OVER THE FALLS AND OUT ON THE OCEAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 68, 19 March 1872, Page 2

OVER THE FALLS AND OUT ON THE OCEAN.

By F. E. G. S. f Continued from the Australasian, March 2.J We must have been tired, for when Tom awoke firsf, it w.\s bright sunlight, and my watch showed seven o'clock . So we first turned out, and next turned to light the fire and put on the inevitable "billy," and then stripped, and had a plunge into the clear, cold water. Thereafter we breakfasted on fried bacon and chocolate, and about 9 a.m. we started in the now empty canoes, with some lunch on board, and taking our pick, shovel, and tin dish, we made for the head of the lake, fastening up pur stores in ths tent for fear of pigs gettiug at them. How light the canoes seemed now with all the cargo on shore. As there was a nice little breeze from the sea we hoisted sail, und (keeping a sharp look out for " snags ") wo ran away from our camp at the rate of eigl.t miles an hour. The lagoon was longer than we at first thought, for after travelling up it about five miles, it took a sudden

bend, and disclosed fresh beauties of scenery. Owing to our now landlocked position, the sea breeze failed us, so we dowsed sail**-, and went on with the paddle. The hills were reflected in the smooth water like a mirror, and so clear was the reflection tbat it was hard in some places to tell where reality lett off, and imitation began. Birds of gaudy plumage flew from branch to branch, with wild cries, as we two intruders broke suddenly in upon their solitude, and the measured beat of the two paddles w&s the only thing that broke the smooth surface of the water. After about two miles of this work the lagoon narrowed suddenly and shallowed, so that looking down below us we could see the shells and pebbles reflecting back the bright light of the morning sun, and here and there a great conger ee), nearly as long as our boats, glided along the bottom beneath us, as the unwonted shadow of our canoes came between it and tlie light. Soon our water-space narrowed to the width of a small rivulet, and mauy a huge rock For remainder of news see fourth page.

beneath the surface we nearly grazed as we passed over them: The trees now arched completely over our heads, and we were going down an avenue of cliff and bush in deep shadow. In the trees above us were the nests of shags, out of which wondering long necks protruded, surmounted by anxious pairs of eyes, watching us. A distant boom, constantly kept up, began to fall upon our ears, and it was evident that we were approaching *the waterfall. The stream, too, ran swifter in this narrow channel than in the broad lagoon, and we found our progress much impeded thereby. In another quarter of an hour th^ noise of the falling water is like the crash oi thunder, and we have to come alongside of one another, and shout to make ourselves heard. Suddenly we round a corner, and the cataract in all its magnificence, burst upon our enraptured vision ! Over a hundred feet up, this wall of water leaves the shade, and shines like burnished silver in the sunlight, for nearly another hundred from where it tumbles over a rocky ledge. The roar was terrific, and right ahead of us was a regular whirpool caused by the fall of water, which was sufficient to have sucked down larger bodies than our frail canoes, and as it was evident that our water travels were at an end, we looked out for a landing place. We soon found one, and going ashore, we made the boats securely fast by their painters to the limbs of trses, and putting on our boots and shouldering our pick, &c, we commenced the ascent of the bank above us. Soon, the intervening cliffs and trees partly shut out from our deafened ears the crashing thunder of the tons upon tons of falling water, and reduced it to a deadened, angry growl, so that we could again hear each other's voices. Getting to the top of the ledge, we caught n glimpse of the watery track by which we had come, burried in gloom. " Tom ! " I remarked, " we are the Christopher Columbuses of this dreary region ! We must christen this river ! I vote that it henceforth he known to all daring geographers by the name of the • Styx,' as most appropriate ! " " ; Styx ' be it ! " was the reply, and he added, "It does look like the Devil's Gully, too ! We only want • Charon ' to make it complete ! " "When we're out for a pleasure excursion, Thomas," said I rebukingly, " we had better put • care-on ' one side." Tom looked steadfastly at me and I at him. Immediately afterwards, we both " liquored " in silence. We next proceeded to look for some pathway or