Southern Alps, rose in all their might and
beauty, sometimes lightly veiled by a summer haze, at others cutting our
Italian-blue sky sharp and clear with their grand outlines. Our horses
were a trifle too fat for good condition, and we feared to hurry them
the first day, so we made an early halt at Mahiki, only a twenty
miles stage; but the next day they took us on to Waitaki Ferry, past a
splendid bush, and so into the heart of the hill country.

Between the ranges, beautiful fertile valleys extended; when I say
fertile, I mean that the soil was excellent, and the land well-grassed.
But there was no cultivation. Not a sod had ever been turned there
since the creation of the world, and the whole country wore the
peculiar yellow tinge caught from the tall waving tussocks, which is the
prevailing feature of New Zealand scenery _au naturel_. Every acre
had been "taken up," but as yet the runs were rather understocked. Our
fourth day's ride was the longest,--fifty-five miles in all, though we
halted for a couple of hours at a miserable accommodation house.
Our bivouac that night was close to Lake Wanaka, at the Molyneux
Ferry-house, and there I was kept awake all night by the attentions of
a cat. I never saw such a ridiculous animal. Prince, for that was his
name, took the greatest fancy to me, or rather to my woollen skirt I
suppose, and found a linsey lap much more comfortable than the corduroy
knees on which he took his usual evening nap. At all events he followed
me into my room, which only boasted of a mattress, stuffed with
tussock-grass by the way, on the floor. Here I should have slept very
well after my long journey, if Prince would have permitted it. In vain
I put him out of the window, not always very gently; he returned in five
minutes, bringing a palpitating, just-caught bird or mouse, which he
softly dropped on my face, and purred loudly with delight at his own
gallantry. Twenty times did I strike a match that night and try to
restore the victims to life; only one recovered sufficiently to be
released, and Prince brought it in again, quite dead, five minutes
later. I shut the little casement window, but the room became so hot and
stuffy, and suspicious fumes of stale beer and tobacco began to assert
their presence, so that I found myself obliged to open it again.
Sometimes the victim's bones were crunched close to my ear, and I found
more than one feather in my hair in the morning. Never was any one so
persec