THE EXPLORER.

Otago Witness, Issue 972, 5 September 1889, Page 37

THE EXPLORER.

No. B.— ON THE TIN TACK. By E. M. M.

We had intended to go back to the Bluff by the first boat, but hearing that silver had been discovered at the Sou-west Arm, Jack proposed that we should write to our sorrowing relatives saying we were lost in the bush, and then do a mizzle down the inlet. This advice seemed sound, so we engaged a boat, and while the fwaterman was laying in a month's provisions we went round to study the natives. They toldj us that Herve had gone to Glory. The certainty as to his destination made us slightly envious, but concealing our feelings we asked in hushed voices—" How did he die 1 " The mariners laughed in an unmeaning sort of way, and said we could ask him when he came home that night. It turned out to be Glory Bay that he had gone to, and the joke was musty — being in fact the oldest used in the settlement.

Before school the children take boats and go flounder spearing. If "there is a stranger about they take him in. One sculls, and another leans over the side with a spear' watching for flounders lying on the sand. When one is seen the youngster drops his spear till it is within four inches of its head, and when satisfied that his aim is certain digs the spear into the fish, holds it down till it has stopped kicking, and then hoists it into the boat. The guileless stranger then gets his spear, and the youngsters" signal to the houses that the fun is going to commence. We were the guileless strangers in this case.

It is difficult to find a fish, even if there are some about, as they appear transparent in the water. At last I saw a tail, and following up came to a head. Judging that the part between those points must be flounder, I struck. As it was two feet beyond my depth, I followed up my blow, and made a wild dive after my spear. The fish, in scathing contempt for my method, wagged its tail, but when Jack and the youngsters arrived from the overturned boat, " like one who for elelay seeks a vain excuse," it swam out to sea. Then we all struck out for the shore. The boys, on leaving-, told us not to bother about them ; their mother always got dry clothes ready when she saw them taking out a tourist 1

Next morning we started for the silver reef. After rowing from 9 till 4, our boatman, seized with a sudden inspiration, put in at Golden Bay, tied uptheboat, and led the way over the hill to Half-moon. We got there in 10 minutes. We had been rowing round a peninsula, and while fondly thinking we wore " nearly there " were only drawing abreast of Half-moon township, though on the other side of the hill. The following evening we arrived at the reef. We landed at a desolate beach, on which the rotting seaweed lay, caught in the driftwood. The stagnant water oozed out at every step, the slimy tangled grass grew along the beach, and even the bones of a whale that lay there were not bleaching, but were covered with a dank green mould. On parting our boatman voluntarily knocked sixpence off the fare, explaining with emotion that we were the first he had ever taken out who had not asked what that island — pointing at Ulva — was called, and if that hill — pointing to the Rugged Mountains — wasn't the Knob ? Then he borrowed a plug of Juno and sailed away, smiling with a glad surprise at this realisation of a long-cherished dream.

We found two parties on the field, some of the claimholders " shepherding," and a band of Invercargillites headed by an elder. This gentleman came over to our tent at nights, and told us touching little stories about his Christianity and how he stood up for it — how he was ence tempted to drink some ginger ale, but seeing the serpent lurking in it stood out for a fortnight, unheeding the shameless protestations of the tempter that it was non-alcoholic, and in the end how he almost persuaded that individual to join the Rechabites. We felt elevated morally and intellectually by this noble heroism, and told him it were well if there were more like him — more endued with such principles of un,wavering consistency. When he had furtively noted this sentence in a pass-book, for Sunday school use, he bade us " Good night," and went for the dictionary.

The reef crop? out at the water's edge. It is a vein of quartz ranging from sin to .10in in thickness. The yield was said to be soz to the ton, and as silver was then 3s 6d an ounce, it was a grand prospect 1 Every day we went round to the reef and knocked off specimens. I could see the claimholder didn't like the reckless way in which we handled the precious quartz. There was a pathos in the joy of the elder when he found a piece of wolfram nearly as large as the head of a pin. There were nine claims applied for, and a large stretch of surrounding country was pegged off by an enterprising mill hand. If there had been any mineral in the district — not in the nine-claim block — he must have siruck it somewhere. One corner he omitted — why no one knows.