track that would lake us above the wateriall, and bring us out into the light of the sun again, when we hoped by " fossicking " in some backwater pool or creek, to be able to find if this gully was auriferous or not. At length Tom called out that he had found what looked like the dry bed of one of the overflows oi the cascade in rainy weather, so up we clambered, (the nails in our sea-boots proving a great assistance) amid rocks, tufts of moss, ferns, roots of trees, snagß and boulder stones, until about lOOft above where we had started irom, we came upon a little plateau, with an eddy flowing back from the cascade (whose roar now deafened us again) into a shallow sandy pool, about 20ft long by about 10ft. broad, and here we rested, and then determined to begin operations. As the pick was not needed here, we set to work, Tom with the shovel and myselt with the flat tin dish, and though of course it was very rough work (as we were at present only prospecting), we had the satisfaction, in about half-an-hour, of seeing a deposit of exceedingly fine gold-dust, lying at the bottom of the dish, which turned out when weighed afterwards, to amount to nearly £ldwt. " Torn," I observed, " there must at this rate, be thousands of pounds worth in this basin ! We shall never be able to take all be can get out of it away with u? in the canoes. We shall have to bury it, and come for it in a boat. Which bank shall we millionaires patronise ? " Tom, whose face, as he had placed the dust caiefully inside a little wash-leather purte, in hia breast, had been radient with smiles, now of a sudden looked suspicious and anxious, as he quickly stood up, and gazed up the mountain's side. " Wind's shifted ; " he said abruptly, " look up there ! " I looked and saw that the clouds had accumu- '■ lated in dark lowering masses round the summit, and had already obscured the snowy top. They were increasing fast in density, and now come rolling down towards us. A distant moaning sound began to be heard afar off, and the tops of the trees began to be agitated. In a few minutes the light of the sun was obscured, and heavy i drops of rain began to fall. " Quick 1 " said I, " the canoes— before it is too late. We can easily find this pool again." " Never ! " replied Tom, as we slipped and tumbled down the steep' track, "Never! There it's been safe enough for the last few months — waiting for some one to come and clean it out, but this storm will wash it all away, and our chance is lost ! Oh, why, why did we waste the precious hours in Totaranui ? " And he ended with a brief and half uttered malediction, as his foot slipped, and he turned a somersault, that I thought at the time would have broken his neck. However, we managed to get down at last, and into the canoes, which we found pulling and tugging with all their might against their painter?, for already the waterfall had increased in strength, and there was quite a •• fresh " on. Looking back up the track we had just come down, we saw we had not been a moment too soon, for already the foaming water was pouring down it after us. It was a work of some trouble and danger to get into our ticklish crafts in that foaming water, but once seated firmly, paddle in hand, we simultaneously let go our painters, and shot out like arrows from bows right into the centre ot the furious stream, now running fully 12 knots an hour All that was needful was to keep the paddle in the water, used as a " steeroar ! " Then it came down upon us from the heavens like a waterspout, (for we, had shot in a few minutes out of the gloomy avenue, and were soon rushing out on the open lagoon), crashing on our frail decks as if it would stave them in, and enveloping us in a perfect cloud of falling water, so that while it lasted in all its fury, we could not see even the prow of our respective canoes, but were sitting bent down to it to protect our faces. We were in this attitude, and the floomy avenue was just passed, when from ehind us, resounding high above the roar of the now distant waterfall, and the hissing of the rain and hail around us, came an awful sound, halfshriek and half-yell, dying away in a wail 1 We drew close together, and peered into each other's faces. Again came the shrill melancholy and fearful sound, dying away as before, and then at once all was quiet, the rain stopped suddenly, and there was only the distant boom of the cataract, and the hurried rush of the waters that were sweeping us rapidly seaward 1 That sound was unlike anything we had ever heard ! A sound once heard not to be forgotten in one's

