heumatic fever;
oh! how I ached, and I felt as if I never could be warm again. The fire
was no use; except to afford occupation in putting on wood; it roasted a
little bit of you at a time, and that bit suffered doubly from the cold
when it was obliged to take its share of exposure to the wind. I cannot
say whether the proverb is true of other nights, but this particular
night, certainly, was both darkest and coldest just before dawn.

At last, to our deep joy, and after many false alarms, we really all
agreed that there was a faint streak of grey in the east. My first
impulse was to set off home, and I believe I tried to get up expressing
some such intention, but F---- recalled me to myself by saying, in great
surprise, "Are you not going to stop and see the sun rise?" I had quite
forgotten that this was the avowed object of the expedition, but I
was far too stiff to walk a yard, so I was obliged to wait to see what
effect the sunrise would have on my frozen limbs, for I could not think
of any higher motive. Presently some one called out "There's the sea,"
and so it was, as distinct as though it were not fifty miles off; none
of us had seen it since we landed; to all of us it is associated with
the idea of going home some day: whilst we were feasting our eyes on it
a golden line seemed drawn on its horizon; it spread and spread, and as
all the water became flooded with a light and glory which hardly seemed
to belong to this world, the blessed sun came up to restore us all
to life and warmth again. In a moment, in less than a moment, all our
little privations and sufferings vanished as if they had never existed,
or existed only to be laughed at. Who could think of their "Ego" in such
a glorious presence, and with such a panorama before them? I did not
know which side to turn to first. Behind me rose a giant forest in the
far hills to the west--a deep shadow for miles, till the dark outline
of the pines stood out against the dazzling snow of the mountains behind
it; here the sky was still sheltering the flying night, and the white
outlines looked ghostly against the dull neutral tints, though every
peak was sharply and clearly defined; then I turned round to see before
me such a glow of light and beauty! For an immense distance I could see
the vast Canterbury plains; to the left the Waimakiriri river, flowing
in many streams, "like a tangled bunch of silver ribbons" (as Mr. Butler
calls it in his charming book on New Zeal