Page:Through South Westland.djvu/323

Rh little gullies, and then found the track quite suddenly; Mr. Macpherson had tried for it in many directions, and kept up a constant running fire of exclamations as to its total disappearance. From this onwards the marks on the trees were clearly visible, and all went well till we essayed a narrow ledge above the river, and here we found an impasse, where a fallen tree completely blocked it. In a moment he turned the cavalcade and went skipping down a water-course, with Mephibosheth stumbling and slipping behind him, into the riverbed, in among a lot of boulders, and across a bare ledge of rock by a deep pool. My unwieldly animal refused to budge, and chewed stolidly at some toe-toe grass, and it was a long time ere I could wake her up; then I saw Tom hurry, scrambling after the Scorpion, and missing the place where the others had sidled along the rocky ledge above the deep water, he went swimming across the pool, At last we all arrived at a point where two rivers met, both tumultuous torrents, and in the V between them stood the hut. It was roughly built of river stones, and looked for all the world like another Highland shieling. Alas, it failed to tempt the tourist as its builder hoped, and it was now roofless and a ruin, and Duncan shook his head ruefully over it.

The river beside it comes through a narrow gorge, the nearer view being blocked with trees; and above them another view of Mount Aspiring presented itself, a terrific mass of precipices and glaciers.