the keenest delight. I agreed to his proposal at once, and
+immediately he arrived we set to work to make preparations for our
+journey south, although where that journey was to lead us or of what
+might be before us we were profoundly ignorant; but that knowledge or
+want of knowledge enhanced the glory of the movement. We were a couple
+of free lances starting to seek what might turn up, and eventually we
+were led into a new and very interesting experience, even if it did not
+turn out a remunerative one.</p>
+
+<p>After paying my expenses in Christchurch, I possessed about &pound;50 in cash
+and a valuable and well-bred mare. Smith's possessions were about on an
+equivalent. We decided to travel with one pack horse, and for this
+purpose we purchased between us for &pound;15, a notorious buckjumper, called
+"Jack the Devil," and if ever deformity of temper and the lowest vice
+were depicted in an animal's face and bearing, this beast possessed them
+in an eminent degree. Although small and not beautiful to look at, he
+was very powerful, and had he been less vicious his price would have
+been treble what we obtained him for, but nobody cared to own him.</p>
+
+<p>How well I remember the first time he was loaded, how quietly he stood
+with the whites of his eyes rolling and girths swelled until all was
+apparently secure, and then in less time than I can relate, how saddle
+and swags were scattered to the winds.</p>
+
+<p>Smith was a determined fellow and a Yorkshireman to boot, and he had no
+intention of giving in to Jack; on the contrary, this little exhibition
+of devilry made him all the more determined to discover Jack's weak
+point and take the devil out of him.</p>
+
+<p>The pack saddle was gathered up and taken to the harness maker along
+with the animal, and the two were put together in such a manner that if
+he again bucked it off, some part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> Jack's personality would have to
+accompany it. The next trial was more successful, and after a few
+attempts he gave in, and from that day he became a most docile pack
+horse.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of starting we were joined by our mutual friend Legge, who
+had been some years overseer of a station. He was a smart, handy fellow,
+and although he did not contribute much in the way of financial
+assistance, we were glad to have him join our party, knowing him to be
+dependable, plucky, and good-tempered.</p>
+
+<p>At length we started, and after journeying through the scene of our late
+life on the Ashburton and Rangitata, we arrived without adventure at the
+then small town of Timaru on the sea coast, about a hundred miles south.</p>
+
+<p>Here we found the inhabitants in great excitement over news just arrived
+that gold had been discovered in large quantities on the Lindis, about
+one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin in Otago. We, in common
+with every one else, were, of course, immediately infected with the gold
+mania, the more so as we were bent on adventure of any kind that might
+turn up, and here was an unexpected piece of good fortune ready to our
+hands. During our few days sojourn at Timaru we made another addition to
+our party in the person of a man named Fowler, whom, at his urgent
+request, we permitted to accompany us in our now proposed expedition to
+the gold diggings.</p>
+
+<p>We arranged to start at once, and deferred preparations until we would
+arrive at Dunedin, the capital and port of Otago, and which, with fair
+marching, we hoped to reach on the third day.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled in the usual bush fashion, each man with his swags strapped
+before and behind his saddle, Jack the Devil carrying our provisions and
+cooking kit, etc. Upon halting for the night we selected some suitable
+spot near running water where wood for a fire could be obtained. Each
+unsaddled, watered, and tethered out his horse and carried his swags to
+the camping ground, where Jack's load was removed and placed ready for
+use. Then while one fetched water another collected a supply of firewood
+for the night. A roaring fire was made, water boiled for tea, flour and
+water mixed into a paste and fried in dripping or fat, with the meat we
+had brought along with us, or maybe a leg of mutton would be baked in
+the camp oven; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> so, within an hour, we four bushmen would be
+squatting comfortably around our fire and enjoying an excellent supper.</p>
+
+<p>The meal being over we carefully washed and put away the utensils and
+food ready for the morning, and after visiting the horses, settled
+ourselves in our respective positions for the night, lit pipes, spun
+yarns, or sang songs, till drowsiness claimed us, and we disappeared
+under our blankets with our saddles for pillows and slept only as those
+who lead the life of a bushman can.</p>
+
+<p>We rose before daybreak, and ere the sun had well appeared had eaten our
+primitive breakfast and were in the saddle for the march. On the evening
+of the third day we reached the Waitaki river, which separates
+Canterbury from Otago, and is the largest in the South Island. The
+Waitaki was never fordable at this point, and passengers were ferried
+across in a small boat behind which the horses were swum. This latter is
+a somewhat dangerous operation unless expertly carried out; a horse
+which may be a powerful swimmer being able to work a swift stream so
+much faster than a boat can be rowed, there is danger that he may strike
+and overturn the latter, and so he must not be allowed to get above or
+ahead of the boat, but be kept in his place immediately behind.</p>
+
+<p>The boat on being started from one bank or shingle spit must have fair
+room to work obliquely to a lower landing place on the opposite side,
+without running foul of shoals or sandspits, and as the current runs
+with great rapidity the voyage across is usually three or four times as
+long as the stream is wide.</p>
+
+<p>At this river we found an accommodation house. I forget the name of the
+occupier, but I well recollect the appearance of the wretched structure,
+and of its landlord and landlady. What a pair of outcasts they looked,
+and how they existed on that wild bed of shingle! Their tastes must have
+been simplicity itself, and little satisfied them here below.</p>
+
+<p>The landlord and his wife, with one other man, who assisted with the
+boat, were the only sojourners on this desert bed. Few travellers stayed
+at their wretched tenement, because being only ten miles from Dunedin
+they were generally able to push on, and partly because the locality did
+not possess pasturage for horses; and so with the exception of what they
+derived from selling an occasional nip of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> poisonous liquor to a passing
+traveller, their emoluments were derived from the ferry alone.</p>
+
+<p>We were not fortunate enough to arrive in time to cross that evening,
+and were perforce obliged to stay at the accommodation hut till morning,
+or else return half a mile to where pasture was obtainable. The
+landlord, however, produced some hay and oats, and cleaned out his shed,
+in which we were able to put two of the horses, while the others were
+tied out, and so to save time and trouble we decided to make the best of
+what fare we could obtain.</p>
+
+<p>The house comprised one room with a closet or bar off it. In the room,
+which was well enough when lit up by a good fire, we all supped together
+round a rough table with boxes from the bar for seats, our food the
+usual description, the junk of mutton boiled with lumps of dough called
+damper, and the landlady produced some plates, while we used our own
+clasp knives. Soon after, our weary bodies were strewn over the floor
+wherever we could individually select a fairly even spot, and the
+landlady, I believe, retired into the bar.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning we put ourselves, horses, and baggage safely
+across the Waitaki, and by 10 o'clock arrived in Dunedin.</p>
+
+<p>Dunedin was situated, like Port Lyttelton, on rising undulating ground,
+encompassed by an amphitheatre of hills which, to the south, extended to
+a point or promontory and gave shelter to the little harbour. Also, like
+Lyttelton, the latter was an open roadstead, but on the town front was
+bounded by a steep bank from which the narrow strand beneath was reached
+by a wide cutting. The town was quite in its infancy, but already
+possessed some well-laid-out streets and handsome wooden buildings.</p>
+
+<p>As we anticipated, we found the good folk of Dunedin much exercised
+about the gold diggings. They were the first discovered in the country,
+and the town was in a fever of excitement for news of their success or
+otherwise. No very reliable information had come, but such as was
+obtainable appeared sufficiently satisfactory and encouraging to justify
+our making immediate arrangements for transporting ourselves thither.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Our Eventful Journey to the Lindis Gold Diggings</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Lindis was one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin. There
+was no road, and but for a portion of the way up the valley of the
+Waitaki only a rough bullock dray track leading to some isolated sheep
+and cattle stations, beyond which there was literally no track at all.
+The country was mountainous, and early winter having set in, it was
+supposed that much of the higher latitudes would be covered with snow,
+but beyond the fact that numbers of pedestrians had during the past
+fortnight proceeded towards the Lindis, and that a ship-load of diggers
+had arrived from Victoria and were hourly leaving the town, we had
+nothing reliable to guide us. We heard that the few sheep-farmers on the
+route were much opposed to the influx of diggers, and had publicly
+notified that they would not encourage or give them any accommodation on
+their stations. This was alarming for the time, but fortunately the
+information proved correct in only one instance. It led us, however, to
+make such preparation for our journey as would render us to a great
+extent independent of assistance on the way.</p>
+
+<p>We purchased a strong one-horse dray which we loaded with about 10 cwt.
+of provisions, in the form of flour, tea, sugar, salt, ship biscuits, a
+small quantity of spirits for medicinal use and tobacco. Also two small
+calico tents, some cooking utensils and blankets, with bush tools,
+spades, picks, and axes.</p>
+
+<p>Legge's horse had been broken to harness, and mine was an excellent
+draught horse. I omitted to mention that at Timaru I had exchanged my
+mare for a strong gelding which had previously run in the mail cart,
+getting &pound;10 boot. The swap proved a fortunate one for us, as neither
+Smith's nor Fowler's animals had ever been in harness, and "Jack the
+Devil" was out of the question. Legge's horse and mine therefore were
+destined for the dray, tandem fashion, and upon trial they pulled
+splendidly.</p>
+
+<p>When the dray was loaded and covered over with a large waterproof
+tarpaulin, and our two fine horses yoked thereto, it looked a very
+business-like turn-out. Two of us took it in turn to walk beside the
+horses and conduct the team, while the other two rode, accompanied by
+"Jack," his pack-saddle laden with our needs for the day and night
+halts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One fine morning in June, 1861, we started from Dunedin, with our
+handsome team, the first of its kind that ever travelled the road we
+were going, and we started from the smiling little town amidst the
+cheers and good wishes of those we left behind.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few days all was fairly smooth sailing. We travelled about
+twenty miles each day, camping or resting independently of stations, and
+the track so far being formed by wool drays, was on the whole feasible,
+although we had occasionally to make good the crossings over creeks and
+rivers.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the third day we arrived at a small cattle station
+belonging to a Mr. Davis, where were a number of diggers resting for the
+night. Mr. Davis was one of those hospitably inclined to the diggers,
+but as he could not be expected to feed such numbers for nothing, he
+notified that meals would be charged for at one shilling per head. This
+was eagerly and gratefully responded to, and upwards of two hundred men
+were assembled at the station the evening we arrived.</p>
+
+<p>The kitchen and dining hut being unable to accommodate more than twelve
+or fifteen at once, a multitude had to remain outside while each gang
+went in, in turn, to be fed.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the scene was curious. An enormous fire of logs blazed on the
+hearth, which occupied one entire end of the hut, over which were
+suspended two huge pots filled with joints of mutton, beef, and
+doughboys, boiling indiscriminately together. They were frequently being
+removed to the table and others substituted in their place. The pots
+were flanked by large kettles of water, into which, when on the boil, a
+handful or two of tea would be thrown. After a few minutes the decoction
+would be poured into an iron bucket, some milk and sugar added, and
+placed upon the table, where each man helped himself by dipping his
+pannikin therein.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the hungry seekers after gold were not particular about
+their meat being a shade over or under cooked; they were glad to accept
+what they got, and indeed right wholesome food it was. The doughboys
+were simply large lumps of dough, made of flour and water, used as a
+substitute for bread, of which a sufficient quantity could not be
+prepared for the immense demand.</p>
+
+<p>We obtained our turn in due time, and after a hearty meal retired to the
+quarters we had pitched upon for the night&mdash;viz., a straw shed where we
+rolled our blanket around us and slept soundly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following evening, after a severe day's journey, we arrived wet and
+fagged at the next station, Miller and Gooche's. Here a similar scene
+was being enacted, and here, in common with many other diggers, we were
+obliged to remain for several days owing to severe weather setting in.</p>
+
+<p>Miller and Gooche's station was situated at the junction of a tributary
+stream with the Waitaki, at the entrance of a rugged and mountainous
+gorge. From this point our real difficulties were to begin, as we would
+diverge from the main valley we had hitherto followed, and work our way
+over a rough tract of hilly country, up ravines and spurs to the great
+pass, then pretty certain to be covered with snow.</p>
+
+<p>For the four days during which we were detained at this station it
+rained, sleeted, and snowed alternately and unceasingly. There were
+upwards of one hundred and fifty men there, and the station running
+short of flour, a supply had to be procured from Davis's, where luckily
+a large store had been collected.</p>
+
+<p>Most diggers possessed nothing beyond the clothes they wore, with a
+blanket and a kettle, and many had no money wherewith to pay for food,
+so the squatters were obliged to make a virtue of necessity and give
+free where there was no chance of payment, and this they did right
+willingly. As for the diggers, I must say so much for them that, rough
+fellows as they were, they paid freely and gratefully all they could,
+and I did not hear of a single instance of robbery or outrage save one,
+and we were the victims of that. It was merely the abstraction,
+emptying, and replacing on our dray of a case of "Old Tom," all the
+spirits we possessed, and we did not discover the loss until too late
+for any chance of detecting the delinquents.</p>
+
+<p>At Miller and Gooche's we passed four very miserable days. The two small
+huts and the sheep shed were filled to overflowing, and we lay on the
+floor of the latter at night, cold, stiff, dirty, and packed into our
+places like sardines. The rain and sleet, slop, cold, and offensive
+odour combined would need to be experienced to be appreciated; it was
+indescribable and the greatest and most disagreeable of anything I
+experienced before or since of such a mixture.</p>
+
+<p>At length the weather cleared, and in company with another dray just
+arrived from Dunedin, and got up in imitation of ours, we started for
+the pass, not without grave misgivings of what might be before us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The first day we made five miles. Our route lay along the course of a
+large creek bounded both sides by precipitous hills. The recent rain had
+swollen the stream, and either obliterated or washed away the rough dray
+track, which even at its best was not suited for the passage of a horse
+team. We were therefore obliged to cut a way in and out of the nullah
+wherever we crossed; so some idea may be formed of our day's work. We
+were fortunate in being accompanied by the fresh dray, indeed without
+it, and the assistance given by a number of the diggers who kept with
+us, and with whom we shared our food, I do not think we would have
+succeeded in getting over the Lindis Pass, at any rate not nearly so
+expeditiously as we did. When we came to an exceptionally difficult and
+steep pull, the drays were taken over one at a time with three horses
+yoked, and all hands helping them.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the second day we were still four miles from the pass,
+and it took very severe work from men and horses to negotiate the
+remainder of that fast narrowing, steep and rugged bed, and late in the
+afternoon to reach the summit. It was, as we anticipated, covered with
+snow.</p>
+
+<p>The cold that night was intense, and we had difficulty in procuring
+before dark set in enough brushwood to keep up a small fire for more
+than a few hours. It was here we discovered the loss of the "Old Tom"
+which we had meant to save for just such a special occasion as this. Now
+that we were half-frozen and without means of bettering our condition
+for the night, it was proposed to open the first bottle, and have a nip
+round for ourselves and comrades. Our chagrin and disappointment may be
+imagined when we found the twelve bottles to contain only water.</p>
+
+<p>I often wondered how we got through that night; one or two of us alone
+must surely have perished. Our safety lay in our number. We rolled our
+blankets tightly round us and lay down close together on the wet and now
+fast freezing ground, and lit our pipes, and then we slept. Tired as we
+were, nothing could keep sleep from us&mdash;even if we were to be frozen
+during it.</p>
+
+<p>For the horses we had collected a little grass and carried it on the
+drays, but they had a bad time of it, and the icicles hung from their
+manes and tails in the morning as they stood shivering with their backs
+turned to the keen mountain blast.</p>
+
+<p>However, we all survived, and were none the worse, and as soon as it was
+light we gathered enough brushwood to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> make a rousing fire, by which we
+melted the frozen snow and ice from our blankets, and from the harness
+before we could put it on the horses.</p>
+
+<p>We soon finished a hearty breakfast of mutton grilled in the hot ashes,
+and hot tea, and proceeded to get ready for the day's work, which we
+knew would be a heavy one if we were to get over the pass before
+sundown.</p>
+
+<p>It was two miles to the top, but such a two miles to take a horse dray
+over. The gradient was not only very steep and rough, but it was covered
+with six to eighteen inches of snow, except in some few exposed parts
+where it had drifted off and left the surface nearly bare. There was no
+track to guide us beyond a very uncertain and irregular one made by a
+few pedestrians and horses who had preceded us the evening before when
+we had been delayed by the drays.</p>
+
+<p>We decided to take the drays over separately, yoking all four horses to
+each in turn, tandem fashion, by means of ropes with which we were well
+provided. Just as we were about to start the first, a party of diggers
+arrived, who volunteered to push and spoke the wheels. Thanks to these
+men and the game, honest horses, our difficulties were considerably
+lightened. Some went before to clear the snow where it lay thickest, but
+this was soon abandoned as labour in vain.</p>
+
+<p>We found that the utmost efforts of the four horses, assisted by half a
+dozen men, were only sufficient to drag the dray from twenty to fifty
+yards at a spurt, then on stopping to take a breath a log was thrown
+behind the wheels, and after a few moments' rest another spurt was made,
+and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Our progress was so satisfactory that before nightfall both drays were
+safely over the pass and we had proceeded down the opposite side as far
+as an out-station of McLean's, on whose run we now were. Here we learned
+to our joy that we were within twenty-five miles of the reported
+diggings, with a fairly passable track all the way.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. R. McLean was a wealthy sheep farmer who had originally made his
+money on the Australian goldfields. His present attitude therefore
+towards the diggers was considered the more cruel. He had given orders
+at all his out-stations that neither food nor shelter was to be afforded
+them, and upon our arrival at the shepherd's hut aforesaid, the
+occupant, a worthy Scotsman, informed us with regret that we would have
+to arrange for our accommodation in the open, it being as much as his
+place was worth to feed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> or shelter diggers. This was unpleasant news,
+as we hoped to have taken up our quarters in his hut that night after
+our severe camping out the previous four days.</p>
+
+<p>Although the diggings broke out in McLean's run he had no power to
+prevent the land being worked upon, excepting only such portions of it
+as were private property, but he discouraged and put obstacles in the
+way of the diggers in any form he could, some said because he knew as an
+experienced digger himself that they would not pay. Whether this was the
+case or not, he might have understood the impossibility of stopping a
+gold rush in its infancy, while its value was still an unknown quantity.</p>
+
+<p>Our last stage the following day was for the greater part by one of the
+most picturesque valleys I had yet seen. Mr. McLean had made a very fair
+road from the Lindis Pass boundary to his home station, which latter was
+only some five miles from the diggings, so it was very different
+travelling to what we had experienced on the other side. The track first
+wound along a deep ravine with rugged precipitous sides, mostly clothed
+with evergreen underwood from which huge masses of rock would now and
+then emerge, and sometimes overhanging a rushing torrent which had been
+swelled by the recent heavy rains and thus enhanced the effect on this
+glorious sunny morning. The waterfalls and cascades sparkled in a
+hundred colours, wheeling, foaming, and dashing in a mad race amidst
+huge rocks, till lost in shadow beneath a precipice or overhanging mass
+of variegated bush. The gorge then opened out into a level amphitheatre,
+with the river, grown calm and broad, winding peacefully, and surrounded
+by the mountains in all their enchanting shades of colour, and the
+distant peaks capped with snow.</p>
+
+<p>Then another gorge of more imposing grandeur with a magnificent view
+beyond and through it, closed in turn by a sombre pine forest swept by
+the river, now grown larger and deeper, dancing and racing like a living
+thing in the brilliant sunshine and rare atmosphere of a New Zealand
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>How well I remember the whole trip with all its roughness and all its
+beauty, its very contrasts no doubt helping to impress it upon the
+memory. Such scenes and incidents are difficult to forget, even if one
+would, and each and all are as distinct to my mind in almost every
+detail at this moment as if I had been with them only yesterday, instead
+of more than forty years ago.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Life on the Gold Diggings.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And now I will endeavour to picture my impression of the gold diggings
+as they appeared on that same evening.</p>
+
+<p>After passing through one of the most beautiful of the Lindis gorges we
+found ourselves at the entrance of a wide tract of open and undulating
+country, almost bare of anything beyond short yellow grass, encompassed
+on all sides by hills which stretched away westward to the snow-crowned
+mountains. The extent of the open was from one to two miles square, and
+through its centre&mdash;or nearly so&mdash;the Lindis flowed in a rocky bed.
+Along the river and far up the downs on either side were sprinkled
+hundreds of little tents with their hundreds of fires and rising eddies
+of smoke. The banks of the river were crowded with men at work, some in
+the water, some out, others pitching tents or tending horses, some
+constructing rough furniture, cradles and long Toms for washing gold,
+hundreds of horses tethered among the tents or upon the open, and above
+all the suppressed hum of a busy multitude.</p>
+
+<p>On all new gold diggings it was usual to establish a self-constituted
+form of government among the diggers themselves, which in the absence of
+any regular police force or law of the land was responsible for the
+protection and good conduct of the entire community. Some capable man
+was elected as president and chief, before whom all cases of
+misdemeanour were heard, and whose decisions and powers to inflict
+punishment were final. Under such rule, crude as it was, the utmost good
+conduct usually prevailed, and any glaring instances of robbery or crime
+were not only rare, but severely dealt with.</p>
+
+<p>To this man we reported our arrival, and a camping ground was pointed
+out to us. It was too late to do anything towards preparing a permanent
+camp that night, but at daybreak the following morning we were hard at
+work, and by evening had made ourselves a comfortable hut.</p>
+
+<p>We marked out a rectangle of 12 ft. by 10 ft., the size of our largest
+tent, around which we raised a sod wall two feet high, which we
+plastered inside with mud. Over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> walls we rigged up our tent,
+securing it by stays and poles set in triangles at each extremity. At
+one end we built a capacious fireplace and chimney eight feet wide,
+leaving two feet for a doorway. The chimney was built of green sods,
+also plastered within, and our door was a piece of old sacking weighted
+and let fall over the opening. Around the hut we cut a good drain to
+convey away rain water. At the upper end of the hut we raised a rough
+framework of green timber cut from the neighbouring scrub, one foot high
+and six wide, thus taking up exactly half of our house. Upon this we
+spread a plentiful supply of dry grass to form our common bed. Our
+working tools and other gear found place underneath, and with a few
+roughly made stools and the empty "Old Tom" case for a table, our
+mansion was complete.</p>
+
+<p>It was not yet night when our work was done, and some of us strolled
+about to obtain any information available. This was not as satisfactory
+as we could have desired. Very many had been disappointed, gold was not
+found in sufficient quantities to pay, and prospectors were out in every
+direction. It was early yet, however, to condemn the diggings, and the
+grumblers and the disappointed are always present in every undertaking,
+so we comforted ourselves, and sought dinner and the night's sleep we
+were so much in need of.</p>
+
+<p>The usual requisites for a digger are, a spade, pick, shovel, long Tom
+or cradle, and a wide lipped flat iron dish (not unlike an ordinary
+wash-hand basin) for final washing.</p>
+
+<p>The long Tom consists of a wooden trough or race, twelve to fifteen feet
+long and two feet wide; its lower end is fitted into an iron screen or
+grating, fixed immediately above a box or tray of the same size. To work
+the machine it is set so that a stream of water obtained by damming up a
+little of the river is allowed to pass quickly and constantly down the
+race, and through the grating into the box at the other end.</p>
+
+<p>The "stuff" in which the gold is supposed to be is thrown into the race,
+where, by the action of the current of water, the earth, stones, rubbish
+and light matter are washed away and the heavy sand, etc., falls through
+the grating into the box. As frequently as necessary this box is removed
+and another substituted, when the contents are washed carefully by means
+of the basin. By degrees all the sand and foreign matter is washed away,
+leaving only the gold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The cradle is very similar to what it is named after, a child's swing
+cot. It is simply a suspended wooden box, fitted with an iron grating
+and tray beneath into which the "stuff" is cradled or washed by rocking
+it by hand.</p>
+
+<p>It takes considerable experience of the art of finding gold to enable a
+man to fix on a good site for commencing operations. There are of course
+instances of wonderful luck and unexpected success, but they are very
+much the exception, and form but a diminutive proportion of the fortune
+of any gold diggings. We hear of the man who has found a big nugget and
+made a fortune, but nothing of the thousands who don't find any big
+nuggets, and earn but bare wages or often less.</p>
+
+<p>On most diggings a large proportion of the men are working for wages
+only, and it not infrequently depends on the fortune of the employer
+whether the labourer receives his wages or not. It may be a case of
+general smash. We saw much of this on the Lindis diggings. They were not
+a general success at that time, as we soon discovered to our cost; and
+many who went there wildly hoping to find gold for the picking up, and
+with no means to withstand a reverse, were only too glad to work for
+those who had means to carry on for a while, for their food only.</p>
+
+<p>We procured a long Tom, and spent some days prospecting with variable
+success&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, we found gold nearly everywhere, each shovelful of
+earth contained gold, but in quantities so generally infinitesimal as to
+be not worth the time spent in working for it. The land was impregnated
+with gold, but the difficulty was to find it in sufficient quantity to
+pay.</p>
+
+<p>We at length fixed upon a claim and set up our gear. From daylight to
+dark we worked day after day, excavating, cradling, and washing, each
+one taking it in turns to look after the horses and tent and fetch food
+from the camp, which was at some distance away. The final washing of the
+stuff was done twice daily, at noon and again at evening, and what an
+exciting and anxious operation this was! How earnestly the decreasing
+sediment was peered at to discover signs of the precious metal! How our
+hearts would jump with delight when a bright yellow grain was
+discovered, appearing for a moment on the dark surface, then more
+careful washing, with beating hearts and necks craning over the fateful
+dish as the mass got less and less, and then the sinking and
+disappointment to find that the day's hard work of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>four men did not
+bring us five shillings worth of gold! But hope, with the young and
+sanguine, is hard to beat, and the following morning would see us at
+work as cheerily as ever.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image067.jpg" id="image067.jpg"></a><img src="images/image067.jpg" width='700' height='476' alt="The Gold Diggings" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Gold Diggings</span>.</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight after our arrival our provisions ran short, and we were
+obliged to have recourse to the stores, of which two had been started by
+an enterprising firm in Dunedin, and soon after we were nearly having a
+famine, owing to the stores themselves running short by reason of the
+drays conveying supplies having been snowed up in crossing the pass.
+McLean was applied to, but he refused, and it was fortunate for him that
+a caravan arrived before the diggers were actually in want.</p>
+
+<p>With this caravan arrived a pedlar and a liquor merchant, two such
+characters as cannot well be found except on a gold diggings. They
+carried with them a plentiful supply of slop clothes, boots, tools, and
+spirits, etc., and as luck&mdash;or ill luck&mdash;would have it, they pitched
+their camp alongside ours.</p>
+
+<p>One of these men rarely did business without the other. If a digger came
+to purchase a pair of trousers or boots the bargain was never completed
+to the satisfaction of both parties without a glass of spirits at the
+adjacent grog shop to clinch it; and at night, when the diggers would
+drop round the latter for a glass, many pairs of breeches, boots, or
+other articles were disposed of under the happy influence of wine and
+company.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image067a.jpg" id="image067a.jpg"></a><img src="images/image067a.jpg" width='700' height='491' alt="Peddlars at the Diggings" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Peddlars at the Diggings</span>.</p>
+
+<p>These men are to be met with in all parts of the Colonies where crowds
+are collected, and they are usually of Jewish origin. There was nothing
+objectionable about them; they were simply shrewd, energetic men of
+business, ready without actual dishonesty to take every possible
+advantage of the wants and weaknesses of their fellow men. We had some
+pleasant evenings in their company, and many a jovial song and dance
+they treated us to, for which, no doubt, they succeeded in extracting
+good value for their wind and muscle.</p>
+
+<p>Meat was scarce on the diggings, and at times for days together we had
+none. McLean indeed did not refuse to sell fat cattle, but he demanded
+prohibitive prices, and so it was customary to procure meat from a
+distance.</p>
+
+<p>We had been now two months on the Lindis, our funds instead of
+increasing were diminishing, and we saw little or no hope of a change
+for the better. An exodus had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> already commenced, and the incomers were
+daily decreasing in number.</p>
+
+<p>After holding a council meeting in our hut, it was decided that our camp
+be broken up, and that we should all return together as far as Davis's
+station, from whence two should proceed to Dunedin with the dray, while
+the other two should purchase some fat beasts and drive them to the
+diggings for sale.</p>
+
+<p>The tents and tools were disposed of to a newly arrived group of
+Australian diggers at a fair enough price, and we disposed of all the
+remaining gear we did not actually need on the return journey, taking
+with us little beyond the empty dray, and all being ready we bade
+farewell to the Lindis diggings, and once more started on our uncertain
+and adventurous travels.</p>
+
+<p>I omitted to mention that during our residence on the Lindis we were
+sadly troubled with rats. There must have been millions in the locality,
+and it was very difficult to guard our food from their depredations.
+During the day they mostly disappeared until sundown, when they came in
+swarms to the tents. Sitting by the fire in the evening I have
+frequently killed a dozen with a short stick as they approached
+fearlessly in search of food, and during the night we got accustomed to
+sharing our common bed with a goodly number of the rascals.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">We Leave the Lindis&mdash;Attempt to Drive Fat Cattle to the
+Diggings and Fail&mdash;Return to Dunedin</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the return journey we had as much company as when we came, and the
+road was even worse, but the dray being almost empty we experienced less
+difficulty in proceeding. The first day took us out of McLean's run, and
+the second saw us at nightfall on Miller and Gooche's side of the pass,
+which was still snowed over, but the traffic had worked the track up
+into deep slush and mud, and late in the evening we were near losing the
+dray and horses in a swamp we had inadvertently entered while seeking a
+better passage. With the assistance of some friendly diggers we
+succeeded in extricating them, but the unfortunate accident prevented
+our proceeding further that night, and we passed it on the borders of
+the swamp where not an atom of firewood could be obtained. The ground
+was in a puddle of melted snow and mud, not a dry spot to be found. We
+were muddy and wet from head to foot, without the means of making even a
+pannikin of tea, and the night was pitch dark. We just crouched down
+together by the dray, hungry, shivering, and fagged. Sleep, of course,
+was out of the question, and we had constantly to clap our arms to keep
+the blood in circulation. Towards midnight intense frost set in. We
+smoked incessantly; in that, I think, was to a great extent our safety.</p>
+
+<p>We did not remove the harness from the horses, which were tied to the
+dray without any food for the night. The following morning at eleven
+o'clock we arrived at Miller and Gooche's, where we had to melt the ice
+off our leggings and boots before we could remove them&mdash;and what a
+breakfast we ate! Nobody who has not experienced what it is to starve on
+a healthy stomach for thirty hours and spend most of that time on a
+mountain pass under snow and frost can understand how we appreciated our
+food.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next day we reached Davis's, when Fowler and Legge left us for
+Dunedin, and Smith and I arranged with Davis for the purchase of a
+couple of fat steers for &pound;12 10s. each, hoping that if we succeeded in
+driving them to the diggings we would double our money.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon we went with Davis to the run, and selected the
+animals, which we drove with a mob to the stockyard. Here we separated
+our pair and put them in another yard for a start in the morning.
+Driving a couple of wild bullocks alone from their run is, as I have
+already explained, by no means an easy task, and Davis warned us that
+these would give us trouble&mdash;indeed, I believe he considered us slightly
+mad to attempt to drive the beasts such a distance at all.</p>
+
+<p>On first starting we had no small difficulty in preventing them
+returning to the run, and it cost us some hard galloping to get them
+away on the road to Miller and Gooche's, where it was our intention to
+yard for the night.</p>
+
+<p>We had proceeded to within a mile of the station, when the brutes for
+the twentieth time bolted, on this occasion taking to the hills over
+some low spurs and rocky ground, intersected with ravines and gullies. I
+was riding hard to intercept them when I was suddenly sent flying on to
+my head, turning a somersault on to a rough bank of spear grass. Shaking
+myself together and somewhat recovering from the shock, I discovered the
+tail and stern of my steed projecting above the ground, the remainder of
+him being invisible. It appeared he had planted his fore feet in a deep
+fissure covered with long grass, and just large enough to take in head
+and fore parts. The shock sent me over, as I described, while he
+remained stuck.</p>
+
+<p>It was a ridiculous position, and tired, sore from the spear-grass, and
+annoyed as I was, I could not refrain from a hearty laugh at our
+predicament before attempting to extricate my unhappy quadruped; this I
+succeeded in doing with some difficulty, and found him, with the
+exception of some few scratches, quite unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>I again mounted, but the wily steers had disappeared, and Smith was
+nowhere to be seen, I rode quietly on and presently discovered the
+latter, himself and horse dead beat, and using very unparliamentary
+language at our bad luck, at the beasts, and at gold diggings in
+general.</p>
+
+<p>We had nothing for it but to go back to Miller's for the night. The
+following day we returned to Davis's, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> we found the bullocks had
+arrived the night before, and Davis, after a laugh at our misadventures,
+returned us the &pound;25, and the same evening we left for Dunedin. We camped
+some ten miles further down the Waitaki, with a very eccentric personage
+in the form of an old retired clergyman of the Church of England. He
+lived like a hermit in a small hut under the hills, which he had built
+himself, as well as some outbuildings and a capital little bakery, which
+he was very proud of. He cultivated a small plot of ground, where he
+grew potatoes and other vegetables and kept a cow, and he possessed
+several cats and a couple of fine collie dogs. He gave food&mdash;especially
+bread&mdash;to any traveller passing who needed it, and free quarters for the
+night. He showed us a small canoe in which he was in the habit of
+paddling himself across the river, and was always ready to obey a call
+to any, even distant, station where his services were needed in a case
+of illness, death, or marriage. He was a most entertaining host, and we
+enjoyed the night we spent with him in his curious and lonely
+habitation. We heard that he had suffered some severe domestic calamity,
+which drove him to his present lonely life, but he spent his days in
+doing all the good that lay in his power, and doubtless many a passing
+traveller was the better in more ways than one for meeting the old
+recluse.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Dunedin we found that Legge had already disposed of the
+dray satisfactorily, and Smith finding a purchaser for his horse he
+parted with him, thus placing us all in funds. It was decided then that
+Smith and Legge should take the coasting steamer to Port Lyttelton,
+while I proceeded overland with my own horse and "Jack the Devil,"
+arranging to meet at Christchurch. Fowler left us at Dunedin, and we saw
+him no more.</p>
+
+<p>My journey back was uneventful, but happening to meet with Bains, of the
+Post, the original owner of my horse, we exchanged mounts for a
+consideration of &pound;5 transferred from his pocket to mine. He wanted his
+harness horse back, while I needed only a saddle horse, so the exchange
+was a satisfactory one in every way, and enabled me to hasten my journey
+to Christchurch, where I found Legge and Smith awaiting me.</p>
+
+<p>We sold Jack for twice what he cost us, and squared accounts for the
+trip, which, although it did not fulfill the brilliant expectations with
+which we started upon it, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> nevertheless an interesting and pleasant
+experience, and one which we would have been sorry to have missed.</p>
+
+<p>I found home letters awaiting me, with renewed requests from my father
+to return while there was time to resume my studies, and offering me
+further assistance if I needed it. I declined all, feeling that I could
+not now renounce the life I had chosen, and it would not be right of me,
+in opposition to his opinion, to accept any financial assistance even
+had I needed it, which was not the case. I had tried most phases of a
+colonial life, had gained a great deal of experience, and knew that I
+could always obtain remunerative employment, and after I had enjoyed a
+little more rambling and freedom I could decide on some fixed line to
+settle down upon. In the meantime there was no immediate hurry, and I
+was very young.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Leave for Mesopotamia&mdash;Road Making&mdash;Sheep Mustering&mdash;Death of
+Dr. Sinclair&mdash;Road Contracts on the Ashburton&mdash;Washed down
+Stream</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I had only been a few days in Christchurch when I met a Mr. Butler whom
+I had once before seen up-country. He immediately offered me a post on
+his run at &pound;60 a year, with all expenses paid, which I could hold for as
+long or short time as I needed. This exactly suited me in my present
+circumstances. I accepted his offer and started the following day for
+Mesopotamia, as he had quaintly named his station; it lay between two
+rivers.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image073.jpg" id="image073.jpg"></a><img src="images/image073.jpg" width='700' height='467' alt="Mesopotamia Station" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mesopotamia Station</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Samuel Butler was a grandson of the late famous Bishop Butler. He
+had come to New Zealand about a year previously with a small fortune
+which, as he said, he intended to double and then return home, and he
+did so in a remarkably short time. Immediately he landed he made himself
+acquainted with the maps and districts taken up, and rode many hundreds
+of miles prospecting for new country. His energy was rewarded by the
+discovery of the unclaimed piece of mountain land he now occupied near
+the upper gorge of the Rangitata. The run, which comprised about 8,000
+acres, formed a series of spurs and slopes leading from the foot of the
+great range and ending in a broad strip of flat land bounded by the
+Rangitata. Upon two other sides were smaller streams, tributaries of the
+latter&mdash;hence the name Mesopotamia (between the rivers) given to it by
+its energetic possessor. Mr. Butler had been established upon the run
+about a year, and had already about 3,000 sheep on it. The homestead was
+built upon a little plateau on the edge of the downs approached by a
+cutting from the flat, and was most comfortably situated and well
+sheltered, as it needed to be, the weather being often exceedingly
+severe in that elevated locality.</p>
+
+<p>Butler was a literary man, and his snug sitting-room was fitted with
+books and easy chairs&mdash;a piano also, upon which he was no mean
+performer.</p>
+
+<p>The station hands comprised a shepherd, bullock driver, hutkeeper, and
+two station hands employed in fencing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> paddocks, which with Cook, the
+overseer, Butler, and myself made up the total.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak we all assembled in the common kitchen for breakfast, after
+which we separated for our different employments.</p>
+
+<p>At 12 noon we met again for dinner, and again about 7 p.m. for supper,
+which meal being over, Butler, Cook, and I would repair to the sitting
+room, and round a glorious fire smoked or read or listened to Butler's
+piano. It was the most civilised experience I had had of up-country life
+since I left Highfield and was very enjoyable. I did not, however,
+remain very long at Mesopotamia at that time.</p>
+
+<p>There was a proposal on foot to improve the track leading from the
+Ashburton to the Rangitata on which some heavy cuttings were required to
+be made. I applied for the contract and obtained it at rates which paid
+me very well. My supervisor was a man called Denny, who had been a
+sailor, and I knew him to be a capable and handy fellow, as most sailors
+are. He was quite illiterate&mdash;could not even read or write, but he was
+clever and intelligent and had seen a great deal of colonial life and
+some hard times. Every night when supper was over and we sat by the fire
+in our little hut, I read aloud, to his great delectation, and his
+remarks, pert questions, and wonderful memory were remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>This work paid well, and I was soon in a position to make my first
+investment of &pound;100 in sheep, which I placed on terms on Butler's run. To
+explain this transaction: I purchased one hundred two tooth ewes at a
+pound each, upon these I was to receive 45 per cent. increase yearly in
+lambs, half male and half female, and a similar rate of percentage of
+course on the female increase as they attained to breeding age. In
+addition I was to receive &pound;12 10s. per hundred sheep for wool annually.
+It was a good commencement, and I decided to stick to contract work if
+possible, and increase my stock till I had sufficient to enable me to
+obtain a small partnership on a run.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time there arrived at Mesopotamia a friend of Butler's by
+name Brabazon, an Irishman of good family, it being his intention to
+remain for some time as a cadet to learn sheep farming. He became a
+great personal friend of Cook's and mine, and many a pleasant day we
+spent together when, during intervals of rest, I was able to pay a visit
+to the Rangitata Station.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the completion of the road contract, the mustering season had begun,
+and I went over with my men to give a hand and remained for a month
+assisting at the shearing, etc.</p>
+
+<p>I think it was at this time that a most sad occurrence took place,
+resulting in the death of Dr. Sinclair, who was travelling for pleasure
+in company with Dr. Haast, Geologist and Botanist to the Government of
+Canterbury. He and Dr. Haast with their party had been staying at
+Mesopotamia for a few days previous to starting on an expedition to the
+upper gorge of the Rangitata. They all left one afternoon, Dr. Sinclair,
+as usual, on foot. He had an unaccountable aversion to mounting a horse,
+and could not be induced to do so when it was possible to avoid it.
+Strange to say, a horse was eventually the cause of his death. He was a
+man of some seventy years of age with snow white hair, a learned
+antiquary and botanist, and old as he was, and in appearance not of
+strong build, he could undergo great fatigue and walk huge distances in
+pursuit of his favourite science.</p>
+
+<p>The party had proceeded in company some few miles up the river, when
+Haast and his men went ahead to select a camping place, leaving Dr.
+Sinclair with a man and horse in attendance to come on quietly and take
+him over the streams, the intended camp being on the opposite side of
+the river.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image075.jpg" id="image075.jpg"></a><img src="images/image075.jpg" width='700' height='410' alt="Upper Gorge of the Rangitata" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Upper Gorge of the Rangitata</span>.</p>
+
+<p>The plan adopted for crossing a stream, when there is more than one
+person and only a single horse, is as follows: One end of a sufficiently
+long rope is fastened round the animal's neck, the other being held by
+one of the men. One then crosses the stream on horseback, when he
+dismounts, and the horse is hauled back by means of the rope, when
+another mounts, and so on. In this instance the attendant rode over
+first, but the stream being somewhat broader than the rope was long, the
+latter was pulled out of Dr. Sinclair's hands. The man then tried to
+turn the horse back loose, but the animal, finding himself free, bolted
+for the run. Dr. Sinclair called to the man that he would ford the
+stream on foot, and although, as the attendant stated, he warned him
+against attempting to do so, he immediately entered, but the current was
+too powerful and quickly washed him off his feet. It was now nearly dark
+and the man said that although he ran as fast as he was able down the
+stream, he was unable to see anything of the Doctor. This was the
+miserable story the station hand gave in at the homestead when he
+arrived an hour afterwards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>All hands turned out, and having mounts in the paddock, Cook and
+Brabazon were soon in the saddle galloping towards the fording place.
