and,' p. 135:

"Two kinds of creepers extremely molesting and troublesome,
the so-called `supple-jack' of the colonists (<i>Ripogonum
parviflorum</i>), in the ropelike creeping vines of which
the traveller finds himself every moment entangled."

1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 11:

"The tangles black
Of looped and shining supple jack."

1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 199:

The supple-jack, that stopper to all speedy progression in the
New Zealand forest."

1881. J.L. Campbell, `Poenamo,' p. 154:

"Forty or fifty feet of supple-jack. This creeper is of the
thickness of your finger, and runs along the ground, and goes
up the trees and springs across from one tree to the other,
spanning great gaps in some mysterious manner of its own--a
tough, rascally creeper that won't break, that you can't twist
in two, that you must cut, that trips you by the foot or the
leg, and sometimes catches you by the neck . . . so useful
withal in its proper places."

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 71:

"Threading with somewhat painful care intricacies formed by
loops and snares of bewildering supple-jacks, that living study
of Gordian entanglement, nature-woven, for patient exercise of
hand and foot."

1892. A. Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British
Colonies,' p. 309:

"Laced together by creepers called supple-jacks, which twine
and twist for hundreds of yards, with stems as thick as a man's
wrist, so as to make the forests impassable except with axes
and immense labour."

<hw>Surfacing</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Wash-dirt lying on the
surface of the ground.

(2) <i>verbal n</i>. Gold-digging on the surface of the
ground.

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 133:

"What is termed `surfacing' consists of simply washing the soil
on the surface of the ground, which is occasionally
auriferous."

1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 133:

"I've been surfacing this good while; but quartz-reefin's the
payinest game, now."

1866. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches' [Second Series],
p. 133:

"What is termed `surfacing' consists of simply washing the soil
on the surface of the ground, which is occasionally
auriferous."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xv. p. 153:

"They have been mopping up some rich surfacing."

1894. `The Argus,' March 28, p. 5. col. 5:

"`Surfacing' or `loaming.' Small canvas bags are carried by
the prospector,