Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/149

Rh “paidle in the burn.” We had to cross the river in all seventeen times. There had been very little rain for some days, and consequently the river was at its lowest. About two and a half miles from Allen’s, and after crossing the river the sixth time, the Main Ross and Bowen Trunk Road is met with. My innocent impression of the so-called “Main Trunk Road” was, that it was a dray road, that any machinery requisite for the development of silver mines could be conveyed with ease and certainty thereon, and that a branch road would be all that would be required to make a complete thoroughfare. This is not so. The road is a mere foot track, barely worthy of the name of pack track, and at present its termination is like that of a telegraph wire or lightning rod, simply running into the hill, and presenting an appearance as if the workmen had gone to dinner and forgot to return. The land in this direction is very lightly timbered, and good soil is to be seen along the river bed all the way. The last two crossings are tolerably deep with rough bottom, but the current is not so rapid as to involve any danger, unless the river is flooded. Reaching the landing place at the Gorge, we sent our horses back with Allen’s man, arranging with him that he should meet us at two o’clock on Friday afternoon at the same place. This starting or landing point can scarcely be missed by any travellers going this way. It is on the north side of the river, immediately at the base of the mountain. In the ordinary travel of a pack horse, the distance thither should be accomplished in a couple of hours or a little more. As we wandered along the river it was observable that nature had provided in abundance many of the sustenances of life. Fish were plentiful in the river, and pigeons and ducks were in large numbers along the shore. Hitherto our travelling was all pleasure and child’s play, but from the hour of 10.45 a.m. until 5.45 p.m. it partook of a very different description. Infants will not be likely to participate in the game. Men may try it and accomplish it once; but in the absence of a gold or silver mine becoming their own inheritance at the termination of the journey, they are not likely to be caught indulging in it as a constitutional exercise. Palmer complacently chaffed us about the “gentle rise” of four hours without intermission which we would encounter. His “gentle rises” out of us were manifold. They might better be described as a succession of perpendicular break-neck hills, calculated to represent, from a draper’s point of view, at least five pounds per head, and from a bootmaker’s, twenty-five shillings. By the way, those in the trade would do well to present the prospectors with an entire rig out for themselves, wives, and families, should the present track be the only one in use for the next six months. They might petition the Government to that effect also, and bestow the same compliment on the Provincial Executive with great gain. Hudson was the first to take a farewell greeting with the lower portions of his nether garments. He strove hard to maintain the bond of union between himself and them by means of flax and yarn, but at the expiration of three hours he could compete with any of the Mongolian race for shortness of skirt. Indeed, at the top of the mountain there was no one curious enough to inquire —