The Lindis was one hundred and twenty miles inland from Dunedin. There was no road, and but for a portion of the way up the valley of the Waitaki only a rough bullock dray track leading to some isolated1 sheep and cattle stations, beyond which there was literally2 no track at all. The country was mountainous, and early winter having set in, it was supposed that much of the higher latitudes3 would be covered with snow, but beyond the fact that numbers of pedestrians4 had during the past fortnight proceeded towards the Lindis, and that a ship-load of diggers had arrived from Victoria and were hourly leaving the town, we had nothing reliable to guide us. We heard that the few sheep-farmers on the route were much opposed to the influx5 of diggers, and had publicly notified that they would not encourage or give them any accommodation on their stations. This was alarming for the time, but fortunately the information proved correct in only one instance. It led us, however, to make such preparation for our journey as would render us to a great extent independent of assistance on the way.
We purchased a strong one-horse dray which we loaded with about 10 cwt. of provisions, in the form of flour, tea, sugar, salt, ship biscuits, a small quantity of spirits for medicinal use and tobacco. Also two small calico tents, some cooking utensils6 and blankets, with bush tools, spades, picks, and axes.
Legge's horse had been broken to harness, and mine was an excellent draught7 horse. I omitted to mention that at Timaru I had exchanged my mare8 for a strong gelding which had previously9 run in the mail cart, getting ￡10 boot. The swap10 proved a fortunate one for us, as neither Smith's nor Fowler's animals had ever been in harness, and "Jack11 the Devil" was out of the question. Legge's horse and mine therefore were destined12 for the dray, tandem13 fashion, and upon trial they pulled splendidly.
When the dray was loaded and covered over with a large waterproof14 tarpaulin15, and our two fine horses yoked16 thereto, it looked a very business-like turn-out. Two of us took it in turn to walk beside the horses and conduct the team, while the other two rode, accompanied by "Jack," his pack-saddle laden17 with our needs for the day and night halts.[Pg 59]
One fine morning in June, 1861, we started from Dunedin, with our handsome team, the first of its kind that ever travelled the road we were going, and we started from the smiling little town amidst the cheers and good wishes of those we left behind.
For the first few days all was fairly smooth sailing. We travelled about twenty miles each day, camping or resting independently of stations, and the track so far being formed by wool drays, was on the whole feasible, although we had occasionally to make good the crossings over creeks18 and rivers.
On the evening of the third day we arrived at a small cattle station belonging to a Mr. Davis, where were a number of diggers resting for the night. Mr. Davis was one of those hospitably20 inclined to the diggers, but as he could not be expected to feed such numbers for nothing, he notified that meals would be charged for at one shilling per head. This was eagerly and gratefully responded to, and upwards21 of two hundred men were assembled at the station the evening we arrived.
The kitchen and dining hut being unable to accommodate more than twelve or fifteen at once, a multitude had to remain outside while each gang went in, in turn, to be fed.
Inside the scene was curious. An enormous fire of logs blazed on the hearth22, which occupied one entire end of the hut, over which were suspended two huge pots filled with joints23 of mutton, beef, and doughboys, boiling indiscriminately together. They were frequently being removed to the table and others substituted in their place. The pots were flanked by large kettles of water, into which, when on the boil, a handful or two of tea would be thrown. After a few minutes the decoction would be poured into an iron bucket, some milk and sugar added, and placed upon the table, where each man helped himself by dipping his pannikin therein.
Fortunately the hungry seekers after gold were not particular about their meat being a shade over or under cooked; they were glad to accept what they got, and indeed right wholesome25 food it was. The doughboys were simply large lumps of dough24, made of flour and water, used as a substitute for bread, of which a sufficient quantity could not be prepared for the immense demand.
We obtained our turn in due time, and after a hearty26 meal retired27 to the quarters we had pitched upon for the night—viz., a straw shed where we rolled our blanket around us and slept soundly.[Pg 60]
The following evening, after a severe day's journey, we arrived wet and fagged at the next station, Miller28 and Gooche's. Here a similar scene was being enacted29, and here, in common with many other diggers, we were obliged to remain for several days owing to severe weather setting in.