+Striking the stream some distance below where the accident occurred,
+both sides were carefully searched, as they worked up. When within a
+quarter of a mile of the ford Cook discovered the body of the Doctor
+lying stranded with head and shoulders under water. Life, of course, was
+extinct. He was drawn gently from the stream and laid on the shingle
+just as the foot men arrived with torches. It was a sad spectacle, this
+fine old man we all loved and respected so much, only a few hours before
+full of life and health, now a ghastly corpse, his hair and long white
+beard lying dank over his cold white face and glaring eyes. The scene
+was rendered all the more weird and awful by the surroundings, the still
+dark night, the rushing water, and overhanging cliffs under the red
+glare of the torches. His body was laid across one of the saddles while
+one walked on each side to keep it from falling, and so they returned to
+the station that lonely four miles in the dead of night.</p>
+
+<p>He was laid in the woolshed and a watch placed on guard, and early in
+the morning a messenger was despatched to Dr. Haast with the sad
+tidings. His party were at first alarmed at his non-appearance the
+previous evening, but at length took it for granted that he must have
+returned to the station, and felt confident that with his attendant and
+a horse he could not possibly have come to any harm, the river being
+easily fordable on horseback, or even on foot by a strong man, but of
+course such a clumsy mistake as employing too short a rope never struck
+anybody. The attendant who was responsible was one of the hands employed
+on ditching and fencing, and possibly was not much experienced at river
+fording, and he said the Doctor delayed so long botanising that darkness
+was upon them by the time they reached the fording place.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sinclair's remains were interred the following day about a mile from
+the homestead on the flat near the south bank of the Rangitata, where
+his tomb doubtless may now be seen, his last earthly resting place; and,
+dear old man, with all his strong antipathy to horses, what would he
+have thought could he have known that one was destined at last to be the
+cause of his death?</p>
+
+<p>As a set-off against the previous sad story I may relate an amusing one,
+in which I was myself a principal actor, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> which occurred soon after
+my arrival at Mesopotamia. Butler was much exercised about some
+experimental grass-growing he was carrying on about three miles from the
+station, on the further side of one of the boundary streams I first
+referred to, where he had recently secured another slice of country.</p>
+
+<p>Early one morning I had started alone on foot for the paddocks, where
+Butler and Cook were to meet me later, riding, and if I found the stream
+too high to ford on foot, I was to await their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the river it was so swollen as to be unsafe to attempt
+fording, and so, lighting my pipe, I sat down under the shelter of a
+large boulder, and presently fell asleep. When I woke up, after some
+considerable time, and remembered where I was, I feared that Cook and
+Butler must have passed while I slept, and was on the point of returning
+to the station, when I observed two horsemen a long way down stream,
+apparently searching for something. I speedily understood what was on
+foot. My friends were laboriously seeking for my dead body, having
+naturally supposed, when they could not find me at the paddock, that I
+had tried to ford the river and been washed away. The idea of these two
+men spending the morning hunting for a supposed drowned man, who was
+enjoying a sound sleep near them all the time, was so ludicrous that I
+could not refrain from an immoderate fit of laughter when they arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Butler was hot-tempered, and anything approaching to ridicule where he
+himself was concerned was a mortal insult. He turned pale with passion
+and rode off, and I do not think he ever entirely forgave me for not
+being drowned when he had undertaken so much trouble to discover my
+body.</p>
+
+<p>It was at Mesopotamia that I noticed so many remains of that extinct
+bird, the "Moa," and it appeared that some of the species had inhabited
+that locality not very many years previously. Indeed, some old Maoris I
+had met on the Ashburton said they remembered the bird very well. It was
+not uncommon to come across a quantity of bones, and near by them a heap
+of smooth pebbles which the bird had carried in his craw for digestive
+purposes, and I recollect one day employing a number of the bones in
+making a footway over a small creek.</p>
+
+<p>A complete skeleton of the Moa bird is to be seen in the British
+Museum.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I had now obtained a fresh contract for making cuttings, draining
+swamps, and bridging over some ten miles in the Lower Ashburton gorge
+and Valley, and I was busily engaged all the summer and autumn. There
+were some extensive patches of swampy ground where great difficulty was
+experienced in passing the heavy wool drays, and to make a feasible road
+over them was one of my tasks, and an interesting one it proved, giving
+some scope to my engineering ability. Having laid out the proposed line
+of road over the marsh, I cut from it at right angles, and some 300 feet
+in length, a channel wide and deep enough, I calculated, to convey away
+the flood water during heavy rains, and from the upper end of this
+channel I cut four feeding drains, two running along the road line, and
+two diagonally, all four meeting at the top end of the main channel;
+over the latter, at this point, I constructed a wooden bridge of rough
+green timber from the forest, distant about eight miles. I sunk a row of
+heavy round piles or posts about a foot in diameter at each side of the
+channel, which was fifteen feet wide, securing them with heavy
+transverse beams spiked on to their tops; over this I laid heavy round
+timber stretchers, about nine inches in diameter and four in number,
+upon which were spiked closed together a flooring of stout pine saplings
+from two and a half to four inches thick. The floor between these was
+then covered with a thick layer of brushwood, topped with earth and
+gravel. The road embankment was then carried on from each side till the
+swamp was cleared. I am particular about describing this, as it was my
+first attempt at bridge building and draining, and of all the thousands
+of bridges I have since constructed, I do not think any one of them
+interested me more keenly than these in the Ashburton Valley when I was
+a lad of nineteen. The bridges and roads over the marshes proved quite
+satisfactory, and it was a real delight to me when the first teams of
+wool drays passed over safely. I was at the same time engaged on the
+cuttings, and got some of them completed before the severe winter set
+in.</p>
+
+<p>I was so busy this season that much of my time was necessarily spent in
+supervising between the forest and the work, and I had a rough hut
+erected at the former, where I could live during my visits.</p>
+
+<p>Once, on passing to the forest, I met with an amusing accident. I was
+riding a huge sixteen-hand black mare and had heavy swags of blankets
+strapped before and behind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> the saddle, in addition to which I carried a
+new axe, some cooking utensils and a large leg and loin of mutton, which
+I had called for at the station, fearing that my men were out of meat.
+Near the forest I had to cross a small stream with steep banks. There
+had been heavy rain the previous night, and the little stream was a
+rushing torrent, and as I forded it, the water reached to the girths.
+The opposite bank was steep and slippery, and the huge animal laboured
+so in negotiating it that the girths snapped, and the entire saddle,
+with myself, slipped over her tail into the rushing stream. In this
+manner we were carried down; immersed to nearly my armpits, but securely
+attached, for some two hundred yards, before I was able to extricate
+myself and incumbrances by seizing a branch as we swept by a bend in the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>With some difficulty I succeeded in getting all out safely and
+fortunately on the right side. The mare was quietly feeding where she
+had emerged.</p>
+
+<p>Where the work went on in the valley I had a couple of tents for my gang
+of navvies, some of whom were sailors. I always found these excellent
+workers, and specially handy and clever in many ways, where a mere
+landsman would be at fault. I worked with them, and shared everything as
+one of themselves, even to a single nip of rum I allowed to each man
+once a day. They treated me with every respect, and I had not, so far as
+I can recollect, a single instance of serious trouble with any of them.
+They received good wages, and earned them, and if any man among them had
+been found guilty of reprehensible conduct, the others would have
+supported me at once in clearing him from the camp. When the day's work
+was over, these sailor navvies would all bear a hand to get matters
+right for the night and the next day. Mutton was put in the oven, bread
+made, and placed under the ashes, firewood collected, and water in the
+kettle ready for putting on the fire at daybreak, then the nip of rum
+and pipe alight, and yarns or songs would be told or sung in turn, till
+the blankets claimed us.</p>
+
+<p>This was a very severe winter, and as the snow began to lie heavily I
+was perforce obliged to stop work for a month or two, and for that time
+I accepted an invitation from Cook and Brabazon to keep them company at
+Mesopotamia. Butler had left for Christchurch, where he would remain for
+an indefinite time.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Winter under the Southern Alps&mdash;Frost-bite&mdash;Seeking Sheep in
+the Snow&mdash;The Runaway.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In winter in these high latitudes, such as the Upper Rangitata, lying at
+the foot and immediately eastward of the great Alpine range behind which
+the winter sun dipped at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it was intensely
+cold, and instances of frost-bite were not uncommon. I recollect a poor
+young fellow, a bullock-driver on a neighbouring station, getting
+frost-bitten one night when he had lost his way in the snow. He knew
+nothing of it until he arrived at the station in the morning, when, on
+removing his boots his feet felt numb and dead, and no amount of rubbing
+had any effect in inducing a return of circulation. It soon transpired
+that his toes were frost-bitten. A messenger was despatched to the
+Ashburton in hope of finding a doctor, but in vain, and the lad was sent
+to Christchurch, 150 miles, in a covered dray. This, of course, took a
+considerable time, and when he arrived gangrene had set in, and both
+feet had to be amputated above the ankles.</p>
+
+<p>When the snow falls in large quantities it becomes an anxious time for
+the sheep farmer, and if the flocks are not strong and healthy they are
+sure to suffer. In snowstorms, the sheep will seek the shelter of some
+hill or spur, collecting together on the lee side, and here they are
+sometimes drifted over, when if the snow does not remain beyond a
+certain period they are mostly safe. As the snow drifts over them the
+heat of their bodies keeps it melted within a certain area, while the
+freezing and increase of drift and falling snow continue above and
+beyond the circle. In this manner a compartment is formed underneath in
+which the animals live and, to some extent, move about. The existence of
+these habitations is discovered by the presence of small breathing holes
+on the surface leading from below like chimneys, and sheep will live in
+this manner for a fortnight or so. When they have eaten up all the grass
+and roots available they will feed on their own wool, which they tear
+off each other's backs, and chew for the grease contained in it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For a fortnight we had been completely snowed up at Mesopotamia. Upon
+the homestead flat the snow was four feet deep, through which we cut and
+kept clear a passage between the huts, and for fifty yards on one side
+to the creek, where through a hole in the ice we drew water for daily
+use. Fortunately we had abundance of food and a mob of sheep had
+previously been driven into one of the paddocks to be retained in case
+of emergency. The confined life was trying. We read, played cards,
+practised daily with the boxing gloves, and missed sorely the outdoor
+exercise. One day, however, we had a benefit of the latter which was a
+new experience to all of us.</p>
+
+<p>The overseer was getting anxious about the sheep. Once or twice distant
+bleating had been heard, but for some days it had ceased, and as he
+wished to satisfy himself of the safety of his flocks, we decided to
+make a party and go in search of them.</p>
+
+<p>When last seen, before the heavy snow began to fall, the flocks of ewes
+and lambs were two miles from the homestead on the lea of the great spur
+forming the north extremity of the run, and it was in this direction the
+bleating was heard.</p>
+
+<p>We arranged our party as follows: Cook, Brabazon, and I, with two
+station hands, were to start early the following morning, while two men
+remained at the huts to be on the look out for us, and if we were late
+in returning they had orders to follow up in our snow trail and meet us.</p>
+
+<p>We each dressed as lightly as possible, and provided ourselves with
+stout pine staffs to assist us in climbing and feeling our way over
+dangerous localities. Each of us carried a parcel of bread and meat, and
+a small flask of spirits was taken for use only in case of urgent
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>An expedition of this kind is always attended with danger. Travelling
+through deep snow is exceedingly tiring, and the glare and glistening
+from its surface tends to induce sleepiness. Many a man has lost his
+life from these causes combined when but a short distance from safety.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image081.jpg" id="image081.jpg"></a><img src="images/image081.jpg" width='700' height='481' alt="Seeking Sheep in the Snow" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Seeking Sheep in the Snow</span>.</p>
+
+<p>We started in Indian file, the foremost man breaking the snow and the
+others placing their feet in his tracks. When the leader, whose work was
+naturally the heaviest, got tired, he stepped aside, and the next in
+file took up the breaking, while the former fell into the rear of all,
+which is, of course, the easiest.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding thus, we went on steadily for some hours, our route being by
+no means straight, as we had to utilise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> our knowledge of the ground and
+avoid dangerous and suspicious places. The aspect of a piece of country
+considerably changes in surface appearance under a heavy covering of
+snow where deep and extensive drifts have formed.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding our deviations and undulating course, we made the summit
+of the great spur at midday. Such a scene as here opened out before us
+is difficult to describe. If it had been a flat plain with the usual
+domestic accessories there would be only a dreary circumscribed and more
+or less familiar picture, but here we were among the silent mountains
+untouched by the hand of man, in the clearest atmosphere in the
+universe, with magnificent and varying panoramas stretching away from us
+on every side. To the north we could see far into the upper gorge of the
+Rangitata, with its precipices and promontories receding point by point
+in bold outline to the towering peaks forty miles beyond, and below it
+the wide flats of the great river, with its broad bed and streams so
+rapid that they could not be frozen over. On the east the low undulating
+downs stretching away towards the plains, while westward they ran in
+huge spurs to the foot of the Alpine range, towering 13,000 feet above
+us. Turning southward was seen the lower gorge, with its hills almost
+meeting in huge precipitous spurs, with stretches of pine forests
+clothing their slopes.</p>
+
+<p>Turn where we would over those immense panoramas all was white, pure,
+dazzling, glittering white, with a deathlike stillness over all. No
+life, no colour, save a streak of grey-blue on the broad river bed, and
+the shadow thrown by the mountains in the depths of their frowning
+gorges. The cold grey cloudless sky itself was scarcely any contrast. It
+was a magnificent wilderness of snow, and we viewed it spell-bound till
+our eyes ached with the glare and we felt a strange desire to lie down
+and sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Such is invariably the attendant sensations under these circumstances,
+whence the danger. If one once gives way to the drowsiness and longing
+for rest, he is gone. The sleep comes quickly, but it is a sleep from
+which there is no awakening&mdash;hence the precautions taken on such an
+expedition to have as large a party of strong men as possible to assist
+each other in case of failure. The need for such caution was fully
+verified in our case.</p>
+
+<p>We were fortunate in discovering a number of sheep on the leeward of the
+spur where the snow had drifted off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> and lay comparatively light, and
+some were feeding off the tops of tall snow grass which remained
+uncovered. In other places numbers were living under the snow as the
+breathing holes testified. The visit and inspection were as satisfactory
+as we hoped, and after a short rest and hasty lunch, we started on our
+return journey, which, as it would be in our old tracks, and for the
+most part downhill, would be very much easier than the previous one.</p>
+
+<p>It was well that our homeward journey was easier, or the trip would not
+have ended as satisfactorily as it did. We all felt on starting that we
+had had nearly enough work, and looked forward longingly to the snug
+huts two miles distant. It was now half-past one, and by three o'clock
+darkness and severe frost would set in (indeed, it was freezing all
+day). We originally trusted to reach the station by that hour, but we
+had delayed longer with the sheep than we should have.</p>
+
+<p>We proceeded manfully and had accomplished about half the distance when
+Cook, who had been exhibiting signs of weariness, suddenly "sat down in
+his tracks," and asked for some grog, which was given him. This revived
+him somewhat, and we again got under weigh, keeping him in the rear, but
+after a little while he again succumbed, and said he could go no
+further. He was quite happy, only looked a bit dazed, said he was tired
+and sleepy, and begged us to go on, and send a man and horse for him.
+This was what we feared. He was too far gone to remember that a horse
+could not walk where we had come. There was nothing for it but to carry,
+or assist him as best we could, and keep him moving, for if we had left
+him he would have frozen dead in half an hour. With this fear we
+received new strength, and two by two, we half carried and half dragged
+him for some distance when we were met by the hut keeper, and the
+remaining station hand, an old man, by name Darby&mdash;who, as agreed, had
+left to seek us, fearing some accident. With this additional assistance
+Cook was carried the remaining distance, and laid, now quite asleep, on
+a cot, where we rubbed his extremities with snow, till circulation
+returned, and then let him sleep, which he did, and indeed which we all
+did, until very late the following day.</p>
+
+<p>The same winter a sad accident occurred on a run south of Canterbury,
+belonging to two brothers, by name, I think, McKenzie. They went alone
+to visit their sheep in the snow, and when returning, the elder got
+tired and could not pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>ceed. He contentedly sat down, desiring his
+brother to go on to the station and send him assistance. The latter,
+fearing nothing, left him, and when the assistance arrived the man was
+found dead.</p>
+
+<p>The close of winter was now coming on, and the snow was fast thawing
+from the mountains, while the river flats were almost clear where drifts
+had not formed. With the thaw the Rangitata came down in great volume, a
+sea of yellow foaming water a quarter of a mile in width.</p>
+
+<p>During the time we were snowed up the mob of horses came almost every
+day to the stock yard for rock salt and we now took the opportunity to
+retain three, as the ground was clear enough for riding. I had brought
+with me from Christchurch a new purchase in the form of a big rawboned
+gelding, fresh off board ship from Melbourne, and had turned him to
+graze with the other horses on the run. He was now in splendid
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>When we were all mounted the gelding showed some inclination to buck,
+but went away quietly after all, and we cantered along to the bank of
+the river. Returning, we wished to try the paces of our nags, and
+started for a race. My animal then showed his temper, and after a few
+bucks, which did not unseat me, he fairly bolted. I had only a light
+snaffle on him, while his mouth was like iron. The bridle, too, was old
+as ill-luck would have it, or I might have succeeded in stopping him;
+but after a few moments of vain endeavour to do so, the rein broke at
+the ring of the snaffle, and he was free. With a vicious shake of the
+head he threw the bit from his mouth and headed for the downs, where I
+knew there was a large tract of burnt "Irishman" scrub, into which, if
+he took me, I would be torn to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant's thought I decided to get clear of him, then kicking my
+feet, as I thought, out of the stirrups, I sprang off. I remembered
+nothing more till I woke up, two hours later, in a cot in the hut, with
+an aching head and stiff back. The others said I could not have cleared
+both feet from the stirrups when I jumped, for it seemed to them that I
+was dragged for an instant. At any rate, I struck the ground on the back
+of my head and shoulders, and lay stunned; they first thought me
+lifeless. The huts were near, and I was carried up and resuscitated. The
+following day I was sufficiently recovered to give the gelding a lesson
+in running away he had cause to remember.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Start on an Exploring Expedition to the Wanaka Lake</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We had just now capital pig-hunting. The severity of the snow sent the
+animals into the flats, where we shot them down, riding being
+impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>My visit being ended and the weather favourable, I proceeded to
+Christchurch preparatory to resuming work. I was accompanied by a young
+man named Evans, a stockrider from one of the Ashburton stations, and on
+arriving at the Rakaia, being in a hurry, we foolishly tried to ford the
+river without a guide, as I had frequently done at other times. The
+river was quite fordable, but the streams were fairly deep, taking the
+horses some way above the girths. We had nearly crossed the largest when
+my horse suddenly went down, and in an instant we were swimming in a
+swift current nearly to the waist. Evans's horse followed the other's
+example. They were both good swimmers, and took us out safely on the
+side from which we entered, some 300 yards down stream. Another try
+under the forder's guidance was successful, but the accident detained us
+at the north bank accommodation house for the night.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the completion of the Ashburton gorge road, I obtained a
+contract from a wealthy runholder in the neighbourhood to put up many
+miles of wire fencing, then just coming into use for dividing the runs,
+and also for the erection of several outstation buildings, all of which
+I had completed before the middle of the summer season, and I was in
+treaty for further work when I received an offer from Mr. T. Moorhouse,
+at whose station I had been so ill, to accompany him on an exploring
+trip to the head of the Wanaka Lake, in Otago Province. He had taken up
+(or imagined he had done so) some sheep country there, and the
+expedition was for the purpose of inspecting his newly acquired
+possessions. Nobody had yet seen this country, or at any rate, been on
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The journey would be about 300 miles, in addition to the voyage up the
+lake by boat, about twenty miles. It would be a new experience for me,
+and I was delighted with the offer, the more so that I would receive a
+good return for my time with all expenses paid, and I was glad to have
+an opportunity of again visiting the Lindis and the country far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> beyond
+my late travels, during the summer, when all would look its best and
+camping out be a real pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>As we were not to start for ten days, I went to Christchurch to receive
+payment for work, and I was anxious to purchase a good saddle horse in
+place of my big mare, which was too clumsy and heavy for our proposed
+ride to Otago. On the day on which I purchased the animal there was an
+auction sale of walers in the town, and I was sitting on the stockyard
+rails, looking on, when I saw a jockey riding a powerful bay up and down
+in front of the stand. This jockey proved to be an old acquaintance, and
+although some 60 years of age, was still an excellent rider. He was a
+popular little fellow, a character in his way, and was known by the name
+of "Old Bob." I was on the point of speaking to him, when the horse he
+rode was called for sale, and Bob was desired to show off his paces. For
+a turn or two the animal behaved well, and the bidding was brisk, when
+apparently, without any cause he bucked violently. I think Bob held on
+for four or five bucks, then the saddle went forward, and he was shot
+off, striking the hard road on his head. He seemed to roll up or double
+up, or something, and lay still, several people rushed to him, but he
+was past all help, his skull was split in two.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to Moorhouse's our preparations were soon completed. In
+addition to our saddle horses we selected for pack animals as well as
+for occasional riding two of the best of the station hacks; one of them
+carried stores and some cooking utensils, while the other was laden with
+clothes and blankets. We travelled lightly, it being our intention to
+put up at stations or accommodation houses as much as possible till we
+arrived at our destination.</p>
+
+<p>The route we followed was for the first 150 miles the same as that
+described in our journey to the diggings. We moved much faster and in
+six days reached Miller and Gooche's, the former of whom was now on the
+station. McGregor Miller was one of the finest men I had seen, a
+Hercules in strength and build, and as jolly and hospitable as he was a
+perfect gentleman. We stayed two days with him. The station as well as
+the country presented very different aspects to what they did on my
+previous visit. A new house had been built and furnished comfortably,
+and the surroundings were fast being improved under the guiding hand of
+the "boss," who worked with his men as one of themselves, and easy-going
+fox-hunting squire as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> was in the old country a couple of years
+since, he could handle an axe, spade, or shovel with the best of them.</p>
+
+<p>On the first day's ride from here we went over the Lindis Pass, the
+scene of so much hardship to us diggers, and on to McClean's station,
+where we received a hearty Scotch welcome and an excellent dinner, and
+sat up late with the old gentleman discussing whiskey toddy and chatting
+over old times. The Moorhouses and McCleans were old friends, and had
+been together in Australia on the diggings many years before. He was
+not, I recollect, much impressed with Moorhouse's speculation, but as he
+had a run at the south of the Wanaka and a homestead there he arranged
+for our reception and for a boat to take us a portion of the voyage up
+the lake.</p>
+
+<p>The next day's ride lay through the scene of the late Lindis diggings,
+but not a vestige of the encampments remained beyond the ruins of the
+hut walls and excavations. The gold diggings proved a failure, and
+within a few months of our leaving them they were deserted. They were, I
+understood, subsequently re-opened by a company who employed machinery
+with more success than was possible with manual labour.</p>
+
+<p>The country beyond this was bleak and uninteresting, until the following
+evening when we arrived at the Molyneux river, where it flowed out of
+the south end of the Wanaka Lake. We were here again in the midst of
+mountains and very near to the great Alpine range which towered above us
+and which, although it was midsummer, was capped in snow.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the opposite side of the river, and on the shore of the lake, stood
+the very fine group of station buildings erected by Mr. Robert McClean.
+His people having been advised of our coming, a boat was sent across,
+behind which we swam our horses, and were soon comfortably fixed for the
+night and hospitably received by the overseer, who had a boat ready to
+convey us the following day twenty-five miles up the lake to another
+station formed there.</p>
+
+<p>The Molyneux struck me as being the clearest water I had ever seen; it
+was quite colourless, and though of great depth, even here at its
+source, the bottom was distinctly visible from the boat. It was a grand
+river, large and deep enough to float a small steamer.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following morning we saw a large timber raft come down the
+lake and enter the Molyneux. There were extensive forests at the head of
+the lake, and an energetic contractor had engaged men to cut timber
+there, which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> was now floating down the river to the coast some 200
+miles distant. The raft was forty feet square, composed of rough round
+logs bound together and covered with a load of split and sawn timber,
+forming altogether a very valuable cargo. The contractor and four other
+men stood on the raft, each provided with a life belt, which he wore
+ready for accident, and fastened to the side of the raft lay several
+coils of stout rope with grappling hooks attached, by which they would
+be able to anchor by throwing the hooks round some object on the bank.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding these precautions there was considerable danger in
+navigating the river in some parts, where occurred rapids and rocks, and
+occasionally as we were informed, a raft would get overturned or broken
+up, in which case the men in charge would have to swim for their lives
+or drown unless they had taken the precaution to provide themselves with
+lifebelts.</p>
+
+<p>We left our horses and most of the impedimenta there, and about mid-day
+took boat with three of the McClean men to assist at the oars. The boat
+was a fine one and carried a light sail, which unfortunately was no use
+to us, the little wind there was being dead ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The Wanaka is, I believe, the largest and most beautiful lake in New
+Zealand. On one side, for nearly the entire length, it was bounded by
+steep hills, for the greater part clothed with forest and undergrowth
+crowned by noble promontories and headlands. Above and beyond were seen
+the mountains receding away to the snow line in their various and
+changing colours. The opposite side was more homely and less grand in
+outline, but still very lovely. The low hills were broken by extensive
+tracts of undulating or flat land, where flocks of sheep or herds of
+cattle grazed, bordered by sedges and marshes with flocks of wild duck
+in all the enjoyment of an undisturbed existence.</p>
+
+<p>Looking up the lake to where the mountains seemed to meet, the colouring
+and grandeur of the scene was sublime. Since I voyaged up the Wanaka I
+have seen mountain scenery in many other lands, but I cannot call to
+mind anything which for beauty and grandeur surpasses that by which I
+was now surrounded. It had, may be, a peculiar wildness of its own not
+elsewhere to be met with, except in the Himalayas, and no doubt much of
+the effect is due to the exceeding rarity of the atmosphere, and hence
+the greater extent of landscape which can be observed at once.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">Exploration Trip Continued&mdash;Weekas&mdash;Inspection of New
+Country&mdash;Escape from Fire</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was some time after dark when we arrived at Wynne's Station, which
+was situated in a bend behind a promontory, and not observable until
+close upon it. The owner was absent, but we were received by the
+overseer, Mr. Brand, and his assistants, two young gentlemen cadets. The
+run, which was recently taken up, was suited only for cattle which
+grazed on the extensive flats reaching inwards between the mountain
+ranges and the undulating hills. The mountain sides were too rough and
+scrubby for sheep as yet till fires had reduced the wild growth of small
+brush and induced grass to spread.</p>
+
+<p>The homestead being yet in its infancy, all was crude and rough, but its
+surroundings were delightful. It stood on a small flat not yet denuded
+of the original wild growth which lay in heaps half burnt, or in
+scattered clumps, the cleared portions being partly ploughed up. The
+flat was enclosed by a semicircle of steep hills covered with rocks and
+brushwood in the wildest luxuriance, and almost impossible of passage
+even to pedestrians. The stockyards lay away some distance, and they,
+with the run generally, were approached by boats, of which three fine
+ones lay hauled up in front of the homestead. Indeed, a great deal of
+the work of the station was done by boat, including the fetching of
+supplies, bringing timber from the forest and firewood from an island in
+the lake, and visiting remote parts of the run only accessible inland by
+a rough and circuitous cattle track impracticable for a dray.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Brand did not think much of Moorhouse's spec. He had seen the
+country, but had not been on it, and did not think it good or extensive
+enough to be worked alone. He offered not only to lend us a fine boat
+for the remainder of the journey, but to accompany us himself to the
+forest which was adjacent to our quest, having to convey some stores to
+his men there. It was arranged that on the third day we would proceed
+thither, and in the meantime I lent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> a hand at anything going on, and
+amused myself sketching, an occupation I was very fond of, and I had
+already collected a considerable number of views taken on the Rangitata
+and other places.</p>
+
+<p>We left in the afternoon, intending to camp about ten miles up. We
+numbered five in all, and the boat was fairly well laden with stores for
+the forest. The pull was a stiff one and we took no sail, the wind at
+this season always blowing down the lake. It was some time after dark
+when we reached our proposed camping place, a narrow strand of white
+shingle sprinkled with clusters of shrubbery backed with thick
+underwood, which afforded shelter and firewood. The boat was made fast,
+and materials for supper and a huge fire were speedily under weigh. We
+were much pestered here with weekas (woodhens) who carried off most of
+our food which was not securely covered by night. These birds are the
+most persistent thieves, nearly as large as a common fowl, of a browny
+colour, gamy looking, with long legs and very short wings, the latter
+only serving to assist them in running, for they cannot fly. They are to
+be found in every New Zealand bush, and unless travellers take the
+precaution to place provisions or any articles, edible or not, out of
+their reach, they will not long remain in ignorance of their proximity.
+When living in the forest I have frequently amused myself killing these
+birds in the following manner, while sitting at my camp fire at night. I
+procured two short sticks, at the end of one I attached a bit of red
+cloth or rag to be used as a lure. They are the most curious birds in
+existence, and this together with their thieving propensities is so
+powerful that when their desires for appropriation are excited they
+possess little or no fear. I would sit by the fire holding out the red
+rag, when in a few moments a slight rustle would be heard from the
+branches. After a little the bird would step boldly into the open
+firelight stretching his neck and cocking his head knowingly as he
+approached in a zig-zag way the object of his curiosity and desire.</p>
+
+<p>So soon as he would come sufficiently near, and his attention was taken
+up with the bright object he hoped to possess, whack would descend the
+other stick on his head, and his mortal career of theft was at an end.
+Then I would roast the two drumsticks, having separated them from the
+body, skinning them, and eating them for supper; they are the only part
+of the bird fit for food.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The remainder of the body is boiled down for oil, which is invaluable
+for boots of any kind, making them waterproof and pliable.</p>
+
+<p>I have frequently killed six or eight weekas in a single evening at my
+camp fire. I did not, however, eat all the drumsticks.</p>
+
+<p>We were up betimes, and after a hearty breakfast started for our last
+pull to the head of the lake, which we reached in the forenoon. The
+heaviest part of the work, however, had yet to come&mdash;namely, pulling the
+boat a mile up the stream which flows into the lake. This was
+unavoidable, as the land each side was an impassable swamp. For the last
+half-mile the current was so swift we could make no headway against it
+with the oars, and the water being only from one to two feet deep, we
+got out and waded, hauling the boat by hand to the landing place. Here
+we had to transfer provisions from the boat to our own backs and trudge
+on foot over nearly two miles of rough and partly swampy ground to the
+forest where Brand had his hut, in which we intended to camp that night.
+It was fairly late in the afternoon when we reached the hut, and we were
+not sorry to relieve ourselves of our burdens and partake of food.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rough camp, and as wild a situation as one could find, and it
+was a rough-looking lot of men that night who occupied it, in the depth
+of a black pine forest with the glaring light of a huge fire
+illuminating the recesses of the overhanging trees and dense underwood,
+increasing the darkness beyond, with the ominous cry of the mawpawk and
+laughing jackass only breaking the dead stillness. We were soon rolled
+in our blankets around the fire, and slept like men who had earned their
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>The following day we rested and prepared for our excursion into the new
+country, and expecting to be absent two days took with us enough food
+for so long. In addition to our blankets we carried each a bag of ship
+biscuits, some tea, sugar, and cooked mutton, with a small kettle and
+two tin panakins.</p>
+
+<p>The first day we proceeded nearly five miles up the valley, which was
+from &frac12; to &frac34; mile wide, much of it swampy and scored by deep-water
+channels, many of which were now dry, but partly covered or concealed by
+long tussock roots more or less burnt. On each side were low rugged
+hills covered with dense scrub, some portions of which had been burnt by
+fires which had crept up there from lower down the lake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> Where the fire
+had done its work the ground was a foot deep in ashes and charred bits
+of timber, while studded about, or covered over with burnt debris were
+innumerable half burnt stumps; altogether it was not a locality one
+would select for a pleasant walk.</p>
+
+<p>In some few places where rain had washed away the ashes the tussock
+roots were beginning to sprout, and it was not difficult to see that in
+course of time there would be an improvement in the land, but there was
+not much of it on the flats, while the hills would be for years almost
+impracticable. Besides, it was exceedingly difficult of access and stock
+would in all probability require to be transported thither by boat.</p>
+
+<p>We were now walking over country in its pure native wildness; the first
+human beings, certainly the first civilised ones, who had ever trod upon
+it. We spent two days exploring as far in every direction as we could
+go, and as we went we steadily applied the match, setting fire to bush
+and grass alike, thus making our progress very evident to those in the
+forest and all down the lake. We were in a fearful state of filth,
+notwithstanding that we had washed ourselves in the clear stream daily,
+the ashes got ground into our skins and even the application of fine
+sand in lieu of soap would not eradicate it, only causing rawness with
+accompanying smarting. Moorhouse was really to blame for this, for, vain
+man that he was, he carried a little pocket looking-glass by which we
+discovered the condition we were in. Had he left the glass behind we
+would probably have remained black and happy till our return.</p>
+
+<p>On the last day we had a close shave for our lives. We were crossing a
+narrow bushy point, the upper portion of which had caught a returning
+fire, and it was coming down upon us with the wind, with a deafening
+roar and volumes of smoke. Our chance of safety lay in getting into the
+open and across the water before the fire reached us, and we were
+nearly, very nearly caught. The bush grew denser as we went on, and was
+filled with "lawyers," which impeded our progress, so that in our
+extremity to tear ourselves away we left most of our scanty clothing and
+somewhat of our skins in their clutches, while a fresh breeze springing
+up, increased the pace of the terrible fire which came roaring towards
+us in a wall of flame, sparks and smoke, which had already nearly
+blinded us, the trees snapping, creaking, and falling behind us like
+reports of artillery. Singed, torn,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> and half naked, we just succeeded
+in escaping being charred as completely as any stump on the hills.</p>
+
+<p>The "lawyer" (so-called) is a creeping, or rather climbing, plant common
+to the New Zealand bush. It grows in long thread-like tendrils, as thick
+as whip cord, armed with myriads of sharp hooked thorns turned
+backwards. The tendrils grow hundreds of feet in length, stretching from
+branch to branch, and often forming a maze or web extending over a large
+area. A person getting entangled in their embraces rarely escapes with a
+whole skin, and never with a whole coat.</p>
+
+<p>We returned the evening of the third day as black as sloes, and with
+only a few shreds of singed clothes on our backs, thoroughly worn out
+with hard walking and insufficient sustenance. We remained one day for
+repairs and then, in company with Brand, had a glorious sail down the
+lake to Wynne's station.</p>
+
+<p>Our return journey to Christchurch was without incident save one, worth
+mentioning. This was where we were both nearly drowned crossing the
+Lindis in a flood.</p>
+
+<p>Moorehouse, I believe, sold his interest in the Wanaka district for a song.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">Death of Parker&mdash;Royal Mail Robbed by a Cat&mdash;Meet with Accident
+Crossing River.</span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>During our absence a sad occurrence took place, which I will record
+here. A Mr. Parks, a Government surveyor, and well-to-do sheep farmer on
+the Ashburton, had been engaged during the previous year in making
+surveys on the Rakia and Ashburton, and on his staff was a young man
+named Parker. This lad was another instance of the ideas some home
+people entertain, that for a youngster without intellect, energy, or
+application sufficient to obtain him entrance to a profession in
+England, the Colonies are the proper place. In their opinion he must get
+on there, or at any rate, he will be got rid of. The latter may be true
+enough, but as regards the former, the proofs are few indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Parker was a weak, good natured, feckless lad, about eighteen or twenty
+years of age, and the only thing he appeared to be able to make anything
+of was playing the fiddle. Wherever he went his violin accompanied him.
+While fiddling he was happy, but it was pitiful to watch him trying to
+work at or take an interest in any employment which he could neither
+appreciate nor understand.</p>
+
+<p>The survey party had proceeded up the gorge of the Rakia, and were
+absent about a fortnight, when Mr. Parks, requiring to send back to his
+station for some instrument he had forgotten, and Parker being the least
+useful hand on the survey, he decided to send him. The distance was
+twenty miles, and the route was across the open plain leading for a part
+of the way along the river. He was to go on foot, and put up the first
+night at Grey's station, about half-way.</p>
+
+<p>Between the Camp and Grey's the path led along the bank of the Rakia,
+which was here very steep, upwards of a hundred feet perpendicularly
+above the riverbed, and occasionally subject to landslips.</p>
+
+<p>A week passed without the return of Parker, and Mr. Parks, getting
+concerned for the lad's safety, despatched a messenger for information,
+when it was found that Parker had not appeared either at Grey's, or his
+own station, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> for another week inquiries were made for him in every
+direction in vain.</p>
+
+<p>At about the end of the second week from the date of Parker leaving the
+survey camp, a shepherd of Grey's, happening to descend into the Rakia
+river bed in search of some wandering sheep, came upon a roll of red
+blankets lying at the foot of a landslip. Going up, he found it to
+contain the body of a man half decomposed, and being eaten by rats. Upon
+the ground alongside was a pocket-book containing writing and a pencil.</p>
+
+<p>The shepherd, taking the pocket-book, returned speedily to Grey's. Upon
+examination the book was found to contain a diary of five days, written
+by the unfortunate Parker, before he died of starvation, thirst, and a
+broken leg, at the foot of the landslip.</p>
+
+<p>From the entries it appeared that he had been fiddling along (in his
+usual absent manner, no doubt) very close to the edge of the Rakia bank,
+when a portion of it gave way under his feet, and he fell sliding and
+tumbling until he reached the bottom on a bed of shingle, his leg
+broken, and his body bruised and shattered. He succeeded in loosening
+the swag of blankets he had strapped on his back, wrapped them round him
+and lay down, occasionally calling, and always hoping against hope that
+some one would discover him. It was a vain hope, poor chap&mdash;not twice in
+a year's space was a human being seen on that wild river bed. He lived
+for five days in the agonies of hunger, thirst and despair, not even a
+drop of water could he reach, although the river ran within twenty yards
+of him, and at last death mercifully put an end to his misery.</p>
+
+<p>I now returned to work, continuing at the same time the study of my
+books, which I kept at the Ashburton, to fit me for the duties of
+surveyor and contractor. I was deriving a good return from my sheep and
+could add yearly to their number. During the remainder of the summer and
+autumn I worked steadily at bush work, hut-building and run-fencing, and
+when the winter set in I rigged up a hut in the forest, where I lived
+alone and earned a good return for my time in felling and cutting-up
+firewood for which I received from the squatters&mdash;I think&mdash;ten shillings
+a cord, 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft. The Ashburton Valley road had been
+greatly improved, and the weekly mail which hitherto ran between
+Christchurch and Dunedin was now made bi-weekly, and the stations on the
+Ashburton and Rangitata gorges arranged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> for a regular postman on
+horseback to fetch the mail from the Ashburton immediately on arrival,
+in lieu of the old plan of having it conveyed from one station to
+another by private messengers.</p>
+
+<p>I recollect a ridiculous accident which happened to one of these mail
+carriers, who had been despatched to fetch mails across the plains. I do
+not think I mentioned that there were numbers of wild cats to be met
+with all over the country. They were not indigenous, but domestic
+animals or their descendants gone wild, and with their wild existence
+they engendered a considerable addition of strength and fierceness. The
+shepherd's dog was the natural enemy of these animals.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion to which I refer, the messenger, an old Irish servant of
+Mr. Rowley's, was riding quietly on one of the station hacks, a horse
+called "Old Dan," a noted buckjumper in his day. Heavy saddle bags with
+the posts were suspended on either side, in addition to various packages
+tied on fore and aft. Suddenly Pat's dog put up a cat and went away in
+full chase. The plain was quite open, with no trees or shrubs nearer
+than the river bed, half a mile distant. The cat finding herself hard
+pressed, and despairing of reaching the river-bed before the dog would
+catch her, spied old Dan with Paddy and the post thereupon, and
+conceived that her only chance of safety lay in mounting too. No sooner
+thought than done. She doubled, sprang on old Dan's tail and fastened
+her claws in his hinder parts. Dan not approving of such treatment, set
+to bucking. First Pat went off, then the saddle bags and parcels,
+followed by puss. Old Dan finding himself free, ran for his life, the
+cat after him, and the dog after the cat, leaving poor Pat on the ground
+to watch the trio as they disappeared from sight.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image096.jpg" id="image096.jpg"></a><img src="images/image096.jpg" width='700' height='478' alt="Pat and His Mail-bag Dislodged by a Cat" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Pat and His Mail-bag Dislodged by a Cat</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Pat had over ten miles to travel and carry the bags and parcels as best
+he could, and return the next day for the saddle. The story of how the
+cat robbed H.M. Mail was long laughed over on the Ashburton, and Paddy
+was unmercifully chaffed for his part in the performance.</p>
+
+<p>I was busily employed till late in the following autumn finishing the
+works I had in hand, and lived a portion of the time at Glent hills, Mr.
