I
Know A Gentleman Who Had Been Looking At Some Sheep Upon An Island In
The Rakaia, And, After Finishing His Survey, Was Riding Leisurely To The
Bank On Which His House Was Situated.
Suddenly, he saw the river coming
down upon him in the manner I have described, and not more than two or
three hundred yards off.
By a forcible application of the spur, he was
enabled to reach terra firma, just in time to see the water sweeping
with an awful roar over the spot that he had been traversing not a
second previously. This is not frequent: a fresh generally takes four
or five hours to come down, and from two days to a week, ten days, or a
fortnight, to subside again.
If I were to speak of the rise of the Rakaia, or rather of the numerous
branches which form it; of their vast and wasteful beds; the glaciers
that they spring from, one of which comes down half-way across the
river-bed (thus tending to prove that the glaciers are descending, for
the river-bed is both ABOVE and BELOW the glacier); of the wonderful
gorge with its terraces rising shelf upon shelf, like fortifications,
many hundred feet above the river; the crystals found there, and the
wild pigs - I should weary the reader too much, and fill half a volume:
the bullocks must again claim our attention, and I unwillingly revert to
my subject.
On the night of our arrival at the Rakaia I did not yard the bullocks,
as they seemed inclined to stay quietly with some others that were about
the place; next morning they were gone. Were they up the river, or down
the river, across the river, or gone back? You are at Cambridge, and
have lost your bullocks. They were bred in Yorkshire, but have been
used a good deal in the neighbourhood of Dorchester, and may have
consequently made in either direction; they may, however, have worked
down the Cam, and be in full feed for Lynn; or, again, they may be
snugly stowed away in a gully half-way between the Fitzwilliam Museum
and Trumpington. You saw a mob of cattle feeding quietly about
Madingley on the preceding evening, and they may have joined in with
these; or were they attracted by the fine feed in the neighbourhood of
Cherryhinton? Where shall you go to look for them?
Matters in reality, however, are not so bad as this. A bullock cannot
walk without leaving a track, if the ground he travels on is capable of
receiving one. Again, if he does not know the country in advance of
him, the chances are strong that he has gone back the way he came; he
will travel in a track if he happens to light on one; he finds it easier
going. Animals are cautious in proceeding onwards when they don't know
the ground. They have ever a lion in their path until they know it, and
have found it free from beasts of prey.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 53 of 87
Words from 27028 to 27536
of 45285
