forest and the work, and I had a rough hut
erected at the former, where I could live during my visits.

Once, on passing to the forest, I met with an amusing accident. I was
riding a huge sixteen-hand black mare and had heavy swags of blankets
strapped before and behind the saddle, in addition to which I carried a
new axe, some cooking utensils and a large leg and loin of mutton, which
I had called for at the station, fearing that my men were out of meat.
Near the forest I had to cross a small stream with steep banks. There
had been heavy rain the previous night, and the little stream was a
rushing torrent, and as I forded it, the water reached to the girths.
The opposite bank was steep and slippery, and the huge animal laboured
so in negotiating it that the girths snapped, and the entire saddle,
with myself, slipped over her tail into the rushing stream. In this
manner we were carried down; immersed to nearly my armpits, but securely
attached, for some two hundred yards, before I was able to extricate
myself and incumbrances by seizing a branch as we swept by a bend in the
stream.

With some difficulty I succeeded in getting all out safely and
fortunately on the right side. The mare was quietly feeding where she
had emerged.

Where the work went on in the valley I had a couple of tents for my gang
of navvies, some of whom were sailors. I always found these excellent
workers, and specially handy and clever in many ways, where a mere
landsman would be at fault. I worked with them, and shared everything as
one of themselves, even to a single nip of rum I allowed to each man
once a day. They treated me with every respect, and I had not, so far as
I can recollect, a single instance of serious trouble with any of them.
They received good wages, and earned them, and if any man among them had
been found guilty of reprehensible conduct, the others would have
supported me at once in clearing him from the camp. When the day's work
was over, these sailor navvies would all bear a hand to get matters
right for the night and the next day. Mutton was put in the oven, bread
made, and placed under the ashes, firewood collected, and water in the
kettle ready for putting on the fire at daybreak, then the nip of rum
and pipe alight, and yarns or songs would be told or sung in turn, till
the blankets claimed us.

This was a very severe winter, and as the snow began to lie heavily I
was perforce obliged to stop work for a month or two,