+Rowley's hill station, where I had a considerable contract for wire
+fencing with which Mr. Rowley was dividing up into extensive sections
+the wide valley in which lay the lakes Emma and Clearwater.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="image097.jpg" id="image097.jpg"></a><img src="images/image097.jpg" width='700' height='445' alt="Glent Hills Station" /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Glent Hills Station</span>.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer I joined once again in the general mustering, and
+lived on the mountain sides for days and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>nights together. It was here
+I contrived to catch some cold which caused a singing like the bleating
+of sheep in my right ear, and for which I subjected myself to the very
+doubtful advice and care of old "Blue Gum Bill," the shepherd who was
+for the time being my comrade. "Blue Gum" was a "lag," that is, a
+ticket-of-leave convict, from Australia. One of his hands, I forget
+which, had been amputated, and in lieu thereof he had affixed a stump of
+blue gum wood, with an iron hook inserted at the end. As is not unusual
+in such cases, "Blue Gum" could do more with this iron hook than many
+men could accomplish with a hand. He was a character in his way, and
+whatever may have been the cause of his enforced exile from the Old
+Country many years before, he was now a most exemplary old fellow, for
+whom I entertained a great respect and liking.</p>
+
+<p>He said he could cure my ear, into which he assured me some small animal
+had entered, and it would be necessary, in the first place to kill it,
+when the noise would naturally cease. He made me lie down with my
+bleating ear uppermost, and proceeded to fill it with as much strong
+tobacco juice as it would hold. This operation he repeated several
+times, and appeared greatly disappointed on my complaining that the
+animal still continued musical. The ear troubled me for a long time, and
+eventually the hearing became impaired. Whether the fact that I never
+more than half recovered my hearing in that ear, and that for many years
+it has been almost completely deaf, is due to "Blue Gum's" doctoring or
+not, is scarcely worth entering into now.</p>
+
+<p>When the winter had really set in, I started to pay a visit (my last it
+turned out) to my friends in Mesopotamia. On arriving at the Rangitata I
+met the wool drays on their return journey from Christchurch, waiting
+while one of the men was on horseback seeking for a ford, in which
+occupation he asked my assistance. The river was a little swollen and
+discoloured, and the course of the main stream had been altered during
+the flood. While seeking a fording place I unluckily got into a
+quicksand, and in an instant I was under the mare, while she was
+plunging on her side in deep water. I had released my feet from the
+stirrups upon entering, and was free thus far. I had hold of the tether
+rope round her neck, and presently we were both out, and as I thought
+safely. I mounted again, and after getting the drays safely over, I rode
+on to the station. Here, on putting my foot to the ground I found I
+could not stand, and from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> queer feeling about the left knee, it was
+apparent that I had been kicked while under the plunging mare. For nigh
+three weeks I was unable to walk, and to this day I feel the effect of
+that kick.</p>
+
+<p>I was, perforce, obliged now to keep quiet, and was not over-sorry, for
+the quarters were comfortable, and I was with my friends, and had
+leisure to read and work. Our evenings by the fire were very enjoyable,
+and many a story and song went round, or Butler would play while we
+smoked.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, I recollect, he told us a very remarkable ghost story, the
+best authenticated, as he said, he had ever heard, and to those who
+entertain the belief that the spirits of the departed have power to
+revisit this earth for the accomplishment of any special purpose, the
+story will be interesting.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">The Ghost Story&mdash;Benighted in the Snow</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Two young men&mdash;we will call them Jones and Smith, for
+convenience&mdash;emigrated to New South Wales. They each possessed
+sufficient money to start them, as they hoped, as young squatters, and
+in due time they obtained what they sought.</p>
+
+<p>Jones became the owner of a small cattle ranch fifty miles from
+Melbourne, while Smith commenced sheep farming in partnership with an
+experienced runholder, forty miles further inland.</p>
+
+<p>The friends occasionally visited each other, but in those days the
+settlers were few and months often passed without the cattle rancher
+seeing his friend or anybody to speak to beside the one man he retained
+on the station as hutkeeper, stockman, and general factotum.</p>
+
+<p>It was about two years after Jones had settled on his ranch that his
+friend Smith, requiring to visit Melbourne, decided to take Jones on his
+way and stop a night with him.</p>
+
+<p>He left his homestead early and arrived at the ranch late in the
+afternoon. As he rode near he saw Jones sitting on the stockyard
+toprail, apparently enjoying an evening pipe. On calling to him Jones
+jumped down, but instead of coming to meet his friend he ran into the
+bush (wood) close to the stockyard. Smith, supposing he was playing a
+joke, dismounted and followed him; but neither hunting nor calling had
+any effect&mdash;Jones was not to be found. Smith, thinking he might be
+taking some short cut to the hut, which was a little way off, mounted
+and proceeded thither. Here, again, he was disappointed, and on enquiry
+from the hutkeeper learned from him that his master had left for
+Melbourne and England a month previously, and that he&mdash;the
+hutkeeper&mdash;was in charge till his return. Smith, not liking the man or
+his manner, pretended to accept his statement, and said nothing about
+having just seen his master. After taking some refreshment and a slight
+rest he proceeded on his way to Melbourne, where on enquiry at hotels
+and shipping offices he learnt that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> friend had not been seen in
+Melbourne for a long time, and had not taken his passage for England.</p>
+
+<p>He then told his story to a mutual acquaintance, who agreed to return
+with him and endeavour to discover what was wrong before taking steps.
+Together they journeyed back, and on coming within sight of the stock
+yard there was Jones sitting on the rail in his previous position, and,
+as before, jumped down and ran into the bush.</p>
+
+<p>Smith and his companion now made an extensive examination of the
+locality, but were unable to discover anything to assist them. They then
+proceeded to the hut as if they had just arrived from Melbourne, and
+without mentioning that they had seen his master, got into general
+conversation with the hutkeeper, but failed to elicit anything beyond
+what he had previously stated, adding only that he did not expect his
+employer's return for five or six months.</p>
+
+<p>They remained at the station that night and left early in the morning,
+apparently for Smith's homestead, but when they had ridden out of sight
+of the hut they wheeled and returned to Melbourne by another route.</p>
+
+<p>The idea that occupied their minds at this point was that Jones was
+insane, probably led thereto by his lonely life; that he was wandering
+about in the bush in the neighbourhood of the hut, which he continued to
+visit, as they had seen, and that he had, with a madman's acuteness,
+purposely misled the hutkeeper about his going to England. Smith and his
+companion feared to mention their suspicions to the hutkeeper, believing
+that he would not remain alone on the station if he thought that a
+maniac was about. Seeing Jones a second time, apparently in his usual
+health, had divested their minds of any suspicion that the hutkeeper had
+deceived them, or was in any way responsible, and the real facts as they
+subsequently turned out had not presented themselves to their minds.</p>
+
+<p>They decided now to place the matter in the hands of the police. There
+were at that time (and no doubt still are) retained under the Australian
+police force a number of native trackers, called the "Black Police."
+These men were a species of human bloodhounds, and could follow a trail
+by scent or marks indistinguishable by the white man.</p>
+
+<p>On representing the case to the chief of the police, that officer
+deputed a detective and a couple of constables, with a number of the
+"Black Police" to accompany Smith and his friend to Jones's ranch. They
+took a circuitous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> route, arriving as before at the stockyard without
+giving information to the hutkeeper, but at the same time directing two
+men to approach the hut unseen and watch it till further directions.</p>
+
+<p>When the party on this occasion approached the stockyard Jones was not
+occupying his usual seat on the rails. The black trackers, on being
+shown the place and their work explained to them, they at once commenced
+the hunt. One of them presently picked up a rail which was lying near by
+on which he pointed out certain marks, calling them "white man's hair"
+and "white man's blood." Then after examining the ground around the
+stockyard they took up the trail leading into the bush at a point where
+Jones was seen to go. Working up this for some two hundred yards and
+pointing out various signs as they proceeded, they arrived at a small
+slimy lagoon or pond, on the edge of which they picked up something they
+called "white man's fat." Some of them now dived into the pond, where
+they discovered the body of Jones, or what remained of it.</p>
+
+<p>The hutkeeper was immediately arrested, but denied any knowledge of the
+matter. After consigning the body of the unfortunate rancher to a
+hurried grave, the prisoner was taken to Melbourne, where he was tried
+for the murder of his master, and when he was convicted and sentenced,
+he confessed that he had crept up behind Jones when he sat smoking on
+the stockyard rail and killed him by a blow on the head with the rail
+picked up by the black trackers, that he then dragged the body to the
+bush, and threw it into the lagoon. I do not recollect whether Butler
+told us if the real object of the murder transpired, but the murderer
+turned out to be a ticket-of-leave convict well known to the police. The
+peculiarity of the story lay in the fact that the apparition of Jones
+twice appearing to his friend, and on one occasion to a stranger also,
+was sworn to in Court during the trial.</p>
+
+<p>I was obliged, owing to business, to leave Mesopotamia in midwinter, and
+to save a very circuitous journey I decided to travel down the gorge of
+the Rangitata some twenty-five miles, to the station I referred to once
+before belonging to Mr. B. Moorehouse. The route lay partly along the
+mountain slopes overhanging the river, and then diverged across a pass
+as I had been carefully instructed, but there was no roadway, only a
+bridle path now pretty sure to be covered with snow, and there was no
+shelter of any kind over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> whole distance. Although I had never made
+the journey, my former experiences gave me every confidence that I would
+be able to find my way without much trouble, and taking with me only a
+scrap of bread and meat and a blanket I started as soon as it was light
+enough to see, certain in my mind that I would reach Moorehouse's early
+in the afternoon. The first few miles through the run I knew so well I
+got along without trouble, but further on the difficulties began. It was
+impossible, owing to the slushy and slippery as well as uneven nature of
+the ground, to get out of a slow walk, and frequently I had to double on
+my tracks to negotiate a swampy nullah, and often to dismount and lead
+my animal over nasty places which he funked as much as I did.</p>
+
+<p>By midday I had got over about half the distance, when I made the
+serious mistake of continuing down the gorge instead of turning over the
+saddle or pass to which I had been specially directed; but I was misled
+by sheep walks leading on towards the gorge, while the footpath over the
+pass was entirely obliterated by snow. I did not discover my mistake
+until I could go no further; the sheep walks led only to the shelter of
+some huge precipices, which here approached close to the river on either
+side, narrowing the stream to a fourth of its usual volume, and
+confining it in a rocky channel through which it thundered furiously.</p>
+
+<p>The noise was deafening, and the position one of the grandest and
+wildest I had ever beheld, but I could not afford the time just then for
+sentiment. It was already getting dark, and I had scarcely a foot to
+stand on. It seemed indeed, for a moment, that I would not be able to
+turn my horse, which I was leading, on the narrow path we had now got on
+to, and if I succeeded in doing that I would have a considerable
+distance to retrace before reaching safe ground, a false step would send
+us headlong a couple of hundred feet into a rushing torrent, if we
+escaped being smashed on the rocks before we got there. I do not think I
+ever felt so lonely or alarmed, but I had to act, and that quickly.
+Fortunately my horse was a steady one, well accustomed to climbing over
+bad places, and no doubt the coming darkness and weird surroundings did
+not affect him as they did me, and my anxiety after all was then more on
+his account than my own, for without him I knew I could feel my way back
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>As I moved to turn, the horse twisted round as if on a pivot and
+followed me like a cat, indeed he could see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the track better than I
+could, and exhibited little nervousness as he crept along with his nose
+near the ground, and testing every step before he trusted the weight of
+his body on it. I was very thankful when we at length emerged from that
+frowning and dark chasm as it now appeared, with the foaming water away
+in its black depths and an icy wind blowing directly from it.</p>
+
+<p>But what were we to do now? In the darkness it would be impossible to
+either go onward or return the way I had come, and the fact that I was
+benighted, and in a very nasty position too, now struck me clearly; but
+there was nothing for it but to make the best of a bad job.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the narrow gorge it was considerably lighter, and I had no
+difficulty in finding my way a bit up towards the pass, where I
+fortunately discovered a patch of tall snow grass between the tussocks
+of which the ground had been partly sheltered from the snow, and near
+this I stumbled on a quantity of "Irishman" scrub which had recently
+been burnt and was easily broken down. So far this was lucky, for it
+secured me the means of making a fire, without which it would have been
+impossible, I believe, to live till the morning, which was still some
+sixteen hours distant.</p>
+
+<p>I tethered my horse to a tussock, and selecting a couple of large ones,
+knotted their tops together, forming thereby a little room about four
+feet long by two wide. In this I cut and spread some more snow grass and
+pushed my saddle and blanket to one end. This did not occupy many
+minutes, and now I had to break down and collect firewood to last me
+during the night. When all was done I felt terribly hungry, the little
+bit of food I had brought with me I had eaten early in the day, and the
+fact that I had not a morsel left increased my longing for it.
+Fortunately I had a supply of tobacco and a box of wax vestas, and I
+smoked continuously. I dared not attempt to lie down to sleep, for I had
+not covering enough to keep me warm, and indeed I felt no desire for
+sleep. I was too much concerned about the night; if heavy snow fell I
+would find it very difficult to move, even when daylight appeared, and
+it was now falling in a half-hearted sort of way. My poor horse stood as
+near the fire as he could, without any food, and shivering, and I was
+constantly standing up and clapping my arms and stamping my feet if the
+fire got low, then, when a bit warmed, I would crouch inside my den and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+sometimes I dozed, only to waken up from sheer cold and resume my
+exercise. After some hours I had the satisfaction to notice that the
+snow had ceased falling, and a brighter night, with frost, had set in.
+This was pleasant, as the probability of being snowed up was no longer
+to be apprehended, but the biting cold was terrible, and I knew that if
+I succumbed to sleep, I would be frost-bitten.</p>
+
+<p>I scarcely know how I got through the night; one never does. I must have
+had periods of unconsciousness, and the heat emanating from the hot
+ashes, and what fire I was able to keep going, saved me. Had it not been
+for that, I could not have survived, and it was a piece of extraordinary
+luck my lighting on a patch of snow grass and scrub in that wild and
+desolate pass.</p>
+
+<p>How I longed for daylight may be imagined, and the first tinge of light
+I noticed on the horizon was a welcome sight indeed. My firewood was
+long since burnt away, but the ashes were yet warm, and I thrust in my
+hands till I revived some life into them, and was able to collect more
+brushwood which I carried over, and had a rousing fire, and was enabled
+to get the saddle on to my horse. I was now undecided whether to retrace
+my steps to Mesopotamia or endeavour to find my way to Moorehouse's; on
+the latter, however, I decided, as I judged I was midway between the
+two, and started to explore the pass, leading my horse. The exercise
+revived us both, and I succeeded in finding the trail I needed. The
+journey was simple after what I had experienced on the other side, and I
+had the satisfaction of meeting one of Moorehouse's shepherds before the
+day was much older, who accompanied me to the station, and who would
+scarcely believe that I had passed the night where I did.</p>
+
+<p>I found Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moorehouse at home, and was, as always, most
+hospitably received, and soon found myself with a change of kit, seated
+before an excellent meal, to which after thirty hours fasting I did
+ample justice. After that I slept till morning.</p>
+
+<p>On my arrival at Christchurch an offer was made to me to join an
+expedition to the Fiji Islands, just then creating some interest as a
+possible place for colonists. The previous year some explorer had
+brought from thence a ship load of curiosities, including war clubs and
+spears of hard polished and carved wood, mats and numerous other
+articles in use among the cannibal tribes, and an exhibition of them was
+held in the Town Hall. I now learnt that an acquaintance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> of mine, a Mr.
+Gibson, had chartered a small vessel called the "Ocean Queen," 40 tons
+burthen, and intended to sail in her, with his young wife, for the Fiji
+Islands. Also that four other men had joined him in the enterprise. I
+knew Gibson to be a plucky fellow, but when it transpired that neither
+he nor the others possessed money beyond what the voyage would cost
+them, and that what they intended to do when they arrived at the Fiji
+Islands was to be left to chance, the proposed expedition assumed a
+different complexion. The Judge denounced it as sheer madness, specially
+for a man to take his wife to such a place. It was true that some
+missionaries had settlements there, but these are generally safe, as the
+savages, as a rule, fear and respect the missionaries of the Great
+Spirit, be it that of the white man or the black, and they know that the
+missionaries mean no harm to them or their possessions, but it would be
+very different in the case of a number of white men arriving unprotected
+in a small boat with the intention of settling on their land. However,
+nothing would dissuade Gibson and his party. Whether the "Ocean Queen"
+arrived at the Fiji Islands was never known. Certainly she and the party
+who sailed in her were never again heard of.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">Decide to go to India&mdash;Visit Melbourne, Etc</span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>For the following six months I kept steadily to work. I was gradually
+adding to my stock of sheep, and had nothing occurred to disturb me I
+should doubtless have continued at work and in time have become a
+veritable squatter. I was able to command constant employment in any
+colonial capacity, and had been more than once offered the overseership
+of a run, but the old distaste for the life of a sheep-farmer was as
+strong as ever.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the month of May, 1864, when I received a letter from my
+brother in Bombay, saying that there were excellent openings in the
+engineering line there, to which he had interest enough to help me, and
+he pressed me to go to Bombay and try my luck. My brother was then
+representative of a large mercantile firm at Bombay.</p>
+
+<p>I think neither he nor the others at home had ever divested themselves
+of the idea that I was not succeeding, and never would succeed in New
+Zealand, because I had not at once made a fortune out of nothing, or
+discovered gold for the picking up. Of course, they were not right. I
+had, considering my youth and ignorance on going out to New Zealand,
+done admirably. It was necessary to undergo a term of probation and
+education for the work of a sheep-farmer or any other in the Colony, and
+this I had not only accomplished, but I had been, and was, making money
+and a living, and had fair prospects before me should I decide to adopt
+the life of a squatter permanently. I consulted my friends and some of
+them were for following my brother's advice, but something within myself
+kept prompting me in the same direction, and I began to feel more and
+more that I had mistaken my vocation, and that I was bound to try before
+it would be too late to get into the swing of the more congenial
+employment for which I was longing.</p>
+
+<p>The wandering spirit, too, mastered me once more, and I wished now to
+see India and all I had heard and read of that wonderful land, as I had
+originally desired to see New Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>I did not decide hastily. I was aware that my leaving New Zealand now
+would to some extent throw me back,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> if at any time in the future I
+decided to return, but I was still very young, not yet 22, and a year or
+two would make very little difference, and I knew that if I returned to
+New Zealand I could always command immediate employment. I decided at
+length to see India at any rate, and I wrote to my brother to that
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>The disposal of my sheep, horses, and other small possessions, was soon
+accomplished, and one fine morning in May 1864, I found myself at Port
+Lyttelton, accompanied by a number of old chums who had come to see me
+off by the steamboat to Dunedin, from whence I was to proceed by mail to
+Melbourne, and from thence to Bombay by the P. and O.</p>
+
+<p>I felt sad indeed to look my last (it might be for ever) on the shores
+of Canterbury, where I had passed five happy years, endeared to me all
+the more on account of the varied and adventurous life I had led, and
+the good friends and companions I was leaving behind, and I leaned on
+the bulwarks of the little steamer as we passed out of the lovely bay
+and saw the shepherd's hut, high up on the cliff, where we wanderers
+from the ship five years before had been entertained by the Scotch
+housewife to our first New Zealand dinner, then on to where we visited
+the whalers and the head to which we rowed in the Captain's gig. The
+whole scene arose before me afresh; where were we all scattered to? I
+longed to do it all over again, and be with the old mates; and here I
+was, a lonely wanderer once more, leaving all to go away to begin a new
+life in a strange land. It was not easy, but I tried hard to think I was
+doing right.</p>
+
+<p>By the time we passed out of the Heads it had grown dark, and my reverie
+was broken by the supper bell, and Burton (a friend who was going to
+Australia on a pleasure trip) telling me to rouse up, have some food,
+and make myself pleasant. How carefully I followed his advice during the
+next six weeks!</p>
+
+<p>We reached Dunedin the following evening and had to remain there for a
+few days for the departure of the Melbourne mail boat. This time Burton
+and I contrived to spend very pleasantly. He was a wealthy young
+squatter, and I had a good sum of money with me, in fact, I was becoming
+a bit reckless; but I could not have foreseen that an accident would
+retain me far longer on the voyage to India than I supposed, and I saw
+little harm in enjoying myself with the money I had earned and saved.
+What kind of guardian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> angel was in charge of me from this time I cannot
+say, but he must have been an excessively pleasant and jolly one, for
+under his guidance I enjoyed a most delightful time.</p>
+
+<p>Dunedin had improved marvellously since I had last seen it; it was
+already a town of considerable pretensions and possessed a theatre and
+several good hotels. On the fourth day we left for Melbourne in the s.s.
+"Alhambra," and now I believed that I had done with New Zealand for good
+and all, but I was mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>After three days at sea we encountered south of Tasmania a terrific gale
+during which the shaft of the screw was broken, and the Captain had no
+resource but to return to Dunedin under sail, an operation which
+occupied seven days, to the great disgust of all on board.</p>
+
+<p>At Dunedin we were again delayed for three days till another boat
+started which took us to Melbourne.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage was pleasant and we steamed in nearly a calm sea close along
+the Tasmanian coast and through the Bass Straits, sighting land all the
+way from thence. Tasmania presented quite an English appearance after
+New Zealand, and we could trace the neat towns and well-wooded country
+dotted with homesteads and farms.</p>
+
+<p>Melbourne possesses a very fine and well protected harbour, but the
+surroundings sadly lacked the native beauty of New Zealand. The
+countries present very different aspects to the new-comer; while New
+Zealand can boast of some of the wildest and grandest scenery in the
+world, that of New South Wales is almost the reverse, being homely and
+of a natural park-like appearance, which, although beautiful in a
+certain sense, is monotonous after the wild contrasts of plains and
+mountain, forests and rivers of New Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>Melbourne proper lay some five miles from the port, which then possessed
+a fine wooden pier, alongside of which and in the adjacent roadstead,
+lay many fine merchant vessels and steamers awaiting their cargoes of
+wool, etc. The port and city were connected by a railway, the first
+constructed in Australia, and almost parallel with it wound the River
+Yarrow, so named from its usually muddy or yellow colour.</p>
+
+<p>We proceeded to Melbourne by rail and put up at one of the principal
+hotels. Here we discovered that our accident had caused us to miss the
+China mail boat which was to have conveyed us to Point de Galle, and I
+would now have almost a whole month to remain at Melbourne.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> This news
+was I fear more welcome than otherwise. I wished to see something of
+Melbourne, and here was the opportunity forced upon me, so I decided to
+make the very most of my time.</p>
+
+<p>Melbourne, even at this period, was a considerable city, handsome and
+well laid out on the most approved modern principles, with straight and
+spacious streets and squares, and possessing throughout architecture
+equal to that of the best modern English towns, in addition to some
+really magnificent public buildings. A considerable portion of the city
+stood on a gentle slope, and along many of the streets between the
+roadway and the footpaths, ran continuous streams of pure spring water,
+over which, when in flood, foot passengers were taken by carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Along the banks of the Yarrow were lovely gardens and extensive parks,
+and many a pleasant row I had under the shade of the huge pine and gum
+trees. The river frequently overflowed its banks and submerged the
+low-lying country between the city and the port, at which times I have
+travelled by train while the rails were under water. Some of the suburbs
+and watering places around Melbourne, such as St. Kilda, were
+exceedingly picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>A railway was just then opened from Melbourne to Ballarat, the scene of
+the famous gold diggings to which Melbourne is primarily indebted for
+her present magnificence and prosperity. Extensive quartz crushing by
+machinery was then being carried out, and a visit to the locality was
+most interesting. We made many excursions up country, and altogether
+thoroughly enjoyed our time. So much so indeed that had another accident
+detained me longer I would not have felt any regret.</p>
+
+<p>Early in August I started by the P. and O. mail boat for Ceylon, with
+mutual regrets on Burton's part and on my own that our pleasant holiday
+was ended. I never met Burton again.</p>
+
+<p>At King George's Sound, Northern Australia, was a small coaling station,
+possessing only a score or so of houses or stores, and one hotel
+so-called. On arrival we went on shore and were immediately greeted by a
+number of the most wretched specimens of humanity I had yet seen. They
+were diminutive in stature, perfectly naked with the exception of a
+dirty rag of blanket twisted about the shoulders and waist, out of the
+folds of which issued a wreath of smoke from the fire stick without
+which the Australian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> aboriginal rarely leaves his or her wigwam. Their
+hair was plastered down on the head with thick ochre paint, and they
+were disgustingly filthy and altogether unpleasant to look at. They
+invariably asked for "sixpence," which amount seemed to represent the
+sum of their earthly happiness, and with most of them was the only word
+of English they could speak.</p>
+
+<p>The men all carried boomerangs, a flat curved stick which they threw for
+our edification, and sixpences, very scientifically, and contrived to
+dispose of a good many to the passengers. We saw with them also some
+skins of that rare and handsome bird the emu, now I believe becoming
+very scarce.</p>
+
+<p>A most remarkable thing about King George's Sound is the utter waste and
+wildness of the country, not a sign of life or cultivation. The few
+natives who inhabit this wild region subsist principally on roots and
+such wild fruits as are obtainable, or on birds which they can kill with
+their boomerangs. They are very little, if at all, superior to the lower
+animals, and I believe there is no institution of marriage or
+acknowledgment of domestic relations among them.</p>
+
+<p>One thing, however, there was as a set off against all the rest&mdash;namely,
+the extraordinary wealth of flowers which grew thickly amongst the
+thousand varieties of rare ferns all over the land. What would be held
+as the most delicate hothouse plants in England here formed a brilliant
+carpet in their wild luxuriance. We literally walked knee deep in
+exotics.</p>
+
+<p>We carried large bundles of them on board, when we left that night after
+a stay of only twelve hours.</p>
+
+<p>Point de Galle was reached on the twelfth day, and here the mail steamer
+from Calcutta by which I was to proceed to Bombay had already arrived. A
+few of us went on shore with small caps on our heads and some with
+cabbage tree hats, but we speedily discovered they would not do. The
+heat on shore was intense, a muggy, stifling heat, which to us
+Australians was killing. We were guided to the Bazaar, and introduced to
+several hotels by some five score natives, whose numbers increased as we
+proceeded, and were augmented by numerous sellers of sun toppee,
+pugarees, etc. We were speedily provided each with a tropical headpiece
+with a long tail of white muslin therefrom which hung down the back.</p>
+
+<p>After a substantial "tiffin" in a large shady room, under the swaying
+punkah (the first I had seen), it was proposed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> some of our sable
+friends that we should visit the tea gardens, one of the lions of Galle,
+and I, forgetting all about the boat, was on the point of joining the
+movement, having taken a seat in the conveyance for the purpose, when my
+good angel, by some means I have now forgotten, informed me that the
+steamer for Bombay would start in ten minutes.</p>
+
+<p>I jumped from the carriage and ran full speed with a crowd of attendant
+blacks in full cry at my heels, shot into the first boat I came to and
+reached the steamer as the screw commenced to turn.</p>
+
+<p>In four days we arrived at Bombay, where, in due course, I entered State
+Service, and where I remained for thirty-five years, but my life and
+experiences there may possibly form the subject of another story.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class='center'>Printed by J.G. HAMMOND and Co., Ltd., 32-36, Fleet Lane, London, E.C.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Five Years in New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Years in New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Five Years in New Zealand
+       1859 to 1864
+
+Author: Robert B. Booth
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #18068]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Five Years in New Zealand
+
+(1859 to 1864.)
+
+
+BY
+
+ROBERT B. BOOTH, M.Inst.C.E.
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+J. G. HAMMOND & CO., LTD.
+
+Fleet Lane, Old Bailey, E.C.
+
+1912.
+
+
+
+
+Contents.
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+How I came to Emigrate                                             1
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Voyage--Rats on Board--The White Squall--Harpooning
+a Shark--Burial of the Twins--Tropics--Icebergs--Exchange
+of Courtesies in mid-Pacific                                       4
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Port Lyttelton and Christchurch--Call on Friends--Visit Malvern
+Hill                                                              14
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A Period of Uncertainty--Leave for Nelson as Cadets on Sheep Run  19
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Working of a Sheep Run--Scab--C's Departure for Home              25
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Shepherd's Life--Driving Sheep--Killing Wild Sow--Return
+to Christchurch                                                   30
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+I join a Survey Party--Travel to the Ashburton                    36
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Wild Pig Hunting                                                  41
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Cattle Ranching and Stock Riding                                  46
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Take Employment with a Bush Contractor--Serious Illness--Start
+for South and the Gold Diggings                                   51
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Our Eventful Journey to the Gold Diggings                         58
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Life on the Gold Diggings                                         64
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Leave the Diggings--Attempt to Drive Wild Cattle thereto--Return
+to Dunedin                                                        69
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Leave for Mesopotamia--Road-making--Sheep Mustering--Death
+of Dr. Sinclair--Contracts on the Ashburton, etc.                 73
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Winter under the Southern Alps--Frost Bite--Seeking Sheep
+in the Snow--The Runaway                                          80
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Start on Exploring Expedition to the Wanaka Lake                  85
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Exploration Trip continued--Weekas--Inspection of New
+Country--Escape from Fire                                         89
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Death of Parker--Royal Mail robbed by a Cat--Meet with
+Accident fording River                                            94
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The Ghost Story--Benighted in the Snow                            99
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Decide to go to India--Visit Melbourne, etc.--Arrival at Bombay  106
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations.
+
+                                       SEE PAGE
+
+Harpooning a Shark                            7
+
+The Arrival of Lapworth                      16
+
+Pat and His Mail Bag Dislodged by a Cat      96
+
+Killing the Wild Sow                         34
+
+Encounter with Wild Boar                     44
+
+The Baked Steers                             49
+
+Seeking Sheep in the Snow                    81
+
+The Gold Diggings                            67
+
+Peddlars at the Diggings                     67
+
+Mesopotamia Station                          73
+
+Upper Gorge of the Rangitata                 75
+
+Glent Hills Station                          97
+
+
+
+
+Introduction.
+
+
+The islands of New Zealand, discovered by the Dutch navigator, Tasman,
+in 1642, and surveyed and explored by Captain Cooke in 1769, remained
+unnoticed until 1814, when the first Christian Missionaries landed, and
+commenced the work of converting the inhabitants, who, up to that time
+had been cannibals.
+
+The Missionaries had been unusually successful, and prepared the way for
+the first emigrants, who landed at Wellington in the North Island in
+1839. A year later the Maori Chiefs signed a treaty acknowledging the
+Sovereignty of Queen Victoria, and the colonisation of the country
+quickly followed.
+
+The seat of Government was first placed at Auckland, where resided the
+Governor, and there were formed ten provinces under the jurisdiction of
+superintendents. The head of the Government was subsequently transferred
+to Wellington, the provincial system abolished, and their powers
+exercised by local boards directly under the Governor.
+
+The total area of the three islands is about 105,000 square miles, and
+the population, which has been steadily increasing, was in 1865 upwards
+of 700,000.
+
+The Maori race is almost entirely confined to the North Island, and,
+although it was then gradually dying out, numbered about 30,000. They
+are of fine physique, tall and robust, and are said to belong to the
+Polynesian type, probably having come over from the Fiji Islands, or
+some of the Pacific group, in their canoes.
+
+When first discovered they lived in villages or "Pahs," comprising a
+number of small circular huts, with a larger one for the Chief,
+mud-walled and thatched with grass or flax. The pahs usually occupied a
+commanding position, and were fenced round with one or more palisades of
+rough timber.
+
+The Maori dress consisted of a simple robe made of woven flax, an
+indigenous plant growing in profusion over most of the country. They
+practised to a large extent the custom of tattooing their faces and
+bodies, and further decorated themselves with ear-rings of greenstone,
+bone, etc.
+
+Owing to subsequent education and intercourse with Europeans, their
+savage habits have now mostly given way to modern customs.
+
+In 1860 commenced the disastrous Taranaki war, which lasted some years,
+and was caused in the first instance by the encroachment of European
+settlers on the lands originally granted exclusively to the Aborigines.
+Since the settlement of this trouble, peace and prosperity have reigned,
+and the Maoris have become an important item in the community, many of
+them holding positions of trust and office under the Colonial
+Government.
+
+The Province of Canterbury, forming the central portion of the middle
+island, was founded about 1845 by the Irishmen Godley, Harman, and
+others; and the English Church, under Bishop Harpur, was established at
+Christchurch, the capital of the Province.
+
+Otago, in the south, was founded by the Scotch, and the free church
+established at Dunedin. The Province of Nelson formed the upper or
+northern portion of the Island.
+
+It is to these three Provinces that the scenes of the following pages
+refer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It has been said that the true and unvarnished history of any person's
+life, no matter how commonplace, would be interesting. It was not
+because I thought that a history of any part of my life would prove
+interesting to others, that I first decided to write the following story
+of the experiences of a young emigrant to New Zealand between the ages
+of 16 and 21. I wrote it many years ago, when all was fresh in my
+memory; then I laid it by. Now when I have retired, after a life's
+service passed in foreign lands, it has been a pleasure to me to recall
+and live over again in memory the scenes of my earliest life.
+
+It may, however, be possible that the account of the adventures,
+successes, and failures of a lad, thrown on his own resources at so
+early an age, may prove of some value to others starting under similar
+circumstances in life's race; and if it in any way shows that the
+Colonies are a good field for a young man who wishes to adopt the life
+that may be open to him there, and who is determined to work steadily,
+keeping always his good name and honour as guiding lights to hold fast
+to and steer by, the story may not be quite useless.
+
+The Colonies are as good to-day as forty years ago, better I should say,
+for they offer more varied openings now than they did then.
+
+The great colonial dependencies of Great Britain were founded and worked
+into power by the emigrants who overflowed thence from the Motherland.
+These, for the most part, took with them little or nothing beyond their
+pluck, energy, strong hearts, and trust in God, and still they go and
+will go. It is a duty they owe to the mother-country as well as to
+themselves, and the great Colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
+are calling for more and more of the right sort of workers to join in
+and take their share in building up great nations, and extending the
+glory and civilising influence of Great Britain over all the world.
+
+I would say to all young men in this country who have no sufficient call
+or opening at home, especially to those who have not succeeded in
+obtaining professional positions, and who wait on, hoping for something
+to turn up, go out while there is yet time, to the great countries
+waiting to welcome you to a man's work and a man's place in the world,
+and don't rest content with an idle, useless, and dependent position
+where you have no place or occupation. Do your plain duty honestly and
+fearlessly. Treat the world well and it will treat you well.
+
+I do not, of course, give this advice to all. There are men who will not
+succeed in the Colonies any better than here. Some will fail anywhere. I
+mean the idle and lazy, the untrustworthy, the drunkard, and the
+incapable; these classes go to the bad quickest in the Colonies. There
+is no place or shelter for them there, where only honest workers are
+wanted or tolerated.
+
+For the man who is prepared to put his hand to anything he finds to do,
+and can be trusted, there is always employment and promotion waiting;
+but for him who is too proud or too lazy to work, or who prefers to
+fritter his time in dissipation and amusement, there is nothing but
+failure and ruin ahead.
+
+My advice does not apply either to those who have _good_ prospects,
+professional or otherwise, in this country, and whose duties call them
+to remain, but to the thousands of the middle and lower classes who are
+not so circumstanced, and it must be remembered that the men who are
+specially and constantly needed in the Colonies are those of the
+labouring and farming classes, or who may intend to adopt that life and
+are fitted for it by health and will. For the artisan and the
+professional who can only work at their own trade or profession, the
+openings naturally are not so plentiful, but there is abundance of
+employment for them until openings occur, if they choose to occupy their
+time otherwise in the meanwhile.
+
+For the young man who can afford the time, and many can, a few years'
+fling in the Colonies would be the best of educations, but he should
+determine to see all that was to be seen on the spot, and take part in
+all that was doing, and not rest content only with a few days' sojourn
+in an hotel here and there, or joining in the gaieties and dissipations
+of the towns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     HOW I CAME TO EMIGRATE.
+
+
+I was one of a family of nine, of which four were sons. My eldest
+brother was destined for the Church; the second had entered a mercantile
+house in Liverpool; and I, who was third on the list, it was my father's
+intention, should be educated for the Royal Engineers, and at the time
+my story opens I was prosecuting my studies for admission to the Academy
+at Woolwich, and had attained the age of sixteen, when my health failed,
+and I was sent home for rest and change. I did not again resume my
+studies, because it was soon after decided that I should emigrate to New
+Zealand.
+
+The decision was principally, if not entirely, due to my own wishes. I
+had long entertained a strong bent to seeing the world for myself, and
+the idea was congenial to my boyish and quixotic notions of being the
+arbiter of my own fortunes. I recollect I was much given to reading
+tales of wild life in America and elsewhere; they contained a peculiar
+attraction for me, and influenced my mind in no small degree detrimental
+to continuing my studies for the Army or any specified profession at
+home.
+
+When I first proposed what was in my mind it created somewhat of a
+sensation in the old home, and my father would not hear of any such
+madness as to throw up my studies after having advanced so far, and go
+away to the antipodes on a mere wild-goose chase, etc. On consulting his
+friends, however, many advised him to let me have my will; others (more
+wisely perhaps) expressed their opinions that I should be forced to
+resume my work, and that the ill-health was imagination, or foxing! (I
+have often since been inclined to agree with the latter supposition.)
+
+The final decision, however, was that I should emigrate to Canterbury,
+New Zealand, in the following April. This colony was at that time about
+fourteen years' old, and was highly thought of as a field for youthful
+enterprise, and it was then the fashion to consider such tendencies as I
+expressed to be an omen of future success which should not be baulked.
+
+A young friend, C----, son of a neighbouring squire, offered to
+accompany me as my chum and partner. He was six years my senior, and had
+had considerable experience in farming, so was considered very suitable
+for a colonial life; whereas I knew literally nothing of farming or
+anything else beyond my school work.
+
+Our preparations were put in hand, and our passages booked by the good
+ship "Mary Anne," to sail from St. Katherine's Docks, London, on April
+29th, 1859.
+
+When all was finally settled my elation was supreme. The feeling that
+school grind was past and gone, that the world was open to me, and that
+I was free to do and act as I would was exhilarating. I felt that I had
+already attained to manhood, and that the world was at my feet, and a
+glorious life before me; well, I suppose most boys prematurely let loose
+would think the same, and I don't know that it is any harm to start
+under the circumstances with a hopeful and happy heart.
+
+The day of parting at length arrived. It was a bright and lovely
+morning, about the middle of April, when I said goodbye to all my
+playmates at the old home, took a last look at the guns and
+fishing-rods, visited the various animals in the stables, gave a loving
+embrace to the great Newfoundland Juno, whom I could not hope to see
+again, submitted to be blessed and kissed by the servants and labourers,
+who had assembled to see me off, and took my seat on the car with my
+father, mother, and eldest brother, for the railway station, where C----
+was to meet us.
+
+C---- and I went direct to Liverpool from Drogheda, to which place my
+eldest brother accompanied us. My father and mother, having business _en
+route_, were to meet us there on the following day.
+
+We had a rough passage to Liverpool, and the steamer was laden with
+cattle and pigs, the stench from which, combined with sea-sickness, was,
+I recollect, a terrible experience, and it was in no enviable condition
+of mind or body we arrived at the Liverpool Docks on a foggy, wet and
+dismal morning. My mercantile brother, Tom, came on board, and had all
+our belongings speedily conveyed to the lodgings we were to occupy
+during our stay. On the following day my father and mother arrived, and
+we spent a few days pleasantly seeing the lions of the great city and
+visiting friends. On arrival at London we found that we had a week or
+more before the ship sailed. Neither my father nor mother had been in
+London before; all was as new to them as to us, and we made the best of
+the time at our disposal.
+
+On the evening of the day before the ship sailed, after seeing our
+luggage on board, and cabins made ready for occupation, we accompanied
+my father, mother, and brother to Euston Station, where they were to bid
+us God-speed. I was in good spirits till then, but when on the railway
+platform, a few minutes before the train started, my dear mother fairly
+broke down, and the tears were stealing down my father's cheeks. The
+less said about such partings the better; it was soon over, and the
+train started. I never saw my dear old father again.
+
+C---- and I, after watching the train disappear, started for the docks,
+and before bed-time had made acquaintance with some of our future
+_compagnons de voyage_.
+
+The scene on deck was confusing and affecting. Upwards of four hundred
+emigrants were on board, and the partings from their friends and
+relatives, the kissings and blessings and cryings, mingled with the
+shouting of sailors, hauling in of cargo and luggage, and general noise
+and confusion incident to starting upon a long voyage, continued without
+intermission until we were fairly under weigh about 11 o'clock at night.
+
+After the unusual exertion and excitement of the day, we both slept
+soundly, and when we awoke next morning, off Gravesend, we were
+disappointed at having missed the "Great Eastern," lately launched and
+then lying in the river.