lifetime. Somethine unearthly about it ! I thourrht with a shudder, it was as if a shriek of despairing agony had reached us from the bottomless pit ! Tom was the first who recovered himself, and the took a more prosaic view of it. " Either the moa itself, or the traditionary fiend that guards the gold mines ! " was his remark Here the rain recommenced with extra fury, so we padaied back to camp, wet, hungry, disappointed, and wretched. The water, when we got home, was fully three feet higher than when we had left in the morning, but the tent was fully loft, above it yet. so we felt we were secure from a flood. We hauled up the canoes, and proceeded to strengthen the tent with extra ropes', and now we found the advantage of our position, sheltered by the bush, the high cliff, and the sandbank, for that night it blew a fearful gale, and not a strand or a ropeyarn of our abode parted. We stripped off our wet clothes, and " turned-in " beneath the 'possum, having put on dry ones. A fire was out of the question, so we contented ourselves with biscuit and P.8., succeeded by a final smoke. As we lay, dry and sheltered, the lightning flashed around us, and the thunder pealed and roared. All the strength of the elements seemed let loose in wild devastation, in the midst of which, after a short discussion as to those two awful and mysterious noises, we, tired and weary, fell asleep Before I dozed off, however, I just hinted to the sagacious Thomas, that as, in our hurry, we had left our mining tools behind us, and had been disturbed, after all, in what we went to seek for, we were no better than the German Sabbath-breaker3, only that they had seen a pig, and wo had only heard a noise. His only answer was the simple word, " "Fudge ! " and the next minute we were in oblivion. The daylight next day was slow in coming. It was after six before I could make out the time by the hands of my -watch. Tom still dozed, so I lay till seven, listening to the roar of the surf outside the sandbar, and the hissing of the rain. Our tent and fly was now thoroughly saturated, and the few drops that had oozed through when the rain first began, had ceased now that the canvas had " taken up," but the latter was now str tched as flat as a board, and in the shrinking I knew something was bound to give way unless the tent-rop s were slacked, so I roused my mate, i and we went out and made everything secure. The weather showed no signs, as yet, of a change, and as long as it lasted we knew we were prisoners to our camp. But we were both hungry and cold, and a fire was the first thin? needful, so, in spite of the inconvenienciea by which we were at present surrounded, we pitched our fire fly opposite the tent door, and collecting some rotten wood and a few pieces of dry stuff we had accidentally put inside the tent to use as bolsters, we i soon had the satisfaction of seeing a good blaze and the billy on. We then collected and stacked round the fire (under the fly), all the wood lying about handy, to dry and keep the fire going all day, and then, while the water was boilirg, we both strolled up the sandbank to have a look at the mighty ocean "in a rage.'.' And truly it was a magnificent sight ! Huge rollers came bursting on the sloping bank, and the spray flew right over us, roaring as if they would tear away the epit which was a'l that protected our frail camp from the eruption of the mighty deep. Sea upon sea and surge upon surge rolled in as far as the eye could see from Cook's Straits, before the southerly gale a succession of white caps, perpetually curling over and reproducing them^lves. The reef was a sheet of foam, and over the high rocky island in front of us the spray flew in clouds as the water struck and rebounded. As we gazed, a large mail steamer came suddenly round one of the corners of the cliff that bounded our narrow view, with her spars carried "end on " to the gale, to diminish its force upon them , and a long black train of smoke trailing after her for miles. Though she was several miles off, we could discern the seas that she was constantlytaking over her, burying her from our sight at times, as she slowly forged ahead through the seething mass of water, fit emblem of the mighty power of steam ! No one could have lived on her storm-washed decks. Doubtless she was closely battened down, fot we saw the port quarter-boat was gone, and its falls trailed in the wind against the leaden sky, and only two tiny specks high up on the bridee showed where the captain and steersman were doubtless managing the wheel between them, lashed to it. The black masses of smoke that flew rapidly away to leeward showed how she was coaling up to get round the