uted by a cat as I was by Prince that weary night.

The next day we got to a station known as "Johnson's." It was just at
the head of the lake, and as we arrived tolerably early in the forenoon
we embarked, after the usual station dinner of mutton, tea, and damper,
on Lake Wanaka. Alas for those treacherous blue waters! We had only a
little pair-oared boat, in which I took my place as coxwain, and after
pulling for a mile or two under a blazing sun, over short chopping
waves, with a head-wind, we all became so deadly sea-sick that we had to
turn back! As soon as we had rested and recovered, a council of war
was held as to our movements, and we decided, in spite of our recent
experiences, to turn our horses, who had done quite enough for the
present, out on the run, and so make our way down the lake by boat.
Already F---- was beginning to look anxious, for he perceived that,
even after the head of the lake had been reached, the wool would cost an
enormous sum to cart down to either Oamaru or Timaru, from whence alone
it could be shipped.

The mile or two of the run which lay along the shore of the lake showed
us frightfully rough country. A dense jungle of tussocks and thorny
bushes choked up the feed, and made it impossible to drive any animals
through it, even supposing that good pasturage lay beyond. Still we
hoped that we might be looking at the worst portion of our purchase, and
deter mined to persevere in the attempt to penetrate to the furthest
end of our new property. Accordingly we hired a safe old tub of a boat
which, though too heavy to pull, was warranted to sail steadily, and
with a couple of men, some cold mutton, bread, tea, and sugar, started
valiantly on our cruise. But the "blue, unclouded weather," in which
we had hitherto basked, was at an end for the present. We had already
enjoyed a longer succession of calm days than usually falls to the lot
of the travellers in that windy middle island, and it was now quite time
for the imprisoned "nor'-wester" to have his turn over the surface of
the domain.

Accordingly the first day's sail was against a light, ominously warm
head-wind, and we only made any way at all by keeping up a complicated
system of tacking. The start had not been an early one, so darkness
found us but little advanced on our voyage, and we passed the night in a
rough shanty, on beds of fern-leaves, wrapped in our red blankets. Tired
as we were, none of us could sleep much. The air was dr