Page:Through South Westland.djvu/53

lake are among the beauty spots of the West, but a wet day left us only the impression of weird swamps, where white pines grew out of brown water, their branches draped with streamers of ghostly white lichen. One gazed down eerie vistas of brown water, between dead or dying trees, as the launch passed between tall grasses and giant flax. When we crossed the lake, the wind blew wet and cold off the mountains, making wavelets that splashed into the boat; and we were thankful to land, and take refuge in a house by the railway-construction works. There was no possibility of walking in a wet, half-cleared swamp; and in company with twenty or thirty draggled sightseers we ate our lunch, and repaired to an empty railway carriage until such time as it saw fit to start on its journey back to Hokitika. This little line is the beginning of one which is to open up the Coast. Its first section will be twenty miles through swamps and forest to Ross, the only town as yet beyond this. At present it has got about half-way, and was being used chiefly by people wanting to make an excursion. The next few days for me were blank, as I developed a swelled face, which kept me in my room. Glorious weather succeeded that one wet day, and Transome made all the excursions alone. I was lying one evening by the open window, watching the purple shadows on the distant mountains. It had been a very hot day, and I had not seen Transome at all, he having started early for Lake Kaneiri. My door opened,