+
+By 12 noon we were fairly out at sea, with a favourable breeze, and the
+pilot left us in view (it might be the last) of the old country we were
+leaving behind.
+
+Before my eyes again rested on the cliffs of old England I had seen many
+lands and people, had mixed and worked with all sorts and conditions of
+men, had many experiences and adventures; and although I did not find
+the fortune at once which I thought was waiting for me to pick up, I
+found that there is always a fortune, be it great or small, according to
+their deserts, waiting for those who determine to work honestly and
+heartily for it, and that every man's future success or failure depends
+mainly on himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     THE VOYAGE AND INCIDENTS THEREON--RATS ON BOARD, THE WHITE
+     SQUALL, HARPOONING A SHARK, BURIAL OF THE TWINS, A TROPICAL
+     ESCAPADE--ICEBERGS--EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES AT SEA, ETC.
+
+
+The "Mary Anne" was, as I stated, an emigrant ship, and carried on the
+voyage about four hundred men, women, and children, sent out chiefly
+through the Government Emigration Agents. Persons going out in this way
+were assisted by having a portion of their passage paid for them as an
+advance, to be refunded after a certain time passed in the colony. The
+only first-class passengers in addition to C----and myself were two old
+maiden ladies, the Misses Hunt, who, with the doctor and his wife, the
+captain and first-mate, comprised our cabin party. In the second-class
+were three passengers--T. Smith, whose name will frequently appear in
+these pages, and two brothers called Leach, going out to join a rich
+cousin, a sheep farmer in Canterbury. Smith was the son of a wealthy
+squire, with whom, it appeared, he had fallen out respecting some family
+matters, and in a fit of pique left his home and took passage to New
+Zealand. His funds were sufficient to procure him a second-class berth,
+but on representing matters to the captain, who knew something of his
+family, it was arranged that he should join us in the saloon, hence he
+became one of our comrades, and eventually a particular friend.
+
+The captain's name was Ashby, and he soon proved to be a most jolly and
+agreeable companion. The first-mate, Lapworth, also became a favourite
+with us all.
+
+The doctor was usually drunk, or partly so, and led his wife, a kind and
+amiable little lady, a very unpleasant life. The Misses Hunt were
+elderly, amiable, and generally just what they should be.
+
+Our cabins we had (in accordance with the usages of emigrant ships)
+furnished ourselves, and they were roomy and comfortable, but I will not
+readily forget the horror with which I woke up during the first night at
+sea, with an indescribable feeling that I was being crawled over by
+some loathsome things. In a half-wakeful fit, I put out my hand, to find
+it rest upon a huge rat, which was seated on my chest. I started up in
+my bunk, when, as I did so, it appeared that a large family of rats had
+been holding high carnival upon me and my possessions; fully a dozen
+must have been in bed with me. I had no light, nor could I procure one,
+so I dressed and went on deck until morning. As a boy I was fond of
+carpentering, and was considerably expert in that way. My father
+thinking some tools would be useful to me, provided me with a small
+chest of serviceable ones (not the ordinary amateur's gimcracks), and
+this chest I had with me in my cabin. On examination I discovered
+several holes beneath the berth, where no doubt the previous night's
+visitors had entered. I set to work, and with the aid of some deal boxes
+given me by the steward, I had all securely closed up by breakfast,
+where the others enjoyed a hearty laugh at my experience of the night.
+The captain said there were doubtless hundreds of rats on board, and
+seemed to regard the fact with complacency rather than otherwise.
+Sailors consider that the presence of rats is a guarantee of the
+seaworthiness of the ship, and they will never voluntarily take passage
+in a vessel that is not sound.
+
+The captain's supposition proved true enough, and it was not unusual of
+an evening to see these friendly rodents taking an airing on the ropes
+and rigging, and upon the hand-rails around the poop deck, and while so
+diverting themselves, I have endeavoured to shake them overboard, but
+always in vain; they were thoroughbred sailors, knew exactly when and
+where to jump, and flopping on the deck at my feet would disappear, with
+a twist of their tails amidships.
+
+I do not think that the sailors approved of the rats being destroyed,
+and rather preferred their society than otherwise.
+
+We soon settled down to our sea life, and the groans of sickness and the
+screaming of children from between decks ceased in time. Our own party
+of nine had the poop to ourselves, and were very comfortable; we soon
+got to like the life, and generally arranged some way of spending each
+day agreeably. We had a fair library, chess, backgammon, whist, etc.,
+and when we got into the Tropics and had occasional calms, we went out
+in the captain's gig; then further south we had shooting matches at Cape
+pigeons and albatrosses, and in all our amusements the captain and
+Lapworth took part.
+
+There were not many incidents on the voyage worthy of note, but I will
+mention the most interesting of them which I can recollect. The first
+was when we encountered a white squall about a week out from England. It
+was a lovely evening, a slight breeze sending us along some four knots
+under full sail. We were lounging on deck watching the sunset, and
+occupied with our thoughts, when suddenly there was a cry from the "look
+out" in the main fore-top which created an instantaneous and marvellous
+scene of activity on board. It was then that we witnessed the first
+example of thorough seamanship and discipline; the shrill boatswain's
+whistle, the captain shouting a few orders, passed on by the mates, a
+crowd of sailors appearing like magic in the rigging, and in another
+instant the ship riding under bare masts; a deathlike stillness for a
+few seconds, and then a snow white wall of foam, stretching as far as
+the eye could reach, came down upon us with a sweeping wind, striking
+the ship broadsides, and over she went on her beam ends. Half a minute's
+hesitation or bungling would in all probability have sent us over
+altogether. There was a shout to us novices to look out--away went deck
+chairs and tables. The Misses Hunt--poor old ladies--who had been
+quietly knitting unconscious of any coming danger, were unceremoniously
+precipitated into the lee scuppers. I seized the mizen-mast, while C----
+falling foul of a roving hen-coop, grasped it in a loving embrace, and
+accompanied it to some haven of safety, where he stretched himself upon
+it until permitted to walk upright again. The officers and crew appeared
+like so many cats in the facility with which they moved about; so much
+so that deciding to have a try myself, I was instantly sent rolling over
+to the two old ladies, creating a shout of laughter from all hands. The
+squall lasted about half an hour, and was succeeded by a fine night and
+a spanking breeze.
+
+[Illustration: HARPOONING A SHARK.]
+
+Another bit of excitement was the harpooning and capture of a shark
+which had been following the ship for days. This is always an omen of
+ill-luck with sailors, who are very superstitious, believing that a
+shark under such circumstances is waiting for a body dead or alive, and
+will follow the ship until its desire is appeased. They are always,
+therefore, keen to kill a shark when opportunity offers. Fortunately,
+for our purpose, a calm came on while the shark was visiting us, and
+he kept moving about under the stern in a most friendly manner. The plan
+of operations was as follows:--A large junk of pork was made fast to a
+rope and suspended from the stern, letting it sink about a foot under
+the surface. C----, Smith, and I were in the captain's boat, with three
+sailors, under the orders of Lapworth, who had taken his stand
+immediately above with a harpoon. The shark came up, nibbling and
+smelling at the pork, so close to us in the boat that he almost rubbed
+along the side without apparent alarm or taking any notice of our
+presence. He was a monster, nearly nine feet in length, and as he came
+alongside, his back fin rose some inches above the surface. He did not
+seem inclined to seize the pork until Lapworth had it quickly jerked up,
+when the brute made a dash at it, half turning as he did so, and at the
+same instant received the harpoon through his neck. I recollect the
+monster turning over on his back, Lapworth swinging himself over into
+the boat, a little organised commotion among the men, and in a few
+moments running nooses were passed over head and tail, and he was
+hoisted on deck and speedily despatched. The body was cut up and divided
+amongst the crew, some of whom were partial to shark steak. A piece of
+the backbone I secured for myself as a memento of the occasion.
+
+As if to bear out the superstition I have mentioned, a few days
+subsequently a death, or rather two deaths, did actually take place;
+they were the twins and only children of a Scottish shepherd and his
+wife, both on board. Pretty little girls of eight, as I remember them,
+playing about the deck, and favourites with all, they died within a day
+of each other. The father was a gigantic fellow, and I have pleasant
+recollections of him in after years, when time and other children had
+helped to assuage his and his wife's grief for the loss of their two
+darlings at sea by one stroke of illness.
+
+There is something more affecting in a burial at sea than one on land.
+In this instance the little body was wrapped in a white cloth, to which
+a small bag of coals was fastened, and laid upon a slide projecting from
+the stern of the vessel ready for immersion. The captain read the Burial
+Service, all on board standing uncovered. At the words "Dust to dust,"
+etc., the body was allowed to slide into the sea--where it immediately
+disappeared. The mother was too ill to be present, and the father's
+grief was severe, as it might well be, to witness his child laid in so
+lonely a resting place in mid-ocean without sign or mark. The following
+evening a similar scene was enacted when the body of the other little
+sister was committed to the deep, and the father had to be taken away
+before the service was completed.
+
+No ceremonies I ever beheld impressed and affected me so much as the
+burial of the little twins at sea.
+
+While in the Tropics we had occasional calms, sometimes lasting for two
+or three days; the sea was like molten glass, and the sun burnt like a
+furnace. On such occasions we were permitted to row about within a
+reasonable distance of the ship, so that if a breeze suddenly sprang up
+we might not be left behind. Once this very nearly occurred, when we had
+rowed a long way off, after what was supposed to be a whale spouting. We
+suddenly felt a gentle breath of air, and noticed the glassy surface
+giving place to a slight disturbance. We were a mile off the ship, but
+could distinctly hear the summons from aboard, and noticed the sails
+filling. We rowed with all our strength, stripped to the waist, and
+succeeded in getting up when the ship was well under weigh. It was a
+stiff piece of work, and the captain was so concerned and annoyed at our
+disobedience of his orders that he refused to allow us to boat again
+during the voyage. We suffered sorely for our escapade, for not knowing
+the strength of a tropical sun, we exposed ourselves so that the skin
+was burned and peeled off, and we were in misery for several days, while
+our arms and necks were swathed in cotton wool and oil.
+
+After leaving the tropics we had a pleasant voyage and fair winds until
+we rounded the Cape, where we encountered some rough weather, and at 56 deg.
+S.L., it being then almost winter in those latitudes, we passed many
+icebergs of more or less extent. Few of them appeared to be more than
+ten or fifteen feet above water, but the greater portion of such blocks
+are submerged, and considerable caution had to be observed night and day
+to steer clear of them. They were usually observable at first from the
+large number of birds resting on them, causing them to appear like a
+dark speck on the horizon. One of these icebergs (according to an entry
+made in the ship's log) was stated to be five miles long and of great
+height, and we were supposed to have passed it at the latter end of the
+night so near that "a biscuit might be thrown upon it." I am afraid the
+entry was open to criticism, and that the existence, or at any rate, the
+extent of this particular iceberg might have been due to an extra glass
+of grog on the mate's imagination.
+
+We sighted no land during the voyage, except the Peak of Teneriffe, as
+it emerged above a cloud; and but few vessels, and of those only two
+closely. One was a Swedish barque, homeward bound, the other a large
+American clipper ship. We spoke the latter when the vessels were some
+miles apart, but as the courses were parallel, she being bound for
+London, while we were from thence, we gradually neared, when an amusing
+conversation by signals took place. Our captain, by mistake of the
+signaller, invited the Yankee captain to dinner, and the reply from the
+American, who good-naturedly took it as a joke, was "Bad roadstead
+here." Our captain thought they were chaffing him, and had not the
+mistake been discovered in time, the rencontre might not have ended as
+pleasantly as it did. Our captain and second mate went on board the
+Yankee, and their captain returned the visit. While this was proceeding
+the two ships appeared to be sailing round each other, and the sight was
+very imposing. When the ceremonies were over, and a few exchanges of
+newspapers, wines, etc., were made and bearings compared, the vessels
+swung round to their respective courses, up flew the sails, and a
+prolonged cheer from both ships told us this little interchange of
+courtesies in the midst of the South Pacific was at an end.
+
+I think it was the same night that we experienced a very heavy gale; the
+lightning, thunder, rain, and wind were terrific, and the sea ran
+mountains high. I stayed on deck nearly all the night, half perished
+with wet and cold; but such a storm carries with it a peculiar
+attraction, and one which I could not resist. I do not know anything
+more weird and impressive than the chant of the sailors hauling on the
+ropes, mingled with the fierce fury of the storm, and every now and
+again the dense darkness lit up by a vivid flash of lightning; the deck
+appears for the moment peopled by phantoms combined with the fury of the
+elements to bring destruction on the noble little vessel with its
+precious freight struggling and trembling in their grasp.
+
+The following morning the storm had quite abated, but the sea was such
+as can be seen only in mid-ocean. Our little ship (she was only 700
+tons) appeared such an atom in comparison with the enormous mountains of
+water. At one moment we would be perched on the summit of a wave,
+seemingly hundreds of feet high, and immediately below a terrible abyss
+into which we were on the point of sinking; the next we would be placed
+between two mountains of water which seemed going to engulf us.
+
+I always took a place with the sailors on emergencies, to give a hand at
+hauling the ropes, and got to be fairly expert at climbing into the
+rigging. The rope-hauling was done to some chant started by the
+boatswain or one of the sailors--this is necessary to ensure that the
+united strength of the pullers is exerted at the same moment. One of the
+chants I well remember. It was:--
+
+
+     "_Haul_ a bowlin', the 'Mary Anne's' a-_rollin'_.
+     _Haul_ a bowlin', a bowlin' _haul_;
+     _Haul_ a bowlin', the good ship's a-_rollin'_;
+     _Haul_ a bowlin', a bowlin' _haul_."
+
+
+The chant is sung out in stentorian notes by the leader, and on the word
+in italics every man joins in a tremendous and united pull.
+
+Crowds of Cape pigeons and albatrosses accompanied us all across the
+South Pacific. These birds never seem to tire and but rarely rest on the
+water, except when they swoop down and settle a moment to pick up
+something that has been thrown overboard; this is quickly devoured, and
+they are again in pursuit. The albatrosses, some white, some grey, and
+some almost black, are huge birds; some that we shot, and for which the
+boat was sent, measured nine feet from tip to tip of wings.
+
+On August 1st we rounded Stewart's Island, the southern-most of the New
+Zealand group. It is little more than a barren rock, and was not then
+inhabited, whatever it may be now. Although it was the winter season,
+and the latitude corresponded to that of the North of England, we
+remarked how mild and dry was the atmosphere in comparison. Indeed the
+weather was glorious and seemed to welcome us to the land we were coming
+to.
+
+On the 3rd of August we sighted the coast of Canterbury, and at daylight
+on the 4th we found ourselves lying becalmed about 12 miles off Port
+Lyttelton Heads, from whence the captain signalled for a pilot steamer
+to take the ship to harbour. In the clear rare atmosphere, and the pure
+invigorating feeling of that glorious morning, we were all impatient of
+delay. A couple of fishing boats were lying not far off, and we begged
+the captain to let us row out to them and he permitted us,
+conditionally that we returned and kept near the ship, because
+immediately the tug arrived we would start. We rowed to the boats and
+obtained some information from the fishermen, with whom were two of the
+natives, Maori lads; indeed, I think the boat partly belonged to the
+Maoris, for these people do not take service with the white settlers.
+They pointed out to us where the entrance lay, and told us that Port
+Lyttelton was some five miles further down a bay.
+
+Before we returned to breakfast we had decided to anticipate matters by
+going ahead of the ship. We quietly laid in a small supply of food and
+appeared at the cabin table like good and obedient boys. Incidentally,
+one of us asked the captain if it would be easy to row into port, and he
+replied that it would be very risky to attempt it; it was a long way,
+and the wind or a squall might get up at any moment, or the tide might
+be contrary, and he positively forbade us to entertain any such idea.
+All this, however, only increased our desire for the "lark," as we
+called it, and about 9 o'clock, having rowed about quietly for a while,
+we suddenly bade good-bye to the "Mary Anne" and steered straight for
+the Heads, where we had been told Port Lyttelton lay. Our crew consisted
+of Smith, the two Leaches, C----, and myself, with a man named Kelson,
+who was a good oarsman, and we thought he would be useful as an extra
+hand, but he had no notion of our freak when we started, and was
+considerably chagrined when he discovered our real intention; he had a
+young wife on board, whom he feared would be in distress about him.
+
+For some time we pulled away manfully, but at length began with some
+dismay to notice two facts, one, that we were losing sight of the ship,
+and the other that the hills did not appear to be any nearer!
+
+Some one suggested returning, but as that would have looked like funk,
+it was overruled, and we went to the oars with renewed vigour. After
+some hours pulling we had the satisfaction to find that although the
+masts of the ship were scarcely visible we were certainly drawing nearer
+to the land, and could occasionally distinguish waves breaking on the
+rocks. The coast apparently was quite uninhabited, with no sign of life
+on land or sea. We had evidently been working against the tide or some
+current, for we had been rowing steadily from 9 to 4, which would have
+amounted to less than two miles an hour, whereas we could pull five. Our
+course must have been true, as also the directions we received, for on
+entering between the heads we found ourselves in a lovely bay stretching
+away to where we were able to discern the masts of vessels in the
+distance, and soon after a large white object lying upon the shore. To
+satisfy our curiosity and obtain news of our whereabouts we rowed over
+and found that the white object was the carcase of a whale which had
+been washed on shore, and on which several men were engaged cutting it
+up. These speedily discovered our "new chum" appearance, but with true
+Colonial hospitality at once offered us a nip of rum, at the same moment
+somewhat disturbing our equanimity by telling us that if we went on to
+the Port we would be put in choky for leaving the ship before the
+Medical Officer examined her.
+
+It was strange and very pleasant to feel the solid ground under our feet
+after 94 days at sea, and we sat awhile with the whale men before
+resuming our boat. Then we proceeded quietly down the Bay, which was
+very beautiful, the dense and variegated primeval forests clothing the
+lower portions of the hills and fringing the ravines and gullies to the
+shore, the pretty caves and bays lying in sheltered nooks, with a
+mountain stream or cascade to complete the picture, and all undefiled by
+the hand of man. The bold outline of the bare rocky summits, the deep
+blue of the silent calm bay, and the distant view of the little Port of
+Lyttelton picturesquely sloping up the hillside.
+
+Seeing no sign of the ship, and fearing to approach the town, we rowed
+into a little sandy cove, where we fastened the boat and proceeded to
+ascend the hill to endeavour to discover the ship's whereabouts. About
+half-way we came upon a neat shepherd's cottage in one of the most
+picturesque localities imaginable, and commanding a magnificent view of
+the bay and harbour. On calling we found the cottage occupied by the
+shepherd's wife, a pleasant buxom Scots-woman, who immediately proffered
+us food, an offer too tempting to be declined, and we presently sat down
+to our first Colonial meal of excellent home-made bread, mutton, and
+tea, and how delighted we were to taste the fine fresh mutton after many
+weeks of salt junk and leathery fowls on board the "Mary Anne"!
+
+We had finished our hearty dinner, and were giving our loquacious
+hostess all the news we could of the old country, when the ship hove in
+sight, towed by a little tug steamer. We ran for our boat and gave
+chase, but only reached her side as the anchor was being dropped in
+Lyttelton Harbour. We received from the Captain and Lapworth a sound but
+good-humoured rating, but there would be no opportunity of further
+"larks" from the "Mary Anne"! The voyage was over, and a most pleasant
+one it had been, especially for our small party, and I am sure that no
+voyagers to the New World ever had the luck to travel with kinder or
+more sympathetic captain and officers, or with abler seamen, than those
+in command of the good ship "Mary Anne."
+
+Poor Mrs. Kelson was in sore distress about her husband, whom she
+persisted in giving up for lost, and doubtless she looked pretty sharply
+after his movements for a while.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     LYTTELTON AND CHRISTCHURCH.--CALL ON OUR FRIENDS.--VISIT
+     MALVERN HILL.
+
+
+Port Lyttelton at the time was but an insignificant town in comparison
+with what it has since become, although from its confined situation it
+is unlikely ever to attain to any great size. It is the port of the
+capital of the province, Christchurch, from which it is separated by a
+chain of hills. A rough and somewhat dangerous cart road led from it to
+the capital, along and around the hill side, which was twelve miles in
+length, but there was also a bridle track direct across the hills, by
+which the distance was reduced by one-half. This path, however, could be
+used only by pedestrians, or on horseback with difficulty. In 1862 it
+was decided to connect the port with Christchurch by a railway, cutting
+a tunnel through the hill, and the project was completed in 1866. In
+1859 Port Lyttelton was built entirely of wood, the houses being for the
+most part single-storeyed. There was a main street running parallel to
+the beach, with two or three branch streets, running up the hill
+therefrom; there were a few shops, several stores, stables, and small
+inns. The harbour was an open roadstead, and possessed but a primitive
+sort of quay or landing place for boats and vessels of small tonnage.
+
+We were invited on shore by the Leach's sheep-farming cousin, who had
+come to meet them, but we returned on board to sleep. The following
+morning, getting our luggage together, we all four started for
+Christchurch on hired horses, sending our kit round the hill by cart.
+The climb up the bridle path (we had to lead the horses) was a stiff
+pull for fellows just out of a three months' voyage, but we were repaid
+on reaching the top by the magnificent panorama opened out before us. To
+our right was the open ocean, blue and calm, dotted with a few white
+sails; to the left the long low range of hills encircling the bay, and
+on a pinnacle of which we stood. At our feet lay Christchurch, with its
+few well-laid-out streets and white houses, young farms, fences, trees,
+gardens, and all the numerous signs of a prosperous and thriving young
+colony, the little river Avon winding its peaceful way to the sea and
+encircling the infant town like a silver cord, and the muddy Heathcote
+with its few white sails and heavily-laden barges. While beyond
+stretched away for sixty miles the splendid Canterbury Plains bounded in
+their turn by the southern Alps with their towering snow-capped peaks
+and glaciers sparkling in the sun; the patches of black pine forest
+lying sombre and dark against the mountain sides, in contrast with the
+purple, blue, and gray of the receding gorges, changing, smiling, or
+frowning as clouds or sunshine passed over them. All this heightened by
+the extremely rare atmosphere of New Zealand, in which every detail
+stood out at even that distance clear and distinct, made up a picture
+which for beauty and grandeur can rarely be equalled in the world.
+
+Upon arrival at Christchurch we put up at a neat little inn on the
+outskirts of the town, called Rule's accommodation house. It was a
+picture of neatness, cleanliness, and comfort. We found it occupied by
+several squatters of what might be called the better class, who, on
+their occasional business visits to Christchurch, preferred a quiet
+establishment to the larger and more noisy hotels, of which the town
+possessed two.
+
+These gentlemen were clothed in cord breeches and high boots, with
+guernsey smock frocks, in which costume they appeared to live. English
+coats and collars and light boots were luxuries unknown or contemned by
+these hardy sons of the bush, whom we found very pleasant company, but
+who, it was apparent to us before we were many minutes in their society,
+regarded us as very raw material indeed. According to bush custom it was
+usual to dub all fresh arrivals "new chums" until they had
+satisfactorily passed certain ordeals in bush life. They should be able
+to ride a buckjumper, or, at any rate, hold on till the saddle went, use
+a stockwhip, cut up and light a pipe of tobacco with a single wax vesta
+while riding full speed in the teeth of a sou'-wester, and be ready and
+competent to take a hand at any manual labour going.
+
+After dinner some of our new acquaintances entertained us with some
+miraculous tales of bush life, while others looked carelessly on to see
+how far we could be gulled with impunity. An amusing incident, however,
+occurred presently which rapidly increased their respect for the raw
+material. C---- was a young giant, six feet three in his stockings, and
+the last man to put up with an indignity. One of the party--a rough,
+vulgar sort of fellow, who had been romancing considerably, and who
+evidently was not on the most cordial terms with the rest of the
+company--carried his rudeness so far as to drop into C----'s seat when
+the latter had vacated it for a moment. On his return C---- asked him to
+leave it, which the fellow refused to do. C---- put his hand on his
+collar. "Now," said he, "get out! Once, twice, three times"--and at the
+last word he lifted the chap bodily and threw him over the table, whence
+he fell heavily on the floor. He was thoroughly cowed, and with a few
+oaths left the room. It needed only such an incident as this to put us
+on the friendliest terms with them all, and we enjoyed a pleasant
+afternoon and gathered much information.
+
+[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF LAPWORTH.]
+
+The following morning, whilst waiting for breakfast, sitting out on the
+grass in front of the house, we heard a stampede coming along the road
+from the direction of the Fort, and presently there hove in sight
+Lapworth astride a hired nag, coming ahead at a gallop, one hand
+grasping the mane and the other the crupper, while stirrups and reins
+were flying in the wind. In his rear were Bob Stavelly, third mate, and
+the boatswain, astride another animal, Bob steering, and the boatswain
+holding on, seemingly by the tail. Lapworth, a quarter of a mile off,
+was shouting "Stop her! Stop her!" but the mare needed no assistance;
+she evidently understood where she was required to go, and decided to do
+it in her own time and way. Galloping to the grass plot on which we were
+standing she suddenly stopped short and deposited Lapworth ignominiously
+at our feet. The other animal followed suit, but did not succeed in
+clearing itself, and after some tacking Bob and the boatswain got under
+weigh again and steered for the "White Hart," where they were bent on a
+spree.
+
+Christchurch at this time was about fourteen years in existence. It
+consisted of only a few hundred houses, chiefly single-storeyed and
+entirely constructed of timber. The streets were well laid out, broad,
+and on the principle of the best modern towns, but few of them were as
+yet made or metalled. There were not many buildings of architectural
+pretensions, but all were characterised by an air of comfort, neatness,
+and suitability, and it was apparent the rapid strides the young colony
+was making would ere long place it high in the rank of its order. There
+were two churches, a town hall, used on occasion as court house,
+ball-room, or theatre; three hotels, some very presentable shops and
+stores, and a few particularly neat and handsome residences standing in
+luxuriant grounds, such as those occupied by the Superintendent, Bishop,
+Judge, etc. The suburbs were extending on all sides with the fencing in
+of farms, erection of homesteads, and conversion of the native soil into
+land suitable for growing English corn and grass.
+
+Through the rising city wound the little river Avon, only twenty to
+thirty yards in width, spanned by two wooden bridges, and a couple of
+mills had also been erected upon it. The river was only about fifteen
+miles from its source to the sea, and at the time to which I refer was
+almost covered with watercress. This plant was not indigenous; it was
+introduced a few years before by a colonist, who was so partial to the
+vegetable that he brought some roots from home with him, and planted
+them near the source of the river, where he squatted. The watercress
+took so kindly to the soil that it had now covered the river to its
+mouth, and the Colonial Government were put to very considerable annual
+expense to remove it.
+
+As I have already stated, we had been provided with introductions to
+some of the most influential families in Christchurch--namely, the
+Bishop, the Chief Justice Gresson, and some others. The following day we
+made our calls and were most hospitably received, especially by Mr. and
+Mrs. Gresson, who from that time during my stay in New Zealand were my
+constant and valued friends. We were introduced to many of the best
+up-country people, and a month was passed pleasantly visiting about to
+enable us to decide on what line we would take up as a commencement. We
+possessed very little money, so a life of service in some form was an
+absolute necessity at the beginning.
+
+While awaiting events, C---- and I were invited by young Mr. H----, son
+of the Bishop, to visit his sheep station at Malvern Hills, some
+forty-five miles distant across the plains, where we could see what
+station life was like and have some sport after wild pigs, ducks, etc.
+Procuring the loan of a couple of horses we all started early one
+morning, what change of clothes we needed being strapped with our
+blankets before and behind on our saddles, and I carried a gun.
+
+It was an exhilarating ride in the cool, fragrant atmosphere, although a
+description would lead one to think it would be monotonous to ride
+forty-five miles over an almost perfectly flat plain, with no more than
+an occasional shepherd's hut, a mob of sheep, or an isolated homestead
+to break the surrounding view. The plain was almost bare of vegetation,
+beyond short yellow grass here and there burnt in patches, and now and
+then a solitary cabbage tree (a kind of palm) dotted the wide expanse.
+Beyond a few paradise ducks feeding on the burnt patches, or an
+occasional family of wild pigs, we met with no animal life. Quail used
+to be abundant, but the run fires were fast destroying them. We had
+before us the nearing view of the Malvern Hills, the sloping pine
+forests and scrub, with the long, undulating spurs running back to the
+foot of great snow-clad peaks.
+
+The station, or homestead, stood on a plateau some fifty feet above the
+plain; it consisted of two huts, mud-walled and thatched with snow
+grass. One of these contained the general kitchen and sleeping room for
+the station hands, the other was the residence of the squatter and his
+overseer. Behind these there were a wool shed for clipping and pressing
+the wool, with sheep yards attached, a stockyard for cattle, and a
+fenced in paddock in which a few station hacks were kept for daily use.
+
+On arrival our first duty was to remove saddles, bridles, and swags and
+lead the horses to some good pasture, where they were each tethered to a
+tussock by thirty yards of fine hemp rope, which they carried tied about
+their necks. Then, after a rough wash in the open, we were soon gathered
+round a hospitable table in the kitchen, where all sat in common to a
+substantial meal of mutton, bread, and tea, the standard food with
+little variation of a squatter's homestead.
+
+Night had closed in by now, and we were soon glad to retire to our
+blankets, and the sweet fresh beds of Manuka twigs laid on the floor of
+Harper's hut, for the temporary accommodation of us visitors. We slept
+like tops till roused at daybreak to breakfast, after which the forenoon
+was spent in being shown over the station and in a climb to the forests,
+where we saw the pine trees being felled, and split up into posts and
+rails. After the midday meal a pig hunt was organised, and a few animals
+were accounted for, falling chiefly to Harper's rifle. (Pig hunting I
+will specially refer to later on.) We passed a pleasant and instructive
+week at Malvern Station, taking a hand in all the routine work, riding
+after the stock, working in the bush, and occasionally taking a
+cross-country ride of fifteen or twenty miles to visit a neighbouring
+station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     A PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY AS TO OCCUPATION.--EVENTUALLY LEAVE FOR
+     NELSON AS CADETS ON A SHEEP RUN.
+
+
+On our return to Christchurch we were beset with a diversity of advice
+not calculated to bring us to a speedy decision. Some advised us to go
+on a sheep run for a year or two as cadets to learn the routine, with a
+view to obtaining thereafter an overseership, and in time a possible
+partnership. Others advised our setting up as carters between the Port
+and Christchurch, while, again, others recommended us to invest what
+money we possessed in land and take employment up country until we had
+saved enough to farm it. All advice was excellent, and had we decided on
+one line it would have been well, or if we had had fewer advisers
+perhaps it would have been better. We were waiting and talking about
+work instead of going at it, living at some expense, and keeping up
+appearances without means to support them. But it was not easy under the
+circumstances to decide. To go upon a sheep station and work as a
+labourer or overseer was very obnoxious to C----. With his home
+experience of farming he expected too much all at once, and naturally I
+was guided by him. Farming on a small scale, even if we had sufficient
+money to buy and work a farm, would not pay. There was not then a large
+enough home market for the crops produced. Land-holders held on, hoping
+that as the wealth of the Colony increased and the town extended and
+peopled, land would proportionately increase in value, and market for
+their produce would be found at home or abroad. But the Colony was then
+very young, and the staple produce of the country upon which everything
+depended was wool, which was only partially developed. The country was
+not then a tenth stocked. Sheep-farming was decidedly the thing to go in
+for whenever we could contrive to do so, but in the meantime what were
+we to take up for a living. The answer should have been simple enough.
+But, however, there is no need to dwell on our petty disappointments;
+they were only what hundreds feel and have felt who have gone to the
+Colonies with too sanguine expectations that it was an easy and pleasant
+road to fortune. That it is a road to fortune is very true, if a young
+man is content and determined to begin at the beginning and go steadily
+on; but it is not always an easy road at first for the youngster who has
+very little or nothing to commence upon, especially if he be a gentleman
+born, and has only his hands to help him. He must put his pride in his
+pocket and learn to be content to be taken at his present value. If he
+does that he will find, that his birth and education will stand to him,
+and that no matter what occupation he may be forced to take up, if his
+life and conduct be manly and reliable he will command as much or more
+respect from his (for the time being) fellow workers as he would do
+under different circumstances. It is a huge mistake to suppose that the
+gentleman lowers himself anywhere--and especially in the Colonies--by
+undertaking any kind of manual labour. I have known the sons of
+gentlemen of good family working as bullock-drivers, shepherds,
+stockdrivers, bushmen, for a yearly wage, and nobody considered the
+employment derogatory. On the contrary, these are the men who get on and
+in time become wealthy.
+
+A sad event occurred about this time, which, as it was in a way
+connected with our ship, I will relate here. It was the custom of
+Government at that time to send out to the Australian Colonies for
+employment as domestic servants, possibly wives for young colonists
+(women being much in the minority), a number of girls from the
+Reformatory Schools in London; and in the "Mary Anne" some twenty or
+thirty of them had arrived. While on board they were under the charge of
+matrons, and on arrival were received in a house maintained at
+Government expense, until they obtained service or were otherwise
+disposed of. This house was under the superintendence of a medical man,
+Dr. T----, whose acquaintance we had made on our first arrival. He was a
+middle-aged man, a thorough gentleman, a bachelor, and a great favourite
+in Christchurch society. Amongst the shipment of young women was a very
+handsome, ladylike, and well-educated girl, and an accomplished
+musician. The doctor was smitten, proposed to her, and married her
+quietly. On the day on which we first heard of the event we happened to
+be sitting with some acquaintances in the public room of the White Hart
+Hotel, when Dr. T---- entered, and walking over to the fire, called for
+a glass of water, nodding to us all round in his usual friendly way. On
+receiving the water, he threw into it and stirred up a powder which he
+took from his pocket, and immediately drank off the mixture. "I've done
+it now," he said; "I have taken strychnine!" and remained standing with
+his back to the fire in an unconcerned manner. We scarcely heeded his
+remark, taking it as a joke, till he suddenly crossed to a sofa, and
+called to us for God's sake to send for a doctor. One was sent for, but
+he arrived too late, if indeed his presence could have been of use at
+any time. A doctor knows how much to take to ensure death. After a few
+fits of convulsions, very terrible to witness, Dr. T---- was a corpse.
+The cause of his committing suicide was due to his discovery, very soon
+after his marriage, of the true character of the woman he had taken to
+his home.
+
+I do not know whether the custom of sending out to the Colonies persons
+of this class still exists, but it certainly cannot be a good one, and I
+fear that but a very small percentage of them really turn over a new
+leaf. There must be now, at any rate, better means of disposing of the
+surplus members of reformatory establishments in the Old Country than
+sending them to run wild amidst the freedom and temptations of the new
+world--a custom as hurtful to them as to the Colony which receives them.
+
+C---- and I at length decided to commence work as carriers; we rented a
+four-acre paddock, and built a small wooden hut, and were in treaty for
+the purchase of the necessary drays and teams, but it was all being done
+in a half-hearted way, as well as in opposition to the best of our
+advisers. C----'s aversion to undertake anything where he was not
+entirely his own master was unconquerable. Doubtless the carrying
+business would have answered very well, for a time at any rate, and
+there was no actual hurry, so long as we were employed and earning a
+living, but it was not to be.
+
+We were invited to meet at dinner at the Chief Justice's a Mr. and Mrs.
+Lee from Nelson Province. Mr. Lee was a large sheep-farmer, and before
+we left that evening we had accepted a most kind invitation from him to
+go to his run for a month or two at any rate, before deciding finally to
+take up the rough and uncertain business we had proposed for ourselves.
+The Judge so strongly advised this course for us both, that C---- could
+not refuse, although he was by no means keen about it. The judge
+explained that the opportunity was an excellent one, and would in all
+probability lead to his (C----'s) being offered the overseership, if he
+decided to take up the life after a fair trial. I did not know then, as
+I did soon after, that C---- had serious intentions of abandoning the
+country before giving it a fair trial; everything he saw was obnoxious
+to him, and he evidently yearned for his home in Ireland and his little
+farm again.
+
+I purchased for my own use a small but powerful bay mare, C---- obtained
+a mount from Mr. Lee, and in the course of a few days we started in
+company with Mr. and Mrs. Lee, all on horseback, for their station of
+Highfield.
+
+Highfield was, as well as I recollect, nearly three hundred miles from
+Christchurch, and we accomplished the distance in a little over a week,
+Mrs. Lee riding with us all the way. Indeed, there was no other means of
+travelling over that wild track, and she was, like most squatters' wives
+in those days, an experienced horsewoman.
+
+Our luggage was carried on three pack horses, which we drove before us,
+and in this manner we accomplished from thirty to forty miles each day.
+
+At night we rested, either at a rough accommodation house (a kind of
+private hotel) or a squatter's station, and during the day's ride we
+sometimes halted for lunch at any convenient locality where we could
+find water to make tea and firewood to boil it with. Then the packs and
+saddles were removed from the horses, which were allowed to roll and
+feed on the native grass while we refreshed the inner man with the usual
+bush fare, of which a sufficient supply was carried with us.
+
+After crossing the Hurunui river, the boundary between Canterbury and
+Nelson, we soon left the plains behind and entered a fine undulating
+country watered by abundant streams and some large rivers, which latter
+could be forded only with considerable care and judgment, being
+sometimes full of quicksands, and always rapid.
+
+On approaching our destination, which, as its name implies, stood on an
+elevated situation, the gorges and river-bed flats, along which our
+track ran, narrowed and became more wooded and picturesque, till we at
+length passed through the narrow precipitous gorge that led us to the
+open plateau upon which the station buildings stood. These comprised the
+dwelling house, a long, low, commodious building, furnished most
+comfortably in English fashion; the men's huts, comprising three
+sleeping rooms, the kitchen and dining-room for the hands, the store,
+dairy, etc., with an enclosed yard, formed one group, while at some
+distance away stood the woolshed and sheep yards, paddocks, stock yards
+for cattle and sheds for cows and working bullocks. In front of the
+dwelling was a pretty and rather extensive garden plot, through the
+centre of which wound a small stream of pure spring water. The entire
+group of buildings, with the garden, paddocks, etc., occupied the centre
+of a piece of undulating land, open towards the south, where a fine view
+of the country over which we had journeyed was visible, and on all other
+sides was bounded by hills, which to the north and west stretched away
+to the Alps. It was a grand site to make a home upon, although I could
+not help the feeling that it was a somewhat lonely one; the nearest
+neighbours were fifteen to twenty miles distant.
+
+Mr. Lee's run comprised about 30,000 acres, principally hills, with
+occasional stretches of flat land upon which the cattle and horses
+grazed, while the sheep fed on the mountain sides.
+
+We speedily fell into the life, and found it exhilarating. Mr. Lee was a
+fine specimen of the English country squire, a good horseman and
+sportsman, and he could put his hand to any kind of work. He had a large
+store and workshop near the yards, where every conceivable thing needed
+for use on a station so far from supplies was kept, and he was an
+excellent carpenter and smith. Indeed, a great portion of the rather
+extensive buildings and yards he had erected himself, with such
+assistance as he could derive from raw station hands, while only such
+articles as doors and windows, furniture, and suchlike were brought from
+Christchurch. The house walls, roofs, and floors were all of green
+timber cut in the neighbouring pine forest. The walls of the living
+houses were composed of a framing of round pine averaging 4 or 5 inches
+thick, covered on the outside with weather boarding, and on the inside
+with laths, the space between of four inches being filled with clay and
+chopped grass, and the whole surface afterwards plastered with clay and
+mud-washed. The roofs were made of pine framing covered with boards and
+pine shingles. The outbuildings were usually built with roughly squared
+framing to which heavy split slabs would be vertically fastened, the
+inside being left rough or plastered with mud as desired; and the roofs
+were of round pine framing covered with rickers (young pine plants) and
+thatched with snow grass. Squatters soon learnt to be their own
+architects, and very good ones many of them turned out.
+
+The country immediately surrounding the station was almost treeless, and
+Mr. Lee was doing a good deal of planting, and had a very fine garden
+under formation. Some two miles to the rear of the station, in a deep
+cleft of the hills, lay a considerable black and white pine forest. It
+is a peculiarity of New Zealand that the pine forests indigenous to that
+country (and which bear no similarity to European pines) are invariably
+found in more or less accurately defined patches, growing thickly and
+never scattered to any appreciable extent. One may ride twenty miles
+through spurs and hills with no vegetation on them, and then suddenly
+stumble on a densely wooded ravine or mountain side so accurately
+contained within itself as to lead one to imagine it had been originally
+planted.
+
+Within twenty miles of Highfield was another station, called Parnassus,
+belonging to Mr. Edward Lee, our Mr. Lee's brother. We soon rode over to
+see him, and made excursions to other neighbours, none living nearer
+than ten miles.
+
+There were upwards of one hundred horses at Highfield, including all
+ages and sexes, of which the main body of course ran wild, while a few
+were kept in paddocks for use. The horse Mrs. Lee rode from Christchurch
+was a new purchase and a very fine animal, named Maseppa, and, strange
+to say, although he carried her perfectly all the journey to Highfield,
+he had now, after a few weeks on the run, developed into a vicious
+buckjumper. One day, when Mr. Lee wanted to ride him, he was driven in
+with the mob and saddled. Immediately he was mounted the brute bucked
+and sent Mr. Lee flying. Fortunately the ground was soft, and he escaped
+with a few bruises. C---- then had a try, with more success, but the
+horse was never safe for a lady to ride, and he was soon after disposed
+of to a stock-rider on the Waiou.
