I had only been a few days in Christchurch when I met a Mr. Butler whom I had once before seen up-country. He immediately offered me a post on his run at ￡60 a year, with all expenses paid, which I could hold for as long or short time as I needed. This exactly suited me in my present circumstances. I accepted his offer and started the following day for Mesopotamia, as he had quaintly2 named his station; it lay between two rivers.
Mesopotamia Station
Mesopotamia Station.
Mr. Samuel Butler was a grandson of the late famous Bishop3 Butler. He had come to New Zealand about a year previously4 with a small fortune which, as he said, he intended to double and then return home, and he did so in a remarkably5 short time. Immediately he landed he made himself acquainted with the maps and districts taken up, and rode many hundreds of miles prospecting6 for new country. His energy was rewarded by the discovery of the unclaimed piece of mountain land he now occupied near the upper gorge7 of the Rangitata. The run, which comprised about 8,000 acres, formed a series of spurs and slopes leading from the foot of the great range and ending in a broad strip of flat land bounded by the Rangitata. Upon two other sides were smaller streams, tributaries8 of the latter—hence the name Mesopotamia (between the rivers) given to it by its energetic possessor. Mr. Butler had been established upon the run about a year, and had already about 3,000 sheep on it. The homestead was built upon a little plateau on the edge of the downs approached by a cutting from the flat, and was most comfortably situated9 and well sheltered, as it needed to be, the weather being often exceedingly severe in that elevated locality.
Butler was a literary man, and his snug10 sitting-room11 was fitted with books and easy chairs—a piano also, upon which he was no mean performer.
The station hands comprised a shepherd, bullock driver, hutkeeper, and two station hands employed in fencing in[Pg 74] paddocks, which with Cook, the overseer, Butler, and myself made up the total.
At daybreak we all assembled in the common kitchen for breakfast, after which we separated for our different employments.
At 12 noon we met again for dinner, and again about 7 p.m. for supper, which meal being over, Butler, Cook, and I would repair to the sitting room, and round a glorious fire smoked or read or listened to Butler's piano. It was the most civilised experience I had had of up-country life since I left Highfield and was very enjoyable. I did not, however, remain very long at Mesopotamia at that time.
There was a proposal on foot to improve the track leading from the Ashburton to the Rangitata on which some heavy cuttings were required to be made. I applied12 for the contract and obtained it at rates which paid me very well. My supervisor13 was a man called Denny, who had been a sailor, and I knew him to be a capable and handy fellow, as most sailors are. He was quite illiterate—could not even read or write, but he was clever and intelligent and had seen a great deal of colonial life and some hard times. Every night when supper was over and we sat by the fire in our little hut, I read aloud, to his great delectation, and his remarks, pert questions, and wonderful memory were remarkable14.
This work paid well, and I was soon in a position to make my first investment of ￡100 in sheep, which I placed on terms on Butler's run. To explain this transaction: I purchased one hundred two tooth ewes at a pound each, upon these I was to receive 45 per cent. increase yearly in lambs, half male and half female, and a similar rate of percentage of course on the female increase as they attained15 to breeding age. In addition I was to receive ￡12 10s. per hundred sheep for wool annually16. It was a good commencement, and I decided17 to stick to contract work if possible, and increase my stock till I had sufficient to enable me to obtain a small partnership18 on a run.
Just at this time there arrived at Mesopotamia a friend of Butler's by name Brabazon, an Irishman of good family, it being his intention to remain for some time as a cadet to learn sheep farming. He became a great personal friend of Cook's and mine, and many a pleasant day we spent together when, during intervals19 of rest, I was able to pay a visit to the Rangitata Station.[Pg 75]
On the completion of the road contract, the mustering season had begun, and I went over with my men to give a hand and remained for a month assisting at the shearing20, etc.
I think it was at this time that a most sad occurrence took place, resulting in the death of Dr. Sinclair, who was travelling for pleasure in company with Dr. Haast, Geologist21 and Botanist22 to the Government of Canterbury. He and Dr. Haast with their party had been staying at Mesopotamia for a few days previous to starting on an expedition to the upper gorge of the Rangitata. They all left one afternoon, Dr. Sinclair, as usual, on foot. He had an unaccountable aversion to mounting a horse, and could not be induced to do so when it was possible to avoid it. Strange to say, a horse was eventually the cause of his death. He was a man of some seventy years of age with snow white hair, a learned antiquary and botanist, and old as he was, and in appearance not of strong build, he could undergo great fatigue23 and walk huge distances in pursuit of his favourite science.
The party had proceeded in company some few miles up the river, when Haast and his men went ahead to select a camping place, leaving Dr. Sinclair with a man and horse in attendance to come on quietly and take him over the streams, the intended camp being on the opposite side of the river.
Upper Gorge of the Rangitata
Upper Gorge of the Rangitata.
