tree to release their unfortunate mate, so some of the party set out for assistance and in response to their call over one hundred men were soon at the scene of the accident. With very great difficulty, and with the most primitive tools the tree was at length removed from the injured man. How to get him out of the forest and down to the beach was then the problem which confronted them. At length it was decided to make a box, place him therein and so convey him down the river. To do this it was necessary to split slabs out of a tree, a big job which many willing hands made short work of. The box constructed and lined with moss and fern over which oil sheets and blankets were placed, the long journey was commenced and after untold hardship and much suffering was successfully accomplished, and the beach reached.
“That night the injured man was placed in Murphy’s store and two days later the party arrived at my place at Hokitika. Here a large tree was felled and four wheels for a very primitive waggon were cut from the trunk. A man named Ramsay, afterwards a saddler in Hokitika, very ingeniously fashioned harness by which the box was slung (in the same manner as an old time coach) from the frame of the waggon. This made travelling much easier for the patient who by this time was pretty far through, but as game as they