+
+It may be interesting here to give a general sketch of a sheep-farmer's
+life and work on his station, obtained from my experience at Highfield,
+and occasionally on other runs, during my five years' residence in the
+country, and this I will endeavour to do in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     WORKING OF A SHEEP-RUN--SCAB--C----'S DEPARTURE FOR HOME, ETC.
+
+
+The intending squatter might either purchase a sheep run outright, if
+opportunity offered, or if he was fortunate enough to discover a tract
+of unclaimed country, he could occupy it at once by paying the
+Provincial Government a nominal rental, something like half a farthing
+an acre. This would only be the goodwill of the land, which was liable
+to be purchased outright by anybody else direct from Government, at the
+upset price fixed, which in Nelson was one pound per acre for hilly
+land, and two pounds for flat land suitable for cultivation. Nobody
+could purchase outright a run or portion of it while another occupier
+held the goodwill of it without first challenging the latter, who
+retained the presumptive right to purchase.
+
+To protect themselves as much as possible from land being purchased away
+from them, or from being obliged to purchase themselves, goodwill
+holders were in the habit of buying up the best flat land, as well as
+making the land around their homesteads private property. A run so
+divided and cut up would not be so tempting to a rich man, and would
+effectually debar the man of small means, as the present occupier would
+not sell his private property unless at a price which would reimburse
+him for the loss of his interest in the goodwill of the run, and the
+new-comer, if he did not possess the scraps of private property as well
+as the remainder of the run, would be continually harassed by the
+previous owner occupying the best portions, and would be liable to fine
+for trespass, etc.
+
+When a tract of country is occupied for the first time, it will usually
+be found covered with tussocks of grass scattered far apart and lying
+matted and rank on the ground. The first thing to do is to apply the
+match and burn all clean to the roots, and after a few showers of rain
+the grass will begin to sprout from the burnt stumps. Then the sheep are
+turned on to it, and the cropping, tramping, and manuring it receives,
+with occasional further burnings, renders it in a couple of years fair
+grazing country. An even sod takes the place of the isolated tussock,
+and the grass from being wild and unsavoury becomes sweet and tender.
+
+It takes, however, three to five years to transform a wild mountain side
+(if the land be moderately good) into an ordinarily fair sheep-run
+calculated to carry one sheep to every five acres--that is, of course,
+for the native or indigenous grass; the same ground cleared and laid
+down in English grass would carry three to five sheep to the acre.
+
+A settler having obtained his run is bound by Government to stock it
+within a year with a stipulated number of sheep per 1,000 acres, failing
+which he forfeits his claim to possession. A man holding a fairly good
+run of 30,000 acres may feed from 3,000 to 4,000 sheep upon it, making
+due allowance for increase and disability to dispose of surplus stock.
+
+The farming is conducted as follows: The flock is divided into two or
+more parts, in all cases the wethers being kept separate from the ewes
+and lambs, and occupying different portions of the run, the object being
+that the ewes and lambs may have rest, the wethers being liable to be
+driven in for sale or slaughter.
+
+A shepherd is put in charge of each flock, and he resides at some
+convenient place on the boundary, whence it is his duty to walk or ride
+round his boundary at least once a day, and see that no sheep have
+crossed it. If he discovers tracks made during his absence he must
+follow them until he recovers his wanderers.
+
+It is not necessary that a shepherd should see his sheep daily; he may
+not see a third of his flocks for months, unless he wishes to discover
+their actual whereabouts; he has only to assure himself that they have
+not left the run, and it is practically impossible for them to do so
+without leaving their footprints to be discovered on the boundary.
+
+The breeding season is spring and the shearing season summer, which
+corresponds to our winter in England. The usual increase of lambs, if
+the ewes be healthy and strong, is 75 to 95 per cent. in about equal
+proportions of male and female.
+
+When the lambs are about six weeks old the entire flock is driven in for
+cutting, tailing, and earmarking. The tails are cut off and the ear
+nicked or punched with the registered earmark of the station, and a
+certain number of the most approved male lambs are reserved. A good hand
+can cut and mark two thousand lambs per day, and not over one per cent.
+will die from the consequences. When the operation is over, the flock is
+counted out and handed over to the shepherd to take them back to their
+run until the shearing season.
+
+At this time a complete muster is made; all hands turn out on the hills,
+and every sheep is brought in that can be found. Not infrequently in the
+hilly country an exciting chase is had after a wild mob that have defied
+the exertions of the shepherds and their dogs for a considerable time.
+These animals will run up the most inaccessible places, skirt the edges
+of precipices at a height at which they can be discovered only by the
+aid of a telescope, and have been known to maintain their freedom in
+spite of man or dog for years. When at length caught they present a
+ludicrous appearance; their fleeces have become tangled and matted,
+hanging to the ground in ragged tails, and can with difficulty be
+removed, their feet have grown crooked and deformed, and they rarely
+again become domesticated with the flock.
+
+The shearing is carried on in a large shed, divided into pens or small
+compartments, each connected separately with the attached yards. It is
+usually done by contract, the price being L1 to L1 5s. per hundred
+sheep. Each man has his pen, which is cleared out and refilled as often
+as necessary, and at each clearance the number therein are counted to
+his name. The shorn sheep are passed direct to the branding yard, and
+from thence to a common yard, from which all are counted out at
+nightfall for return to the run.
+
+A good shearer will clip one hundred sheep in a day, the average for a
+gang of men being 75.
+
+Upon the fleece being removed it is gathered up by an attendant placed
+for the purpose, and handed over to the sorter, who spreads it upon a
+table and removes dirty and jagged parts, and sometimes it is classed.
+It is then rolled up and thrown into the wool press to be packed for
+export.
+
+The wool bales so pressed measure 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft., and contain
+on an average one hundred fleeces, and each fleece runs from three to
+four pounds in weight. The lambs' wool is pressed separately, and
+commands a higher price than that of the adult sheep.
+
+The hand press is a wooden box, made the size of the canvas bale, which
+is suspended therein by hooks from the open top; the box has a movable
+side, which is loosened out to give exit to the bale when pressed. The
+pressing is done by the feet, assisted by a blunt spade, and the bales
+are generally very creditably turned out, the sheep-farmer priding
+himself on a neatly pressed bale. When pressed the end is sewn up and
+the bale rolled over to a convenient place for branding, when it is
+ready for loading on the dray.
+
+Previous to shearing, the sheep are sometimes driven through a deep
+running stream and roughly washed, to remove sand and grease. Wool
+certified to have been so cleaned will command a higher price than
+unwashed wool.
+
+At the time to which I refer, most of the runs in Nelson Province were
+"unclean"--that is, infected with scab; and it became so general that it
+was considered almost impossible to eradicate. The disease was most
+infectious. A mob of clean, healthy sheep merely driven over a run upon
+which infected sheep had recently fed would almost surely catch the
+disease.
+
+A sheep severely infected with scab becomes a pitiful object. The body
+gets covered with a yellow scaly substance, the wool falls off or is
+rubbed off in patches, the disease causing intense itchiness, the animal
+loses flesh and appetite, and unless relieved sickens and dies.
+
+The Nelson settlers, although they could not hope to speedily eradicate
+the pest, were nevertheless bound by the Provincial Government to adopt
+certain precautions against its spreading. Every station was provided
+with a scab yard and a tank in which the flocks were periodically bathed
+in hot tobacco water, and such animals as were unusually afflicted
+received special attention and hand-dressing. These arrangements
+strictly enforced proved successful to a great extent in keeping the
+disease in check.
+
+Mr. Lee's run was scabby, although not so bad as some of his
+neighbour's, and the strictest precautions were observed to keep it as
+clean as possible.
+
+Upon arrival at Highfield we had immediate opportunity to see for
+ourselves the most interesting part of the working of the run. The
+cutting season had just commenced, and the mustering and shearing would
+ere long follow.
+
+My chum C---- was a particularly smart fellow at everything appertaining
+to this kind of life. He speedily picked up the routine, and made
+himself so generally valuable that Mr. Lee offered him the post of
+overseer, with L60 a year as a beginning, and all found. But C----, on
+the plea that the pay was too small, refused it. This was his great
+mistake, to refuse what ninety-nine men in a hundred would have jumped
+at in his circumstances! It would have been the first step on the
+ladder, and with his abilities and experience he had only to wait a
+certain time to become a partner. But his heart was not in the country,
+and nothing would reconcile him to remaining in it. Within two months of
+our coming to Highfield he determined to return home.
+
+This resolution being taken, nothing would shake it, and the day was
+fixed for his departure. He and I were badly suited I fear to work
+together, and had he had some other chum perhaps he might have agreed
+with the new life better, and turned out a successful colonist; for most
+certainly, although we were not able to see it at the time, he had
+eminent opportunities open to him for becoming one.
+
+I rode twenty miles with him on his way to Christchurch. He was to stay
+the first night at a station twenty-five miles from Highfield. On the
+bank of the Waiou river we parted--we two chums who had come all the way
+from the Old Country to work and stick together. I thought it then hard
+of C----, although I had no right to expect him to stay in New Zealand
+in opposition to his own wishes and judgment to please me. As I watched
+him cross the river and presently disappear between the hills further
+on, a feeling of strange loneliness came over me. Well, I was not much
+more than a child!
+
+I must have sat there ruminating for a considerable time, for when I
+came to myself it was dark, and I remembered that I was in an almost
+trackless region which I had passed through only once before in
+daylight, and in company, when we had a view of the hills to guide us,
+and that I was at least seven miles from the nearest station
+(Rutherford's), but of the exact direction of which I was not certain.
+However, I had been long enough in the country to have passed more than
+one night in the open air, and at the worst this could only happen
+again, and I was provided with a blanket strapped to my saddle. I was
+not, however, to be without bed or supper. I mounted my mare, which had
+been browsing beside me, and gave her her head--the wisest course I
+could have taken. After an hour's sharp walk I discovered lights in the
+distance, which soon after proved to be those of Rutherford's station,
+where I was most hospitably received.
+
+Considerable astonishment was expressed at C----'s--to them--
+unaccountably foolish action in throwing over, after two months' trial,
+an opportunity which most men situated as he was would have worked for
+years to obtain.
+
+C---- reached the Old Country in due time, resumed his small farm,
+married, had a large family, and died a poor man.
+
+The following morning I returned to Highfield feeling myself a better
+man and more independent now that I had myself only to depend on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     SHEPHERD'S LIFE--DRIVING SHEEP TO CHRISTCHURCH--KILLING A WILD
+     SOW--ARRIVAL IN CHRISTCHURCH.
+
+
+I passed nearly a year at Highfield, during which time I made myself
+acquainted with all the routine of a sheep-farmer's life. I learned to
+ride stock, shoe horses, shear sheep, plough, fence, fell and split
+timber, and everything else that an experienced squatter ought to be
+able to do, not omitting the accomplishment of smoking. Mr. Lee then
+offered me what he had offered C----, and I agreed to accept it pending
+a visit I meditated making to Christchurch to consult my friend Mr.
+Gresson about a desire I entertained of entering the Government Land
+Office and to become a surveyor.
+
+I had done my best to like the life of a sheep-farmer, but I was
+becoming weary of it, and something was always prompting me to seek for
+more congenial employment. So far as stockriding, pig-hunting, and
+shooting were concerned, the life was delightful, but such recreations
+could be enjoyed anywhere. To sheep and sheep-farming I conceived a
+growing aversion as a life's work, and although I was prepared to hold
+to it if nothing better to my mind presented itself, I was equally
+determined to find something else if it were possible.
+
+Mr. Lee had three shepherds at this time in charge of flocks, who
+resided in different places at least four miles from each other and from
+the home station. Two of these were the sons of gentlemen in the Old
+Country, and one of them a distant relation. The life of the boundary
+shepherd is a peculiarly lonely one, especially if he be young and
+single. His residence is a little one-roomed hut, sometimes two rooms,
+built of mud and thatched with grass, an earthen floor, with a large
+chimney and fireplace occupying one end. His furniture consists of a
+table, bunk, and a couple of chairs, and if he be an educated man and
+fond of reading he will have a table for his books and writing
+materials. He is supplied monthly with a sack of flour and a bag of tea
+and sugar, salt, etc. His cooking utensils are a kettle, camp oven, and
+frying pan, to which are added a few plates, knives and forks, and two
+or three tin porringers. He always possesses at least one dog and a
+horse, and possibly a cat. The only light is that procured from what is
+called a slush lamp, made by keeping an old bowl or pannikin replenished
+by refuse fat or dripping in which is inserted a thick cotton wick. He
+cooks for himself, washes his own clothes, cuts up his firewood, and
+fetches water for daily use. Such luxuries as eggs, butter, or milk are
+unknown. Perhaps once a month he may have occasion to visit the home
+station, or somebody passing may call at his hut, or he may occasionally
+meet a neighbouring shepherd on his round. With these exceptions he has
+no intercourse with his fellow-beings, and all his affection is bestowed
+on his dog and horse; he would be badly off, indeed, without them.
+
+One of these young men, by name Wren, became a great friend of mine, and
+many a time I visited him or spent a night in his lonely little hut,
+which was located in a small clearing surrounded by dense bush and
+immediately over a small and turbulent stream, which he used to say was
+always good company and prevented his feeling so lonely during the long
+dark nights as he otherwise would. It is strange how in the course of
+time a person will get accustomed to such a lonely life, and many like
+it, but it cannot be good for a young man to have too much of it, and
+fortunately for Wren a few years would see him located at headquarters.
+To take charge of a boundary was part of his education as a cadet.
+
+It was different with the other. He was an unfortunate of that class so
+frequently met with in the Colonies, a "ne'er-do-well" who had while at
+home contracted habits of dissipation, and he was sent out to New
+Zealand under the then very mistaken supposition that he would thereby
+be cured. But there is no permanent cure for such a man; his life may be
+prolonged a little by enforced abstinence, but he will never, or rarely
+ever, recover his power of will so far as to avoid temptation if it
+comes in his way. If it be possible to do such a man any real good,
+there may be some chance for him at home, where he would have the care
+and influence of his friends to support him, but there is no chance for
+him in the Colonies. Such a man will under pressure abstain for months,
+but the moment that pressure is removed he will make for the nearest
+place where his propensity can be indulged, and give himself up to the
+devil body and soul, so long as he has the means to do so, or can obtain
+what he desires by fair means or foul. He knows no shame; all
+honourable and manly feeling has become callous within him; and it is a
+happy release indeed for all connected with him when his pitiable life
+is ended.
+
+It was a custom of Mr. Lee's to send yearly to Christchurch a flock of
+fat wethers for sale, and as I wished to proceed there on the business I
+referred to, I was to be entrusted with the charge of them, in company
+with a Scottish shepherd, by name Campbell, who was a new arrival in the
+country.
+
+The sheep numbered four hundred, and we had to drive them nearly three
+hundred miles, and deliver them in as good condition as when they left.
+We started early in December, the hottest time of the year, carrying
+what we needed for camping out on one pack horse. It was by no means a
+pleasure journey to drive, or rather feed, sheep along for three hundred
+miles at ten to fifteen miles a day, over dry and hot plains with not a
+tree to shelter one, and to stay awake turn about night after night to
+watch them. Mr. Lee accompanied us as far as the Waiou river, over which
+it occupied the best part of a day to cross the sheep, then he left us
+to proceed to Christchurch to seek and bring back the Government Scab
+Inspector to meet us at the Hurunui river, the boundary, and there to
+pass the sheep, otherwise they would not be permitted to enter the
+Canterbury province.
+
+It may appear strange that it would occupy a day to cross 400 sheep over
+a river, but it is a very difficult thing to induce sheep to take to the
+water; indeed, by merely driving them it is impossible. Where the water
+is at all fordable, several men wade in, each carrying a sheep, and when
+half-way across the animals are loosed and sent swimming to the other
+side, but not infrequently this plan fails, by reason of the sheep
+turning and swimming back to the mob, and the operation may have to be
+repeated many times before it is successful. The object is to give the
+mob a lead, and when sheep get a lead they will follow it blindly, no
+matter where it will lead them to. When the river is too deep for
+wading, men on horseback ford or swim over, carrying sheep on their
+saddles, and drop them in midstream till the required lead is obtained.
+As soon as the mob understand they have to go, a panic seems to take
+them, and they make such frantic efforts to rush on that to prevent them
+hurting each other is sometimes impossible. An unfortunate instance of
+this occurred while I was at Highfield. We were driving a large mob of
+sheep to the yards to be dipped, and had to pass them over one side of
+the rocky gorge leading to the Highfield plateau before mentioned. Some
+of the leaders near the edge took alarm, and a few fell over the cliff.
+Seeing their comrades disappear, others followed, and then the whole mob
+made for the precipice, and jumped frantically over. The fall was about
+twenty feet only, but the animals followed each other with such rapidity
+that in a few minutes some three hundred sheep lay in a mass, piled on
+top of each other. It was with great difficulty the dogs and men
+prevented the whole mob following suit, in which case there would have
+been great loss; as it was, nearly one hundred sheep were smothered
+before it was possible to extricate them.
+
+There is another danger to which they are exposed when driving them over
+new ground. There is a small plant, I forget the name of it, but it is
+well known to every shepherd, and grows in luxuriance along some of the
+river beds. It is about a foot high and has dark green leaves. If by any
+chance a mob of hungry sheep are driven into this plant, they will
+attack it ravenously, and in a few minutes they will stagger and fall as
+if intoxicated, and if not immediately attended to they will die. The
+only chance for them is to bleed them by driving in the blade of a small
+knife each side of the nose. The blood will flow black and thick, and
+the animal will speedily recover, but delay is fatal.
+
+We travelled steadily about 15 miles each day, and in due time reached
+the north bank of the Hurunui river, only to find no sign of Mr. Lee or
+the Inspector. This was specially disappointing as our supply of flour
+and sugar was getting very low, and we were promised a fresh supply at
+this point. For several days neither the supplies nor Mr. Lee appeared.
+The little flour remaining was full of maggots, our tea and tobacco were
+finished, and we had to live on mutton boiled in a frying-pan (we were
+obliged to kill a sheep). There was no feeding ground near the river,
+the country having been recently burnt, and so we were obliged to take
+the sheep daily a couple of miles inland, carrying with us some of the
+mutton and water, and drink the latter nearly hot, travelling back to
+the river-bed at nightfall to camp the sheep in an angle between two
+streams, by which means we contrived to obtain a little rest.
+
+One day we varied our food by securing some fresh pork in a somewhat
+novel manner. There were many wild pigs about but we had no means of
+shooting or otherwise killing them. One day while driving our sheep
+inland, we came across a mob of pigs in a dry nallah, all of which
+bolted except a full-grown sow and a litter of young ones, which could
+not run with the herd; and as the mother would not leave them behind,
+she decided to stay, and if need be fight for her family. It was a
+touching picture, no doubt, but there is not much room for sentiment
+when the stomach is empty and the body weary and unsatisfied. The
+prospect of fresh pork that night in lieu of the everlasting mutton, the
+cooking of which we had varied in every way we could devise was very
+tempting, and we set to work to make some plan for capturing the sow;
+the baby piggies were too young and delicate for our taste.
+
+We possessed no weapons but our pocket knives, and they would be of
+small use against so powerful a brute as a wild sow in defence of her
+young. The dogs shirked her neighbourhood altogether. At length, in our
+extremity, we were struck by the idea that we might strangle her with
+one of the tether ropes carried around the horses' necks. We unloosed
+one, and each taking an end thirty feet apart, approached to the
+encounter. To our amazement and joy the sow herself here contributed in
+a quite unexpected manner to her own capture. Immediately the rope was
+within her reach she snapped viciously at it, and retained it in her
+mouth. Discovering that she persisted in holding on, and that the rope
+was far back in her jaws, we shortened hand rapidly, and ran round,
+crossing each other in a circle, keeping the rope taut meanwhile. By
+this means we quickly twisted the rope firmly over her snout, so that
+had she now desired she could not have rid herself of it. The rest was
+easy; we shortened hand till near enough to despatch her with our clasp
+knives. We cut up the beast and carried off as much of the meat as would
+last us some days, and that night supped sumptuously off pork chops.
+
+[Illustration: KILLING THE WILD SOW.]
+
+After ten days of this very undesirable existence, Mr. Lee arrived and
+informed us that the Inspector would be up on the morrow. Very welcome
+news; and we were further gladdened by a fresh supply of the necessaries
+of life which Mr. Lee had brought on a led pack horse. The delay was
+owing to the Inspector having been called away to a distant part of
+Canterbury, and Mr. Lee had a ride of nearly a hundred miles to find
+him.
+
+In those days the postal arrangements were very primitive. Once a week
+only the mails were carried, and some stations distant from the line of
+route were obliged to send a horseman 20 to 50 miles to fetch their
+post.
+
+The sheep were safely crossed on the third day, and we started afresh
+for Christchurch.
+
+We had up to this time been more than a month on the journey, at the
+hottest season, without a tree to shelter us and with only the bare
+ground for a bed. One blanket and one change of clothes had I. Campbell,
+I think, had not so much. For a part of the time mutton and water
+seasoned with dust was our food, and the open sky our covering day and
+night; however, we were none the worse for it, and to a certain extent I
+enjoyed the life, for had I not then rude health and a splendid
+constitution, which subsequently carried me safely through rougher, if
+not more enjoyable, experiences than driving sheep.
+
+The rest of the journey was comparatively easy, and fifteen days saw us
+in Christchurch with the sheep in excellent condition. Here I found
+letters from home awaiting me, those from my father and mother almost
+insisting on my return and to resume my studies. This was due to the
+accounts given them by C----, for I took special care to write in
+glowing terms of everything. The letter had, however, no effect towards
+altering my determination to stay in New Zealand.
+
+Through Judge Gresson's influence I obtained temporary employment under
+the Land Office, but to join permanently would require the payment of a
+fee for which I had not sufficient funds in hand. It was suggested that
+I should write home and ask for assistance, but this I objected to do. I
+merely mentioned the circumstances, leaving the rest to chance, and in
+the meantime I was engaged to accompany a survey party down the coast,
+which would start in a few days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     I JOIN A SURVEY PARTY--TRAVEL TO THE ASHBURTON.
+
+
+The survey party consisted of a Government Surveyor Mr. D----, his
+assistant H----, and myself, with a few labourers, and our destination
+was Lake Ellesmere, some 15 to 20 miles down the coast, where a dispute
+between the squatters and the Provincial Government boundaries was to be
+decided.
+
+We started in a rough kind of two-wheeled cart, into which Mr. D----,
+H----, and I, with our provisions for ten days and the survey
+instruments, were all packed together with our respective swags of
+blankets and the cooking utensils. This vehicle was pulled by one horse,
+and as we had no tents we would have to camp out most of the time.
+
+We reached our destination the same evening, when, tethering the horse,
+we proceeded to make ourselves comfortable for the night round a camp
+fire, whereon we boiled our tea and fried chops, and after placing the
+usual damper under the hot ashes so as to be ready for the morning, we
+rolled our blankets around us and with feet to the fire, slept soundly.
+
+My duties consisted in dragging the chain or humping a theodolite knee
+deep in water or swamp, but I learned much even in this short experience
+which proved of subsequent value.
+
+On our return, Mr. D---- had to diverge to a small farm, if it could be
+called such, owned by two brothers named Drew, having some work to look
+into for them. These Drews were the sons of a clergymen in England, and
+they had lately come to New Zealand with a little money and no
+experience, taken a small tract of land in this swampy wilderness, and
+settled down to farm it. The buildings consisted of a wretched mud hut,
+some twelve feet square, a small yard, and a few pigsties. What a
+habitation it was, and what filth and absence of management was apparent
+all over it! Failure was stamped on these men, and on their
+surroundings; it was clear they could not succeed, and yet they were not
+drunkards or scamps or reckless; on the contrary, they were quiet and
+good-natured, and appeared to be hard-working, although it was
+difficult to see what work they really did.
+
+For two days we stayed here, all five of us sleeping at night on the
+floor of the hut. There were no bunks. I was very glad when that duty
+was over.
+
+These Drews soon after gave up the farm; one died, the other I saw two
+years afterwards, the part-proprietor of a glass and delph shop in
+Christchurch, but only for a time. That inevitable tendency to failure
+engraved on the Drews followed him to the glass shop, and the latter
+became, in due course, the sole property of Drew's partner.
+
+If these men had gone upon a farm or sheep-run for two or three years'
+apprenticeship, investing their money safely meanwhile, they might have
+become in a few more years, prosperous colonists. It was their absolute
+ignorance, added to a want of sufficient means to carry out what they
+undertook to do, that brought depression and failure upon them. And a
+percentage of the emigrants who go to the Colonies act under similar
+circumstances as they did, and from being on arrival strong, hopeful and
+brave, they, from lack of something in themselves or from want of the
+needful advice and sense to adopt it, gradually deteriorate past all
+recovery. I recollect the billiard-marker at one of the Christchurch
+hotels was the younger son of a baronet. He worked as billiard-marker
+for his food, and as much alcohol as he could get. I believe he was
+never unfit to mark, and never quite sober. He died at his post, but not
+before he had learned that he had succeeded to the baronetcy, and seen
+relatives who had come from home to search for and bring him back. It is
+a strange error of judgment which sends such men as this to the
+Colonies, but perhaps those who are responsible consider they are
+justified by the removal of the scapegrace and finally getting rid of
+him by any means.
+
+On our return to Christchurch I met my old friend and fellow voyager T.
+Smith, who had just been appointed overseer of a sheep and cattle
+station down south. He pressed me to accompany him to the locality,
+pending arrival of letters from home, and as I had nothing just then on
+hand, I accepted his invitation. It seemed very apparent that I was fast
+becoming a rolling stone, but though I stuck to nothing long, it was not
+altogether my fault, and I was always at work, increasing my stock of
+experience, such as it was. This departure to Smith's station on the
+Ashburton led me away on an entirely new line for some time.
+
+The station to which Smith had been appointed overseer was about 100
+miles from Christchurch. The owner did not live there, so the entire
+management was in Smith's hands. The route lay across the Canterbury
+plains by a defined cart track, with accommodation houses at certain
+distances along its course, so no camping out was needed.
+
+The Canterbury Plains are supposed to be the finest in the world,
+extending as they do, about 150 miles in length by 40 to 60 in width,
+and over this immense space there was not a forest tree or scarcely a
+shrub of any size to be met with, except a description of palm, called
+cabbage trees, which grow in parts along the river beds, and
+occasionally dot the adjacent plain. The plains are almost perfectly
+flat, with no undulations more than a few feet in height. They are
+intersected every ten to twenty miles by wide shallow river beds, which
+during the summer months, when the warm nor'-westers melt the snow and
+ice on the Alps, are often terrific torrents, impassable for days
+together, while at other times they are shingle interspersed with clear
+rapid streams, more or less shallow, and generally fordable with
+ordinary care. Some of the principal rivers such as the Rakaia,
+Rangatata and Waitaki, are at all times formidable.
+
+The Rakaia bed, for example, is, or was, nearly half a mile wide, a vast
+expanse of shingle, full of treacherous quicksands, in which the course
+of the different streams is altered after every fresh. One might
+approach the Rakaia to-day and find it consist of three or four streams
+from twenty to one hundred yards wide, and not exceeding one to two feet
+in depth; to-morrow it might be a roaring sea a quarter of a mile in
+width, racing at a speed of five to ten miles an hour.
+
+At the crossing of this river, accommodation houses were established at
+each side, both establishments providing expert men and horses who were
+constantly employed seeking for fords and conducting travellers across.
+
+Nowadays, doubtless fine bridges, railways, and smart hotels have taken
+the place of what I am endeavouring to describe as the condition of
+things fifty years ago. The Rakaia is fifty miles from Christchurch, and
+that was our first day's ride. The accommodation house on the north side
+was a weird-looking habitation, a long, low, single-storeyed
+desolate-looking building, partly constructed of mud and partly of green
+timber slabs rough from the forest, but it was, even so, a welcome sight
+after our long monotonous ride.
+
+The house consisted of a small sitting-room or parlour for the better
+class of guests, not uncomfortably furnished, and about twelve feet
+square, two small bedrooms, a kitchen and a bar, the former serving for
+cooking purposes as well as a sitting and a bed-room for those
+travellers who could not afford the luxury or were not entitled to the
+dignity of the parlour. Separated a little way from this tenement was a
+long low shed used as a stable for such animals as their owners could
+afford to pay for so much comfort and a feed, in preference to the usual
+tussock and twenty yards of tether on the well-cropped ground around the
+hostelry.
+
+It was a rough place, and a rough lot of characters were not
+unfrequently seen there. The Jack Tar just arrived from the bush or some
+up-country station with a cheque for a year's wages, bent on a spree,
+and standing drinks all round while his money lasted, the Scottish
+shepherd plying liquor and grasping hands for "Auld Lang Syne," the
+wretched debauched crawler, the villainous-looking "lag" from "t'other
+side," the bullock puncher, whose every alternate word was a profane
+oath, the stockrider, in his guernsey shirt and knee boots with
+stockwhip thrown over his shoulder, engaging the attention of those who
+would listen with some miraculous story of his exploits, mine host
+smilingly dealing out the fiery poison, with now and again the presence
+of the dripping forder from the river, come in for his glass of grog and
+pipe before resuming his perilous occupation.
+
+Smith and I put up in the parlour, and when we had dined and lit pipes
+proceeded to look after our horses, after which we paid a visit to the
+kitchen for a little hobnobbing with the motley assemblage collected
+there, and, of course, we stood liquor round in the usual friendly way.
+We soon retired, and ere long the kitchen floor, too, was covered with
+sleepers rolled in their blue or red blankets without which no colonist
+ever travelled.
+
+Early the following morning we were piloted over the river, and in the
+afternoon made the Ashburton, where was a very superior house of
+entertainment, conducted by a Mr. Turton, a man above the general run of
+bush hotel keepers, and who, I believe, subsequently became a rich
+squatter, as he well deserved.
+
+The third day's ride brought us to our destination. There was a
+comfortable rough dwelling house and the usual adjuncts in the way of
+station buildings.
+
+The situation was pleasant, at the opening of a wide gorge at the foot
+of the downs, and a fine stream ran along the front of the enclosure. A
+considerable portion of the run was hilly, and was at that time one of
+the best in the province.
+
+It was on this journey that I first came across the most wonderful
+optical illusions, called mirages, that I had seen, and there is
+something in the atmosphere maybe of the New Zealand plains that lends
+itself specially to the creation of these beautiful phenomena.
+
+We were riding over the open plain on a clear morning, near the
+Ashburton river bed, more than twenty miles from the nearest hills, when
+suddenly within fifty yards of us, appeared a most beautiful calm lake,
+apparently many miles in extent, and dotted with cabbage trees (like
+palms), whose reflections were cast in the water. Neither of us had seen
+the like before, and for a while really believed we were approaching a
+lake, although how such could possibly exist where a few moments before
+had been dry waving grass, was like magic. We rode on, and as we went
+the lake seemed to move with us, or rather to recede as we advanced,
+keeping always the same distance ahead. The phenomenon lasted for about
+a quarter of an hour, and then cleared away as magically as it came.
+
+In the same district I subsequently observed some extraordinary optical
+illusions of a like nature--once, in the direction of the sea where no
+hills or other obstacles intervened, I saw a beautiful inverted
+landscape of mountains, woods, and other objects like castles. The
+picture or reflection seemed suspended in the air, and extended a long
+way on the horizon. It must have been a reflection of some scene far
+from the place where the phenomenon presented itself.
+
+I spent a month with Smith, but as it was the slack time of the year
+there was little routine work on the station, and much of our time was
+passed in amusement.
+
+The best fun was pig hunting, in which we were frequently joined by
+neighbouring squatters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     WILD PIG-HUNTING.
+
+
+It is said that Captain Cook introduced pigs into New Zealand. They were
+at the time I write of, the only wild quadrupeds in the land, except
+rats (for which I believe the country is also indebted to Captain Cook),
+but together they made up for no end of absentees by their prodigious
+powers of breeding.
+
+Most of the middle island was infested with pigs; they principally
+inhabited the low hills and river bed flats and swamps, and would come
+down on to the large plains in herds for feeding on the root of a plant
+called spear grass, to obtain which they would tear up the sward and
+injure large tracts of grazing land.
+
+Their depredations became so extensive that the Provincial Government
+was obliged to take steps for their extermination by letting contracts
+for killing them off, at, I think, sixpence per head, or rather tail,
+and by this means I have known a single district cleared of 8,000 to
+10,000 pigs in a season.
+
+Pig-hunting on the hills is not the inspiriting amusement it is on the
+plains. In the former they must be hunted on foot, and shot down, riding
+being impracticable, while on the plain they were hunted on horseback
+with dogs bred for the purpose, and the huntsman's weapon is only a
+short heavy knife sharpened on both sides to a point like a dagger, and
+suspended in a sheath attached to the waist belt. Spears were sometimes
+used, but they were of a very rough and primitive description, and not
+effective. Pig-sticking on the modern scientific principles was not then
+practised in New Zealand.
+
+For a day's pig-hunting on the plains a party of men on strong and fast
+horses, with a few kangaroo dogs and a bullock dray in attendance,
+formed the hunting party. The location of the herd is previously noted
+and kept quiet. The dogs are held in leash till well within sight, say,
+from half to one mile off. The animals are easily startled, and they
+know that their best chance of safety depends on their reaching the
+hills before their pursuers overtake them.
+
+With a fast horse, giving full-grown pigs a start of a mile, it will be
+all the huntsman can do to pick them up in a gallop of 3 to 5 miles, and
+the best chance in his favour is when there is a herd, and not only a
+single pig or small number of strong hardy fellows. Until pressed the
+herd will keep pretty much together, and if by good management the
+hunters contrive to get to leeward of them as well as to intercept them
+from making direct for the cover of the hills they are sure of good
+sport.
+
+The kangaroo dog (so called) was a cross between a stag-hound and
+mastiff, very fast and powerful, and he ran only by sight. A
+well-trained dog on overhauling his pig will run up on the near side and
+seize the boar by the off lug, thereby protecting himself from being
+ripped by the animal's tusks. Then the hunter should be on the spot to
+jump off his horse and assist the dog by plunging his knife into the
+beast's heart from the off side.
+
+With a good dog the danger to which the experienced hunter is exposed is
+slight. A properly trained, courageous dog will hold the largest boar
+for several minutes in the manner described and will not let him go till
+forced to from sheer exhaustion. But if he is obliged to disengage
+himself before assistance arrives, he will very probably be ripped or
+killed.
+
+The trained bush horse will stand quietly where his rider leaves him,
+never attempting to move further from the spot than to nibble the grass
+will necessitate.
+
+One day, having heard that a large mob of pigs had come down on the
+plains near the gorge of the Rakaia, some fifteen miles off, we at once
+organised a hunt, and two neighbours from another station promised to
+join us.
+
+A rendezvous was fixed upon where we were to meet at daybreak, a bullock
+dray having been sent on the previous night. We were all well mounted
+and equipped with three fine dogs. After riding some ten miles we
+separated, taking up a long line over the plain, and using our field
+glasses to obtain an idea of the position of the herd as soon as
+possible, and thus give us time to arrange a plan of attack before
+coming to too close quarters, the animals being very quick to scent
+danger.
+
+One of our friends, Legge, who was riding on the extreme left, was the
+first to discover the herd, and he galloped up to say that there were a
+considerable number of pigs about two miles further east, scattered
+amongst the cabbage trees near a small river bed. On approaching
+carefully till within view we could count upwards of fifty, and many
+seemed to be large boars; no young pigs were visible. The latter,
+indeed, seldom came far out on the plains, their elders probably fearing
+that in the event of surprise they would not be able to run with the
+rest of the herd.
+
+The whole mob of pigs lay directly between us and the hills, which were
+almost five miles distant, so it became necessary for us to divide and
+make wide detours, so as to obtain a position on their further side
+without being seen. This movement took about an hour, but we succeeded
+under cover of snow grass and cabbage trees in approaching within half a
+mile of the herd, with the hills behind us, before they took the alarm.
+Then all were speedily in motion, but as our position prevented them
+from taking a direct line to shelter, they ran wildly, and so gave us a
+considerable advantage.
+
+The order for attack was now given; the dogs were slipped, and away we
+went like a whirlwind, each singling out a pig and taking the boars
+first, as did the horses.
+
+Owing to our first advantage we picked up with the leaders in a couple
+of miles, and two of the largest boars were immediately seized by the
+dogs close together in a piece of bad marshy ground, covered with snow
+and spear grass, much rooted and honeycombed. Smith, who was first in
+the running, narrowly escaped a broken neck. The huge sixteen hand mare
+he rode planted her feet in a hole and somersaulted, throwing Smith on
+to one of the boars and dog engaged, but the latter was game, and by his
+pluck and smartness saved his master and himself from being ripped, and
+before Smith was fairly on his feet the boar had six inches of steel
+through his heart and his career was ended.
+
+[Illustration: ENCOUNTER WITH WILD BOAR.]
+
+During the few minutes we were here engaged, the other boar, a powerful
+and fierce brute, had forced the dog which seized him some fifty yards
+down a dry gully, and it was clear that unless he was speedily relieved
+the dog would have the worst of the encounter. Smith and I rushed to his
+assistance none too soon. The boar, in his struggles, had already
+slightly ripped the dog on the shoulder, and the blood was streaming
+down his leg and breast, but the plucky hound still held on, lying close
+on the near side, while his teeth were fast through the boar's off lug,
+the latter striving all he could to get his head round and tusk the dog.
+Added to this the position they had contrived to get themselves into
+was unfortunate; the boar was so close to the bank it was impossible to
+reach his off side, and the dog lay so close he could not be touched on
+the other.
+
+Smith was a powerful fellow, and in fun of this kind would have faced a
+boar singlehanded. He called to me that he would rush in and seize the
+boar by his hind legs and try to pull him round, while I watched my
+opportunity to jump between him and the bank. It was our only chance to
+save the dog, at any rate, and luckily it proved successful. As Smith
+laid on I jumped, and although I fell on all fours between the boar and
+the slippery bank, I contrived just in time to drive the knife into his
+heart, and the huge beast rolled over and with a few gasps died. We were
+both exhausted, and the poor dog, when the excitement was over, lay down
+with a low whine, thoroughly done up from exhaustion and loss of blood.
+We washed and bound his wound as well as we could and tied him to a bush
+of snow grass to await the dray.
+
+Legge and Forde had already despatched a large boar and two full-grown
+sows, and were in chase of others. We came up with them when they were
+engaged with a fine young boar which had sheltered and come to bay in a
+clump of thorny scrub (wild Irishman, so called). Neither dogs nor men
+could reach him, and the only plan was to irritate him till he bolted.
+This was difficult, but at length successful, and the beast made a rush
+straight for us. However, he was bent on defence rather than offence,
+and we escaped his tusks. Legge was first mounted and away with one of
+the dogs in chase, but going over the rough, honeycombed ground I
+mentioned he too met with a bad fall which threw him out of the running,
+and now Smith, Forde, and I were in full cry with the two dogs.
+
+By this time both dogs and horses were somewhat blown, whereas the boar
+having had a rest we feared would escape, and reaching a low swampy flat
+he disappeared in a large patch of snow grass and reeds. As we were not
+sure of his exact position, we decided to ride through in line, to
+endeavour to drive him again to the open. In doing so the boar broke
+covert under Forde's horse's legs, and ripped him below the hock. This
+rendered Forde and his horse _hors de combat_, and Smith and I had the
+chase again in our hands. For nearly a mile that boar led us a furious
+dance over villainous ground, through spear grass and swamp, in
+momentary danger of being thrown or torn by thorny shrub, twisting and
+doubling in and out of inaccessible places, but he was beginning to
+show signs of fatigue, and we saw he could not make much fight when once
+the dogs got hold. The latter were in fierce excitement, having lost
+their prey so often. After a final spurt of half a mile they pulled him
+down, and he was easily despatched.
+
+Our bag was now six pigs, of which four were boars, and we had been
+actually hunting for about three hours, including the time spent in
+making the detour. After cutting off a ham and the head of the last
+boar, we carried them back to where we left Forde with his wounded
+horse. Legge had already arrived, and we all sat down to take some food
+while awaiting the arrival of the dray.
+
+The remainder of the herd had reached the hills long since, and there
+was no more sport to be had in the neighbourhood that day. Forde removed
+his saddle and bridle to be sent on the dray and turned his horse loose
+to find his way to the run, while he started on foot to the nearest
+station to procure another mount to carry him home. The rest of us
+proceeded to a flat near the first gorge of the Ashburton, where we
+succeeded in killing five other pigs before the evening closed. Forde's
+horse reached his station as soon as his wounded leg permitted him, but
+the wound being found more serious than anticipated, and that he would
+be lame for life, it was decided to destroy him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     CATTLE RANCHING AND STOCKRIDING.
+
+
+While I stayed at Smith's Station, we made acquaintance with a young
+man, by name Hudson, a son of the famous Railway King. He had come to
+New Zealand a few years previously with slender means and was a pushing,
+energetic fellow. He settled on the Ashburton and set up business as a
+carter, investing his money in a couple of drays and bullock teams, with
+which he contracted to convey wool from the stations to Christchurch,
+returning with stores, etc., and sometimes carting timber from the
+forest and such like. My first day's experience of driving wild cattle
+was in his company.
