TO BLENHEIM BY BIKE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2471, 2 March 1893, Page 4

TO BLENHEIM BY BIKE.

(Continued.)

Bruimerfcon itself is perched above the Grey river, -which here is confined by mountainous banks. There is little boauty about the place, as the little bush is very grimy and in some places killed by the belching forth of smoke by the great colliery chimney. The place was so uninviting, the hotel accommodation so poor, and the tank-water, above all, so decidedly beery in smell—we dared not wash our faces—that we felt constrained to leave Bruimerton as soon as possible. So after attending service at the only Protestant chapel (Presbyterian) in the placo we rode out a mile or two on the road to Ahaura, and boiled the billy by the side of one of the Grey tributaries. This water was free from insufferable stench, although not from the peculiar reddish-brown color which is so noticeable in the West Coast streams not discolored by the gold-mining. We enquired the cause, and ware told that the coloring was due to the amount of vegetable matter held in solution. This is, doubtloss, correct, for every watercourse is full of fallen trees brought down by floods. Fourteen miles of moderate road saw us at Ahaura, a small township on the banks of the Ahaura river, which joins the Grey a mile or so below. The place consists of about 18 or 20 houses—certainly not more—and nine of these are hotels, a record, I think, for the West Coast even. We were told that the Midland Railway Company's line up the Grey Valley had extinguished Ahaura. The coaches and other traffic had made it a very lively place indeed, but now ! The place at which we stayed was the only hotel that did not need a coat of paint. We here began to notice particularly thb strong hold the blackberry has obtained in the West Coast and kelson bush. It bids fair to extinguish mar.y of the lesser shrubs, and is quite as aunoying to the bush traveller as its kinsman the übiquitous " lawyer." On the Monday morning we took train to Reef ton, as we wished to see the quartz-mining that afternoon and, if possible, push on towards Nelson. Directly we got into Reefton we dropped across some members of the Cycling Club, who took a lively and kindly interest in us. < They gave ua all the information possible about the roads ahead and about the quartz mines in the neighborhood. On their recommendation we rode out, accompanied by one of the club members, to see the Globe mine, a distance of four or five miles from Reefton. A good road up a valley, through pretty bush in many places, brought us to the foot of a hill, and we had to walk the rest of the distance—two miles—uphill at a pretty steep grade. The mine manager was most courteous, and, with him, we descended the shaft by means of a steam lift. It is a strange Bensation this descending into the bowels of the earth. The cage holds four men standing upright facing one another, and it fits closely against the walls of th& shaft, so that there is no room to turn about. If you shift you find yourself grazing the damp, boarded sides. This shaft is one of the deopost■ in JSTeUo;i, being GOO?t. straight down. Ith worked by two CJiges, side by aide, and has -{Jireo main drives, one above .mother. One© &fc the bottom W 3 lit our candle and started exploration. We were soon initiated into the mysteries of in the quartz reefs, and' quick*;* learned t-> rec-gniae the goldbearing Stone, although our efforts to distinguish i: t'>'- color " ware unavailing. In aud out, up ami down, from drive to winze, under mass-lira timbering and over eerie-looking s:cafi'ol.!i;ig Oiily part covering asiygiau hl,-,ckiiesso£ di-pJ I ; our guido le I u«, explaining, as only asst'vpM't can, his business to us. One of the m'uera performed the time-honored cerecerem'my of " wiping the boots" for one of our party, but we didn't " catch on" to what he meant. It wan exp.l lined afterwards, and wo then understood the disappointed look on his face. Taking cage again, we were hauled up swiftly to \ the fiiMt drive, passing on our way men working in the second one. As we glided up by them, and got a /nvift glance at their shadowy forms and twinkling lights, they looked like the old gnome-corkers who forged the magic weapons of our Scandinavian ancestors—weapons which, by virtue of the muttered spells, gave to the wild warriors of Odin their wondrous strength and courage. After a few minutes in the first drive, a long sidepassage brought us out into the open air again, and wo then made the best of our way round the hill a Utile further to where the aerial tramway was at work. The Globe Company do not crush their quartz at the mine's mouth, but about a mile and a-lialf away, over a good-sized hill. They send the quartz over hill and hollow in buckets suspended to an endless wire rope, and, the fall being greaterthan the rise, the action of the tramway is automatic, and regulated by a powerful brake. In places the buckets travel uphill at a very steep grade, and are often hundreds of feet from the ground. Men

sometimes travel back anil forth by means of the buckets. We were told of one poor follow who wished to make t'o journey, but ho started too Lite, and the tramway was stopped before ho reached, his destination. The result was That ho' had to spend the whole of the night inthe bucket, suspended between heaven and earth. It was a cold night, and an inaccessible part of the bush, so we c;m imagine that he had im memvais quait d' henre altogether. On making our way back to Reefton F.'s bike-handle gave way, and we were thus compelled to to spend that night in Reefton, in order o get the unfortunate machine repaired. ( lo be contiimnd.)