Miller and Gooche's station was situated30 at the junction31 of a tributary32 stream with the Waitaki, at the entrance of a rugged33 and mountainous gorge34. From this point our real difficulties were to begin, as we would diverge35 from the main valley we had hitherto followed, and work our way over a rough tract36 of hilly country, up ravines and spurs to the great pass, then pretty certain to be covered with snow.
For the four days during which we were detained at this station it rained, sleeted38, and snowed alternately and unceasingly. There were upwards of one hundred and fifty men there, and the station running short of flour, a supply had to be procured39 from Davis's, where luckily a large store had been collected.
Most diggers possessed40 nothing beyond the clothes they wore, with a blanket and a kettle, and many had no money wherewith to pay for food, so the squatters were obliged to make a virtue41 of necessity and give free where there was no chance of payment, and this they did right willingly. As for the diggers, I must say so much for them that, rough fellows as they were, they paid freely and gratefully all they could, and I did not hear of a single instance of robbery or outrage42 save one, and we were the victims of that. It was merely the abstraction, emptying, and replacing on our dray of a case of "Old Tom," all the spirits we possessed, and we did not discover the loss until too late for any chance of detecting the delinquents43.
At Miller and Gooche's we passed four very miserable44 days. The two small huts and the sheep shed were filled to overflowing45, and we lay on the floor of the latter at night, cold, stiff, dirty, and packed into our places like sardines46. The rain and sleet37, slop, cold, and offensive odour combined would need to be experienced to be appreciated; it was indescribable and the greatest and most disagreeable of anything I experienced before or since of such a mixture.
At length the weather cleared, and in company with another dray just arrived from Dunedin, and got up in imitation of ours, we started for the pass, not without grave misgivings47 of what might be before us.[Pg 61]
The first day we made five miles. Our route lay along the course of a large creek19 bounded both sides by precipitous hills. The recent rain had swollen48 the stream, and either obliterated49 or washed away the rough dray track, which even at its best was not suited for the passage of a horse team. We were therefore obliged to cut a way in and out of the nullah wherever we crossed; so some idea may be formed of our day's work. We were fortunate in being accompanied by the fresh dray, indeed without it, and the assistance given by a number of the diggers who kept with us, and with whom we shared our food, I do not think we would have succeeded in getting over the Lindis Pass, at any rate not nearly so expeditiously50 as we did. When we came to an exceptionally difficult and steep pull, the drays were taken over one at a time with three horses yoked, and all hands helping51 them.
On the morning of the second day we were still four miles from the pass, and it took very severe work from men and horses to negotiate the remainder of that fast narrowing, steep and rugged bed, and late in the afternoon to reach the summit. It was, as we anticipated, covered with snow.
The cold that night was intense, and we had difficulty in procuring52 before dark set in enough brushwood to keep up a small fire for more than a few hours. It was here we discovered the loss of the "Old Tom" which we had meant to save for just such a special occasion as this. Now that we were half-frozen and without means of bettering our condition for the night, it was proposed to open the first bottle, and have a nip round for ourselves and comrades. Our chagrin53 and disappointment may be imagined when we found the twelve bottles to contain only water.
I often wondered how we got through that night; one or two of us alone must surely have perished. Our safety lay in our number. We rolled our blankets tightly round us and lay down close together on the wet and now fast freezing ground, and lit our pipes, and then we slept. Tired as we were, nothing could keep sleep from us—even if we were to be frozen during it.
For the horses we had collected a little grass and carried it on the drays, but they had a bad time of it, and the icicles hung from their manes and tails in the morning as they stood shivering with their backs turned to the keen mountain blast.
However, we all survived, and were none the worse, and as soon as it was light we gathered enough brushwood to[Pg 62] make a rousing fire, by which we melted the frozen snow and ice from our blankets, and from the harness before we could put it on the horses.
We soon finished a hearty breakfast of mutton grilled54 in the hot ashes, and hot tea, and proceeded to get ready for the day's work, which we knew would be a heavy one if we were to get over the pass before sundown.
It was two miles to the top, but such a two miles to take a horse dray over. The gradient was not only very steep and rough, but it was covered with six to eighteen inches of snow, except in some few exposed parts where it had drifted off and left the surface nearly bare. There was no track to guide us beyond a very uncertain and irregular one made by a few pedestrians and horses who had preceded us the evening before when we had been delayed by the drays.
