TOURING AT THE COLD LAKES. THE TOURIST. TOURING AT THE COLD LAKES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1751, 13 June 1885, Page 26

TOURING AT THE COLD LAKES.

THE TOURIST.

By M. R.

No XI.— A Climb on Mocnt Earnslaw.

For two or three d*js of tar our ori'iva.l at Glonorchy tha mountains lit tho head of the lako wr;ra enveloped in a dense fog. At last, however, there waa a broak ia tho misfc, and one sunny morning towards tho end of tho weak we bagan to make preparations for oiu 1 climb to the snow clad slopoß of Mouut Earnslaw, It had been my chief desiro to get on to a glacier, but tha d ; m3.ulCy of tho undertaking had been so diuned into my ears that my hopas of accomplishing the f«at were considerably below zero long before we started. The forgo at Birley'a resounded with tha ring of tha anvil during the whole of the forenoon while we wero engaged in the inauufacture of alpenstocks ; and as the coachman at Arrowtown bad stupidly neglected to send on our climbing boots wo had to make the best of tha ones we had by sprigging them with the upper halves of horseshoe nails. A touiiat from the Borders, who bad taken up hi» quarters at a hotel on the other side of the Jake, had made repeated visits to our hotol with tho view of gaining permission to join in the expedition, but as we wore awAy shooting wa did not see him till tho morning of our departure, when ho overwhelmed us with question about alpenstocks aud other climbing appliances, Of courao wo gladly g&va him permission to join us, hammered coma shoo-uaiis into his Cookhams, fixed him up an alpenstock, and after laying in a stock of provisions And catching the horses, wo wera ready to start, Harry Birley, who has bepn aptly described by a tourist in the vißitor«' book aa " a guide,, philosopher, and friend," accompanied us; It was about four o'clock in tho afternoon when we filed off from the inn, a merry party of four, bent on deeds heroic. We certainly looked formidable enough for anything, and ii 3 tha men we passed stopped at their work and stared at us with one peculiar looking weapons — the alpenstocks — anJ pro visions and blankets piled up in front of the saddles, thoy must have taken us for a party of pig-hunters, or an advauco detachment from some hostile Russian cruiser coino to spy out the laud. We had intended to proceed abuui; 20 miles up the Reaa Valley aud camp for the night in the bush, so as to make an early start. from the base of tha mountain in tho morning; but as there was a hut not far from the spot where we intended to start it was wisely determined to forego the comfort of a haather bed, with the risk of colds and rheumatic favor, in preference for a hard bunk in the hut, even though it should ba infestod with fleas or other small cattle not unknown in alpine countries. The scenery in the Raas Valley has a wierd grandeur all its own. Tha valley through which the slatey blue glacier water of the Rao'i River flows ia very narrow. In planes there is hardly room for tho track that 6kiits tho river bed, while great dark birch forosls strateoing away on either hand up the mountain sides, within a few hundred feet of tha snow Hue, give tho locality a gloomy and awesome look thas iv not easily obliceratod from tho moiaory. Iv places tha treoH roue up ou cither side of iho track in regular order, as it' tbay bad been placfld thote by the hand of man, and were st>angaly anggestivo of an English park In other places they closed around tha track, and the ricci's head had frequently to ba ducked in order to avoid contact with an overhanging bough. We reached the hut about dusk, and found < Id Geordie, its solo occupant, iv