The plan adopted for crossing a stream, when there is more than one person and only a single horse, is as follows: One end of a sufficiently24 long rope is fastened round the animal's neck, the other being held by one of the men. One then crosses the stream on horseback, when he dismounts, and the horse is hauled back by means of the rope, when another mounts, and so on. In this instance the attendant rode over first, but the stream being somewhat broader than the rope was long, the latter was pulled out of Dr. Sinclair's hands. The man then tried to turn the horse back loose, but the animal, finding himself free, bolted for the run. Dr. Sinclair called to the man that he would ford25 the stream on foot, and although, as the attendant stated, he warned him against attempting to do so, he immediately entered, but the current was too powerful and quickly washed him off his feet. It was now nearly dark and the man said that although he ran as fast as he was able down the stream, he was unable to see anything of the Doctor. This was the miserable26 story the station hand gave in at the homestead when he arrived an hour afterwards.[Pg 76]
All hands turned out, and having mounts in the paddock, Cook and Brabazon were soon in the saddle galloping27 towards the fording place. Striking the stream some distance below where the accident occurred, both sides were carefully searched, as they worked up. When within a quarter of a mile of the ford Cook discovered the body of the Doctor lying stranded28 with head and shoulders under water. Life, of course, was extinct. He was drawn29 gently from the stream and laid on the shingle30 just as the foot men arrived with torches. It was a sad spectacle, this fine old man we all loved and respected so much, only a few hours before full of life and health, now a ghastly corpse31, his hair and long white beard lying dank over his cold white face and glaring eyes. The scene was rendered all the more weird32 and awful by the surroundings, the still dark night, the rushing water, and overhanging cliffs under the red glare of the torches. His body was laid across one of the saddles while one walked on each side to keep it from falling, and so they returned to the station that lonely four miles in the dead of night.
He was laid in the woolshed and a watch placed on guard, and early in the morning a messenger was despatched to Dr. Haast with the sad tidings. His party were at first alarmed at his non-appearance the previous evening, but at length took it for granted that he must have returned to the station, and felt confident that with his attendant and a horse he could not possibly have come to any harm, the river being easily fordable on horseback, or even on foot by a strong man, but of course such a clumsy mistake as employing too short a rope never struck anybody. The attendant who was responsible was one of the hands employed on ditching and fencing, and possibly was not much experienced at river fording, and he said the Doctor delayed so long botanising that darkness was upon them by the time they reached the fording place.
Dr. Sinclair's remains33 were interred34 the following day about a mile from the homestead on the flat near the south bank of the Rangitata, where his tomb doubtless may now be seen, his last earthly resting place; and, dear old man, with all his strong antipathy35 to horses, what would he have thought could he have known that one was destined36 at last to be the cause of his death?
As a set-off against the previous sad story I may relate an amusing one, in which I was myself a principal actor, and[Pg 77] which occurred soon after my arrival at Mesopotamia. Butler was much exercised about some experimental grass-growing he was carrying on about three miles from the station, on the further side of one of the boundary streams I first referred to, where he had recently secured another slice of country.
Early one morning I had started alone on foot for the paddocks, where Butler and Cook were to meet me later, riding, and if I found the stream too high to ford on foot, I was to await their arrival.
On reaching the river it was so swollen37 as to be unsafe to attempt fording, and so, lighting38 my pipe, I sat down under the shelter of a large boulder39, and presently fell asleep. When I woke up, after some considerable time, and remembered where I was, I feared that Cook and Butler must have passed while I slept, and was on the point of returning to the station, when I observed two horsemen a long way down stream, apparently40 searching for something. I speedily understood what was on foot. My friends were laboriously41 seeking for my dead body, having naturally supposed, when they could not find me at the paddock, that I had tried to ford the river and been washed away. The idea of these two men spending the morning hunting for a supposed drowned man, who was enjoying a sound sleep near them all the time, was so ludicrous that I could not refrain from an immoderate fit of laughter when they arrived.
Butler was hot-tempered, and anything approaching to ridicule42 where he himself was concerned was a mortal insult. He turned pale with passion and rode off, and I do not think he ever entirely43 forgave me for not being drowned when he had undertaken so much trouble to discover my body.
It was at Mesopotamia that I noticed so many remains of that extinct bird, the "Moa," and it appeared that some of the species had inhabited that locality not very many years previously. Indeed, some old Maoris I had met on the Ashburton said they remembered the bird very well. It was not uncommon44 to come across a quantity of bones, and near by them a heap of smooth pebbles45 which the bird had carried in his craw for digestive purposes, and I recollect46 one day employing a number of the bones in making a footway over a small creek47.
