DANSY'S PASS AFTER A SNOWSTORM.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 134, 22 September 1871, Page 3

DANSY'S PASS AFTER A SNOWSTORM.

A correspondent, writing from Maerewhenua under date 9tu September, thus describes the state of the road, and the difficulty and danger of travelling at this season of the year. I left the Kyeburn at six o'clock in the morning. It was snowing heavily at the time, and there was every appearance and indication of a very cold day. Fortunately, however, for me, the weather cleared up about eight o'clock, and remained fine till nearly three p.m., when there arose a heavy snowstorm, accompanied by a perfect gale of wind. By this time I was through the Pass. About a mile beyond George's Pass Hotel the snow commences to be very deep, and the travelling becomes heavy and dangerous. My horse's instinct enabled him to detect or suspect dangers under the deep-lying snow, and caused him frequently to hang back, and it was only with trouble and difficulty that he could be induced to proceed. On the occasion to which I am alluding, my horse got two or three times into a water race, in which the snow lay up to the saddle. 1 succeeded with much difficulty in getting him out. When freed, however, he seemed to be in better fettle, and we got on very much better for the next mile or two. The worst part of the road was that which crosses three gullies, about threequarters of a mile from the Pass, into which the snow had drifted to a considerable depth, forming a high bank or cliff standing almost perpendicularly. Into one of these snow-drifts my horse suddenly plunged, and for a time I thought he was lost for ever, as I could see no part of him, so deeply had he sunk and become buried in the snow. The sun was shining brightly at this time, and its rays were dazzling in the extreme. I can only account for my horse having got into this position from the fact that I had left him in order to find the track, and in an attempt to follow me he came to grief as above stated by getting on to a drift and floundering about caused himself to get buried in the snow. So great, indeed, were the glare and dazzle of the sun's rays that for some time I could see nothing of the horse in any direction. At last I caught sight of his black eyes, and trampled away to him from the outside. Fortunately it was down hill. Eventually I succeeded in extricating him. Grossing these gullies is sufficiently difficult in fine weather, and in a season like the present, positively dangerous. The remainder of the journey was more easily accomplished preceding the horse and stamping a road for him. One fiat gully near the Pass was very bad indeed; the snow was very deep, and the horse had fairly to foLve his way, neai'ly breast high, through it. Had I gone by the 'snowpoles I don't think the horse could have done it at all. I ascended and de-

scended several curious places—places which would be dangerous even in the finest weather. After leaving the regions of snow, when passing along a dangerous sidling the horse fell twice, and at one time I thought he must have fallen into the creek below where he must have inevitably been dashed to pieces. I should, I confess been sadlygrieved had my poor dumb companion have come to an untimely end after so severe a day's juurnny through snow in some places over 12 feet in depth. The poor animal evidently felt the danger of his position. He trembled in every limb, and his whole frame shook like an aspen leaf. It *s to be hoped that the Government will do something this summer towards the cutting of a bridle track. This can be easily done, and a really good road constructed for the sum appropriated by the Provincial Council for that purpose.