corner, and. at last she slowly worked her way round the opposite cliff and disappeared, leaving only a straight column ot smoke, drawn across the sky like a black blot. "If she gets to Totaranui she's safe," said I, " and there'll be another customer for eggs, but she's got all her work chalked out before she gets there ! " I am sorry to say that the very mention of Totaranui brought several expletives from my mate, who now looked upon our delightful stay there as a sure and certain loss of several hundred pounds, but as our billy must by this time have nearly boiled itself away while we had been watching the steamer, we both ran down to breakfast. There was a temporary lull, so we fried some bacon and cheese, with plenty of mustard and pepper, and with that and a scalding billy ful of tea, we made a hearty meal, not before it -was wanted. Nothing c >uld be done that day, it was evident, but grease our boots, clean the pistol, read a little, talk a good deal, ditto smoke, and overliawl the canoes to see if they showed any signs of strain or leakage, but they were as tight as bottles. As exercise was needful, we both, in the afternoon, stripped to a pair of pants (to keep our shirts dry), and took vigorous walking exercise along ihe sandspit, with (in some places) the froth rolling about our feet, and with the rain beating on our bare and smarting skins, till we were tired, and returned to shelter for a good towelling and dress, and then we were all a-glow, just like the delightful feeling after a Turkish bath, an 3 were ready for soup, made in a few seconds with Liebig's essence of beef, and pease powder mixed with it. Af'er which, and another discussion about those unearthly yells, we turned in. For three more days our camp life never varied. Light the fire ; breakfast ; hunt for and chop firewood ; rest ; brisk exercise in the heavy rain ; tea; smoke; and bed. During all this time .the lagoon centinued to rise steadily, about a foot a day at high water, at which time the water was brackish, owing to the sea outside being the same height, arid forcing back the swollen waters of the river. At low water the river: held its own again, and continued its rush out into the bay. ■At high water we were only six feet above the 'lagoon for about an hour, twice in the 24 hours, and had it happened during that gale to have been "spring tides" instead -of "neap," we should doubtless have had the water into pur tent-, and should have had to take to roosting in trees. On the fourth morning the wind had

abated, the sea somewhat gone down, and the rain having entirely ceased, the autumn sun once more gave us the light of his countenance, and an opportunity of drying our damp clothes. Nothing, I verily believe, but a few drops of chlorodyne, taken judiciously from time to time, prevented us from sowing the the seeds of rheumatism for the rest of our natural lives. In fact, we had put off our start till too late in the year, and the fine autumn weather we had enjoyed so long was now beginning to break up an-i prepare for winter. The mornings and nights, too, were getting too chilly to be pleasant for camping out, and I, too, regretted the precious days wasted at Totaranui. As the flood in the lagoon gradually receded, our walking space became enlarged, and Tom succeeded, by loading one of the chambers of the revolver with shot, in shooting two fine wild ducks out of a flock, as they sat on the water, which he did by stalking them behind the sandbank, and then stripping, and swimming for them. The plucking of these birds furnished a new occupation for us, and the fresh meat was most acceptable; although we had no stuffing, and could only grill, fry, or boil them. Two days afterwards the sea was quiet enough for the canoes, so we went out in them with our fishing lines, and making fast with our painters to the reef at low water, we baited with mussels, and caught above a dozen rock cod, and one goodsized schnapper that I couldn't succeed in getting into the canoe, he was too big and frisky Cbeing about 101b. weight), so I jumped out on the reef, and soon landed my gentlemen there, where a sharp muss 1-shell soon stopped his "little game." As ihe tide had turned, we then put back into the lagoon again with our load, and then having cleaned andj salted them, we \thereafter had fisli ad nauseam.- Fish boiled, ; fish fried, fish grilU.l, and fisli* pickled in vinegar, till we were sick of fish. -, Altogether, though I really must say that" if we had but, little variety, we lived well, imd hSd z no right to complain. Yet Englishmen v ill growl ; it is their privilege ! ' (To be continued).