A complete skeleton of the Moa bird is to be seen in the British Museum.[Pg 78]
I had now obtained a fresh contract for making cuttings, draining swamps, and bridging over some ten miles in the Lower Ashburton gorge and Valley, and I was busily engaged all the summer and autumn. There were some extensive patches of swampy48 ground where great difficulty was experienced in passing the heavy wool drays, and to make a feasible road over them was one of my tasks, and an interesting one it proved, giving some scope to my engineering ability. Having laid out the proposed line of road over the marsh49, I cut from it at right angles, and some 300 feet in length, a channel wide and deep enough, I calculated, to convey away the flood water during heavy rains, and from the upper end of this channel I cut four feeding drains, two running along the road line, and two diagonally, all four meeting at the top end of the main channel; over the latter, at this point, I constructed a wooden bridge of rough green timber from the forest, distant about eight miles. I sunk a row of heavy round piles or posts about a foot in diameter at each side of the channel, which was fifteen feet wide, securing them with heavy transverse beams spiked50 on to their tops; over this I laid heavy round timber stretchers, about nine inches in diameter and four in number, upon which were spiked closed together a flooring of stout51 pine saplings from two and a half to four inches thick. The floor between these was then covered with a thick layer of brushwood, topped with earth and gravel52. The road embankment was then carried on from each side till the swamp was cleared. I am particular about describing this, as it was my first attempt at bridge building and draining, and of all the thousands of bridges I have since constructed, I do not think any one of them interested me more keenly than these in the Ashburton Valley when I was a lad of nineteen. The bridges and roads over the marshes53 proved quite satisfactory, and it was a real delight to me when the first teams of wool drays passed over safely. I was at the same time engaged on the cuttings, and got some of them completed before the severe winter set in.
I was so busy this season that much of my time was necessarily spent in supervising between the forest and the work, and I had a rough hut erected54 at the former, where I could live during my visits.
Once, on passing to the forest, I met with an amusing accident. I was riding a huge sixteen-hand black mare55 and had heavy swags of blankets strapped56 before and behind[Pg 79] the saddle, in addition to which I carried a new axe57, some cooking utensils58 and a large leg and loin of mutton, which I had called for at the station, fearing that my men were out of meat. Near the forest I had to cross a small stream with steep banks. There had been heavy rain the previous night, and the little stream was a rushing torrent59, and as I forded it, the water reached to the girths. The opposite bank was steep and slippery, and the huge animal laboured so in negotiating it that the girths snapped, and the entire saddle, with myself, slipped over her tail into the rushing stream. In this manner we were carried down; immersed to nearly my armpits, but securely attached, for some two hundred yards, before I was able to extricate60 myself and incumbrances by seizing a branch as we swept by a bend in the stream.
With some difficulty I succeeded in getting all out safely and fortunately on the right side. The mare was quietly feeding where she had emerged.
Where the work went on in the valley I had a couple of tents for my gang of navvies, some of whom were sailors. I always found these excellent workers, and specially61 handy and clever in many ways, where a mere62 landsman would be at fault. I worked with them, and shared everything as one of themselves, even to a single nip of rum I allowed to each man once a day. They treated me with every respect, and I had not, so far as I can recollect, a single instance of serious trouble with any of them. They received good wages, and earned them, and if any man among them had been found guilty of reprehensible63 conduct, the others would have supported me at once in clearing him from the camp. When the day's work was over, these sailor navvies would all bear a hand to get matters right for the night and the next day. Mutton was put in the oven, bread made, and placed under the ashes, firewood collected, and water in the kettle ready for putting on the fire at daybreak, then the nip of rum and pipe alight, and yarns64 or songs would be told or sung in turn, till the blankets claimed us.
This was a very severe winter, and as the snow began to lie heavily I was perforce obliged to stop work for a month or two, and for that time I accepted an invitation from Cook and Brabazon to keep them company at Mesopotamia. Butler had left for Christchurch, where he would remain for an indefinite time.
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1
mustering
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的现在分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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2
quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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6
prospecting
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| n.探矿 | |
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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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tributaries
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| n. 支流 | |
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9
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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11
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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12
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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supervisor
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| n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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15
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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16
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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17
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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18
partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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19
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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20
shearing
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| n.剪羊毛，剪取的羊毛v.剪羊毛( shear的现在分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
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21
geologist
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| n.地质学家 | |
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botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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23
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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24
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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25
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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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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27
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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28
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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30
shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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31
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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32
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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33
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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interred
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| v.埋，葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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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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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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38
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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39
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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40
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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41
laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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42
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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43
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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44
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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45
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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46
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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47
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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48
swampy
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| adj.沼泽的，湿地的 | |
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49
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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50
spiked
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| adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的 | |
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52
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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53
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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54
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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55
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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56
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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57
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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58
utensils
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| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
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59
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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60
extricate
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| v.拯救，救出；解脱 | |
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61
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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62
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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63
reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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64
yarns
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| n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事 | |
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