The Worst Of It
Is, That When Empty They Are Keenest After It, And Nab It In Spite Of
One's Most Frantic Appeals, Both Verbal And Flagellatory.
Some say that
tutu acts like clover, and blows out the stomach, so that death ensues.
The seed-stones, however, contained in the dark pulpy berry, are
poisonous to man, and superinduce apoplectic symptoms.
The berry (about
the size of a small currant) is rather good, though (like all the New
Zealand berries) insipid, and is quite harmless if the stones are not
swallowed. Tutu grows chiefly on and in the neighbourhood of sandy
river-beds, but occurs more or less all over the settlement, and causes
considerable damage every year. Horses won't touch it.
As, then, my bullocks could not get tuted on being turned out empty, I
yarded them. The next day we made thirteen miles over the plains to the
Waikitty (written Waikirikiri) or Selwyn. Still the same monotonous
plains, the same interminable tussock, dotted with the same cabbage-
trees.
On the morrow, ten more monotonous miles to the banks of the Rakaia.
This river is one of the largest in the province, second only to the
Waitaki. It contains about as much water as the Rhone above Martigny,
perhaps even more, but it rather resembles an Italian than a Swiss
river. With due care, it is fordable in many places, though very rarely
so when occupying a single channel. It is, however, seldom found in one
stream, but flows, like the rest of these rivers, with alternate periods
of rapid and comparatively smooth water every few yards.
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