ade the circuit of
the little knoll which projected from the mountain side, returning to
where I expected to find sleigh and sleighers starting perhaps on just
"one more" journey. But no one was there, and a dozen yards or so from
the usual starting-point, the snow was a good deal ploughed up and
stained in large patches by blood. Here was an alarming spectacle,
though the only wonder was that a bad accident had not occurred before.
I saw the sledge, deserted and broken, near the end of the drift: of the
passengers there was neither sign nor token. I must say I was terribly
frightened, but it is useless in New Zealand to scream or faint; the
only thing to do in an emergency is to _coo-e_; and so, although my
heart was thumping loudly in my ears, and at first I could not produce a
sound, I managed at last, after many attempts, to muster up a loud clear
_coo-e_. There was the usual pause, whilst the last sharp note rang
back from the hill-sides, and vibrated through the clear silent air;
and then, oh, welcome sound! I heard a vigorous answer from our own flat
where the homestead stood. I set off down-hill as fast as I could, and
had the joy, when I turned the slope which had hidden our little house
from my view, to see F---- and Mr. U---- walking about; but even from
that distance I could see that poor Mr. U----'s head was bandaged up,
and as soon as I got near enough to hear, F----shouted "I have broken my
neck!" adding, "I am very hungry: let us go in to supper."

Under the circumstances these words were consolatory; and when I came to
hear the story, this was the way the accident happened. As I mentioned
before, even this drift had thawed till it was soft at the surface and
worn away almost to the rocks. During a rapid descent the nose of the
sledge dipped through the snow, and stopped dead against a rock. Mr.
U---- was instantly buried in the snow, falling into a young but prickly
Spaniard, which assaulted him grievously; but F---- shot over his head
some ten yards, turned a somersault, and alit on his feet. This sounds
a harmless performance enough, but it requires practice; and F----
declared that for weeks afterwards his neck felt twisted. The accident
must have looked very ridiculous: the sledge one moment gliding smoothly
along at the rate of forty miles an hour,--the next a dead stop, and
F----flying through the air over his passenger's head, finishing feet
first plump down in the soft snow.

Looking back on th