A ROMANCE OF LAKE WANAKA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 117, 6 February 1872, Page 7

A ROMANCE OF LAKE WANAKA.

m BY JAMES LOCKHART. 1 vgsi ] ♦ (From the Australian Journal.) Shad watched the waters of the Molyneux . Bowii to their lowest level for two successive ] Jinters, rocking my cradle with considerable IS'olit upon the upper beaches; living very , {Sntentedly as a “ hatter,” and looking hopefully forward to the time when I should be l able to return down country with a moderate provision for the future. Mine was almost the life of a hermit. i|when a new chum on the river, 1 had worked With an old sailor for several weeks, a queer, crotchety fellow ; but the habit I had acquired of cleaning my teeth gave him great j Offence. He endeavoured at first to laugh; Je out of the practice ; but finding that j neither raillery nor indignant remonstrance j rjjad the desired effect, he eventually rolled Up his swag one fine morning, and left me in resolved to stand the toothbrush no I longer. My home was, literally, a hole in the rock. When I returned from work, and looked in l|hrough the gloom of the evening, I always Ifehought of Ali Baba’s cave and the forty thieves. ' 1 California Jim was my nearest neighbour ; i round-shouldered, heavy-limbed man, deepJlhested, like a ball, and slow and deliberate Hu all his movements. He had a fishified Ware about the eyes, and mottled, puffy feapl, c. s ; but the most notable peculiarity of rough-cast face was his mouth, which was always "set in a permanent pucker, brought about by his long-continued habit of sucking ll'liisky from the bottle’s mouth. He was a Skilful gold-miner ; it was, indeed, the only j Occupation he knew, and, in spite of his dis-; ifipated habits, he always had a spare penny j In his parse. His style of language was r? nuch above his calling, but I never once j | ieard him speak of his early days. Ho was 1 ny only visitor, and we had many a solemn I unoke together in the cave over a pannikin | tea, for his disposition was taciturn in the extreme. His fondess for the lower animals svas the only marked trait in his character, aud the only subject that could arouse his interest and loosen his tongue. M A huge mule rat, which answered to the ||iame of Rasper, and lived a comfortable life jS>r>biiul the chimney, was a never-failing Source of wonder and panegyric. Rasper did ■Jjdntyiu lieu of a cat, and kept good watch nud ward. Being fed regularly, ho attained a great size, and his c turage and endurance Svvere indisputable. His desperate encounifters with interlopers of his own kind very often awoke Jim in the dead of night, in time fto finish the fray by killing the intruder outright, which Rasper, with a cannibal instinct, ■very often.devoured. Without any previous warning, Jim looked into the cave upon a summer morning, early, laud hade me a short good-bye, merely stating that he was off on a prospecting tour ; deIpirtiug at once (hastily) up the river, with ;| 11 isper cuddled up in the breast of his shirt, land his terrier Minx trotting at his heels. I had little expectation of seeing him | again ; indeed, I had almost forgotten him | as time wore on. Some weeks afterwards, late at night, a voice woke me from my sleep. |When I opened my eyes, Jim stood before I me, with a lighted candle in his hand. lie , looked fatigued and worn ; much thinner I than his wont; out also at knee and elbow. S Minx, I observed, was also lame and weary. I am glad to see you back, Jim,” I said. I u How have you got on V “ I have done the trick this time, old fel- ‘ low. Get up and sling the billy, for I am ; sharp sot. I have a Queer story to toll, after -| tea.” Jim made a quick despatch with his supI per, eating in solemn silence, for it was one ' of his maxims to do only one thing at a time. | After filling his pipe with great exactness and lighting it carefully, ho placed a pannikin I of tea ready to his hand, stretched himself straight on his hack upon the spare bunk, and, without any preliminary remarks, struck at once into the queer story. CALIFORNIA JIM’S QUEER STORY. I had not exactly made up my mind which I way to set my face when I left you that morI ning upon the river’s bank. I reached the i Kawarau junction about midday, and sat down to consider.which road I should take, !the left hand or the right. I was obliged to toss up a sovereign to decide it, —tail for loft, head for right. It came down a head, sc I that chance sent me to the right-about, straight for the head waters of the Molyneux, and the solitudes of Lake Wanaka. Tis a pleasant walk up the Clutlia. I made good progress during the iirst day, singing as I went up the rolling flats by the river-side, | On the second day 1 came upon a shanty. 1 kept by a shepherd’s red-haired wife. The i woman had enticing manners, and was nol bad looking, in spite of her fiery poll. 1 found that she was a thorough stringer, am I acted the goat for a few days, and lightened j my purse considerably. I left her place will a dreadful headache, and not at all at east | in my mind, for I had broken through 1113 resolve, and convinced myself that I was a: j great a blockhead as ever. At sunset on the third day, I stood on tin hem of the lake, and felt at once rowardec I for my tramp by a long look at the sublimih ; and magnificence of nature around me. Tin I lake was slightly rutiled by the wind, jus I wetting the mottled sand with crispy curve I of foam. The water, even near its shore, had th I deep blue tint of mid-ocean. I scooped 111 I a mouthful in the palm of my hand, am | drank :+, almost expecting the salt of the so

