and
cooking kit, etc. Upon halting for the night we selected some suitable
spot near running water where wood for a fire could be obtained. Each
unsaddled, watered, and tethered out his horse and carried his swags to
the camping ground, where Jack's load was removed and placed ready for
use. Then while one fetched water another collected a supply of firewood
for the night. A roaring fire was made, water boiled for tea, flour and
water mixed into a paste and fried in dripping or fat, with the meat we
had brought along with us, or maybe a leg of mutton would be baked in
the camp oven; and so, within an hour, we four bushmen would be
squatting comfortably around our fire and enjoying an excellent supper.

The meal being over we carefully washed and put away the utensils and
food ready for the morning, and after visiting the horses, settled
ourselves in our respective positions for the night, lit pipes, spun
yarns, or sang songs, till drowsiness claimed us, and we disappeared
under our blankets with our saddles for pillows and slept only as those
who lead the life of a bushman can.

We rose before daybreak, and ere the sun had well appeared had eaten our
primitive breakfast and were in the saddle for the march. On the evening
of the third day we reached the Waitaki river, which separates
Canterbury from Otago, and is the largest in the South Island. The
Waitaki was never fordable at this point, and passengers were ferried
across in a small boat behind which the horses were swum. This latter is
a somewhat dangerous operation unless expertly carried out; a horse
which may be a powerful swimmer being able to work a swift stream so
much faster than a boat can be rowed, there is danger that he may strike
and overturn the latter, and so he must not be allowed to get above or
ahead of the boat, but be kept in his place immediately behind.

The boat on being started from one bank or shingle spit must have fair
room to work obliquely to a lower landing place on the opposite side,
without running foul of shoals or sandspits, and as the current runs
with great rapidity the voyage across is usually three or four times as
long as the stream is wide.

At this river we found an accommodation house. I forget the name of the
occupier, but I well recollect the appearance of the wretched structure,
and of its landlord and landlady. What a pair of outcasts they looked,
and how they existed on that wild bed of shingle! Their tastes must hav