SOME REMARKS ON EXPLORATION.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9176, 6 August 1895, Page 3

SOME REMARKS ON EXPLORATION.

. . «» HOW" ANDY WAS BOBBED AND GOT THE FEVER. *' Weekly Pi ess and Referee." That New Zealand is destined to become as faqiqu3 for hor magnificent scenery as she is at the present time for her salubrious climate, is a matter that admits of little doubt. Her Alpine peaks and ranges, now being persistently explored each year by new and courageous climbers, are thereby becoming more interesting to tourists,. European and Colonial. The account's recently published of feats performed by these determined battlers in search of fresh routes through, the icefields of the Southern Alps, give the impression of an amount of energy approaching the superhuman, and worthy of all honour. The men who risk their lire, in such a cause are benefactors of the country to an extent that cannot be duly estimated in our time. But there is a class who, in this general laudation, appear to be ignored or completely forgotten, viz., the surrey parties of the -lixties. Some remnants of the magnificent manhood of which these were composed may yet be met in our midst, but unfortunately betraying in their persons the effects of the hardships endured in their work. It must be remembered that in the days referred to roads were few and far between and packhorse mode of conveyance could bo made available only for a certain distance. Then the surveyor, engineer or whatever he might be, and his chainmen had to ahoulder their swags, theodolite and other requisites appertaining to the profession, tents, tucker &c, the last item being various, including, of course, the indispensable pipes and tobacco, without which life in ; the wilderness would have become unendurable. The party arriving at a point beyond which in all probability no human footstep had ever trod would then pitch tent and make ready for traversing the trackless aides of gorges or pierce dense forests at th* base of towering mountains. < In many cases the billhook or small hand axe would have to be resorted to for days, in order to make headway through supplejack, bushlawyer, or the hundreds of other species of flora for which the undergrowth of New Zealand forest* iv particular i 3 so celebrated. Arriving at the entrance of the interior gorges, in fine weather the water-worn basalt in places afforded fairly good travelling ; but when rain commenced to fall— few but those who have experienced it can form any idea of how rapid is the effect of those silently falling, vertical drops—in a few hours the river, swiftly but noiselessly winding its tortuous way, would be as if by magic, transformed into a seething, boiling torrent, carrying in its downward course immense boulders and detached rocks, as though they were mere pumice ; then a hasty retreat to the rough mountain would hare to be made, there to climb rocky prominences, or struggle through tbe dense bushy sidelines. When night came, very often, to pitch tent was an utter impossibility, the weird-looking locality not containing sufficient even surface to—as the man would say, swing a cat, let alone—pitch a tent. In these instances a mia-mia,'"would be fixed under some of the sheltering trees for tbe night, light afire with wood, as wet an the surroundings, boil the billy (the bushman's solace) and after damper and tea, ratire to rest as te.t they could. At times two miles a day was considered a good record, and often Jess than half that, distance could not be made. Tbe higher the altitude attained the more difficult and tedious became the progress, and as it repeatedly occurred, the route after

