Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/115

] a remarkable effect; when the sun shines brightly a beautiful rainbow of intensely brilliant colours, spans the dark abyss, mingling its bright hues with the rich foliage of the encircling banks.

We returned to our people, who had, during our absence, got all ready for our journey; the boat's crew of eight men, carried our tents, blankets, and a small flat punt, constructed of bullocks' hides by Lieutenant Murdo, for duck shooting over the mud flats up the Kawa Kawa, very light and capable of carrying two men in smooth water. As one of our purposes was to fish an extensive lake near Waimati, I thought it would be useful, and a larger boat would have been too heavy for our party to manage. Mr. Taylor had sent a horse to carry our small-sized seine, but the animal was so restive that we found it impossible to fix this novel kind of burthen on his back, and were obliged to leave it to be sent for after our arrival at Waimati.

The unusual appearance of our party, the officers in advance with their double-barrelled fowling pieces, specimen baskets, and various instruments for measuring the elevation and position of the several places we proposed visiting, followed by the crew carrying the boat and other necessary materials, on bearing poles, attracted the attention, and not unfrequently the ridicule, of the natives we met on our journey. We kept along the main road nearly the whole distance. It is, indeed, the only thing that deserves the name of a road in New