We decided55 to take the drays over separately, yoking56 all four horses to each in turn, tandem fashion, by means of ropes with which we were well provided. Just as we were about to start the first, a party of diggers arrived, who volunteered to push and spoke57 the wheels. Thanks to these men and the game, honest horses, our difficulties were considerably58 lightened. Some went before to clear the snow where it lay thickest, but this was soon abandoned as labour in vain.
We found that the utmost efforts of the four horses, assisted by half a dozen men, were only sufficient to drag the dray from twenty to fifty yards at a spurt59, then on stopping to take a breath a log was thrown behind the wheels, and after a few moments' rest another spurt was made, and so on.
Our progress was so satisfactory that before nightfall both drays were safely over the pass and we had proceeded down the opposite side as far as an out-station of McLean's, on whose run we now were. Here we learned to our joy that we were within twenty-five miles of the reported diggings, with a fairly passable track all the way.
Mr. R. McLean was a wealthy sheep farmer who had originally made his money on the Australian goldfields. His present attitude therefore towards the diggers was considered the more cruel. He had given orders at all his out-stations that neither food nor shelter was to be afforded them, and upon our arrival at the shepherd's hut aforesaid, the occupant, a worthy60 Scotsman, informed us with regret that we would have to arrange for our accommodation in the open, it being as much as his place was worth to feed[Pg 63] or shelter diggers. This was unpleasant news, as we hoped to have taken up our quarters in his hut that night after our severe camping out the previous four days.
Although the diggings broke out in McLean's run he had no power to prevent the land being worked upon, excepting only such portions of it as were private property, but he discouraged and put obstacles in the way of the diggers in any form he could, some said because he knew as an experienced digger himself that they would not pay. Whether this was the case or not, he might have understood the impossibility of stopping a gold rush in its infancy61, while its value was still an unknown quantity.
Our last stage the following day was for the greater part by one of the most picturesque62 valleys I had yet seen. Mr. McLean had made a very fair road from the Lindis Pass boundary to his home station, which latter was only some five miles from the diggings, so it was very different travelling to what we had experienced on the other side. The track first wound along a deep ravine with rugged precipitous sides, mostly clothed with evergreen63 underwood from which huge masses of rock would now and then emerge, and sometimes overhanging a rushing torrent64 which had been swelled65 by the recent heavy rains and thus enhanced the effect on this glorious sunny morning. The waterfalls and cascades66 sparkled in a hundred colours, wheeling, foaming67, and dashing in a mad race amidst huge rocks, till lost in shadow beneath a precipice68 or overhanging mass of variegated69 bush. The gorge then opened out into a level amphitheatre, with the river, grown calm and broad, winding70 peacefully, and surrounded by the mountains in all their enchanting71 shades of colour, and the distant peaks capped with snow.
Then another gorge of more imposing72 grandeur73 with a magnificent view beyond and through it, closed in turn by a sombre pine forest swept by the river, now grown larger and deeper, dancing and racing74 like a living thing in the brilliant sunshine and rare atmosphere of a New Zealand morning.
How well I remember the whole trip with all its roughness and all its beauty, its very contrasts no doubt helping to impress it upon the memory. Such scenes and incidents are difficult to forget, even if one would, and each and all are as distinct to my mind in almost every detail at this moment as if I had been with them only yesterday, instead of more than forty years ago.
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1
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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pedestrians
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| n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 ) | |
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influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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utensils
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| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
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draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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swap
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| n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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tandem
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| n.同时发生；配合；adv.一个跟着一个地；纵排地；adj.（两匹马）前后纵列的 | |
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waterproof
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| n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水 | |
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tarpaulin
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| n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽 | |
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yoked
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| 结合（yoke的过去式形式） | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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creeks
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| n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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tributary
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| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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diverge
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| v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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sleet
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| n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹 | |
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sleeted
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| 下雨夹雪，下冻雨( sleet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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delinquents
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| n.（尤指青少年）有过失的人，违法的人( delinquent的名词复数 ) | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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sardines
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| n. 沙丁鱼 | |
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misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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expeditiously
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| adv.迅速地，敏捷地 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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52
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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grilled
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| adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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55
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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56
yoking
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| 配轭，矿区的分界 | |
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57
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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spurt
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| v.喷出；突然进发；突然兴隆 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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64
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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68
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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70
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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71
enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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