Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-03


 broken by some owl who would send fort his wild, wierd shriek with such awful sud 1 denness as to cause my horse to stamp Ii
 terror and myself to stir up the waning fir with faint grin at my own nervousness There was no fear of wild beasts or reptiles for nothing more ferocious than a wild fro
 or more venomous than honeybee is to b
 found in New Zealand but when, at last
 did fall asleep, it was only to dream O
 Stygian blaekness and of horrid shapes.
 The first fute-like notes of the magpi
 brought me to my feet in the morning 4
 ringing call summoned my faithful horse
 gave him the last of the corn and dived int,
 the haversack for another dry ration of Prime
 Alberts. They were gone. I looked blank
 ly around for the paper bag which had cer
 tainly put into the haVersack the night before
 and which, as certainly, was now nowhere tc be found. Presently I discovered a smal
 corner of biscuit, and, beyond it, the bag
 torn and empty The mystery began te | deepen. I searched little further anG l found a small, round hole in the ground, an6
 at the entrance was sticking greyish down
 like feather. The mystery was solved. A ] mischievous little kiwi-kiwi had been forag
 ing among my belongings and had found and | stolen my entire commissariat. The loss oi
 the biscuits seemed particularly hard under
 the circumstances but, braced by the hope | of speedy refreshment at Tirau, made up l my kit and started to follow my track of the previous night back to where I had left the path. l was soon right again, and following | rapidly the narrow back of ridge, I came, not five hundred yards from where had left the track, upon five miserable looking
 ''whares" or Maori huts. I advanced and tied my horse to tree Not receiving any answer to my loud halo. I stopped at the entrance of the nearest "whare." It was empty of all save diet and the smell of damp wood ashes. A visit to the other four huts -oI
 My repeated shouts elicited no other response than the mocking cav of some ka- ka parrot. Moreover, in a second visit to each whare ia turn I failed, after most thorough search to find the smallest particle of prov ender for man or beast. The conclusion was obvious. The Maories several days previous had packed up their belongings and had gone ID body to visit their friends in some dis tant village Evidently there were but two courses for me to pursue; either I must push on as rapidly as possible forty y-fve miles to Ohinemutu, or I must retrace my steps to Backlands or Cambridge and procure provisions sufficient to carry me through
 threw myself on the sod and made rap i'd calculation. had dined we'll at noon the day before, and had at least filled my stom. ach in the evening. Moro had had full ra tions up to the present moment, and there was not the slightest doubt of his ability to make forty five miles over tolerably level bCAOLO G"CASO U 1uGr0IOIS, as it was now half-past four, the question was, could ride fasting for seven hours and half longer? Ashamed of myself for hesita- ting moment, jumped up and led my horse out to the forks of the road on the bluff beyond. Here what appeared to be vast, unbroken plain lay before me. In the dim distance could be discovered the noun tain ranges that hemmed it in. A prolonged scrutiny with the glass failed to show me the ! faintest trace of human habitation in any di- | rectlon. Taking the path as had been di- | rected I carefully descended on foot the steep hill, two hundred feet into the plain below | No sooner had I reached the bottom than | saw that what from above I had taken to be I a perfectly level plain was in reality table 1 land tossed and upheaved in an inconceivable l manner. Vast hummocks and boulders from fifty to hundred feet in height appeared on | every side to have been thrown up as if by | general convulsion in inextricable confusion Order seemed to be recalled out of chaos however, by 8 network of valleys, all run 1lng on general level, enclosing great areas | If stationary pillows and forming a most 1 Lmazing labyrinth.
 l had not gone half mile before I recog- ] lized the justness of the warnings of the ho- ! el keeper at Cambridge, and saw how futile nust be any attempt to follow out the in tructions I had received. Nevertheless, mounting to a point whence a view could be
 
 ant range of mountains as the pass through mich I had been told I must go to reach )hinemutu. Taking the bearings as' accu- ately as possible with charm compass that ] angled on my watch chain, I resumed my ' 'ay more rapidly than ever. The proud an- nal rode had no need to be urged to fly yer the ground at almost racing speed In nd out we went, through all the devious findings of the valleys which kept me near st my course. From time to time I got into ! cuE-de-sGc; then had to climb sort of ulkhead and cross a more or less level l Iateau, descending again into a valley on | le far side. These ascents and descents con ! lmed time, for they were steep and very | , borious and had to be made on foot IT The soil Of this finland Desert' is con- osed of scoria and fine pumice dust and is 'vered with fern brake, with here and there ( stunted cabbage-tree standing lonely and rlorn. These were the only signs of vege- S tion. The great frequency of the streams Y me of them of large volume, struck me as t 'ing curious in view of the porosity of the q 'ound. The soil was exceedingly light and fable; the thick, impenetrable mating of l S ots of the fern brake offering an excellent a 'ttom for travelling but I soon found that i Ter large areas, the cohesive strength of the c ots was destroyed and my horse sank so c eply that locomotion was painful | t At o'clock estimated the distance trav- S ed from Tirau at thirty miles. Selecting i. other point of observation, I saw before S @ bold, wooded stretch of hills distant t 't more than ten miles but the gap for O aich had been making had disappeared, u d nowhere appeared the slightest break in a @ even line of tree tops fringing the sky. O early, was lost; and equally clear was it II at I must be speedily extricated from my fl esent position or die a miserable death in SC @ desert or in the trackless depths of the it | uld ever regain the Tirau headland among p @ thousand similar ones behind me. I re- | e lved to push forward and run the chances. l to ook one last sweeping look at the plain re tn the glass; Suddenly my attention was al rested by two moving specks about ten it les to the westward. Here was at once a in sans of escape! If these tiny dots were | th ,n. so much the better and if they were fiji tile, still they would indicate the proxim- fo of some human habitation. co An hour of mad riding and playing at hide de d. seek among the hummocks brought me tn with the specks. They were two Maori la ys on horseback, who answered my saluta- O, n with a cordially spoken ''tena-koe DDS tn
 attempts to communicate upon general tn pics were unsatisfactory; but at my mak- ju signs of hunger they beckoned to come m which I did most willingly. Our pace pc 8 slow, for they were riding most wretch pr spavined screws. An hour brought us tn Il up Ou Lue SlOpe OI tAo u1lIS, duC, Just on l na edge of the woods, where I might have of n it with the glass if my eyes had been tn Irp enough, was Maori village of about DO rty whares with one large and especially cy Il built whare in the middle. I spurred to ward and dismounted in front of large I'll up of blanketed forms of all ages and is h sexes that arose with acclamations to ge eiye me. The conventional 'tena- -koe" atI exchanged and most friendly hand ga king followed. One ill-visaged fellow thu oped forward and began to cross-ques to I: tho Who you, pakeha ?" dit told him. at What for you come? ?'' I am going to Ohinemutu and have lost the way" scr What do Ohinemutu?' ?'' Inc I want to go to Rotomahana." Dir ach answer as interpreted elicited gen. COT
 Ugh! ughl ugh ughl'' in diminu- Z o, accompanied by a most sapient nod 5 of heads. At my urgent entreaty for FWV ething to eat my interlocutor himself
 t of, leaving me to be stared at in si- e. Occasionally one of the old crones, ar taking her eyes off of me, would break
 the Ugh! ugh! ughl ugh!" and