CAVERHILL'S BLUFF.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1246, 30 September 1911, Page 19

CAVERHILL'S BLUFF.

Many o£ the landmarks in Marlborough received their names from incidents which happened in tho early liislory of tho province. Ono of tho most striking instances of this is Cavcrhill's Bluft, aud the incident from which tho place received its name is worth relating. Shortly after Messrs. Clifford and Weld took up the Flnxbourno Estate, Mr. Caverliill purchased from them a mob of ono hundred and sixty hand of cattle, the prico paid being ,£ls per head. Mr. Caverliill started with tho cattle across country to the Ihmstan diggings, whore ho expected to disposo of them nt a handsome profit. JJut his visions of added wealth did not materialise. Ono night, when tho cattle were camped in a ravino near Altimnrloch, they wero startled by a drover striking a match, and a stampedo set in. Tho frightened animals headed straight for a pricipice, over which no fewer than eighty of them leaped, and the next morning their dead and mangled bodies wero seen lying in a great heap at the bottom of the cliff. Tho remaining eighty head wero mustered, and taken over to Dunstan, where, fortunately for Mr. Caverliill, they realised such high priccs as to pay for the whole mob and the expense incurred in driving them across to he diggings. Tho incident, which named Caverhill's Bluff, meant a loss of considerably over two thousand pounds of clear profit which would otherwise have been netted by tho purchaser of the Flaxbourne cattle.