The waterfalls were as many as they were marvellous; it was well worth the wet walk to see the valley under such conditions. They poured from the crest of every hill, some in a straight narrow ribbon, some turning to right or left and then impatiently leaping over whatever stood in their way, some commencing in a single stream and diverging halfway down into twin falls, but all in a very frenzy of haste to reach the river, and all snow-white and foaming. It was as though the God of the mountains had upset mammoth milk-pails in a rage, while the roar of the multiplied waters as they rushed over the boulders in the river seemed the guttural growling in which he expressed it.
And the foliage and flowers were so lovely. There was starry syringa everywhere, with ferns of every sort and shade, and trees so covered with moss that they might have been made of velvet, and around it all the great hills, decked like brides in glistening white streamers. It was enthralling enough to make even pain a minor matter, but the few minutes’ interval of rest while we crossed the river in the suspended chair turned the nagging ache into throbbing agony. I could take no interest in the Bell Rock, and the section between it and Lake Ada Hut seemed really interminable.
This hut is only a shelter, like the one at the foot of the pass, and is furnished with nothing but a rough table and the inevitable fireplace, and by the time we arrived the others, who had gone ahead, already had a fire going. Mr. Inspector had unpacked his swag, too, to get out the liniment, and they improvised a seat for me with a spade which was put across an angle of the hut resting on the rough foundations. Here I sat with the hurt foot on a swag, after Mrs Greendays had rubbed liniment in and bandaged it up, while we had tea. But it was not a good plan, for when I rose to go down to the boat I was so stiff from knees to ankles that at first I could not even stand, and,
“Ah!” said Mr Inspector, “it’s always better to go right on if you must walk, after a hurt like that, until you get right home!”
“It is all through those indolent wretches!” exclaimed Mrs Greendays viciously. “If she had had a good rest before starting off again after that tiring journey over the Pass this would never have happened.”
We had a perilous passage over the lake. A forest once made cloisters for the tuis where the paradise ducks and black swans now have their home, but an earthquake caused a landslip, which blocked the channel of the river, and the submerged trees now stand or lie in the lake, a lasting menace to the passing boats. It was hard to distinguish the “snags,” (as Mr. Inspector called the projecting roots and branches), in the fast falling twilight, especially as it was now raining again, and the drops blurred the surface of the water. Captain Greendays and Colonel Deane rowed and steered by turns in company with Mr. Inspector, while Mrs Greendays and I also took turns at an oar to keep ourselves warm.
It was quite dark when at last we landed on the opposite shore, and we had partly to guess and partly to feel with sticks for the track. The first few hundred