+
+A stockrider's life is perhaps of all occupations the most enjoyable,
+and there is just that element of risk connected with it that increases
+its fascination, but to make it intelligible to the reader, a sketch of
+the working and management of a cattle station will be necessary.
+
+Although most sheep farmers feed a certain number of cattle to enable
+them to utilise the portions of their run which may be unsuitable for
+grazing, there are some squatters who confine themselves to cattle
+alone, and the produce derived from such stations includes beef, butter,
+cheese, hides, horns, and working stock--that is, bullocks destined for
+use in pulling drays; such entirely taking the places of draught horses
+up country.
+
+A cattle rancher may have from one to two thousand head of cattle
+running wild. Of these, one portion is milch cows, which are daily
+driven in for milking and from which the extensive butter and cheese
+dairies are supplied; another the fat cattle fed for the market, and a
+third, young stock for breaking in as working bullocks. As with sheep,
+the cattle are periodically mustered in the stock yards for branding,
+selections for various purposes, and for sale.
+
+Mustering a large head of wild cattle is exciting work. Half a dozen men
+mounted on well-trained horses, each carrying his stockwhip, start for
+the run. The stockwhip is composed of a lash of plaited raw hide, twelve
+to fifteen feet long, and about one and half inches thick at the belly,
+which is close to the handle. The latter is about nine inches long, made
+of some hard tough wood, usually weighted at the hand end. The
+experienced stockman can do powerful execution with these whips, one
+blow from which is sufficient to cut a slice out of the beast's hide,
+and I have seen an expert cut from top to bottom the side of a nail can
+with a single blow from his whip.
+
+The cattle are spread over perhaps twenty or thirty thousand acres of
+unfenced country, and each man follows his portion of the herd,
+collecting and driving into a common centre. For a time all goes well,
+until some wary or ill-conditioned brute breaks away, followed possibly
+by a number of his comrades, who only need a lead to give the stockman
+trouble. Then commences a chase, and not infrequently it is a chase in
+vain, and the fagged stockman and his jaded steed are obliged to give
+them up for that day, and proceed to hold what he has got in hand.
+
+There is sometimes considerable danger in following up too closely these
+beasts when they begin to show signs of fatigue, as they then often turn
+to bay under the first scrap of shelter, and if the horseman unwarily or
+ignorantly approaches too near in his endeavour to dislodge them, they
+will charge, and the death of the horse or rider may be the result.
+Both, however, are generally too well aware of these little failings to
+endeavour to prevail over a jaded or "baked" beast, and prefer to let
+him rest.
+
+Upon the cattle being yarded, the most exciting operation is the
+capturing and securing of the young beasts requiring to be broken in to
+the yoke. An experienced and expert stockman enters the enclosure
+carrying in his hand a pine sapling, 12 or 15 feet in length, at the end
+of which is a running noose of raw hide or strong hemp rope, attached to
+a strong rope which is passed round a capstan outside the stockyard and
+near to a corner post. With considerable dexterity, not infrequently
+accompanied by personal danger, the man slips the noose over the horns
+of the beast he wishes to secure, when he immediately jumps over the
+rails, and with the assistance of the men outside, winds up the rope
+till the struggling and infuriated animal is fast held in a corner of
+the yard. Another noose is then slipped round the hind leg nearest the
+rails and firmly fastened.
+
+The yard being cleared, a steady old working bullock is now driven
+alongside our young friend, and the two are yoked together neck and
+neck, the trained bullock selected being always the more powerful of the
+two. The ropes are then unfastened and the pair left free to keep
+company for a month or so, by which time the old worker will have
+trained his young charge sufficiently to permit of his being put into
+the body of a team and submitted to the unmerciful charge of the bullock
+puncher (driver). There is no escape for the novice then, yoked fast to
+a powerful beast with others before and behind, and the cruel cutting
+whip over him, in the hands of a man possessing but little sentiment: he
+must obey, and after a time becomes as tractable as the rest. Indeed, it
+is wonderful how intelligent and obedient these animals become under the
+hands of an experienced driver. There is a code of bullock punching
+language they soon get to understand; they answer readily to their
+names, and are, if anything, more sensible, obedient, and manageable
+than horses.
+
+My ride with Hudson, which I referred to, was as hard a day's work as I
+have experienced of the kind. We started from the Ashburton at daybreak,
+and after a quiet canter of five miles, reached an open piece of river
+bed flat, on which were grazing some two hundred head of cattle, amongst
+which were five young bullocks of Hudson's he wished to cut out and
+drive to Moorhouse's station on the Rangitata, about twenty miles
+further south. The cutting out is more difficult than driving the whole
+herd, which will be apparent.
+
+Having entered among them and found the animals we were in search of, we
+proceeded quietly to move them to a common place near the edge, from
+which we meant to drive them, and Hudson, who had considerable
+experience, succeeded after a while in collecting his five beasts in a
+favourable spot for our enterprise. We then took up positions on either
+side, and with a sudden spurt endeavoured to drive them on to the plain.
+We were partially successful, leaving only one of the five behind, and
+we got the other four clear away some miles before they seemed to be
+aware of the absence of their comrades, but with some smart galloping we
+were keeping them well together in the direction we wanted to go. We
+were not, however, destined to continue fortunate for long. After a
+while we unexpectedly came across a herd of fresh cattle, into which our
+charges at once bolted, and it took two hours hard galloping before we
+succeeded in extricating only two of them. With these we were obliged to
+be satisfied; our horses were showing signs of fatigue, and without
+fresh mounts and other assistance it would be impossible to cut out the
+others that day.
+
+[Illustration: THE BAKED STEERS.]
+
+Fortunately those we had went away quietly, and we hoped that no further
+impediment would occur. We were sadly mistaken. For six miles all went
+well, but it was then clear that the animals were getting baked (jaded);
+they were in too good condition for the hard cutting out twice repeated.
+
+On reaching an isolated cabbage tree one deliberately lay down, while
+the other backed against the tree and stood sulkily at bay. Being
+nearest, I ignorantly made at them with the whip, when I was saluted
+with a bellow and a sudden charge, which, had not my horse been more on
+guard than I was, might have maimed one or both of us. The beast, having
+charged, backed again to the tree, and stood with nozzle touching the
+ground, breathing heavily, with sunken flanks and half-glazed eyes, a
+picture of imbecility, recklessness, and fatigue.
+
+Hudson, on coming up, saw it was useless to attempt driving him further,
+and so we left him and the cabbage tree, and resumed our course with one
+bullock, which we actually did succeed in getting to the stockyard as
+night was falling.
+
+Here, unfortunately, we found the yards closed and no one by to open
+them, and whilst I dismounted to take down the rails, the infernal beast
+once more bolted, apparently as fresh as ever, and notwithstanding all
+our endeavours to overhaul him darkness and our jaded horses failed us,
+and we had no resource but to wend our weary way to the homestead, three
+miles up the river, disappointed, dead beat, and hungry.
+
+We were most hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moorhouse, with
+whom for genuine kindness and hospitality few could compare, and they
+invited us to stay with them a day or two, which we gladly agreed to do.
+It was a real treat to pass any time in such a lovely locality and with
+such friends. The homestead was built on the river bed flat, a natural
+park covered with shrubbery palms, pines, and forest trees, along which
+on one side the turbulent Rangitata rushed in a confusion of waterfalls,
+whirlpools, and cascades, amidst huge masses of rock, and beyond which
+rose precipitous hills with their lower portions clothed in richest
+vegetation. The views up the gorge from this point were enchanting, but
+I will take another opportunity of describing some of the mountain
+scenery of the Southern Alps, the grandest in its own peculiar form of
+any in the world.
+
+Mr. Ben Moorhouse was one of three brothers, two of whom were squatters,
+and the eldest superintendent of the Province of Canterbury. They had
+all been some years in Australia, and were exceedingly fine men over six
+feet in height and built in proportion, good shots and experts at most
+games of strength and skill, not amongst the least of which was the
+science of boxing. We were treated the morning after our arrival to a
+lesson with the gloves, subsequently often repeated, and following this
+we had turns each in trying to ride a very clever buckjumper, a late
+purchase.
+
+The faculty of buckjumping is, I believe, almost confined to Australian
+horses, and seems to be bred in them--perhaps the original rough
+breaking was responsible for the vice; but whatever be the cause it was
+then a fact that eight out of every ten horses could and did buckjump,
+and with many of them the vice was incurable. An experienced buckjumper
+will decide as the saddle is being put on him to get rid of it as soon
+as possible without any apparent reason for such reprehensible conduct.
+He will swell himself out so that the girths cannot be fully tightened,
+and when he is mounted will suddenly bound off the ground, throw down
+his head, and prop violently on his fore feet, and this he will continue
+to repeat till the saddle comes on to his withers, and the rider finds
+some other resting place. So long as the saddle keeps its position, and
+the girths hold, there is a chance for the rider, but if they go he
+must, although he frequently goes without them.
+
+There is a special saddle made for buckjumpers, provided with heavy pads
+to prop the knee against, and so prevent the rider from being chucked
+forward, and this is sometimes assisted by securely fastening an iron
+bar with a roll of blanket around it across the pommel of the saddle.
+This presses across the thighs just above the knees, and affords great
+additional security, and a surcingle is strapped over the seat of the
+saddle as a further assistance to the girths.
+
+There is also another plan adopted with a really bad brute--namely, a
+crutch of wood or iron fastened to a martingale below, with two rings
+above, through which the reins are led. This contrivance is to prevent
+the animal lowering his head, which is a necessary movement on his part
+for accomplished bucking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     I UNDERTAKE EMPLOYMENT WITH A BUSH CONTRACTOR--GET SERIOUSLY
+     ILL--START FOR THE SOUTH AND THE GOLD DIGGINGS.
+
+
+I had now been more than a month on the Ashburton, but as I could not
+expect home letters yet for some weeks, and was getting tired of mere
+amusement, I accepted an offer made me to join in a new line of work.
+
+A man named Metcalfe, a relative of a neighbouring squatter, had lately
+started work as a bush contractor, and had just then undertaken to
+construct a number of station buildings for a run holder on the
+Ashburton. Metcalfe was an experienced bushman and a good rough
+carpenter. He asked me to join him and I at once accepted.
+
+We would have to fell and cut up our own timber in the forest, cart it
+down some forty miles, and construct all the works without other
+assistance.
+
+Our first business was to provide a habitation for ourselves in the
+forest, as we required to stay there a month or two while cutting the
+necessary timber. We laid out a space 10 feet by 12 feet, drove in posts
+at the corners, and nailed a strong rail on top, then we felled and
+split up into slabs a number of white pine trees, and set them upwards
+all round with their edges overlapping and nailed them at the top to the
+rail, or, more properly, wall plate, the feet of the slabs being set a
+few inches in the ground. Over this enclosure we made a sloping
+framework of wickers (fine saplings) and covered it with an old tent
+which Metcalfe possessed. At one end of the hut we constructed a wide
+fireplace and chimney in the same manner, and hung up an old blanket
+over the space left for a doorway. The inside of the slab walls and
+chimney we wattled with mud and laths, which we split up, and plastered
+over with mud and chopped grass. We made rough cots with wickers and
+slabs, raised a foot above the ground, so as to form seats as well as
+beds, and covered them with a thick layer of minuka branches, which made
+capital springy mattresses, and over all we laid our blankets. For a
+table we split and dressed fairly smooth a pine slab a foot wide in
+which we bored four holes and inserted therein wicker legs. Our mansion
+was now complete and it had not occupied two days to build.
+
+We rose at daybreak, boiled a kettle of tea, which with cold baked
+mutton and damper formed our breakfast, then to work till 12 o'clock,
+when we took an hour for dinner, and again to work till dark, when we
+adjourned to the hut, and after a visit to the creek for ablutions, and
+seeing that our horses were watered and put on fresh pasture for the
+night, we sat down to supper by a rousing fire, then lit pipes and
+chatted or read till it was time to turn in, when the fire was raked
+over, and the damper of bread inserted under the hot ashes to be ready
+for the morning. During the evening also one of us made the bread; the
+camp oven would be put on the fire with sufficient mutton to last us for
+two or three days. It was a grand life for healthy, strong fellows as we
+were, living and working alone in a virgin forest, with no sound around
+us but the rippling of the brook and the whisper of the wind through the
+foliage of the tall pines, or the ringing of our axes, with every now
+and then the crashing fall of a huge tree.
+
+I should remark here that the black and white pine (so called) of New
+Zealand is not by any means similar to that which grows in Europe. They
+grow straight and tall, it is true, but for fully half their height
+throw out heavy and numerous branches thickly covered all the year round
+with very small evergreen leaves. The trees are easily cut up and split
+into posts and rails, or sawn into boards. At the time I refer to the
+forests were free to all settlers for their home needs on the payment of
+a nominal fee to the Provincial Government.
+
+The timber in due time was felled, cut up, and carted to the station,
+and we removed our camp to the site of the operations. It was a bleak,
+wild place, three miles from the south mail track, and consisted only of
+a small slab hut or two with a wool shed and sheep yards. The owner, Mr.
+T. Moorhouse, had lately purchased the run, and was about to improve and
+reside on it. A description of our life here would not be interesting,
+so I will pass over three months during which we worked steadily and the
+buildings were nearly complete, when one day, as I was nailing the
+shingles on a roof under a powerful sun, I suddenly felt sick and giddy,
+and was obliged to go inside and lie down. The same evening I developed
+a severe attack of gastric fever which three days after turned to a
+kind of brain fever, and for nigh on six weeks I lay betwixt life and
+death. For half of this time I lay on the floor in a corner of the new
+building, the bare ground with a layer of tea leaves for my bed, the
+noise grinding into my brain when I was at all conscious, and only
+Metcalfe (good man that he was) with an old Scottish shepherd to look
+after me when they could find time to do so. No doctor, medicine, or
+attendance of any kind was procurable nearer than sixty miles away, with
+a weekly post. One night, to make me sleep they gave me laudanum (a
+bottle of which Metcalfe had with him for toothache) and the following
+morning I was discovered standing on the brink of an artificial pond
+nearly a quarter of a mile off, barefoot and half naked, to reach which
+I must have walked over places I could not easily have passed in my
+senses. This was when the brain attack came on, and for a week I lay, I
+was told, almost unconscious. Metcalfe contrived to send some
+information to Christchurch, and after I had been down for over three
+weeks Moorhouse arrived and removed me to his own hut, where he looked
+after me for some time. Then he had me carried to and fixed up in his
+dog cart and drove me sixty miles over the plains in a single day to
+Christchurch, where I arrived a good bit more dead than alive, but to
+find a comfortable room, and every attendance and luxury a sick man
+could wish for, prepared for me by my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Gresson.
+I must have taken a good deal of killing in those days, but the drive to
+Christchurch, severe as it was, saved me, and in three weeks I was
+myself again.
+
+When I was convalescent I found letters from home awaiting me. My father
+sent a little money, but wished me to utilise it in paying my passage
+home, and appeared to have lost faith in my doing any good in New
+Zealand; but I was more determined than ever to remain. Was I not
+accumulating colonial experiences, and always found employment of some
+kind awaiting me? and I was still very young--only a little over
+eighteen. The free life I had spent for nearly two years had had its
+effect, and I could not consent to throw it up, at any rate not just
+yet.
+
+The doctors who had attended me expressed their opinions that I had
+overtaxed my strength at work to which I was not accustomed, and forbade
+my undertaking anything of the kind for a while. This of course was
+nonsense, but I saw no reason why I should not enjoy a holiday for a
+month or so in Christchurch till I had settled future plans.
+
+Just at this time I received a letter from Smith, informing me that the
+run he had charge of was sold, and having thereby lost his appointment,
+he was coming to Christchurch _en route_ for Otago on a voyage of
+enterprise, and invited me to join him. This was excellent; the
+wandering disposition was again strong upon me, and I looked forward to
+such a trip to a new part of the country in company with my old friend
+with the keenest delight. I agreed to his proposal at once, and
+immediately he arrived we set to work to make preparations for our
+journey south, although where that journey was to lead us or of what
+might be before us we were profoundly ignorant; but that knowledge or
+want of knowledge enhanced the glory of the movement. We were a couple
+of free lances starting to seek what might turn up, and eventually we
+were led into a new and very interesting experience, even if it did not
+turn out a remunerative one.
+
+After paying my expenses in Christchurch, I possessed about L50 in cash
+and a valuable and well-bred mare. Smith's possessions were about on an
+equivalent. We decided to travel with one pack horse, and for this
+purpose we purchased between us for L15, a notorious buckjumper, called
+"Jack the Devil," and if ever deformity of temper and the lowest vice
+were depicted in an animal's face and bearing, this beast possessed them
+in an eminent degree. Although small and not beautiful to look at, he
+was very powerful, and had he been less vicious his price would have
+been treble what we obtained him for, but nobody cared to own him.
+
+How well I remember the first time he was loaded, how quietly he stood
+with the whites of his eyes rolling and girths swelled until all was
+apparently secure, and then in less time than I can relate, how saddle
+and swags were scattered to the winds.
+
+Smith was a determined fellow and a Yorkshireman to boot, and he had no
+intention of giving in to Jack; on the contrary, this little exhibition
+of devilry made him all the more determined to discover Jack's weak
+point and take the devil out of him.
+
+The pack saddle was gathered up and taken to the harness maker along
+with the animal, and the two were put together in such a manner that if
+he again bucked it off, some part of Jack's personality would have to
+accompany it. The next trial was more successful, and after a few
+attempts he gave in, and from that day he became a most docile pack
+horse.
+
+On the eve of starting we were joined by our mutual friend Legge, who
+had been some years overseer of a station. He was a smart, handy fellow,
+and although he did not contribute much in the way of financial
+assistance, we were glad to have him join our party, knowing him to be
+dependable, plucky, and good-tempered.
+
+At length we started, and after journeying through the scene of our late
+life on the Ashburton and Rangitata, we arrived without adventure at the
+then small town of Timaru on the sea coast, about a hundred miles south.
+
+Here we found the inhabitants in great excitement over news just arrived
+that gold had been discovered in large quantities on the Lindis, about
+one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin in Otago. We, in common
+with every one else, were, of course, immediately infected with the gold
+mania, the more so as we were bent on adventure of any kind that might
+turn up, and here was an unexpected piece of good fortune ready to our
+hands. During our few days sojourn at Timaru we made another addition to
+our party in the person of a man named Fowler, whom, at his urgent
+request, we permitted to accompany us in our now proposed expedition to
+the gold diggings.
+
+We arranged to start at once, and deferred preparations until we would
+arrive at Dunedin, the capital and port of Otago, and which, with fair
+marching, we hoped to reach on the third day.
+
+We travelled in the usual bush fashion, each man with his swags strapped
+before and behind his saddle, Jack the Devil carrying our provisions and
+cooking kit, etc. Upon halting for the night we selected some suitable
+spot near running water where wood for a fire could be obtained. Each
+unsaddled, watered, and tethered out his horse and carried his swags to
+the camping ground, where Jack's load was removed and placed ready for
+use. Then while one fetched water another collected a supply of firewood
+for the night. A roaring fire was made, water boiled for tea, flour and
+water mixed into a paste and fried in dripping or fat, with the meat we
+had brought along with us, or maybe a leg of mutton would be baked in
+the camp oven; and so, within an hour, we four bushmen would be
+squatting comfortably around our fire and enjoying an excellent supper.
+
+The meal being over we carefully washed and put away the utensils and
+food ready for the morning, and after visiting the horses, settled
+ourselves in our respective positions for the night, lit pipes, spun
+yarns, or sang songs, till drowsiness claimed us, and we disappeared
+under our blankets with our saddles for pillows and slept only as those
+who lead the life of a bushman can.
+
+We rose before daybreak, and ere the sun had well appeared had eaten our
+primitive breakfast and were in the saddle for the march. On the evening
+of the third day we reached the Waitaki river, which separates
+Canterbury from Otago, and is the largest in the South Island. The
+Waitaki was never fordable at this point, and passengers were ferried
+across in a small boat behind which the horses were swum. This latter is
+a somewhat dangerous operation unless expertly carried out; a horse
+which may be a powerful swimmer being able to work a swift stream so
+much faster than a boat can be rowed, there is danger that he may strike
+and overturn the latter, and so he must not be allowed to get above or
+ahead of the boat, but be kept in his place immediately behind.
+
+The boat on being started from one bank or shingle spit must have fair
+room to work obliquely to a lower landing place on the opposite side,
+without running foul of shoals or sandspits, and as the current runs
+with great rapidity the voyage across is usually three or four times as
+long as the stream is wide.
+
+At this river we found an accommodation house. I forget the name of the
+occupier, but I well recollect the appearance of the wretched structure,
+and of its landlord and landlady. What a pair of outcasts they looked,
+and how they existed on that wild bed of shingle! Their tastes must have
+been simplicity itself, and little satisfied them here below.
+
+The landlord and his wife, with one other man, who assisted with the
+boat, were the only sojourners on this desert bed. Few travellers stayed
+at their wretched tenement, because being only ten miles from Dunedin
+they were generally able to push on, and partly because the locality did
+not possess pasturage for horses; and so with the exception of what they
+derived from selling an occasional nip of poisonous liquor to a passing
+traveller, their emoluments were derived from the ferry alone.
+
+We were not fortunate enough to arrive in time to cross that evening,
+and were perforce obliged to stay at the accommodation hut till morning,
+or else return half a mile to where pasture was obtainable. The
+landlord, however, produced some hay and oats, and cleaned out his shed,
+in which we were able to put two of the horses, while the others were
+tied out, and so to save time and trouble we decided to make the best of
+what fare we could obtain.
+
+The house comprised one room with a closet or bar off it. In the room,
+which was well enough when lit up by a good fire, we all supped together
+round a rough table with boxes from the bar for seats, our food the
+usual description, the junk of mutton boiled with lumps of dough called
+damper, and the landlady produced some plates, while we used our own
+clasp knives. Soon after, our weary bodies were strewn over the floor
+wherever we could individually select a fairly even spot, and the
+landlady, I believe, retired into the bar.
+
+The following morning we put ourselves, horses, and baggage safely
+across the Waitaki, and by 10 o'clock arrived in Dunedin.
+
+Dunedin was situated, like Port Lyttelton, on rising undulating ground,
+encompassed by an amphitheatre of hills which, to the south, extended to
+a point or promontory and gave shelter to the little harbour. Also, like
+Lyttelton, the latter was an open roadstead, but on the town front was
+bounded by a steep bank from which the narrow strand beneath was reached
+by a wide cutting. The town was quite in its infancy, but already
+possessed some well-laid-out streets and handsome wooden buildings.
+
+As we anticipated, we found the good folk of Dunedin much exercised
+about the gold diggings. They were the first discovered in the country,
+and the town was in a fever of excitement for news of their success or
+otherwise. No very reliable information had come, but such as was
+obtainable appeared sufficiently satisfactory and encouraging to justify
+our making immediate arrangements for transporting ourselves thither.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     OUR EVENTFUL JOURNEY TO THE LINDIS GOLD DIGGINGS.
+
+
+The Lindis was one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin. There
+was no road, and but for a portion of the way up the valley of the
+Waitaki only a rough bullock dray track leading to some isolated sheep
+and cattle stations, beyond which there was literally no track at all.
+The country was mountainous, and early winter having set in, it was
+supposed that much of the higher latitudes would be covered with snow,
+but beyond the fact that numbers of pedestrians had during the past
+fortnight proceeded towards the Lindis, and that a ship-load of diggers
+had arrived from Victoria and were hourly leaving the town, we had
+nothing reliable to guide us. We heard that the few sheep-farmers on the
+route were much opposed to the influx of diggers, and had publicly
+notified that they would not encourage or give them any accommodation on
+their stations. This was alarming for the time, but fortunately the
+information proved correct in only one instance. It led us, however, to
+make such preparation for our journey as would render us to a great
+extent independent of assistance on the way.
+
+We purchased a strong one-horse dray which we loaded with about 10 cwt.
+of provisions, in the form of flour, tea, sugar, salt, ship biscuits, a
+small quantity of spirits for medicinal use and tobacco. Also two small
+calico tents, some cooking utensils and blankets, with bush tools,
+spades, picks, and axes.
+
+Legge's horse had been broken to harness, and mine was an excellent
+draught horse. I omitted to mention that at Timaru I had exchanged my
+mare for a strong gelding which had previously run in the mail cart,
+getting L10 boot. The swap proved a fortunate one for us, as neither
+Smith's nor Fowler's animals had ever been in harness, and "Jack the
+Devil" was out of the question. Legge's horse and mine therefore were
+destined for the dray, tandem fashion, and upon trial they pulled
+splendidly.
+
+When the dray was loaded and covered over with a large waterproof
+tarpaulin, and our two fine horses yoked thereto, it looked a very
+business-like turn-out. Two of us took it in turn to walk beside the
+horses and conduct the team, while the other two rode, accompanied by
+"Jack," his pack-saddle laden with our needs for the day and night
+halts.
+
+One fine morning in June, 1861, we started from Dunedin, with our
+handsome team, the first of its kind that ever travelled the road we
+were going, and we started from the smiling little town amidst the
+cheers and good wishes of those we left behind.
+
+For the first few days all was fairly smooth sailing. We travelled about
+twenty miles each day, camping or resting independently of stations, and
+the track so far being formed by wool drays, was on the whole feasible,
+although we had occasionally to make good the crossings over creeks and
+rivers.
+
+On the evening of the third day we arrived at a small cattle station
+belonging to a Mr. Davis, where were a number of diggers resting for the
+night. Mr. Davis was one of those hospitably inclined to the diggers,
+but as he could not be expected to feed such numbers for nothing, he
+notified that meals would be charged for at one shilling per head. This
+was eagerly and gratefully responded to, and upwards of two hundred men
+were assembled at the station the evening we arrived.
+
+The kitchen and dining hut being unable to accommodate more than twelve
+or fifteen at once, a multitude had to remain outside while each gang
+went in, in turn, to be fed.
+
+Inside the scene was curious. An enormous fire of logs blazed on the
+hearth, which occupied one entire end of the hut, over which were
+suspended two huge pots filled with joints of mutton, beef, and
+doughboys, boiling indiscriminately together. They were frequently being
+removed to the table and others substituted in their place. The pots
+were flanked by large kettles of water, into which, when on the boil, a
+handful or two of tea would be thrown. After a few minutes the decoction
+would be poured into an iron bucket, some milk and sugar added, and
+placed upon the table, where each man helped himself by dipping his
+pannikin therein.
+
+Fortunately the hungry seekers after gold were not particular about
+their meat being a shade over or under cooked; they were glad to accept
+what they got, and indeed right wholesome food it was. The doughboys
+were simply large lumps of dough, made of flour and water, used as a
+substitute for bread, of which a sufficient quantity could not be
+prepared for the immense demand.
+
+We obtained our turn in due time, and after a hearty meal retired to the
+quarters we had pitched upon for the night--viz., a straw shed where we
+rolled our blanket around us and slept soundly.
+
+The following evening, after a severe day's journey, we arrived wet and
+fagged at the next station, Miller and Gooche's. Here a similar scene
+was being enacted, and here, in common with many other diggers, we were
+obliged to remain for several days owing to severe weather setting in.
+
+Miller and Gooche's station was situated at the junction of a tributary
+stream with the Waitaki, at the entrance of a rugged and mountainous
+gorge. From this point our real difficulties were to begin, as we would
+diverge from the main valley we had hitherto followed, and work our way
+over a rough tract of hilly country, up ravines and spurs to the great
+pass, then pretty certain to be covered with snow.
+
+For the four days during which we were detained at this station it
+rained, sleeted, and snowed alternately and unceasingly. There were
+upwards of one hundred and fifty men there, and the station running
+short of flour, a supply had to be procured from Davis's, where luckily
+a large store had been collected.
+
+Most diggers possessed nothing beyond the clothes they wore, with a
+blanket and a kettle, and many had no money wherewith to pay for food,
+so the squatters were obliged to make a virtue of necessity and give
+free where there was no chance of payment, and this they did right
+willingly. As for the diggers, I must say so much for them that, rough
+fellows as they were, they paid freely and gratefully all they could,
+and I did not hear of a single instance of robbery or outrage save one,
+and we were the victims of that. It was merely the abstraction,
+emptying, and replacing on our dray of a case of "Old Tom," all the
+spirits we possessed, and we did not discover the loss until too late
+for any chance of detecting the delinquents.
+
+At Miller and Gooche's we passed four very miserable days. The two small
+huts and the sheep shed were filled to overflowing, and we lay on the
+floor of the latter at night, cold, stiff, dirty, and packed into our
+places like sardines. The rain and sleet, slop, cold, and offensive
+odour combined would need to be experienced to be appreciated; it was
+indescribable and the greatest and most disagreeable of anything I
+experienced before or since of such a mixture.
+
+At length the weather cleared, and in company with another dray just
+arrived from Dunedin, and got up in imitation of ours, we started for
+the pass, not without grave misgivings of what might be before us.
+
+The first day we made five miles. Our route lay along the course of a
+large creek bounded both sides by precipitous hills. The recent rain had
+swollen the stream, and either obliterated or washed away the rough dray
+track, which even at its best was not suited for the passage of a horse
+team. We were therefore obliged to cut a way in and out of the nullah
+wherever we crossed; so some idea may be formed of our day's work. We
+were fortunate in being accompanied by the fresh dray, indeed without
+it, and the assistance given by a number of the diggers who kept with
+us, and with whom we shared our food, I do not think we would have
+succeeded in getting over the Lindis Pass, at any rate not nearly so
+expeditiously as we did. When we came to an exceptionally difficult and
+steep pull, the drays were taken over one at a time with three horses
+yoked, and all hands helping them.
+
+On the morning of the second day we were still four miles from the pass,
+and it took very severe work from men and horses to negotiate the
+remainder of that fast narrowing, steep and rugged bed, and late in the
+afternoon to reach the summit. It was, as we anticipated, covered with
+snow.
+
+The cold that night was intense, and we had difficulty in procuring
+before dark set in enough brushwood to keep up a small fire for more
+than a few hours. It was here we discovered the loss of the "Old Tom"
+which we had meant to save for just such a special occasion as this. Now
+that we were half-frozen and without means of bettering our condition
+for the night, it was proposed to open the first bottle, and have a nip
+round for ourselves and comrades. Our chagrin and disappointment may be
+imagined when we found the twelve bottles to contain only water.
+
+I often wondered how we got through that night; one or two of us alone
+must surely have perished. Our safety lay in our number. We rolled our
+blankets tightly round us and lay down close together on the wet and now
+fast freezing ground, and lit our pipes, and then we slept. Tired as we
+were, nothing could keep sleep from us--even if we were to be frozen
+during it.
+
+For the horses we had collected a little grass and carried it on the
+drays, but they had a bad time of it, and the icicles hung from their
+manes and tails in the morning as they stood shivering with their backs
+turned to the keen mountain blast.
+
+However, we all survived, and were none the worse, and as soon as it was
+light we gathered enough brushwood to make a rousing fire, by which we
+melted the frozen snow and ice from our blankets, and from the harness
+before we could put it on the horses.
+
+We soon finished a hearty breakfast of mutton grilled in the hot ashes,
+and hot tea, and proceeded to get ready for the day's work, which we
+knew would be a heavy one if we were to get over the pass before
+sundown.
+
+It was two miles to the top, but such a two miles to take a horse dray
+over. The gradient was not only very steep and rough, but it was covered
+with six to eighteen inches of snow, except in some few exposed parts
+where it had drifted off and left the surface nearly bare. There was no
+track to guide us beyond a very uncertain and irregular one made by a
+few pedestrians and horses who had preceded us the evening before when
+we had been delayed by the drays.
+
+We decided to take the drays over separately, yoking all four horses to
+each in turn, tandem fashion, by means of ropes with which we were well
+provided. Just as we were about to start the first, a party of diggers
+arrived, who volunteered to push and spoke the wheels. Thanks to these
+men and the game, honest horses, our difficulties were considerably
+lightened. Some went before to clear the snow where it lay thickest, but
+this was soon abandoned as labour in vain.
+
+We found that the utmost efforts of the four horses, assisted by half a
+dozen men, were only sufficient to drag the dray from twenty to fifty
+yards at a spurt, then on stopping to take a breath a log was thrown
+behind the wheels, and after a few moments' rest another spurt was made,
+and so on.
+
+Our progress was so satisfactory that before nightfall both drays were
+safely over the pass and we had proceeded down the opposite side as far
+as an out-station of McLean's, on whose run we now were. Here we learned
+to our joy that we were within twenty-five miles of the reported
+diggings, with a fairly passable track all the way.
+
+Mr. R. McLean was a wealthy sheep farmer who had originally made his
+money on the Australian goldfields. His present attitude therefore
+towards the diggers was considered the more cruel. He had given orders
+at all his out-stations that neither food nor shelter was to be afforded
+them, and upon our arrival at the shepherd's hut aforesaid, the
+occupant, a worthy Scotsman, informed us with regret that we would have
+to arrange for our accommodation in the open, it being as much as his
+place was worth to feed or shelter diggers. This was unpleasant news,
+as we hoped to have taken up our quarters in his hut that night after
+our severe camping out the previous four days.
+
+Although the diggings broke out in McLean's run he had no power to
+prevent the land being worked upon, excepting only such portions of it
+as were private property, but he discouraged and put obstacles in the
+way of the diggers in any form he could, some said because he knew as an
+experienced digger himself that they would not pay. Whether this was the
+case or not, he might have understood the impossibility of stopping a
+gold rush in its infancy, while its value was still an unknown quantity.
+
+Our last stage the following day was for the greater part by one of the
+most picturesque valleys I had yet seen. Mr. McLean had made a very fair
+road from the Lindis Pass boundary to his home station, which latter was
+only some five miles from the diggings, so it was very different
+travelling to what we had experienced on the other side. The track first
+wound along a deep ravine with rugged precipitous sides, mostly clothed
+with evergreen underwood from which huge masses of rock would now and
+then emerge, and sometimes overhanging a rushing torrent which had been
+swelled by the recent heavy rains and thus enhanced the effect on this
+glorious sunny morning. The waterfalls and cascades sparkled in a
+hundred colours, wheeling, foaming, and dashing in a mad race amidst
+huge rocks, till lost in shadow beneath a precipice or overhanging mass
+of variegated bush. The gorge then opened out into a level amphitheatre,
+with the river, grown calm and broad, winding peacefully, and surrounded
+by the mountains in all their enchanting shades of colour, and the
+distant peaks capped with snow.
+
+Then another gorge of more imposing grandeur with a magnificent view
+beyond and through it, closed in turn by a sombre pine forest swept by
+the river, now grown larger and deeper, dancing and racing like a living
+thing in the brilliant sunshine and rare atmosphere of a New Zealand
+morning.
+
+How well I remember the whole trip with all its roughness and all its
+beauty, its very contrasts no doubt helping to impress it upon the
+memory. Such scenes and incidents are difficult to forget, even if one
+would, and each and all are as distinct to my mind in almost every
+detail at this moment as if I had been with them only yesterday, instead
+of more than forty years ago.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     LIFE ON THE GOLD DIGGINGS.
+
+
+And now I will endeavour to picture my impression of the gold diggings
+as they appeared on that same evening.
+
+After passing through one of the most beautiful of the Lindis gorges we
+found ourselves at the entrance of a wide tract of open and undulating
+country, almost bare of anything beyond short yellow grass, encompassed
+on all sides by hills which stretched away westward to the snow-crowned
+mountains. The extent of the open was from one to two miles square, and
+through its centre--or nearly so--the Lindis flowed in a rocky bed.
+Along the river and far up the downs on either side were sprinkled
+hundreds of little tents with their hundreds of fires and rising eddies
+of smoke. The banks of the river were crowded with men at work, some in
+the water, some out, others pitching tents or tending horses, some
+constructing rough furniture, cradles and long Toms for washing gold,
+hundreds of horses tethered among the tents or upon the open, and above
+all the suppressed hum of a busy multitude.
+
+On all new gold diggings it was usual to establish a self-constituted
+form of government among the diggers themselves, which in the absence of
+any regular police force or law of the land was responsible for the
+protection and good conduct of the entire community. Some capable man
+was elected as president and chief, before whom all cases of
+misdemeanour were heard, and whose decisions and powers to inflict
+punishment were final. Under such rule, crude as it was, the utmost good
+conduct usually prevailed, and any glaring instances of robbery or crime
+were not only rare, but severely dealt with.
+
+To this man we reported our arrival, and a camping ground was pointed
+out to us. It was too late to do anything towards preparing a permanent
+camp that night, but at daybreak the following morning we were hard at
+work, and by evening had made ourselves a comfortable hut.
+
+We marked out a rectangle of 12 ft. by 10 ft., the size of our largest
+tent, around which we raised a sod wall two feet high, which we
+plastered inside with mud. Over the walls we rigged up our tent,
+securing it by stays and poles set in triangles at each extremity. At
+one end we built a capacious fireplace and chimney eight feet wide,
+leaving two feet for a doorway. The chimney was built of green sods,
+also plastered within, and our door was a piece of old sacking weighted
+and let fall over the opening. Around the hut we cut a good drain to
+convey away rain water. At the upper end of the hut we raised a rough
+framework of green timber cut from the neighbouring scrub, one foot high
+and six wide, thus taking up exactly half of our house. Upon this we
+spread a plentiful supply of dry grass to form our common bed. Our
+working tools and other gear found place underneath, and with a few
+roughly made stools and the empty "Old Tom" case for a table, our
+mansion was complete.
+
+It was not yet night when our work was done, and some of us strolled
+about to obtain any information available. This was not as satisfactory
+as we could have desired. Very many had been disappointed, gold was not
+found in sufficient quantities to pay, and prospectors were out in every
+direction. It was early yet, however, to condemn the diggings, and the
+grumblers and the disappointed are always present in every undertaking,
+so we comforted ourselves, and sought dinner and the night's sleep we
+were so much in need of.
+
+The usual requisites for a digger are, a spade, pick, shovel, long Tom
+or cradle, and a wide lipped flat iron dish (not unlike an ordinary
+wash-hand basin) for final washing.
+
+The long Tom consists of a wooden trough or race, twelve to fifteen feet
+long and two feet wide; its lower end is fitted into an iron screen or
+grating, fixed immediately above a box or tray of the same size. To work
+the machine it is set so that a stream of water obtained by damming up a
+little of the river is allowed to pass quickly and constantly down the
+race, and through the grating into the box at the other end.
+
+The "stuff" in which the gold is supposed to be is thrown into the race,
+where, by the action of the current of water, the earth, stones, rubbish
+and light matter are washed away and the heavy sand, etc., falls through
+the grating into the box. As frequently as necessary this box is removed
+and another substituted, when the contents are washed carefully by means
+of the basin. By degrees all the sand and foreign matter is washed away,
+leaving only the gold.
+
+The cradle is very similar to what it is named after, a child's swing
+cot. It is simply a suspended wooden box, fitted with an iron grating
+and tray beneath into which the "stuff" is cradled or washed by rocking
+it by hand.
+
+It takes considerable experience of the art of finding gold to enable a
+man to fix on a good site for commencing operations. There are of course
+instances of wonderful luck and unexpected success, but they are very
+much the exception, and form but a diminutive proportion of the fortune
+of any gold diggings. We hear of the man who has found a big nugget and
+made a fortune, but nothing of the thousands who don't find any big
+nuggets, and earn but bare wages or often less.
+
+On most diggings a large proportion of the men are working for wages
+only, and it not infrequently depends on the fortune of the employer
+whether the labourer receives his wages or not. It may be a case of
+general smash. We saw much of this on the Lindis diggings. They were not
+a general success at that time, as we soon discovered to our cost; and
+many who went there wildly hoping to find gold for the picking up, and
+with no means to withstand a reverse, were only too glad to work for
+those who had means to carry on for a while, for their food only.
+
+We procured a long Tom, and spent some days prospecting with variable
+success--_i.e._, we found gold nearly everywhere, each shovelful of
+earth contained gold, but in quantities so generally infinitesimal as to
+be not worth the time spent in working for it. The land was impregnated
+with gold, but the difficulty was to find it in sufficient quantity to
+pay.
+
+We at length fixed upon a claim and set up our gear. From daylight to
+dark we worked day after day, excavating, cradling, and washing, each
+one taking it in turns to look after the horses and tent and fetch food
+from the camp, which was at some distance away. The final washing of the
+stuff was done twice daily, at noon and again at evening, and what an
+exciting and anxious operation this was! How earnestly the decreasing
+sediment was peered at to discover signs of the precious metal! How our
+hearts would jump with delight when a bright yellow grain was
+discovered, appearing for a moment on the dark surface, then more
+careful washing, with beating hearts and necks craning over the fateful
+dish as the mass got less and less, and then the sinking and
+disappointment to find that the day's hard work of four men did not
+bring us five shillings worth of gold! But hope, with the young and
+sanguine, is hard to beat, and the following morning would see us at
+work as cheerily as ever.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOLD DIGGINGS.]
