Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/49

Rh their guest, they all lay down, in the reverse position to mine, their feet level with my head! In the morning at breakfast we exchanged experiences as to the night's rest, and the Archdeacon declared that for a long time he couldn't make out what was wrong with his pillow, which would not keep still, until he discovered that it was a bag full of live eels!

We bade our hosts farewell with many kindly salutations and tokens of goodwill from men, women and children, and to save us a long tramp, they offered us a canoe, with a crew, to convey us to the head of the lake. It was a long and cranky looking craft, the lower part of it having been dug out of a pine log, without keel, its side formed of slight timber, knitted together with fastenings of wood. It was crossed at intervals with bars, against which you kneel and paddle, with places for eight men, and in the stern just room for one or two sitters, and a place for the steersman. The Archdeacon refused to trust himself to such a flimsy vessel, and went on foot with some natives by the edge of the lake, whilst the Bishop took his seat in the stern, and I wielded a paddle, Horomona steering with a long paddle, and setting the time of the stroke for the crew, with a Maori chant. We paddled along gaily in smooth bright water, coasting by headlands and picturesque bays, wooded to the water's edge, and, leaving the canoe at the head of the lake, made our way, through thick underwood, over a pass which opened out a grand view of Akaroa Harbour—Anglicé, "The Long Inlet." Descending some distance down well-grassed spurs, we came to a cattle station, and there revelled in a homely meal, with fresh butter, but were informed by the owner that the boat in which he usually sailed to the