a stale of surprise bordering on alarm? as wo reined up— a wildlooking troop—in front of hia cabin door. We told him our mission, and after signifying our intention of taking possession of his hut for the night we unsaddled our horses aud turned them through a pass to feed on the sweet pasture of the river fiats. They were in a paddock thousands of acres in extent, and such waa the nature of the oountry that only the one solitary pannel across the track at tha hut door was necessary to keep tham from returning. As Geordie exprossivoly put it, " They may gang forrit, but damn't I'll wager they winna won back from there." Our next move was m the dheotion of preparing tea. Wa had brought with ue plenty of provisions — a leg of mutton roasted, one ditto boiled, several loaves, sardine?, salmon, cheese, marmalade, &0., &c. But there was a scarcity of crockeryware at tho hut, and so we had to accomodate ourselves to circumstances. Geordia bad only one knife and fork and one pannikin. After some rummaging about, however, we discovered another knife, and, though it had been serrated for use as a small handsaw we made it do temporary duty as a bread knife. We also succeeded in hunting up a spare pannikin, but as wo could sco daylight through it, it was not of much eorvica till Harry Birley's ingenuity suggested the plan of drawing apiece of cotton rag through tho hole and so making it watertight. Overcoming all these diflicultio3, we boiled the billy over a log fire that wont roaring up a chimney-place as wide as the end of the hut, then wo sat down to tea — and Buch a tea 1 it was simply delioious. Our tonriot friend, who sat contented with a pannikin of Bfcearning hot tea before hrm, a chunk of broad in one hand, and a juicy mutton chop in the other, declared that he had never enjoyed a raoal so much. Meanwhile old Geordie kept us amused with his broad Scotch and quaint sayings. He was a fine Bpocimen of a strong-boned jld Scotchman, with a voice that seemed to come from the region of his boots. A thick crop of dirty whitish stubble that adorned his broad massive chin and upper lipj detracted somewhat from his personal appearanco, but he had other good qualities that made up for this disadvantage. For instance, he was tho very ombodiment of hospitality, and though he had prepared his tea ho would not touch a morael till satisfied that all our wants had baen attended to. He had been engaged in tho formation of the track up the Rees Valley, and having lived in solitude without seeing a human being for days and daya, he was naturally glad of our company, Ha was brimming over with talk, and glad of an opportunity 0? conversation ; his tongue seamed to have discovered the secret of perpetual motion, and clattered lika iho mill wheels of Arno when the river was in flood. Talk ! — he would talk to you whether you wished it or not, and I can quite imagine hia keeping up an animated conversation when alone to an old pine tree, or even a crack in n Mount Earnslaw glacier. Bub his language, I am sorry to say, wns not of the choicest. - Tha Captain of tho Pinafore •would have swooned to havo heard the perfect torrent of bier, big D's add thoy were big ones — and big B's, too, for that matter — thftt came pouring out of old Goordis'B mouth. I think Giordie.7/ts.s tho champion sweater of fcho Lake, district. Someitirr.eß he would coma out with a big round oath unsupported by any other words, oud that? ho would look a littlo surprised at himafilf , but generally he seomod to aboval them out unconocicu'sly, We. got. a good dot>3 c»f big e;*r!y history out of him one -way or .la'j'Lbtu', ft p'.tpsiM.-syi b-3 ia-d eras cut Vc