+
+A fortnight after our arrival our provisions ran short, and we were
+obliged to have recourse to the stores, of which two had been started by
+an enterprising firm in Dunedin, and soon after we were nearly having a
+famine, owing to the stores themselves running short by reason of the
+drays conveying supplies having been snowed up in crossing the pass.
+McLean was applied to, but he refused, and it was fortunate for him that
+a caravan arrived before the diggers were actually in want.
+
+With this caravan arrived a pedlar and a liquor merchant, two such
+characters as cannot well be found except on a gold diggings. They
+carried with them a plentiful supply of slop clothes, boots, tools, and
+spirits, etc., and as luck--or ill luck--would have it, they pitched
+their camp alongside ours.
+
+One of these men rarely did business without the other. If a digger came
+to purchase a pair of trousers or boots the bargain was never completed
+to the satisfaction of both parties without a glass of spirits at the
+adjacent grog shop to clinch it; and at night, when the diggers would
+drop round the latter for a glass, many pairs of breeches, boots, or
+other articles were disposed of under the happy influence of wine and
+company.
+
+[Illustration: PEDDLARS AT THE DIGGINGS.]
+
+These men are to be met with in all parts of the Colonies where crowds
+are collected, and they are usually of Jewish origin. There was nothing
+objectionable about them; they were simply shrewd, energetic men of
+business, ready without actual dishonesty to take every possible
+advantage of the wants and weaknesses of their fellow men. We had some
+pleasant evenings in their company, and many a jovial song and dance
+they treated us to, for which, no doubt, they succeeded in extracting
+good value for their wind and muscle.
+
+Meat was scarce on the diggings, and at times for days together we had
+none. McLean indeed did not refuse to sell fat cattle, but he demanded
+prohibitive prices, and so it was customary to procure meat from a
+distance.
+
+We had been now two months on the Lindis, our funds instead of
+increasing were diminishing, and we saw little or no hope of a change
+for the better. An exodus had already commenced, and the incomers were
+daily decreasing in number.
+
+After holding a council meeting in our hut, it was decided that our camp
+be broken up, and that we should all return together as far as Davis's
+station, from whence two should proceed to Dunedin with the dray, while
+the other two should purchase some fat beasts and drive them to the
+diggings for sale.
+
+The tents and tools were disposed of to a newly arrived group of
+Australian diggers at a fair enough price, and we disposed of all the
+remaining gear we did not actually need on the return journey, taking
+with us little beyond the empty dray, and all being ready we bade
+farewell to the Lindis diggings, and once more started on our uncertain
+and adventurous travels.
+
+I omitted to mention that during our residence on the Lindis we were
+sadly troubled with rats. There must have been millions in the locality,
+and it was very difficult to guard our food from their depredations.
+During the day they mostly disappeared until sundown, when they came in
+swarms to the tents. Sitting by the fire in the evening I have
+frequently killed a dozen with a short stick as they approached
+fearlessly in search of food, and during the night we got accustomed to
+sharing our common bed with a goodly number of the rascals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     WE LEAVE THE LINDIS--ATTEMPT TO DRIVE FAT CATTLE TO THE
+     DIGGINGS AND FAIL--RETURN TO DUNEDIN.
+
+
+On the return journey we had as much company as when we came, and the
+road was even worse, but the dray being almost empty we experienced less
+difficulty in proceeding. The first day took us out of McLean's run, and
+the second saw us at nightfall on Miller and Gooche's side of the pass,
+which was still snowed over, but the traffic had worked the track up
+into deep slush and mud, and late in the evening we were near losing the
+dray and horses in a swamp we had inadvertently entered while seeking a
+better passage. With the assistance of some friendly diggers we
+succeeded in extricating them, but the unfortunate accident prevented
+our proceeding further that night, and we passed it on the borders of
+the swamp where not an atom of firewood could be obtained. The ground
+was in a puddle of melted snow and mud, not a dry spot to be found. We
+were muddy and wet from head to foot, without the means of making even a
+pannikin of tea, and the night was pitch dark. We just crouched down
+together by the dray, hungry, shivering, and fagged. Sleep, of course,
+was out of the question, and we had constantly to clap our arms to keep
+the blood in circulation. Towards midnight intense frost set in. We
+smoked incessantly; in that, I think, was to a great extent our safety.
+
+We did not remove the harness from the horses, which were tied to the
+dray without any food for the night. The following morning at eleven
+o'clock we arrived at Miller and Gooche's, where we had to melt the ice
+off our leggings and boots before we could remove them--and what a
+breakfast we ate! Nobody who has not experienced what it is to starve on
+a healthy stomach for thirty hours and spend most of that time on a
+mountain pass under snow and frost can understand how we appreciated our
+food.
+
+The next day we reached Davis's, when Fowler and Legge left us for
+Dunedin, and Smith and I arranged with Davis for the purchase of a
+couple of fat steers for L12 10s. each, hoping that if we succeeded in
+driving them to the diggings we would double our money.
+
+In the afternoon we went with Davis to the run, and selected the
+animals, which we drove with a mob to the stockyard. Here we separated
+our pair and put them in another yard for a start in the morning.
+Driving a couple of wild bullocks alone from their run is, as I have
+already explained, by no means an easy task, and Davis warned us that
+these would give us trouble--indeed, I believe he considered us slightly
+mad to attempt to drive the beasts such a distance at all.
+
+On first starting we had no small difficulty in preventing them
+returning to the run, and it cost us some hard galloping to get them
+away on the road to Miller and Gooche's, where it was our intention to
+yard for the night.
+
+We had proceeded to within a mile of the station, when the brutes for
+the twentieth time bolted, on this occasion taking to the hills over
+some low spurs and rocky ground, intersected with ravines and gullies. I
+was riding hard to intercept them when I was suddenly sent flying on to
+my head, turning a somersault on to a rough bank of spear grass. Shaking
+myself together and somewhat recovering from the shock, I discovered the
+tail and stern of my steed projecting above the ground, the remainder of
+him being invisible. It appeared he had planted his fore feet in a deep
+fissure covered with long grass, and just large enough to take in head
+and fore parts. The shock sent me over, as I described, while he
+remained stuck.
+
+It was a ridiculous position, and tired, sore from the spear-grass, and
+annoyed as I was, I could not refrain from a hearty laugh at our
+predicament before attempting to extricate my unhappy quadruped; this I
+succeeded in doing with some difficulty, and found him, with the
+exception of some few scratches, quite unhurt.
+
+I again mounted, but the wily steers had disappeared, and Smith was
+nowhere to be seen, I rode quietly on and presently discovered the
+latter, himself and horse dead beat, and using very unparliamentary
+language at our bad luck, at the beasts, and at gold diggings in
+general.
+
+We had nothing for it but to go back to Miller's for the night. The
+following day we returned to Davis's, where we found the bullocks had
+arrived the night before, and Davis, after a laugh at our misadventures,
+returned us the L25, and the same evening we left for Dunedin. We camped
+some ten miles further down the Waitaki, with a very eccentric personage
+in the form of an old retired clergyman of the Church of England. He
+lived like a hermit in a small hut under the hills, which he had built
+himself, as well as some outbuildings and a capital little bakery, which
+he was very proud of. He cultivated a small plot of ground, where he
+grew potatoes and other vegetables and kept a cow, and he possessed
+several cats and a couple of fine collie dogs. He gave food--especially
+bread--to any traveller passing who needed it, and free quarters for the
+night. He showed us a small canoe in which he was in the habit of
+paddling himself across the river, and was always ready to obey a call
+to any, even distant, station where his services were needed in a case
+of illness, death, or marriage. He was a most entertaining host, and we
+enjoyed the night we spent with him in his curious and lonely
+habitation. We heard that he had suffered some severe domestic calamity,
+which drove him to his present lonely life, but he spent his days in
+doing all the good that lay in his power, and doubtless many a passing
+traveller was the better in more ways than one for meeting the old
+recluse.
+
+On arriving at Dunedin we found that Legge had already disposed of the
+dray satisfactorily, and Smith finding a purchaser for his horse he
+parted with him, thus placing us all in funds. It was decided then that
+Smith and Legge should take the coasting steamer to Port Lyttelton,
+while I proceeded overland with my own horse and "Jack the Devil,"
+arranging to meet at Christchurch. Fowler left us at Dunedin, and we saw
+him no more.
+
+My journey back was uneventful, but happening to meet with Bains, of the
+Post, the original owner of my horse, we exchanged mounts for a
+consideration of L5 transferred from his pocket to mine. He wanted his
+harness horse back, while I needed only a saddle horse, so the exchange
+was a satisfactory one in every way, and enabled me to hasten my journey
+to Christchurch, where I found Legge and Smith awaiting me.
+
+We sold Jack for twice what he cost us, and squared accounts for the
+trip, which, although it did not fulfill the brilliant expectations with
+which we started upon it, was nevertheless an interesting and pleasant
+experience, and one which we would have been sorry to have missed.
+
+I found home letters awaiting me, with renewed requests from my father
+to return while there was time to resume my studies, and offering me
+further assistance if I needed it. I declined all, feeling that I could
+not now renounce the life I had chosen, and it would not be right of me,
+in opposition to his opinion, to accept any financial assistance even
+had I needed it, which was not the case. I had tried most phases of a
+colonial life, had gained a great deal of experience, and knew that I
+could always obtain remunerative employment, and after I had enjoyed a
+little more rambling and freedom I could decide on some fixed line to
+settle down upon. In the meantime there was no immediate hurry, and I
+was very young.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     LEAVE FOR MESOPOTAMIA--ROAD MAKING--SHEEP MUSTERING--DEATH OF
+     DR. SINCLAIR--ROAD CONTRACTS ON THE ASHBURTON--WASHED DOWN STREAM.
+
+
+I had only been a few days in Christchurch when I met a Mr. Butler whom
+I had once before seen up-country. He immediately offered me a post on
+his run at L60 a year, with all expenses paid, which I could hold for as
+long or short time as I needed. This exactly suited me in my present
+circumstances. I accepted his offer and started the following day for
+Mesopotamia, as he had quaintly named his station; it lay between two
+rivers.
+
+[Illustration: MESOPOTAMIA STATION.]
+
+Mr. Samuel Butler was a grandson of the late famous Bishop Butler. He
+had come to New Zealand about a year previously with a small fortune
+which, as he said, he intended to double and then return home, and he
+did so in a remarkably short time. Immediately he landed he made himself
+acquainted with the maps and districts taken up, and rode many hundreds
+of miles prospecting for new country. His energy was rewarded by the
+discovery of the unclaimed piece of mountain land he now occupied near
+the upper gorge of the Rangitata. The run, which comprised about 8,000
+acres, formed a series of spurs and slopes leading from the foot of the
+great range and ending in a broad strip of flat land bounded by the
+Rangitata. Upon two other sides were smaller streams, tributaries of the
+latter--hence the name Mesopotamia (between the rivers) given to it by
+its energetic possessor. Mr. Butler had been established upon the run
+about a year, and had already about 3,000 sheep on it. The homestead was
+built upon a little plateau on the edge of the downs approached by a
+cutting from the flat, and was most comfortably situated and well
+sheltered, as it needed to be, the weather being often exceedingly
+severe in that elevated locality.
+
+Butler was a literary man, and his snug sitting-room was fitted with
+books and easy chairs--a piano also, upon which he was no mean
+performer.
+
+The station hands comprised a shepherd, bullock driver, hutkeeper, and
+two station hands employed in fencing in paddocks, which with Cook, the
+overseer, Butler, and myself made up the total.
+
+At daybreak we all assembled in the common kitchen for breakfast, after
+which we separated for our different employments.
+
+At 12 noon we met again for dinner, and again about 7 p.m. for supper,
+which meal being over, Butler, Cook, and I would repair to the sitting
+room, and round a glorious fire smoked or read or listened to Butler's
+piano. It was the most civilised experience I had had of up-country life
+since I left Highfield and was very enjoyable. I did not, however,
+remain very long at Mesopotamia at that time.
+
+There was a proposal on foot to improve the track leading from the
+Ashburton to the Rangitata on which some heavy cuttings were required to
+be made. I applied for the contract and obtained it at rates which paid
+me very well. My supervisor was a man called Denny, who had been a
+sailor, and I knew him to be a capable and handy fellow, as most sailors
+are. He was quite illiterate--could not even read or write, but he was
+clever and intelligent and had seen a great deal of colonial life and
+some hard times. Every night when supper was over and we sat by the fire
+in our little hut, I read aloud, to his great delectation, and his
+remarks, pert questions, and wonderful memory were remarkable.
+
+This work paid well, and I was soon in a position to make my first
+investment of L100 in sheep, which I placed on terms on Butler's run. To
+explain this transaction: I purchased one hundred two tooth ewes at a
+pound each, upon these I was to receive 45 per cent. increase yearly in
+lambs, half male and half female, and a similar rate of percentage of
+course on the female increase as they attained to breeding age. In
+addition I was to receive L12 10s. per hundred sheep for wool annually.
+It was a good commencement, and I decided to stick to contract work if
+possible, and increase my stock till I had sufficient to enable me to
+obtain a small partnership on a run.
+
+Just at this time there arrived at Mesopotamia a friend of Butler's by
+name Brabazon, an Irishman of good family, it being his intention to
+remain for some time as a cadet to learn sheep farming. He became a
+great personal friend of Cook's and mine, and many a pleasant day we
+spent together when, during intervals of rest, I was able to pay a visit
+to the Rangitata Station.
+
+On the completion of the road contract, the mustering season had begun,
+and I went over with my men to give a hand and remained for a month
+assisting at the shearing, etc.
+
+I think it was at this time that a most sad occurrence took place,
+resulting in the death of Dr. Sinclair, who was travelling for pleasure
+in company with Dr. Haast, Geologist and Botanist to the Government of
+Canterbury. He and Dr. Haast with their party had been staying at
+Mesopotamia for a few days previous to starting on an expedition to the
+upper gorge of the Rangitata. They all left one afternoon, Dr. Sinclair,
+as usual, on foot. He had an unaccountable aversion to mounting a horse,
+and could not be induced to do so when it was possible to avoid it.
+Strange to say, a horse was eventually the cause of his death. He was a
+man of some seventy years of age with snow white hair, a learned
+antiquary and botanist, and old as he was, and in appearance not of
+strong build, he could undergo great fatigue and walk huge distances in
+pursuit of his favourite science.
+
+The party had proceeded in company some few miles up the river, when
+Haast and his men went ahead to select a camping place, leaving Dr.
+Sinclair with a man and horse in attendance to come on quietly and take
+him over the streams, the intended camp being on the opposite side of
+the river.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER GORGE OF THE RANGITATA.]
+
+The plan adopted for crossing a stream, when there is more than one
+person and only a single horse, is as follows: One end of a sufficiently
+long rope is fastened round the animal's neck, the other being held by
+one of the men. One then crosses the stream on horseback, when he
+dismounts, and the horse is hauled back by means of the rope, when
+another mounts, and so on. In this instance the attendant rode over
+first, but the stream being somewhat broader than the rope was long, the
+latter was pulled out of Dr. Sinclair's hands. The man then tried to
+turn the horse back loose, but the animal, finding himself free, bolted
+for the run. Dr. Sinclair called to the man that he would ford the
+stream on foot, and although, as the attendant stated, he warned him
+against attempting to do so, he immediately entered, but the current was
+too powerful and quickly washed him off his feet. It was now nearly dark
+and the man said that although he ran as fast as he was able down the
+stream, he was unable to see anything of the Doctor. This was the
+miserable story the station hand gave in at the homestead when he
+arrived an hour afterwards.
+
+All hands turned out, and having mounts in the paddock, Cook and
+Brabazon were soon in the saddle galloping towards the fording place.
+Striking the stream some distance below where the accident occurred,
+both sides were carefully searched, as they worked up. When within a
+quarter of a mile of the ford Cook discovered the body of the Doctor
+lying stranded with head and shoulders under water. Life, of course, was
+extinct. He was drawn gently from the stream and laid on the shingle
+just as the foot men arrived with torches. It was a sad spectacle, this
+fine old man we all loved and respected so much, only a few hours before
+full of life and health, now a ghastly corpse, his hair and long white
+beard lying dank over his cold white face and glaring eyes. The scene
+was rendered all the more weird and awful by the surroundings, the still
+dark night, the rushing water, and overhanging cliffs under the red
+glare of the torches. His body was laid across one of the saddles while
+one walked on each side to keep it from falling, and so they returned to
+the station that lonely four miles in the dead of night.
+
+He was laid in the woolshed and a watch placed on guard, and early in
+the morning a messenger was despatched to Dr. Haast with the sad
+tidings. His party were at first alarmed at his non-appearance the
+previous evening, but at length took it for granted that he must have
+returned to the station, and felt confident that with his attendant and
+a horse he could not possibly have come to any harm, the river being
+easily fordable on horseback, or even on foot by a strong man, but of
+course such a clumsy mistake as employing too short a rope never struck
+anybody. The attendant who was responsible was one of the hands employed
+on ditching and fencing, and possibly was not much experienced at river
+fording, and he said the Doctor delayed so long botanising that darkness
+was upon them by the time they reached the fording place.
+
+Dr. Sinclair's remains were interred the following day about a mile from
+the homestead on the flat near the south bank of the Rangitata, where
+his tomb doubtless may now be seen, his last earthly resting place; and,
+dear old man, with all his strong antipathy to horses, what would he
+have thought could he have known that one was destined at last to be the
+cause of his death?
+
+As a set-off against the previous sad story I may relate an amusing one,
+in which I was myself a principal actor, and which occurred soon after
+my arrival at Mesopotamia. Butler was much exercised about some
+experimental grass-growing he was carrying on about three miles from the
+station, on the further side of one of the boundary streams I first
+referred to, where he had recently secured another slice of country.
+
+Early one morning I had started alone on foot for the paddocks, where
+Butler and Cook were to meet me later, riding, and if I found the stream
+too high to ford on foot, I was to await their arrival.
+
+On reaching the river it was so swollen as to be unsafe to attempt
+fording, and so, lighting my pipe, I sat down under the shelter of a
+large boulder, and presently fell asleep. When I woke up, after some
+considerable time, and remembered where I was, I feared that Cook and
+Butler must have passed while I slept, and was on the point of returning
+to the station, when I observed two horsemen a long way down stream,
+apparently searching for something. I speedily understood what was on
+foot. My friends were laboriously seeking for my dead body, having
+naturally supposed, when they could not find me at the paddock, that I
+had tried to ford the river and been washed away. The idea of these two
+men spending the morning hunting for a supposed drowned man, who was
+enjoying a sound sleep near them all the time, was so ludicrous that I
+could not refrain from an immoderate fit of laughter when they arrived.
+
+Butler was hot-tempered, and anything approaching to ridicule where he
+himself was concerned was a mortal insult. He turned pale with passion
+and rode off, and I do not think he ever entirely forgave me for not
+being drowned when he had undertaken so much trouble to discover my
+body.
+
+It was at Mesopotamia that I noticed so many remains of that extinct
+bird, the "Moa," and it appeared that some of the species had inhabited
+that locality not very many years previously. Indeed, some old Maoris I
+had met on the Ashburton said they remembered the bird very well. It was
+not uncommon to come across a quantity of bones, and near by them a heap
+of smooth pebbles which the bird had carried in his craw for digestive
+purposes, and I recollect one day employing a number of the bones in
+making a footway over a small creek.
+
+A complete skeleton of the Moa bird is to be seen in the British
+Museum.
+
+I had now obtained a fresh contract for making cuttings, draining
+swamps, and bridging over some ten miles in the Lower Ashburton gorge
+and Valley, and I was busily engaged all the summer and autumn. There
+were some extensive patches of swampy ground where great difficulty was
+experienced in passing the heavy wool drays, and to make a feasible road
+over them was one of my tasks, and an interesting one it proved, giving
+some scope to my engineering ability. Having laid out the proposed line
+of road over the marsh, I cut from it at right angles, and some 300 feet
+in length, a channel wide and deep enough, I calculated, to convey away
+the flood water during heavy rains, and from the upper end of this
+channel I cut four feeding drains, two running along the road line, and
+two diagonally, all four meeting at the top end of the main channel;
+over the latter, at this point, I constructed a wooden bridge of rough
+green timber from the forest, distant about eight miles. I sunk a row of
+heavy round piles or posts about a foot in diameter at each side of the
+channel, which was fifteen feet wide, securing them with heavy
+transverse beams spiked on to their tops; over this I laid heavy round
+timber stretchers, about nine inches in diameter and four in number,
+upon which were spiked closed together a flooring of stout pine saplings
+from two and a half to four inches thick. The floor between these was
+then covered with a thick layer of brushwood, topped with earth and
+gravel. The road embankment was then carried on from each side till the
+swamp was cleared. I am particular about describing this, as it was my
+first attempt at bridge building and draining, and of all the thousands
+of bridges I have since constructed, I do not think any one of them
+interested me more keenly than these in the Ashburton Valley when I was
+a lad of nineteen. The bridges and roads over the marshes proved quite
+satisfactory, and it was a real delight to me when the first teams of
+wool drays passed over safely. I was at the same time engaged on the
+cuttings, and got some of them completed before the severe winter set
+in.
+
+I was so busy this season that much of my time was necessarily spent in
+supervising between the forest and the work, and I had a rough hut
+erected at the former, where I could live during my visits.
+
+Once, on passing to the forest, I met with an amusing accident. I was
+riding a huge sixteen-hand black mare and had heavy swags of blankets
+strapped before and behind the saddle, in addition to which I carried a
+new axe, some cooking utensils and a large leg and loin of mutton, which
+I had called for at the station, fearing that my men were out of meat.
+Near the forest I had to cross a small stream with steep banks. There
+had been heavy rain the previous night, and the little stream was a
+rushing torrent, and as I forded it, the water reached to the girths.
+The opposite bank was steep and slippery, and the huge animal laboured
+so in negotiating it that the girths snapped, and the entire saddle,
+with myself, slipped over her tail into the rushing stream. In this
+manner we were carried down; immersed to nearly my armpits, but securely
+attached, for some two hundred yards, before I was able to extricate
+myself and incumbrances by seizing a branch as we swept by a bend in the
+stream.
+
+With some difficulty I succeeded in getting all out safely and
+fortunately on the right side. The mare was quietly feeding where she
+had emerged.
+
+Where the work went on in the valley I had a couple of tents for my gang
+of navvies, some of whom were sailors. I always found these excellent
+workers, and specially handy and clever in many ways, where a mere
+landsman would be at fault. I worked with them, and shared everything as
+one of themselves, even to a single nip of rum I allowed to each man
+once a day. They treated me with every respect, and I had not, so far as
+I can recollect, a single instance of serious trouble with any of them.
+They received good wages, and earned them, and if any man among them had
+been found guilty of reprehensible conduct, the others would have
+supported me at once in clearing him from the camp. When the day's work
+was over, these sailor navvies would all bear a hand to get matters
+right for the night and the next day. Mutton was put in the oven, bread
+made, and placed under the ashes, firewood collected, and water in the
+kettle ready for putting on the fire at daybreak, then the nip of rum
+and pipe alight, and yarns or songs would be told or sung in turn, till
+the blankets claimed us.
+
+This was a very severe winter, and as the snow began to lie heavily I
+was perforce obliged to stop work for a month or two, and for that time
+I accepted an invitation from Cook and Brabazon to keep them company at
+Mesopotamia. Butler had left for Christchurch, where he would remain for
+an indefinite time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     WINTER UNDER THE SOUTHERN ALPS--FROST-BITE--SEEKING SHEEP IN
+     THE SNOW--THE RUNAWAY.
+
+
+In winter in these high latitudes, such as the Upper Rangitata, lying at
+the foot and immediately eastward of the great Alpine range behind which
+the winter sun dipped at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it was intensely
+cold, and instances of frost-bite were not uncommon. I recollect a poor
+young fellow, a bullock-driver on a neighbouring station, getting
+frost-bitten one night when he had lost his way in the snow. He knew
+nothing of it until he arrived at the station in the morning, when, on
+removing his boots his feet felt numb and dead, and no amount of rubbing
+had any effect in inducing a return of circulation. It soon transpired
+that his toes were frost-bitten. A messenger was despatched to the
+Ashburton in hope of finding a doctor, but in vain, and the lad was sent
+to Christchurch, 150 miles, in a covered dray. This, of course, took a
+considerable time, and when he arrived gangrene had set in, and both
+feet had to be amputated above the ankles.
+
+When the snow falls in large quantities it becomes an anxious time for
+the sheep farmer, and if the flocks are not strong and healthy they are
+sure to suffer. In snowstorms, the sheep will seek the shelter of some
+hill or spur, collecting together on the lee side, and here they are
+sometimes drifted over, when if the snow does not remain beyond a
+certain period they are mostly safe. As the snow drifts over them the
+heat of their bodies keeps it melted within a certain area, while the
+freezing and increase of drift and falling snow continue above and
+beyond the circle. In this manner a compartment is formed underneath in
+which the animals live and, to some extent, move about. The existence of
+these habitations is discovered by the presence of small breathing holes
+on the surface leading from below like chimneys, and sheep will live in
+this manner for a fortnight or so. When they have eaten up all the grass
+and roots available they will feed on their own wool, which they tear
+off each other's backs, and chew for the grease contained in it.
+
+For a fortnight we had been completely snowed up at Mesopotamia. Upon
+the homestead flat the snow was four feet deep, through which we cut and
+kept clear a passage between the huts, and for fifty yards on one side
+to the creek, where through a hole in the ice we drew water for daily
+use. Fortunately we had abundance of food and a mob of sheep had
+previously been driven into one of the paddocks to be retained in case
+of emergency. The confined life was trying. We read, played cards,
+practised daily with the boxing gloves, and missed sorely the outdoor
+exercise. One day, however, we had a benefit of the latter which was a
+new experience to all of us.
+
+The overseer was getting anxious about the sheep. Once or twice distant
+bleating had been heard, but for some days it had ceased, and as he
+wished to satisfy himself of the safety of his flocks, we decided to
+make a party and go in search of them.
+
+When last seen, before the heavy snow began to fall, the flocks of ewes
+and lambs were two miles from the homestead on the lea of the great spur
+forming the north extremity of the run, and it was in this direction the
+bleating was heard.
+
+We arranged our party as follows: Cook, Brabazon, and I, with two
+station hands, were to start early the following morning, while two men
+remained at the huts to be on the look out for us, and if we were late
+in returning they had orders to follow up in our snow trail and meet us.
+
+We each dressed as lightly as possible, and provided ourselves with
+stout pine staffs to assist us in climbing and feeling our way over
+dangerous localities. Each of us carried a parcel of bread and meat, and
+a small flask of spirits was taken for use only in case of urgent
+necessity.
+
+An expedition of this kind is always attended with danger. Travelling
+through deep snow is exceedingly tiring, and the glare and glistening
+from its surface tends to induce sleepiness. Many a man has lost his
+life from these causes combined when but a short distance from safety.
+
+[Illustration: SEEKING SHEEP IN THE SNOW.]
+
+We started in Indian file, the foremost man breaking the snow and the
+others placing their feet in his tracks. When the leader, whose work was
+naturally the heaviest, got tired, he stepped aside, and the next in
+file took up the breaking, while the former fell into the rear of all,
+which is, of course, the easiest.
+
+Proceeding thus, we went on steadily for some hours, our route being by
+no means straight, as we had to utilise our knowledge of the ground and
+avoid dangerous and suspicious places. The aspect of a piece of country
+considerably changes in surface appearance under a heavy covering of
+snow where deep and extensive drifts have formed.
+
+Notwithstanding our deviations and undulating course, we made the summit
+of the great spur at midday. Such a scene as here opened out before us
+is difficult to describe. If it had been a flat plain with the usual
+domestic accessories there would be only a dreary circumscribed and more
+or less familiar picture, but here we were among the silent mountains
+untouched by the hand of man, in the clearest atmosphere in the
+universe, with magnificent and varying panoramas stretching away from us
+on every side. To the north we could see far into the upper gorge of the
+Rangitata, with its precipices and promontories receding point by point
+in bold outline to the towering peaks forty miles beyond, and below it
+the wide flats of the great river, with its broad bed and streams so
+rapid that they could not be frozen over. On the east the low undulating
+downs stretching away towards the plains, while westward they ran in
+huge spurs to the foot of the Alpine range, towering 13,000 feet above
+us. Turning southward was seen the lower gorge, with its hills almost
+meeting in huge precipitous spurs, with stretches of pine forests
+clothing their slopes.
+
+Turn where we would over those immense panoramas all was white, pure,
+dazzling, glittering white, with a deathlike stillness over all. No
+life, no colour, save a streak of grey-blue on the broad river bed, and
+the shadow thrown by the mountains in the depths of their frowning
+gorges. The cold grey cloudless sky itself was scarcely any contrast. It
+was a magnificent wilderness of snow, and we viewed it spell-bound till
+our eyes ached with the glare and we felt a strange desire to lie down
+and sleep.
+
+Such is invariably the attendant sensations under these circumstances,
+whence the danger. If one once gives way to the drowsiness and longing
+for rest, he is gone. The sleep comes quickly, but it is a sleep from
+which there is no awakening--hence the precautions taken on such an
+expedition to have as large a party of strong men as possible to assist
+each other in case of failure. The need for such caution was fully
+verified in our case.
+
+We were fortunate in discovering a number of sheep on the leeward of the
+spur where the snow had drifted off and lay comparatively light, and
+some were feeding off the tops of tall snow grass which remained
+uncovered. In other places numbers were living under the snow as the
+breathing holes testified. The visit and inspection were as satisfactory
+as we hoped, and after a short rest and hasty lunch, we started on our
+return journey, which, as it would be in our old tracks, and for the
+most part downhill, would be very much easier than the previous one.
+
+It was well that our homeward journey was easier, or the trip would not
+have ended as satisfactorily as it did. We all felt on starting that we
+had had nearly enough work, and looked forward longingly to the snug
+huts two miles distant. It was now half-past one, and by three o'clock
+darkness and severe frost would set in (indeed, it was freezing all
+day). We originally trusted to reach the station by that hour, but we
+had delayed longer with the sheep than we should have.
+
+We proceeded manfully and had accomplished about half the distance when
+Cook, who had been exhibiting signs of weariness, suddenly "sat down in
+his tracks," and asked for some grog, which was given him. This revived
+him somewhat, and we again got under weigh, keeping him in the rear, but
+after a little while he again succumbed, and said he could go no
+further. He was quite happy, only looked a bit dazed, said he was tired
+and sleepy, and begged us to go on, and send a man and horse for him.
+This was what we feared. He was too far gone to remember that a horse
+could not walk where we had come. There was nothing for it but to carry,
+or assist him as best we could, and keep him moving, for if we had left
+him he would have frozen dead in half an hour. With this fear we
+received new strength, and two by two, we half carried and half dragged
+him for some distance when we were met by the hut keeper, and the
+remaining station hand, an old man, by name Darby--who, as agreed, had
+left to seek us, fearing some accident. With this additional assistance
+Cook was carried the remaining distance, and laid, now quite asleep, on
+a cot, where we rubbed his extremities with snow, till circulation
+returned, and then let him sleep, which he did, and indeed which we all
+did, until very late the following day.
+
+The same winter a sad accident occurred on a run south of Canterbury,
+belonging to two brothers, by name, I think, McKenzie. They went alone
+to visit their sheep in the snow, and when returning, the elder got
+tired and could not proceed. He contentedly sat down, desiring his
+brother to go on to the station and send him assistance. The latter,
+fearing nothing, left him, and when the assistance arrived the man was
+found dead.
+
+The close of winter was now coming on, and the snow was fast thawing
+from the mountains, while the river flats were almost clear where drifts
+had not formed. With the thaw the Rangitata came down in great volume, a
+sea of yellow foaming water a quarter of a mile in width.
+
+During the time we were snowed up the mob of horses came almost every
+day to the stock yard for rock salt and we now took the opportunity to
+retain three, as the ground was clear enough for riding. I had brought
+with me from Christchurch a new purchase in the form of a big rawboned
+gelding, fresh off board ship from Melbourne, and had turned him to
+graze with the other horses on the run. He was now in splendid
+condition.
+
+When we were all mounted the gelding showed some inclination to buck,
+but went away quietly after all, and we cantered along to the bank of
+the river. Returning, we wished to try the paces of our nags, and
+started for a race. My animal then showed his temper, and after a few
+bucks, which did not unseat me, he fairly bolted. I had only a light
+snaffle on him, while his mouth was like iron. The bridle, too, was old
+as ill-luck would have it, or I might have succeeded in stopping him;
+but after a few moments of vain endeavour to do so, the rein broke at
+the ring of the snaffle, and he was free. With a vicious shake of the
+head he threw the bit from his mouth and headed for the downs, where I
+knew there was a large tract of burnt "Irishman" scrub, into which, if
+he took me, I would be torn to pieces.
+
+In an instant's thought I decided to get clear of him, then kicking my
+feet, as I thought, out of the stirrups, I sprang off. I remembered
+nothing more till I woke up, two hours later, in a cot in the hut, with
+an aching head and stiff back. The others said I could not have cleared
+both feet from the stirrups when I jumped, for it seemed to them that I
+was dragged for an instant. At any rate, I struck the ground on the back
+of my head and shoulders, and lay stunned; they first thought me
+lifeless. The huts were near, and I was carried up and resuscitated. The
+following day I was sufficiently recovered to give the gelding a lesson
+in running away he had cause to remember.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     START ON AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE WANAKA LAKE.
+
+
+We had just now capital pig-hunting. The severity of the snow sent the
+animals into the flats, where we shot them down, riding being
+impracticable.
+
+My visit being ended and the weather favourable, I proceeded to
+Christchurch preparatory to resuming work. I was accompanied by a young
+man named Evans, a stockrider from one of the Ashburton stations, and on
+arriving at the Rakaia, being in a hurry, we foolishly tried to ford the
+river without a guide, as I had frequently done at other times. The
+river was quite fordable, but the streams were fairly deep, taking the
+horses some way above the girths. We had nearly crossed the largest when
+my horse suddenly went down, and in an instant we were swimming in a
+swift current nearly to the waist. Evans's horse followed the other's
+example. They were both good swimmers, and took us out safely on the
+side from which we entered, some 300 yards down stream. Another try
+under the forder's guidance was successful, but the accident detained us
+at the north bank accommodation house for the night.
+
+In addition to the completion of the Ashburton gorge road, I obtained a
+contract from a wealthy runholder in the neighbourhood to put up many
+miles of wire fencing, then just coming into use for dividing the runs,
+and also for the erection of several outstation buildings, all of which
+I had completed before the middle of the summer season, and I was in
+treaty for further work when I received an offer from Mr. T. Moorhouse,
+at whose station I had been so ill, to accompany him on an exploring
+trip to the head of the Wanaka Lake, in Otago Province. He had taken up
+(or imagined he had done so) some sheep country there, and the
+expedition was for the purpose of inspecting his newly acquired
+possessions. Nobody had yet seen this country, or at any rate, been on
+it.
+
+The journey would be about 300 miles, in addition to the voyage up the
+lake by boat, about twenty miles. It would be a new experience for me,
+and I was delighted with the offer, the more so that I would receive a
+good return for my time with all expenses paid, and I was glad to have
+an opportunity of again visiting the Lindis and the country far beyond
+my late travels, during the summer, when all would look its best and
+camping out be a real pleasure.
+
+As we were not to start for ten days, I went to Christchurch to receive
+payment for work, and I was anxious to purchase a good saddle horse in
+place of my big mare, which was too clumsy and heavy for our proposed
+ride to Otago. On the day on which I purchased the animal there was an
+auction sale of walers in the town, and I was sitting on the stockyard
+rails, looking on, when I saw a jockey riding a powerful bay up and down
+in front of the stand. This jockey proved to be an old acquaintance, and
+although some 60 years of age, was still an excellent rider. He was a
+popular little fellow, a character in his way, and was known by the name
+of "Old Bob." I was on the point of speaking to him, when the horse he
+rode was called for sale, and Bob was desired to show off his paces. For
+a turn or two the animal behaved well, and the bidding was brisk, when
+apparently, without any cause he bucked violently. I think Bob held on
+for four or five bucks, then the saddle went forward, and he was shot
+off, striking the hard road on his head. He seemed to roll up or double
+up, or something, and lay still, several people rushed to him, but he
+was past all help, his skull was split in two.
+
+On my return to Moorhouse's our preparations were soon completed. In
+addition to our saddle horses we selected for pack animals as well as
+for occasional riding two of the best of the station hacks; one of them
+carried stores and some cooking utensils, while the other was laden with
+clothes and blankets. We travelled lightly, it being our intention to
+put up at stations or accommodation houses as much as possible till we
+arrived at our destination.
+
+The route we followed was for the first 150 miles the same as that
+described in our journey to the diggings. We moved much faster and in
+six days reached Miller and Gooche's, the former of whom was now on the
+station. McGregor Miller was one of the finest men I had seen, a
+Hercules in strength and build, and as jolly and hospitable as he was a
+perfect gentleman. We stayed two days with him. The station as well as
+the country presented very different aspects to what they did on my
+previous visit. A new house had been built and furnished comfortably,
+and the surroundings were fast being improved under the guiding hand of
+the "boss," who worked with his men as one of themselves, and easy-going
+fox-hunting squire as he was in the old country a couple of years
+since, he could handle an axe, spade, or shovel with the best of them.
+
+On the first day's ride from here we went over the Lindis Pass, the
+scene of so much hardship to us diggers, and on to McClean's station,
+where we received a hearty Scotch welcome and an excellent dinner, and
+sat up late with the old gentleman discussing whiskey toddy and chatting
+over old times. The Moorhouses and McCleans were old friends, and had
+been together in Australia on the diggings many years before. He was
+not, I recollect, much impressed with Moorhouse's speculation, but as he
+had a run at the south of the Wanaka and a homestead there he arranged
+for our reception and for a boat to take us a portion of the voyage up
+the lake.
+
+The next day's ride lay through the scene of the late Lindis diggings,
+but not a vestige of the encampments remained beyond the ruins of the
+hut walls and excavations. The gold diggings proved a failure, and
+within a few months of our leaving them they were deserted. They were, I
+understood, subsequently re-opened by a company who employed machinery
+with more success than was possible with manual labour.
+
+The country beyond this was bleak and uninteresting, until the following
+evening when we arrived at the Molyneux river, where it flowed out of
+the south end of the Wanaka Lake. We were here again in the midst of
+mountains and very near to the great Alpine range which towered above us
+and which, although it was midsummer, was capped in snow.
+
+Upon the opposite side of the river, and on the shore of the lake, stood
+the very fine group of station buildings erected by Mr. Robert McClean.
+His people having been advised of our coming, a boat was sent across,
+behind which we swam our horses, and were soon comfortably fixed for the
+night and hospitably received by the overseer, who had a boat ready to
+convey us the following day twenty-five miles up the lake to another
+station formed there.
+
+The Molyneux struck me as being the clearest water I had ever seen; it
+was quite colourless, and though of great depth, even here at its
+source, the bottom was distinctly visible from the boat. It was a grand
+river, large and deep enough to float a small steamer.
+
+Early the following morning we saw a large timber raft come down the
+lake and enter the Molyneux. There were extensive forests at the head of
+the lake, and an energetic contractor had engaged men to cut timber
+there, which he was now floating down the river to the coast some 200
+miles distant. The raft was forty feet square, composed of rough round
+logs bound together and covered with a load of split and sawn timber,
+forming altogether a very valuable cargo. The contractor and four other
+men stood on the raft, each provided with a life belt, which he wore
+ready for accident, and fastened to the side of the raft lay several
+coils of stout rope with grappling hooks attached, by which they would
+be able to anchor by throwing the hooks round some object on the bank.
+
+Notwithstanding these precautions there was considerable danger in
+navigating the river in some parts, where occurred rapids and rocks, and
+occasionally as we were informed, a raft would get overturned or broken
+up, in which case the men in charge would have to swim for their lives
+or drown unless they had taken the precaution to provide themselves with
+lifebelts.
+
+We left our horses and most of the impedimenta there, and about mid-day
+took boat with three of the McClean men to assist at the oars. The boat
+was a fine one and carried a light sail, which unfortunately was no use
+to us, the little wind there was being dead ahead.
+
+The Wanaka is, I believe, the largest and most beautiful lake in New
+Zealand. On one side, for nearly the entire length, it was bounded by
+steep hills, for the greater part clothed with forest and undergrowth
+crowned by noble promontories and headlands. Above and beyond were seen
+the mountains receding away to the snow line in their various and
+changing colours. The opposite side was more homely and less grand in
+outline, but still very lovely. The low hills were broken by extensive
+tracts of undulating or flat land, where flocks of sheep or herds of
+cattle grazed, bordered by sedges and marshes with flocks of wild duck
+in all the enjoyment of an undisturbed existence.
+
+Looking up the lake to where the mountains seemed to meet, the colouring
+and grandeur of the scene was sublime. Since I voyaged up the Wanaka I
+have seen mountain scenery in many other lands, but I cannot call to
+mind anything which for beauty and grandeur surpasses that by which I
+was now surrounded. It had, may be, a peculiar wildness of its own not
+elsewhere to be met with, except in the Himalayas, and no doubt much of
+the effect is due to the exceeding rarity of the atmosphere, and hence
+the greater extent of landscape which can be observed at once.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     EXPLORATION TRIP CONTINUED--WEEKAS--INSPECTION OF NEW
+     COUNTRY--ESCAPE FROM FIRE.