One day a boat-load landed at our camp, causing the elder to shoot through the bush and peg off the vacant lot. In the evening he came in wet and hungry, but with a look of triumph in his eye. The boat had gone pn. Its occupants had been inoffensive trackcutters, who were too wise to leave 8s a day for the visionary glories of a silver mine. The rain started again, and kept on with such application and " oneness of aim" that even the shovel seemed to have sprouted during the night.

Sunday broke calmly. We rose with the weka. Our first joy was seeing one of those interesting birds decamp with our soap. It simply stuck its bill in it "up to the hilt," and made a bee line for the scrub. A boot and a.fryingpan followed it, but it only ran the faster. Our first solace was that the soap would disagree with it, but when the elder told us afterwards that weka soup had a strong aroma of old Brown Windsor we forgave the bird, and even strewed candle ends round the tent to further the causa of science.

All the morning the elder's party cut down trees— " for to-morrow," they told us. The elder had a penchant for fern trees; he wanted to secure the aggregate prize.

After that they boiled a lot of fish and brushed their boots — still for " to-morrow "- —and in the afternoon borrowed our pick and shovel and started for the reef, the- elder making the hills echo with his declaration that " he'd lay him doon and dee 1 " Then a j wave caught him, and his agility and lan- j gnags seemed to intimate that he " passed " at wet feet. But he was not daunted. Bearing down on a grindstone that lay on the beach, he dealt it some terrific blows. He was hunting for the quartz.

At this time in a church over the sea a congregation was singing praises. Many missed the elder, but doubted not that he was preaching to the natives or holding Sunday school in that far-away island. When they returned, laden with the quartz and rock oysters, Jack asked if they were'going down to Ulva the following day. The elder expanded visibly as conscious virtue asserted itself, and fixing his eye on Jack said with an inexpressible dignity: "I hope I have more enduring consistency than to break up camp on a Sunday 1 " (His memory was weak, but "enduring consistency" was a master touch.) " This is Sunday," said Jack ; but the elder scouted the idea, and told Jack with withering scorn to go and consult the almanac. This startling evidence didn't convince Jack, so they sat on boulders and' argued till the sun set. When the moon rose the elder's face assumed a greenish tinge ; his great brain was at work. " Tuesday we came and had damper." " Yes," his chums said, thinking there was more to follow. " Wednesday we had weka." " True," they said. " Thursday and Friday we had damper; last night we had none — it must be Sunday." Thus by damper he was saved from missing the Bluff boat at Ulva — a triumphant vindication of vegetarianism. That night he came 11 times by actual count to impress on us that he thought it was Saturday, and even woke U3 at 5 a.m. to implore us to keep it dafk.

Next morning we ran down under the jib to Ulva. Mr Trail is the'solitary inhabitant of this island, but he keeps a post-office and store for the use of natives at the Neck. He kindly let us camp in one of his houses, warniog us, however, that as he expected a visitor we might have to shift during the night. This hint was not lost on us. On retiring we locked the 'door and put the table against it. In the moonlight I went out to explore the garden. I stood at the head cf the cliff and looked over the sea! Afar off it melted into mist, and the islands were enshrouded in a soft haze till they seemed in that weird, dreamy light to be lifted apart into the cloud world. The moon played through the flickering fern, the wind rustled through the tall grass, the pines moaned in the breeze with an inexpressible yearning, and the sea beneath, smiling in the moonbeams, seemed to be ever calling — calling to the weary to come ar;d be at restl

In the morning we put off to the Awarua, tho mail steamer. A weka that lay in the boat reminded us that we were going back to civilisation and game laws ; so we put it gently in the water, and it floated out to the steamer, as though even in death it bore witness against us. The sailors looked at the dreary spectacle of a dead bird floating out to sea, and said we'd be lucky if we ever saw the Bluff again. The fact of its legs being tied only added to its mysterious import.

That night saw us once more in tne pale of the Invercargill Gasworks. As we took a parting bumper at the Crescent a passing memory seemed to convulse the elder, for as he turned to us, pressing our hands in the last farewell, he besought us to "Keep it dark ! "