selected a spot which gave a hollow for the hip-bone. My great object,
however, was to conceal my condition from my companion, for never was a
freshman at Cambridge more anxious to be mistaken for a third-year man
than I was anxious to become an old chum, as the colonial dialect calls
a settler--thereby proving my new chumship most satisfactorily. Early
next morning the birds began to sing beautifully, and the day being thus
heralded, I got up, lit the fire, and set the pannikins to boil: we
then had breakfast, and broke camp. The scenery soon became most
glorious, for, turning round a corner of the river, we saw a very fine
mountain right in front of us. I could at once see that there was a
neve near the top of it, and was all excitement. We were very anxious
to know if this was the backbone range of the island, and were hopeful
that if it was we might find some pass to the other side. The ranges on
either hand were, as I said before, covered with bush, and these, with
the rugged Alps in front of us, made a magnificent view. We went on,
and soon there came out a much grander mountain--a glorious glaciered
fellow--and then came more, and the mountains closed in, and the river
dwindled and began leaping from stone to stone, and we were shortly in
scenery of the true Alpine nature--very, very grand. It wanted,
however, a chalet or two, or some sign of human handiwork in the fore-
ground; as it was, the scene was too savage.

All the time we kept looking for gold, not in a scientific manner, but
we had a kind of idea that if we looked in the shingly beds of the
numerous tributaries to the Harpur, we should surely find either gold or
copper or something good. So at every shingle-bed we came to (and every
little tributary had a great shingle-bed) we lay down and gazed into the
pebbles with all our eyes. We found plenty of stones with yellow specks
in them, but none of that rich goodly hue which makes a man certain that
what he has found is gold. We did not wash any of the gravel, for we