Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/64

46 in deep water." We navigated the swamps successfully, and entered the water, which is not like the usual New Zealand torrent, but a deep, swift stream. Contrary to our usual custom, as I was delayed a little by the pack-horse, the Bishop went in first, and I followed, the water being only knee-deep. Getting rather ahead of me, the Bishop pointed to a place on the other side which looked like a landing-place, but was merely made by cattle coming down to drink, and turned his horse's head across stream. I shouted to prevent him, as I felt sure it could not be the right place, but in vain; the next moment his horse had stepped over a ledge of rock into deep water, horse and man disappearing, for Dick, instead of swimming, had tried to bottom with his hind feet, had been caught in the chest by the stream, and washed under. It all happened in a moment; catching sight of them under water, as they were swept down past me, I flung myself off my horse, caught hold of my Father's hand, and drew him to the surface. "I kicked away the stirrup," he said. It had dragged him down with the horse, but, fortunately, as we always rode with the stirrup bars in the saddle down, for fear of accident, it came away, and so saved him. Then a swim for the opposite bank, both of us heavily clothed, a tough job in such a stream, which carried us down a long way, though the actual distance in a straight line was not more than fifty yards, and when we did make the bank, we found ourselves in deep water up against a rock with steep sides, to which we clung, until, coasting down, I found a crevice by which I managed to climb up, and, after much effort, contrived to haul my Father up, safe and sound, but drenched to the skin. Happily he was a powerful