y's skating we must start
at once. Such a perfect day as it was! I felt half inclined to beg off
the first day on the ice, and to spend my morning wandering along the
rata-fringed shores of Lake Coleridge, with its glorious enclosing
of hills which might fairly be called mountains; but I feared to seem
capricious or lazy, when really my only difficulty was in selecting
a pleasure. The sun had climbed well over the high barriers which lay
eastwards, and was shining brightly down through the quivering blue
ether overhead; the frost sparkled on every broad flax-blade or slender
tussock-spine, as if the silver side of earth were turned outwards that
winter morning.

No sooner had we mounted (with no "swag" except our skates this time)
than Mr. C. H---- set spurs to his horse, and bounded over the slip-rail
of the paddock before Karl could get it down. We were too primitive
for gates in those parts: they only belonged to the civilization nearer
Christchurch; and I had much ado to prevent my pony from following his
lead, especially as the other gentlemen were only too delighted to get
rid of some of their high spirits by a jump. However Karl got the
top rail down for me, and "Mouse" hopped over the lower one gaily,
overtaking the leader of the expedition in a very few strides. We could
not keep up our rapid pace long; for the ground became terribly broken
and cut up by swamps, quicksands, blind creeks, and all sorts of snares
and pit-falls. Every moment added to the desolate grandeur of the scene.
Bleak hills rose up on either hand, with still bleaker and higher peaks
appearing beyond them again. An awful silence, unbroken by the familiar
cheerful sound of the sheep calling to each other,--for even the hardy
merino cannot live in these ranges during the winter months,--brooded
around us, and the dark mass of a splendid "bush," extending over many
hundred acres, only added to the lonely grandeur of the scene. We rode
almost the whole time in a deep cold shade, for between us and the warm
sun-rays were such lofty mountains that it was only for a few brief
noontide moments he could peep over their steep sides.

After two hour's riding, at the best pace which we could keep up through
these terrible gorges, a sharp turn of the track brought us full in view
of our destination. I can never forget that first glimpse of Lake Ida.
In the cleft of a huge, gaunt, bare hill, divided as if by a giant hand,
lay a large _black_ sheet of ice