It

tha diggings in the early days, and was one of thosa roving adventurous spirits who wore never at rest. N\> sooner would he Bettl» down in one claim than ha would ba <ff to a place whoro ho imagined somebody elao was doing better. In theae mmblau he met with some wild adventures, and had iimny a hair-breadth escape. Oaa of these escapades he narrated to ua with great gusto, of course punctuating his story with a plenteous supply of adjectives. Oao night whan returning from one of his expeditions he waa picking his way along the side of a mountain pass whan darkness set in. His foot slipped, and he clutched at what he thought to ba a young sapling, but ha fell lower and lower till he found himself half-way down among the branches of a great birch tree. Tho manner in which he doßoribed the shock to hia nervous syßtem, and the way ha descended the trunk of tha traa, was laughable in the extreme. Eventually he found himself ou a^nacrow ledge of rock, frightened for his life to move one way or the other in ciwa ho should descend to unknown depths. It was inteusaly cold, hut> luckily he had matches in hi 3 pocke6, and by tearing the lining out of hi 3 coat he was enabled to kindla a 0 re. Ha waited through the cold morning hours, and when at length daylight came he found himself perched midway on the face of a great precipice, By means of twigs and roots he managed to find a way to the bottom, where ha breathed more freely, and had time to ponder over his narrow escape. "Daran'k, raup, but it was no ea3y cheatin' Aulddoutie that time," he added with a gravo shake of his head as ho finished his story and resumed hia well-atained cuttie. Yes, he waa a study, this old Scotch hermit. But with all his faults he had many good points. To sum him up briefly, h9 was generous, kind-hearted, honest, aud truthful — one of Nature's gentle man in tha rough. Tea over, we turnod into bad, and I startod to read to my companions the ptory of Me Green's long and terriblo climb with hiß Swiss guides — Emil Boas and Ulrich Kaufman — to the summit of Mount Oook. And then Harry Birley told us stories of Mr Grocn and his guides— how thoy wero slow but sure climbers, determined to overcome all obstacles -how Kaufman, in response to a beck from his master, would suddenly appear on the top of some dizzy crag surmounting a waterfall and stand with arms folded, complacently gazing around him, while his master took a shot at him and the crag and the waterfall with his camera. They were both fine, manlylooking fellows, these guides. Boss could speak English fluently, and usually kept up a running translation of any particular eonversa* tion for tha benefit of bis friend Kaufman. Poor Boss ! he did not live long to enjoy hia triumph over Mount Oook, for .we learned that on returning to his native alpa he was carried away and smothered in the depths of an avalanche while engaged in one of his mountainearing expeditions. And having listened to these stories, I turned to my book and read again. Old Geordie had no respect for my oratorical powers, and every now and then he kept breaking in in his own queer way with a big adjective, or some observation uttsrly foreign to the matter in hand. I had the consolation, however, of knowing that nobody was paying any attention to him,, And bo the time passed on. The fire, which an hour ago went wining up the great wide chimney, had now died down to a few lonely flickering embers, Tho wind just rustled the trees outside ; a few fitful moonbeams struggled through the window — but no, I don't believe there was a window, no it must havo been through the cracks iv the door ; while up from tha deptha of the -Raas Valley came the monotonous rumble of the river as it tumbled along and formed at the numerous interruptions it met with in its hurry to reach the lake. All else was oilence. I looked up from my book._ My companion v ero asleep — another compliment to my oratory. Even the blunt remarks in old Geordie's rasping baas voice ceased. He, too, had succumbed, and I remained monarch or tho scaua. All was quiet. But the eilen^a did not last long. Presently there was a anore, a most audible snnre— in fact, a sixteen - horsepower snore ; then there waa another snore, and another, and soon there was a regular fusillade of snores. I grew desperate, for the human nose is not tho sweetest of musical instruments, ani ao groping around for a baot, and being successful ia tha hua!;, I hurled it ov.or in the direction of the auorer. Thereupon he let off a whole volley of anoros, and. turning over on his other sido muttered in his sleep — " Damn't, thoy winna won back from thore," gave another great saora, and then was silent. It is difficult to cmrt sleap on tho night previous to any unusual undertaking ; at least ho George aud I found it. But then there wera extenuating circumstances. Wo both occupied the aame bed — a narrow bunk at fche sida of the hut next to tho chimney. Having only one blanket we turned in " all standing," that in without undreßsinc, and used our saddles — Colonel Burn^by style— for pillows. But the bed was narrow and short, and our position was anything but comfortable. I had just got fftiry well settled down, as I thought, when Gaorgo roao up on his elbow, and admonished mo to keep my toe out of his ear, and give him his proper share of the blanket. After some little growling on both sides we came to an amicable arrangement about the possession of tha blanket, and I went to sleep. Soon afterwards T felt cold, and awoke and groped around for the blanket. George had actually had tha audacity to monopolise the whole affair. I tried to steal it back, but no, I could not get moro than my fair share, for though I prided myself on sleeping with one eye open, George evidently slept with his ocular demonBtrators under full control. But it must have been a novel experience for that blanket — baing pulled up and down that wretched little bunk the whole night long. I am positive I did not have half an hour's sleep during tho whole night. At last daylight came — came through the chinks in the hut door — and I sprang out of bed and washed tha sleep out of my eyes, and then helped old Gaordie to kindle tha fire and make the breakfast.

But having got so far, I find that my apace ia up, and I must, after all, leava tho description of the "climb" for my next and concluding article.

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