in my mouth, but I found it delightfully 1 sweet and refreshing. The mountain tops I before mo were swaddled in snow and wrapped ] in rugs of mist. Beneath the snow-line, a sloping solitude \ of birch and pine extended down to the very i margin of the lake. A couple of birds with . long legs and red bids, strutting about on . the sand, intent upon some project of their j own, and a hawk -hovering with almost mo- . tionless wings, a dark speck between me and ( the setting sun—were the only visible living j, things. , After a glorious bathe in the morning, I , started for the township, in order to get the , limited outfit needful for my enterprise. , Early though it was, the few people in this remote township were astir. I saw only one hotel, —which was indeed a novelty in Otago, where everybody likes a dram ; but I shut my eyes, and forced myself past it. The landlord stood in the doorway, looking for the early worm. I had half a mind to turn back, and allow myself to be pecked up, but I thought better of it, and stepped on to the store. At the storekeeper's, I had the good for- j tune to meet two bushmen, on the same er- j rand as myself. They had been dissipating i over a week ; each of them sported a black eye, and very poor God-forgotten chaps they looked. They were on the point of starting up the lake to fell timber, and they were willing to take me in their boat, as far as | possible, free of charge. A few drinks of rum southered the bargain, but I had some j difficulty in getting them down to the boat, I and persuading them to start after all. We j had, fortunately, a fair wind, the boat was j a clipper, and before sundown we were a | long way up the lake. Before nightfall the | rum had got the upper hand of my tousleheaded mates. The last one, bffore he fell, j muttered something about "giving it to her." | Whether he meant his late landlady or the ! boat I never found out ; but 1 sat down in the stern-sheets, with one hand on the tiller i and the other hand on the sheet, for squalls j were brewing among the hills. We still car- | ried a fair wind, leaving a long furrow of j foam behind us hissing in the dark. Several ! times I had ti let the sheet fly as the squall j struck us ; but, ultimately, the sky cleared : as the night wore on, and I had real pleasure ; I in flying past the giant promontories, leaving j the islands on my lee. A blue half moon Irose about midnight, lighting up the silver | peaks of the mountains, and half revealing the shaggy acres of pine forest below. An j awful stillness brooded over everything, | broken occ isionally by the wierd scream of I some night-bird overhead, as it flew across I the water from shore to shore. As the time drew near to morning, 1 often i thought I observed a streak of dawn on the : tops of the mountains, bat it always disapj pointed me by dying away into a blackness .darker than ever. I was cold, sleepy, and j miserable in every way. To wile away the i time, I forced myself into trying to remember ! a few of the most striking proverbs of SoloI mull. This ruse suited admirably for a t'me. j When I again looked about me, a film of daylight overspread the like, and the snowy peaks were clearly visible above the land of ! shadows beneath. ! The lake soon brightened up from side to I side. As I rounded a jagged headland, and II peered to windward, I saw that our voyage > j was nearly at an end. The land closed in • | upon the waters on all sides. In a short ! hour afterwards. I lowered the sail, and j beached the boat in a snug haven, overhung j with trees, at the very head of Lake Wanaka. I The jerk of the boat as she ran aground woke • j up my two comrades with a start and a cry. i j They were still dazed with drink and sleep, •; glowering around them with a bewildered | look, on their knees. A handy gimlet which i I carried soon broached the kei{ of rum, and )! a stiff nobbier apieae brought back their . ; senses like a charm. i j We all went up to their hut together, leavl! ing the provisions in the boat, and taking f! the keg of rum with us, the king of the com- ,! pany. I stopped nearly a week with them. : 11 stopped, in fact, until the keg was drunk I down to the lowest dregs before I thought of j starting on my journey. In a squabble that l! we had one night, Rasper had the misfortune -1 to get crushed to death. I was sorry for it, } | for I really liked the beast. However, Minx t was still left me for a companion. [ was , ; obliged to bid my friends good-bye at last, ) and start on my adventure alone. I strucli , j up one of the tributaries of the lake, boiling j I my billy at sundown a good ten miles from , | my starting point. , 1 tried for gold, here and there in the ! small feeders of the creek, without finding 3: more than a rough spec or two for each sho s; velful of earth, —enough to keep me in hearl . | with the undertaking. I left the water-course , the following morning, and took my way ii 3; a bee-line over the mountains, straight to tin t north-west. It was dreadful hard work toil I ; ing above the snow-line, encumbered as j 1' was with tools, blankets, food, and othe: 1 ' baggage. I continued at the up and dowi i! work for two days, forcing a way through tin e ; matted underwood at the bottom of tht y! ranges, and creeping with cautious steps ove: s the frozen slopes at their summits. ! I had several narrow escapes from stiddri e death through losing my balance, in spite o ii! all my caution, —crawling noon hands am y knees, and nearly always cutting foot-hole; e ', with my tomahawk as I wont. On the even it : ing of the fourth day, I pitched my camp oi is the hem of a grove of dwarfed birch trees, a ; the head of a rapid creek, whose waters sough e the western seaboard. I was completely shu p | in by snow-covered mountains on every side d! My prospects were not alluring, and I beigai a : to repine, having com? so far and found n

traces of payable gold. A3 the night da?-1 kened, tho clouds seemed to close upoa the I mountains in solid walls ; tiio moon, whm j she rose, was only a dull yellow blotch, with- . oat form or outline. Before I crept under j the calico, the wind had begun to rise, and • heavy snowriakes were flying fast. My situ- j ation was soaiewhab perilous, for I knew that, a summer snowstorm was oiten very violent I in the wilderness I had scrambled into. The j danger of starvation was imminent, for J 1 could not retrace my steps until the snow j melted. Twas true, Maori hens might be! snared and hunted, if it came to the worst, j Consoling myself with this reflection, I fell 1 sound asleep, determined to trust in Providence, j (To be continued in our ri'-xi.)