beinar explored would be found impassably, one such bein« very appropriately deßig nated the Goat's Pass, as It was unatti rnou-ly voted that no animal ol less agility could conveniently make use of it. Six weeks at a stretch, with wet clothing and dampor diet—no pun intended —was oftoa the happy lot of many of these hardy toller* of the survey. No half-way house or tourists' refuge to fall back upon for supplies or shelter. Wh«n tucker ran short it could only ba sbtained by returning to tbe nearest station, which in Itself was ever an arduous undertaking, and even then it was quite probable that the needful would be at low ebb. necessitating another and longer journey before tho flour, Sec, could be procured. Upon one occasion a packer was returaing with supplies, when he was overtaken by a party of exceedingly rough and deter-mined-looking digger l !, en route from the co'.dfields of Otago to the new El Dorado of the west, but in order to Rive a correct idea of the ethical condition of touring society in those times, it will be better to relate iv his own words how Andy waa robbed of hit precious damper-dust (dour), and took the fever. "I was thravclling alone, makin' good way aftlier gottin' over the worst ay the journey, whin, I wan overtook by a lot ol boys bound for the Hokitika rush, an* at rough a lookin' lot as erer I clapb eyes on they wor. " ' Hould hard mate !' says one ay 'em. ' You've got some shtutt on yer ould horse there we want bad, an' we'll buy it from you.' " ' No," says I, ' tho devil a buy, its all sould.' With that I made to shtark ofl again, when another ay 'cm sayz.d the horse's head, while another lays a grip on mc arum like a vice an' says, ' Just look here, now, mate, we'vo offered to buy an* ye refused, so we're just golu' to take it, an' if ye cut up anyway crusty we'll be afther tyiu' you up till ycr curridge is cooled; what we want is the flour, an have it we will. "Ye murtheriu thieves I' says 'J. If ye wor not tin to wan, I'd knock biuret out o' ye before I'd let ye tak an ounce rv it! Au it there's auy ot ye that ad like to thry mc I'm yer Moses!' An' I pulled oft mc coat for I was biltn. They just burst into a loud laugh, showed me* sixshooter and wint to work strait away, unstrapped mc pack, au' commenced to ladls out the flour wld a pannikin, laughiu' and jokin' nil the time, an' I foamin' but powerless lookin' on. When the (lour had been shared out, so many to aitch, the layder cams to mc au' said with a grio,' how many pannikins of yer flour have we tuk?' I tould him, to go to the Divil, an' I'd thry an' make lb hot fur him before heraitched that far, if I ever got the chauca. A louder laugh than ever followed this; although I expected, perhaps, to be tied up or worse, I couldn't keep mc timper down; but be the powers what did happen. I was not at all expectin'. ■■' Look here, ould man,' said the dlviit may-care lookin' six-footer ot a layder, walkin' up to mc wid the revolver in hia belt an' a wicked look in his eye, 'as ye wouldn't sell, ye see, we tuk yer flour.' ' And may It burst ye,' says I. * Aisy now, mc bowld hayro ! We've been thinkin' of which is the best way to aarve ye. They say dead men tell no tales.* "Jistthen mc hair felt like ritin' tha hat off mc head, for I had heard of some dark deeds lately done on the road between Otago an'Hokitika, an' I felt very quare. Some of these reckless dlvils were grlnnin' jistas if the matter of takin' a life was one of the beat jokes ont, when the cruellookin' chap with the revolver continued: * We can't be loaln.' any more time with you. We don't intend to shoot ye right out, nor tie you up aither, which would be worse, for ye mightn't be found for a year or two, an' that 'ud be too long to lave ye out in the cold.'' "' Ob, for the love of heaven," says I, " shoot mc before that I* " ■"'■'■ '"Take time now,' says he, *an listen. The sinteuce of this coort is, that tke punishment you're to receive for making us commit a robbery on this ' very' highway, will be a bob for aitch pannikin of dusk we tuk from ye, wid the thanks ot the same court.' His last words were almost dhrown'd in the roar of laughter which followed at my expinse, but in which I was too much flustbered to take part; then dhroppin' his hand on mc shoulder something like a sledge hammer, he added, 'How does that shtrike ye, my boyt' 'Oh, be the piper that played before Moses,' says I, whin I'd*come to meself, 'I'm awfully sorry that ifc wasn't a ton o* flour I was afther bein' robbed of at the same flgger.' " Well to make a long shtory short, their thrack an mine soon afther wint ia different directions, an' we separated. I was short of flour (they didn't take it all) but had enough money to pay for ten times the quantity. This little caper ot these diggers, bein' my first expayrunce of 'em, in shpite of the fright it gave mc, somehow, or other, shtarted the gold faver on mc, an ifc wasn't long after till I waa taken so bad wid it that I had to give up the survey chain—after two years ar it—and take to the road which led across the ranges an the Teremakau to the «• Westh Coaßhfc." "F"*n_ - mT-.