+
+
+It was some time after dark when we arrived at Wynne's Station, which
+was situated in a bend behind a promontory, and not observable until
+close upon it. The owner was absent, but we were received by the
+overseer, Mr. Brand, and his assistants, two young gentlemen cadets. The
+run, which was recently taken up, was suited only for cattle which
+grazed on the extensive flats reaching inwards between the mountain
+ranges and the undulating hills. The mountain sides were too rough and
+scrubby for sheep as yet till fires had reduced the wild growth of small
+brush and induced grass to spread.
+
+The homestead being yet in its infancy, all was crude and rough, but its
+surroundings were delightful. It stood on a small flat not yet denuded
+of the original wild growth which lay in heaps half burnt, or in
+scattered clumps, the cleared portions being partly ploughed up. The
+flat was enclosed by a semicircle of steep hills covered with rocks and
+brushwood in the wildest luxuriance, and almost impossible of passage
+even to pedestrians. The stockyards lay away some distance, and they,
+with the run generally, were approached by boats, of which three fine
+ones lay hauled up in front of the homestead. Indeed, a great deal of
+the work of the station was done by boat, including the fetching of
+supplies, bringing timber from the forest and firewood from an island in
+the lake, and visiting remote parts of the run only accessible inland by
+a rough and circuitous cattle track impracticable for a dray.
+
+Mr. Brand did not think much of Moorhouse's spec. He had seen the
+country, but had not been on it, and did not think it good or extensive
+enough to be worked alone. He offered not only to lend us a fine boat
+for the remainder of the journey, but to accompany us himself to the
+forest which was adjacent to our quest, having to convey some stores to
+his men there. It was arranged that on the third day we would proceed
+thither, and in the meantime I lent a hand at anything going on, and
+amused myself sketching, an occupation I was very fond of, and I had
+already collected a considerable number of views taken on the Rangitata
+and other places.
+
+We left in the afternoon, intending to camp about ten miles up. We
+numbered five in all, and the boat was fairly well laden with stores for
+the forest. The pull was a stiff one and we took no sail, the wind at
+this season always blowing down the lake. It was some time after dark
+when we reached our proposed camping place, a narrow strand of white
+shingle sprinkled with clusters of shrubbery backed with thick
+underwood, which afforded shelter and firewood. The boat was made fast,
+and materials for supper and a huge fire were speedily under weigh. We
+were much pestered here with weekas (woodhens) who carried off most of
+our food which was not securely covered by night. These birds are the
+most persistent thieves, nearly as large as a common fowl, of a browny
+colour, gamy looking, with long legs and very short wings, the latter
+only serving to assist them in running, for they cannot fly. They are to
+be found in every New Zealand bush, and unless travellers take the
+precaution to place provisions or any articles, edible or not, out of
+their reach, they will not long remain in ignorance of their proximity.
+When living in the forest I have frequently amused myself killing these
+birds in the following manner, while sitting at my camp fire at night. I
+procured two short sticks, at the end of one I attached a bit of red
+cloth or rag to be used as a lure. They are the most curious birds in
+existence, and this together with their thieving propensities is so
+powerful that when their desires for appropriation are excited they
+possess little or no fear. I would sit by the fire holding out the red
+rag, when in a few moments a slight rustle would be heard from the
+branches. After a little the bird would step boldly into the open
+firelight stretching his neck and cocking his head knowingly as he
+approached in a zig-zag way the object of his curiosity and desire.
+
+So soon as he would come sufficiently near, and his attention was taken
+up with the bright object he hoped to possess, whack would descend the
+other stick on his head, and his mortal career of theft was at an end.
+Then I would roast the two drumsticks, having separated them from the
+body, skinning them, and eating them for supper; they are the only part
+of the bird fit for food.
+
+The remainder of the body is boiled down for oil, which is invaluable
+for boots of any kind, making them waterproof and pliable.
+
+I have frequently killed six or eight weekas in a single evening at my
+camp fire. I did not, however, eat all the drumsticks.
+
+We were up betimes, and after a hearty breakfast started for our last
+pull to the head of the lake, which we reached in the forenoon. The
+heaviest part of the work, however, had yet to come--namely, pulling the
+boat a mile up the stream which flows into the lake. This was
+unavoidable, as the land each side was an impassable swamp. For the last
+half-mile the current was so swift we could make no headway against it
+with the oars, and the water being only from one to two feet deep, we
+got out and waded, hauling the boat by hand to the landing place. Here
+we had to transfer provisions from the boat to our own backs and trudge
+on foot over nearly two miles of rough and partly swampy ground to the
+forest where Brand had his hut, in which we intended to camp that night.
+It was fairly late in the afternoon when we reached the hut, and we were
+not sorry to relieve ourselves of our burdens and partake of food.
+
+It was a rough camp, and as wild a situation as one could find, and it
+was a rough-looking lot of men that night who occupied it, in the depth
+of a black pine forest with the glaring light of a huge fire
+illuminating the recesses of the overhanging trees and dense underwood,
+increasing the darkness beyond, with the ominous cry of the mawpawk and
+laughing jackass only breaking the dead stillness. We were soon rolled
+in our blankets around the fire, and slept like men who had earned their
+rest.
+
+The following day we rested and prepared for our excursion into the new
+country, and expecting to be absent two days took with us enough food
+for so long. In addition to our blankets we carried each a bag of ship
+biscuits, some tea, sugar, and cooked mutton, with a small kettle and
+two tin panakins.
+
+The first day we proceeded nearly five miles up the valley, which was
+from 1/2 to 3/4 mile wide, much of it swampy and scored by deep-water
+channels, many of which were now dry, but partly covered or concealed by
+long tussock roots more or less burnt. On each side were low rugged
+hills covered with dense scrub, some portions of which had been burnt by
+fires which had crept up there from lower down the lake. Where the fire
+had done its work the ground was a foot deep in ashes and charred bits
+of timber, while studded about, or covered over with burnt debris were
+innumerable half burnt stumps; altogether it was not a locality one
+would select for a pleasant walk.
+
+In some few places where rain had washed away the ashes the tussock
+roots were beginning to sprout, and it was not difficult to see that in
+course of time there would be an improvement in the land, but there was
+not much of it on the flats, while the hills would be for years almost
+impracticable. Besides, it was exceedingly difficult of access and stock
+would in all probability require to be transported thither by boat.
+
+We were now walking over country in its pure native wildness; the first
+human beings, certainly the first civilised ones, who had ever trod upon
+it. We spent two days exploring as far in every direction as we could
+go, and as we went we steadily applied the match, setting fire to bush
+and grass alike, thus making our progress very evident to those in the
+forest and all down the lake. We were in a fearful state of filth,
+notwithstanding that we had washed ourselves in the clear stream daily,
+the ashes got ground into our skins and even the application of fine
+sand in lieu of soap would not eradicate it, only causing rawness with
+accompanying smarting. Moorhouse was really to blame for this, for, vain
+man that he was, he carried a little pocket looking-glass by which we
+discovered the condition we were in. Had he left the glass behind we
+would probably have remained black and happy till our return.
+
+On the last day we had a close shave for our lives. We were crossing a
+narrow bushy point, the upper portion of which had caught a returning
+fire, and it was coming down upon us with the wind, with a deafening
+roar and volumes of smoke. Our chance of safety lay in getting into the
+open and across the water before the fire reached us, and we were
+nearly, very nearly caught. The bush grew denser as we went on, and was
+filled with "lawyers," which impeded our progress, so that in our
+extremity to tear ourselves away we left most of our scanty clothing and
+somewhat of our skins in their clutches, while a fresh breeze springing
+up, increased the pace of the terrible fire which came roaring towards
+us in a wall of flame, sparks and smoke, which had already nearly
+blinded us, the trees snapping, creaking, and falling behind us like
+reports of artillery. Singed, torn, and half naked, we just succeeded
+in escaping being charred as completely as any stump on the hills.
+
+The "lawyer" (so-called) is a creeping, or rather climbing, plant common
+to the New Zealand bush. It grows in long thread-like tendrils, as thick
+as whip cord, armed with myriads of sharp hooked thorns turned
+backwards. The tendrils grow hundreds of feet in length, stretching from
+branch to branch, and often forming a maze or web extending over a large
+area. A person getting entangled in their embraces rarely escapes with a
+whole skin, and never with a whole coat.
+
+We returned the evening of the third day as black as sloes, and with
+only a few shreds of singed clothes on our backs, thoroughly worn out
+with hard walking and insufficient sustenance. We remained one day for
+repairs and then, in company with Brand, had a glorious sail down the
+lake to Wynne's station.
+
+Our return journey to Christchurch was without incident save one, worth
+mentioning. This was where we were both nearly drowned crossing the
+Lindis in a flood.
+
+Moorehouse, I believe, sold his interest in the Wanaka district for a
+song.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     DEATH OF PARKER--ROYAL MAIL ROBBED BY A CAT--MEET WITH ACCIDENT
+     CROSSING RIVER.
+
+
+During our absence a sad occurrence took place, which I will record
+here. A Mr. Parks, a Government surveyor, and well-to-do sheep farmer on
+the Ashburton, had been engaged during the previous year in making
+surveys on the Rakia and Ashburton, and on his staff was a young man
+named Parker. This lad was another instance of the ideas some home
+people entertain, that for a youngster without intellect, energy, or
+application sufficient to obtain him entrance to a profession in
+England, the Colonies are the proper place. In their opinion he must get
+on there, or at any rate, he will be got rid of. The latter may be true
+enough, but as regards the former, the proofs are few indeed.
+
+Parker was a weak, good natured, feckless lad, about eighteen or twenty
+years of age, and the only thing he appeared to be able to make anything
+of was playing the fiddle. Wherever he went his violin accompanied him.
+While fiddling he was happy, but it was pitiful to watch him trying to
+work at or take an interest in any employment which he could neither
+appreciate nor understand.
+
+The survey party had proceeded up the gorge of the Rakia, and were
+absent about a fortnight, when Mr. Parks, requiring to send back to his
+station for some instrument he had forgotten, and Parker being the least
+useful hand on the survey, he decided to send him. The distance was
+twenty miles, and the route was across the open plain leading for a part
+of the way along the river. He was to go on foot, and put up the first
+night at Grey's station, about half-way.
+
+Between the Camp and Grey's the path led along the bank of the Rakia,
+which was here very steep, upwards of a hundred feet perpendicularly
+above the riverbed, and occasionally subject to landslips.
+
+A week passed without the return of Parker, and Mr. Parks, getting
+concerned for the lad's safety, despatched a messenger for information,
+when it was found that Parker had not appeared either at Grey's, or his
+own station, and for another week inquiries were made for him in every
+direction in vain.
+
+At about the end of the second week from the date of Parker leaving the
+survey camp, a shepherd of Grey's, happening to descend into the Rakia
+river bed in search of some wandering sheep, came upon a roll of red
+blankets lying at the foot of a landslip. Going up, he found it to
+contain the body of a man half decomposed, and being eaten by rats. Upon
+the ground alongside was a pocket-book containing writing and a pencil.
+
+The shepherd, taking the pocket-book, returned speedily to Grey's. Upon
+examination the book was found to contain a diary of five days, written
+by the unfortunate Parker, before he died of starvation, thirst, and a
+broken leg, at the foot of the landslip.
+
+From the entries it appeared that he had been fiddling along (in his
+usual absent manner, no doubt) very close to the edge of the Rakia bank,
+when a portion of it gave way under his feet, and he fell sliding and
+tumbling until he reached the bottom on a bed of shingle, his leg
+broken, and his body bruised and shattered. He succeeded in loosening
+the swag of blankets he had strapped on his back, wrapped them round him
+and lay down, occasionally calling, and always hoping against hope that
+some one would discover him. It was a vain hope, poor chap--not twice in
+a year's space was a human being seen on that wild river bed. He lived
+for five days in the agonies of hunger, thirst and despair, not even a
+drop of water could he reach, although the river ran within twenty yards
+of him, and at last death mercifully put an end to his misery.
+
+I now returned to work, continuing at the same time the study of my
+books, which I kept at the Ashburton, to fit me for the duties of
+surveyor and contractor. I was deriving a good return from my sheep and
+could add yearly to their number. During the remainder of the summer and
+autumn I worked steadily at bush work, hut-building and run-fencing, and
+when the winter set in I rigged up a hut in the forest, where I lived
+alone and earned a good return for my time in felling and cutting-up
+firewood for which I received from the squatters--I think--ten shillings
+a cord, 9 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft. The Ashburton Valley road had been
+greatly improved, and the weekly mail which hitherto ran between
+Christchurch and Dunedin was now made bi-weekly, and the stations on the
+Ashburton and Rangitata gorges arranged for a regular postman on
+horseback to fetch the mail from the Ashburton immediately on arrival,
+in lieu of the old plan of having it conveyed from one station to
+another by private messengers.
+
+I recollect a ridiculous accident which happened to one of these mail
+carriers, who had been despatched to fetch mails across the plains. I do
+not think I mentioned that there were numbers of wild cats to be met
+with all over the country. They were not indigenous, but domestic
+animals or their descendants gone wild, and with their wild existence
+they engendered a considerable addition of strength and fierceness. The
+shepherd's dog was the natural enemy of these animals.
+
+On the occasion to which I refer, the messenger, an old Irish servant of
+Mr. Rowley's, was riding quietly on one of the station hacks, a horse
+called "Old Dan," a noted buckjumper in his day. Heavy saddle bags with
+the posts were suspended on either side, in addition to various packages
+tied on fore and aft. Suddenly Pat's dog put up a cat and went away in
+full chase. The plain was quite open, with no trees or shrubs nearer
+than the river bed, half a mile distant. The cat finding herself hard
+pressed, and despairing of reaching the river-bed before the dog would
+catch her, spied old Dan with Paddy and the post thereupon, and
+conceived that her only chance of safety lay in mounting too. No sooner
+thought than done. She doubled, sprang on old Dan's tail and fastened
+her claws in his hinder parts. Dan not approving of such treatment, set
+to bucking. First Pat went off, then the saddle bags and parcels,
+followed by puss. Old Dan finding himself free, ran for his life, the
+cat after him, and the dog after the cat, leaving poor Pat on the ground
+to watch the trio as they disappeared from sight.
+
+[Illustration: PAT AND HIS MAIL-BAG DISLODGED BY A CAT.]
+
+Pat had over ten miles to travel and carry the bags and parcels as best
+he could, and return the next day for the saddle. The story of how the
+cat robbed H.M. Mail was long laughed over on the Ashburton, and Paddy
+was unmercifully chaffed for his part in the performance.
+
+I was busily employed till late in the following autumn finishing the
+works I had in hand, and lived a portion of the time at Glent hills, Mr.
+Rowley's hill station, where I had a considerable contract for wire
+fencing with which Mr. Rowley was dividing up into extensive sections
+the wide valley in which lay the lakes Emma and Clearwater.
+
+[Illustration: GLENT HILLS STATION.]
+
+During the summer I joined once again in the general mustering, and
+lived on the mountain sides for days and nights together. It was here
+I contrived to catch some cold which caused a singing like the bleating
+of sheep in my right ear, and for which I subjected myself to the very
+doubtful advice and care of old "Blue Gum Bill," the shepherd who was
+for the time being my comrade. "Blue Gum" was a "lag," that is, a
+ticket-of-leave convict, from Australia. One of his hands, I forget
+which, had been amputated, and in lieu thereof he had affixed a stump of
+blue gum wood, with an iron hook inserted at the end. As is not unusual
+in such cases, "Blue Gum" could do more with this iron hook than many
+men could accomplish with a hand. He was a character in his way, and
+whatever may have been the cause of his enforced exile from the Old
+Country many years before, he was now a most exemplary old fellow, for
+whom I entertained a great respect and liking.
+
+He said he could cure my ear, into which he assured me some small animal
+had entered, and it would be necessary, in the first place to kill it,
+when the noise would naturally cease. He made me lie down with my
+bleating ear uppermost, and proceeded to fill it with as much strong
+tobacco juice as it would hold. This operation he repeated several
+times, and appeared greatly disappointed on my complaining that the
+animal still continued musical. The ear troubled me for a long time, and
+eventually the hearing became impaired. Whether the fact that I never
+more than half recovered my hearing in that ear, and that for many years
+it has been almost completely deaf, is due to "Blue Gum's" doctoring or
+not, is scarcely worth entering into now.
+
+When the winter had really set in, I started to pay a visit (my last it
+turned out) to my friends in Mesopotamia. On arriving at the Rangitata I
+met the wool drays on their return journey from Christchurch, waiting
+while one of the men was on horseback seeking for a ford, in which
+occupation he asked my assistance. The river was a little swollen and
+discoloured, and the course of the main stream had been altered during
+the flood. While seeking a fording place I unluckily got into a
+quicksand, and in an instant I was under the mare, while she was
+plunging on her side in deep water. I had released my feet from the
+stirrups upon entering, and was free thus far. I had hold of the tether
+rope round her neck, and presently we were both out, and as I thought
+safely. I mounted again, and after getting the drays safely over, I rode
+on to the station. Here, on putting my foot to the ground I found I
+could not stand, and from a queer feeling about the left knee, it was
+apparent that I had been kicked while under the plunging mare. For nigh
+three weeks I was unable to walk, and to this day I feel the effect of
+that kick.
+
+I was, perforce, obliged now to keep quiet, and was not over-sorry, for
+the quarters were comfortable, and I was with my friends, and had
+leisure to read and work. Our evenings by the fire were very enjoyable,
+and many a story and song went round, or Butler would play while we
+smoked.
+
+One evening, I recollect, he told us a very remarkable ghost story, the
+best authenticated, as he said, he had ever heard, and to those who
+entertain the belief that the spirits of the departed have power to
+revisit this earth for the accomplishment of any special purpose, the
+story will be interesting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     THE GHOST STORY--BENIGHTED IN THE SNOW.
+
+
+Two young men--we will call them Jones and Smith, for
+convenience--emigrated to New South Wales. They each possessed
+sufficient money to start them, as they hoped, as young squatters, and
+in due time they obtained what they sought.
+
+Jones became the owner of a small cattle ranch fifty miles from
+Melbourne, while Smith commenced sheep farming in partnership with an
+experienced runholder, forty miles further inland.
+
+The friends occasionally visited each other, but in those days the
+settlers were few and months often passed without the cattle rancher
+seeing his friend or anybody to speak to beside the one man he retained
+on the station as hutkeeper, stockman, and general factotum.
+
+It was about two years after Jones had settled on his ranch that his
+friend Smith, requiring to visit Melbourne, decided to take Jones on his
+way and stop a night with him.
+
+He left his homestead early and arrived at the ranch late in the
+afternoon. As he rode near he saw Jones sitting on the stockyard
+toprail, apparently enjoying an evening pipe. On calling to him Jones
+jumped down, but instead of coming to meet his friend he ran into the
+bush (wood) close to the stockyard. Smith, supposing he was playing a
+joke, dismounted and followed him; but neither hunting nor calling had
+any effect--Jones was not to be found. Smith, thinking he might be
+taking some short cut to the hut, which was a little way off, mounted
+and proceeded thither. Here, again, he was disappointed, and on enquiry
+from the hutkeeper learned from him that his master had left for
+Melbourne and England a month previously, and that he--the
+hutkeeper--was in charge till his return. Smith, not liking the man or
+his manner, pretended to accept his statement, and said nothing about
+having just seen his master. After taking some refreshment and a slight
+rest he proceeded on his way to Melbourne, where on enquiry at hotels
+and shipping offices he learnt that his friend had not been seen in
+Melbourne for a long time, and had not taken his passage for England.
+
+He then told his story to a mutual acquaintance, who agreed to return
+with him and endeavour to discover what was wrong before taking steps.
+Together they journeyed back, and on coming within sight of the stock
+yard there was Jones sitting on the rail in his previous position, and,
+as before, jumped down and ran into the bush.
+
+Smith and his companion now made an extensive examination of the
+locality, but were unable to discover anything to assist them. They then
+proceeded to the hut as if they had just arrived from Melbourne, and
+without mentioning that they had seen his master, got into general
+conversation with the hutkeeper, but failed to elicit anything beyond
+what he had previously stated, adding only that he did not expect his
+employer's return for five or six months.
+
+They remained at the station that night and left early in the morning,
+apparently for Smith's homestead, but when they had ridden out of sight
+of the hut they wheeled and returned to Melbourne by another route.
+
+The idea that occupied their minds at this point was that Jones was
+insane, probably led thereto by his lonely life; that he was wandering
+about in the bush in the neighbourhood of the hut, which he continued to
+visit, as they had seen, and that he had, with a madman's acuteness,
+purposely misled the hutkeeper about his going to England. Smith and his
+companion feared to mention their suspicions to the hutkeeper, believing
+that he would not remain alone on the station if he thought that a
+maniac was about. Seeing Jones a second time, apparently in his usual
+health, had divested their minds of any suspicion that the hutkeeper had
+deceived them, or was in any way responsible, and the real facts as they
+subsequently turned out had not presented themselves to their minds.
+
+They decided now to place the matter in the hands of the police. There
+were at that time (and no doubt still are) retained under the Australian
+police force a number of native trackers, called the "Black Police."
+These men were a species of human bloodhounds, and could follow a trail
+by scent or marks indistinguishable by the white man.
+
+On representing the case to the chief of the police, that officer
+deputed a detective and a couple of constables, with a number of the
+"Black Police" to accompany Smith and his friend to Jones's ranch. They
+took a circuitous route, arriving as before at the stockyard without
+giving information to the hutkeeper, but at the same time directing two
+men to approach the hut unseen and watch it till further directions.
+
+When the party on this occasion approached the stockyard Jones was not
+occupying his usual seat on the rails. The black trackers, on being
+shown the place and their work explained to them, they at once commenced
+the hunt. One of them presently picked up a rail which was lying near by
+on which he pointed out certain marks, calling them "white man's hair"
+and "white man's blood." Then after examining the ground around the
+stockyard they took up the trail leading into the bush at a point where
+Jones was seen to go. Working up this for some two hundred yards and
+pointing out various signs as they proceeded, they arrived at a small
+slimy lagoon or pond, on the edge of which they picked up something they
+called "white man's fat." Some of them now dived into the pond, where
+they discovered the body of Jones, or what remained of it.
+
+The hutkeeper was immediately arrested, but denied any knowledge of the
+matter. After consigning the body of the unfortunate rancher to a
+hurried grave, the prisoner was taken to Melbourne, where he was tried
+for the murder of his master, and when he was convicted and sentenced,
+he confessed that he had crept up behind Jones when he sat smoking on
+the stockyard rail and killed him by a blow on the head with the rail
+picked up by the black trackers, that he then dragged the body to the
+bush, and threw it into the lagoon. I do not recollect whether Butler
+told us if the real object of the murder transpired, but the murderer
+turned out to be a ticket-of-leave convict well known to the police. The
+peculiarity of the story lay in the fact that the apparition of Jones
+twice appearing to his friend, and on one occasion to a stranger also,
+was sworn to in Court during the trial.
+
+I was obliged, owing to business, to leave Mesopotamia in midwinter, and
+to save a very circuitous journey I decided to travel down the gorge of
+the Rangitata some twenty-five miles, to the station I referred to once
+before belonging to Mr. B. Moorehouse. The route lay partly along the
+mountain slopes overhanging the river, and then diverged across a pass
+as I had been carefully instructed, but there was no roadway, only a
+bridle path now pretty sure to be covered with snow, and there was no
+shelter of any kind over the whole distance. Although I had never made
+the journey, my former experiences gave me every confidence that I would
+be able to find my way without much trouble, and taking with me only a
+scrap of bread and meat and a blanket I started as soon as it was light
+enough to see, certain in my mind that I would reach Moorehouse's early
+in the afternoon. The first few miles through the run I knew so well I
+got along without trouble, but further on the difficulties began. It was
+impossible, owing to the slushy and slippery as well as uneven nature of
+the ground, to get out of a slow walk, and frequently I had to double on
+my tracks to negotiate a swampy nullah, and often to dismount and lead
+my animal over nasty places which he funked as much as I did.
+
+By midday I had got over about half the distance, when I made the
+serious mistake of continuing down the gorge instead of turning over the
+saddle or pass to which I had been specially directed; but I was misled
+by sheep walks leading on towards the gorge, while the footpath over the
+pass was entirely obliterated by snow. I did not discover my mistake
+until I could go no further; the sheep walks led only to the shelter of
+some huge precipices, which here approached close to the river on either
+side, narrowing the stream to a fourth of its usual volume, and
+confining it in a rocky channel through which it thundered furiously.
+
+The noise was deafening, and the position one of the grandest and
+wildest I had ever beheld, but I could not afford the time just then for
+sentiment. It was already getting dark, and I had scarcely a foot to
+stand on. It seemed indeed, for a moment, that I would not be able to
+turn my horse, which I was leading, on the narrow path we had now got on
+to, and if I succeeded in doing that I would have a considerable
+distance to retrace before reaching safe ground, a false step would send
+us headlong a couple of hundred feet into a rushing torrent, if we
+escaped being smashed on the rocks before we got there. I do not think I
+ever felt so lonely or alarmed, but I had to act, and that quickly.
+Fortunately my horse was a steady one, well accustomed to climbing over
+bad places, and no doubt the coming darkness and weird surroundings did
+not affect him as they did me, and my anxiety after all was then more on
+his account than my own, for without him I knew I could feel my way back
+alone.
+
+As I moved to turn, the horse twisted round as if on a pivot and
+followed me like a cat, indeed he could see the track better than I
+could, and exhibited little nervousness as he crept along with his nose
+near the ground, and testing every step before he trusted the weight of
+his body on it. I was very thankful when we at length emerged from that
+frowning and dark chasm as it now appeared, with the foaming water away
+in its black depths and an icy wind blowing directly from it.
+
+But what were we to do now? In the darkness it would be impossible to
+either go onward or return the way I had come, and the fact that I was
+benighted, and in a very nasty position too, now struck me clearly; but
+there was nothing for it but to make the best of a bad job.
+
+Outside the narrow gorge it was considerably lighter, and I had no
+difficulty in finding my way a bit up towards the pass, where I
+fortunately discovered a patch of tall snow grass between the tussocks
+of which the ground had been partly sheltered from the snow, and near
+this I stumbled on a quantity of "Irishman" scrub which had recently
+been burnt and was easily broken down. So far this was lucky, for it
+secured me the means of making a fire, without which it would have been
+impossible, I believe, to live till the morning, which was still some
+sixteen hours distant.
+
+I tethered my horse to a tussock, and selecting a couple of large ones,
+knotted their tops together, forming thereby a little room about four
+feet long by two wide. In this I cut and spread some more snow grass and
+pushed my saddle and blanket to one end. This did not occupy many
+minutes, and now I had to break down and collect firewood to last me
+during the night. When all was done I felt terribly hungry, the little
+bit of food I had brought with me I had eaten early in the day, and the
+fact that I had not a morsel left increased my longing for it.
+Fortunately I had a supply of tobacco and a box of wax vestas, and I
+smoked continuously. I dared not attempt to lie down to sleep, for I had
+not covering enough to keep me warm, and indeed I felt no desire for
+sleep. I was too much concerned about the night; if heavy snow fell I
+would find it very difficult to move, even when daylight appeared, and
+it was now falling in a half-hearted sort of way. My poor horse stood as
+near the fire as he could, without any food, and shivering, and I was
+constantly standing up and clapping my arms and stamping my feet if the
+fire got low, then, when a bit warmed, I would crouch inside my den and
+sometimes I dozed, only to waken up from sheer cold and resume my
+exercise. After some hours I had the satisfaction to notice that the
+snow had ceased falling, and a brighter night, with frost, had set in.
+This was pleasant, as the probability of being snowed up was no longer
+to be apprehended, but the biting cold was terrible, and I knew that if
+I succumbed to sleep, I would be frost-bitten.
+
+I scarcely know how I got through the night; one never does. I must have
+had periods of unconsciousness, and the heat emanating from the hot
+ashes, and what fire I was able to keep going, saved me. Had it not been
+for that, I could not have survived, and it was a piece of extraordinary
+luck my lighting on a patch of snow grass and scrub in that wild and
+desolate pass.
+
+How I longed for daylight may be imagined, and the first tinge of light
+I noticed on the horizon was a welcome sight indeed. My firewood was
+long since burnt away, but the ashes were yet warm, and I thrust in my
+hands till I revived some life into them, and was able to collect more
+brushwood which I carried over, and had a rousing fire, and was enabled
+to get the saddle on to my horse. I was now undecided whether to retrace
+my steps to Mesopotamia or endeavour to find my way to Moorehouse's; on
+the latter, however, I decided, as I judged I was midway between the
+two, and started to explore the pass, leading my horse. The exercise
+revived us both, and I succeeded in finding the trail I needed. The
+journey was simple after what I had experienced on the other side, and I
+had the satisfaction of meeting one of Moorehouse's shepherds before the
+day was much older, who accompanied me to the station, and who would
+scarcely believe that I had passed the night where I did.
+
+I found Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moorehouse at home, and was, as always, most
+hospitably received, and soon found myself with a change of kit, seated
+before an excellent meal, to which after thirty hours fasting I did
+ample justice. After that I slept till morning.
+
+On my arrival at Christchurch an offer was made to me to join an
+expedition to the Fiji Islands, just then creating some interest as a
+possible place for colonists. The previous year some explorer had
+brought from thence a ship load of curiosities, including war clubs and
+spears of hard polished and carved wood, mats and numerous other
+articles in use among the cannibal tribes, and an exhibition of them was
+held in the Town Hall. I now learnt that an acquaintance of mine, a Mr.
+Gibson, had chartered a small vessel called the "Ocean Queen," 40 tons
+burthen, and intended to sail in her, with his young wife, for the Fiji
+Islands. Also that four other men had joined him in the enterprise. I
+knew Gibson to be a plucky fellow, but when it transpired that neither
+he nor the others possessed money beyond what the voyage would cost
+them, and that what they intended to do when they arrived at the Fiji
+Islands was to be left to chance, the proposed expedition assumed a
+different complexion. The Judge denounced it as sheer madness, specially
+for a man to take his wife to such a place. It was true that some
+missionaries had settlements there, but these are generally safe, as the
+savages, as a rule, fear and respect the missionaries of the Great
+Spirit, be it that of the white man or the black, and they know that the
+missionaries mean no harm to them or their possessions, but it would be
+very different in the case of a number of white men arriving unprotected
+in a small boat with the intention of settling on their land. However,
+nothing would dissuade Gibson and his party. Whether the "Ocean Queen"
+arrived at the Fiji Islands was never known. Certainly she and the party
+who sailed in her were never again heard of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     DECIDE TO GO TO INDIA--VISIT MELBOURNE, ETC.
+
+
+For the following six months I kept steadily to work. I was gradually
+adding to my stock of sheep, and had nothing occurred to disturb me I
+should doubtless have continued at work and in time have become a
+veritable squatter. I was able to command constant employment in any
+colonial capacity, and had been more than once offered the overseership
+of a run, but the old distaste for the life of a sheep-farmer was as
+strong as ever.
+
+It was in the month of May, 1864, when I received a letter from my
+brother in Bombay, saying that there were excellent openings in the
+engineering line there, to which he had interest enough to help me, and
+he pressed me to go to Bombay and try my luck. My brother was then
+representative of a large mercantile firm at Bombay.
+
+I think neither he nor the others at home had ever divested themselves
+of the idea that I was not succeeding, and never would succeed in New
+Zealand, because I had not at once made a fortune out of nothing, or
+discovered gold for the picking up. Of course, they were not right. I
+had, considering my youth and ignorance on going out to New Zealand,
+done admirably. It was necessary to undergo a term of probation and
+education for the work of a sheep-farmer or any other in the Colony, and
+this I had not only accomplished, but I had been, and was, making money
+and a living, and had fair prospects before me should I decide to adopt
+the life of a squatter permanently. I consulted my friends and some of
+them were for following my brother's advice, but something within myself
+kept prompting me in the same direction, and I began to feel more and
+more that I had mistaken my vocation, and that I was bound to try before
+it would be too late to get into the swing of the more congenial
+employment for which I was longing.
+
+The wandering spirit, too, mastered me once more, and I wished now to
+see India and all I had heard and read of that wonderful land, as I had
+originally desired to see New Zealand.
+
+I did not decide hastily. I was aware that my leaving New Zealand now
+would to some extent throw me back, if at any time in the future I
+decided to return, but I was still very young, not yet 22, and a year or
+two would make very little difference, and I knew that if I returned to
+New Zealand I could always command immediate employment. I decided at
+length to see India at any rate, and I wrote to my brother to that
+effect.
+
+The disposal of my sheep, horses, and other small possessions, was soon
+accomplished, and one fine morning in May 1864, I found myself at Port
+Lyttelton, accompanied by a number of old chums who had come to see me
+off by the steamboat to Dunedin, from whence I was to proceed by mail to
+Melbourne, and from thence to Bombay by the P. and O.
+
+I felt sad indeed to look my last (it might be for ever) on the shores
+of Canterbury, where I had passed five happy years, endeared to me all
+the more on account of the varied and adventurous life I had led, and
+the good friends and companions I was leaving behind, and I leaned on
+the bulwarks of the little steamer as we passed out of the lovely bay
+and saw the shepherd's hut, high up on the cliff, where we wanderers
+from the ship five years before had been entertained by the Scotch
+housewife to our first New Zealand dinner, then on to where we visited
+the whalers and the head to which we rowed in the Captain's gig. The
+whole scene arose before me afresh; where were we all scattered to? I
+longed to do it all over again, and be with the old mates; and here I
+was, a lonely wanderer once more, leaving all to go away to begin a new
+life in a strange land. It was not easy, but I tried hard to think I was
+doing right.
+
+By the time we passed out of the Heads it had grown dark, and my reverie
+was broken by the supper bell, and Burton (a friend who was going to
+Australia on a pleasure trip) telling me to rouse up, have some food,
+and make myself pleasant. How carefully I followed his advice during the
+next six weeks!
+
+We reached Dunedin the following evening and had to remain there for a
+few days for the departure of the Melbourne mail boat. This time Burton
+and I contrived to spend very pleasantly. He was a wealthy young
+squatter, and I had a good sum of money with me, in fact, I was becoming
+a bit reckless; but I could not have foreseen that an accident would
+retain me far longer on the voyage to India than I supposed, and I saw
+little harm in enjoying myself with the money I had earned and saved.
+What kind of guardian angel was in charge of me from this time I cannot
+say, but he must have been an excessively pleasant and jolly one, for
+under his guidance I enjoyed a most delightful time.
+
+Dunedin had improved marvellously since I had last seen it; it was
+already a town of considerable pretensions and possessed a theatre and
+several good hotels. On the fourth day we left for Melbourne in the s.s.
+"Alhambra," and now I believed that I had done with New Zealand for good
+and all, but I was mistaken.
+
+After three days at sea we encountered south of Tasmania a terrific gale
+during which the shaft of the screw was broken, and the Captain had no
+resource but to return to Dunedin under sail, an operation which
+occupied seven days, to the great disgust of all on board.
+
+At Dunedin we were again delayed for three days till another boat
+started which took us to Melbourne.
+
+The voyage was pleasant and we steamed in nearly a calm sea close along
+the Tasmanian coast and through the Bass Straits, sighting land all the
+way from thence. Tasmania presented quite an English appearance after
+New Zealand, and we could trace the neat towns and well-wooded country
+dotted with homesteads and farms.
+
+Melbourne possesses a very fine and well protected harbour, but the
+surroundings sadly lacked the native beauty of New Zealand. The
+countries present very different aspects to the new-comer; while New
+Zealand can boast of some of the wildest and grandest scenery in the
+world, that of New South Wales is almost the reverse, being homely and
+of a natural park-like appearance, which, although beautiful in a
+certain sense, is monotonous after the wild contrasts of plains and
+mountain, forests and rivers of New Zealand.
+
+Melbourne proper lay some five miles from the port, which then possessed
+a fine wooden pier, alongside of which and in the adjacent roadstead,
+lay many fine merchant vessels and steamers awaiting their cargoes of
+wool, etc. The port and city were connected by a railway, the first
+constructed in Australia, and almost parallel with it wound the River
+Yarrow, so named from its usually muddy or yellow colour.
+
+We proceeded to Melbourne by rail and put up at one of the principal
+hotels. Here we discovered that our accident had caused us to miss the
+China mail boat which was to have conveyed us to Point de Galle, and I
+would now have almost a whole month to remain at Melbourne. This news
+was I fear more welcome than otherwise. I wished to see something of
+Melbourne, and here was the opportunity forced upon me, so I decided to
+make the very most of my time.
+
+Melbourne, even at this period, was a considerable city, handsome and
+well laid out on the most approved modern principles, with straight and
+spacious streets and squares, and possessing throughout architecture
+equal to that of the best modern English towns, in addition to some
+really magnificent public buildings. A considerable portion of the city
+stood on a gentle slope, and along many of the streets between the
+roadway and the footpaths, ran continuous streams of pure spring water,
+over which, when in flood, foot passengers were taken by carriage.
+
+Along the banks of the Yarrow were lovely gardens and extensive parks,
+and many a pleasant row I had under the shade of the huge pine and gum
+trees. The river frequently overflowed its banks and submerged the
+low-lying country between the city and the port, at which times I have
+travelled by train while the rails were under water. Some of the suburbs
+and watering places around Melbourne, such as St. Kilda, were
+exceedingly picturesque.
+
+A railway was just then opened from Melbourne to Ballarat, the scene of
+the famous gold diggings to which Melbourne is primarily indebted for
+her present magnificence and prosperity. Extensive quartz crushing by
+machinery was then being carried out, and a visit to the locality was
+most interesting. We made many excursions up country, and altogether
+thoroughly enjoyed our time. So much so indeed that had another accident
+detained me longer I would not have felt any regret.
+
+Early in August I started by the P. and O. mail boat for Ceylon, with
+mutual regrets on Burton's part and on my own that our pleasant holiday
+was ended. I never met Burton again.
+
+At King George's Sound, Northern Australia, was a small coaling station,
+possessing only a score or so of houses or stores, and one hotel
+so-called. On arrival we went on shore and were immediately greeted by a
+number of the most wretched specimens of humanity I had yet seen. They
+were diminutive in stature, perfectly naked with the exception of a
+dirty rag of blanket twisted about the shoulders and waist, out of the
+folds of which issued a wreath of smoke from the fire stick without
+which the Australian aboriginal rarely leaves his or her wigwam. Their
+hair was plastered down on the head with thick ochre paint, and they
+were disgustingly filthy and altogether unpleasant to look at. They
+invariably asked for "sixpence," which amount seemed to represent the
+sum of their earthly happiness, and with most of them was the only word
+of English they could speak.
+
+The men all carried boomerangs, a flat curved stick which they threw for
+our edification, and sixpences, very scientifically, and contrived to
+dispose of a good many to the passengers. We saw with them also some
+skins of that rare and handsome bird the emu, now I believe becoming
+very scarce.
+
+A most remarkable thing about King George's Sound is the utter waste and
+wildness of the country, not a sign of life or cultivation. The few
+natives who inhabit this wild region subsist principally on roots and
+such wild fruits as are obtainable, or on birds which they can kill with
+their boomerangs. They are very little, if at all, superior to the lower
+animals, and I believe there is no institution of marriage or
+acknowledgment of domestic relations among them.
+
+One thing, however, there was as a set off against all the rest--namely,
+the extraordinary wealth of flowers which grew thickly amongst the
+thousand varieties of rare ferns all over the land. What would be held
+as the most delicate hothouse plants in England here formed a brilliant
+carpet in their wild luxuriance. We literally walked knee deep in
+exotics.
+
+We carried large bundles of them on board, when we left that night after
+a stay of only twelve hours.
+
+Point de Galle was reached on the twelfth day, and here the mail steamer
+from Calcutta by which I was to proceed to Bombay had already arrived. A
+few of us went on shore with small caps on our heads and some with
+cabbage tree hats, but we speedily discovered they would not do. The
+heat on shore was intense, a muggy, stifling heat, which to us
+Australians was killing. We were guided to the Bazaar, and introduced to
+several hotels by some five score natives, whose numbers increased as we
+proceeded, and were augmented by numerous sellers of sun toppee,
+pugarees, etc. We were speedily provided each with a tropical headpiece
+with a long tail of white muslin therefrom which hung down the back.
+
+After a substantial "tiffin" in a large shady room, under the swaying
+punkah (the first I had seen), it was proposed by some of our sable
+friends that we should visit the tea gardens, one of the lions of Galle,
+and I, forgetting all about the boat, was on the point of joining the
+movement, having taken a seat in the conveyance for the purpose, when my
+good angel, by some means I have now forgotten, informed me that the
+steamer for Bombay would start in ten minutes.
+
+I jumped from the carriage and ran full speed with a crowd of attendant
+blacks in full cry at my heels, shot into the first boat I came to and
+reached the steamer as the screw commenced to turn.
+
+In four days we arrived at Bombay, where, in due course, I entered State
+Service, and where I remained for thirty-five years, but my life and
+experiences there may possibly form the subject of another story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed by J.G. HAMMOND and Co., Ltd., 32-36, Fleet Lane, London, E.C.
+
+
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