White. — On Inherited Instincts in Animals. 281 



morning we separated, I following down the valley in the 

 direction of the lakes, where I found about fifteen head of 

 mixed cattle and one small calf. These I captured, and 

 journeyed on along the west side of the lakes, and presently 

 found the steep hillsides covered with " wild Irishman " 

 (Maori, tamatakoura) and thick layers of dead grasses, the 

 accumulation of many years, for the white man's fire had not 

 yet roared along the mountain-side. A narrow belt of small 

 shingle by the edge of the lake gave me a fair road till well 

 along the side of the second or lower lake, when I noticed a 

 single birch-tree (beach) branching low over the water, and 

 also that the cattle, on going further out to get beyond the 

 lower branch, w^ere swimming, having gone over the edge of a 

 sunken terrace into deep water. (This sudden deepening of 

 the lake in terraces is a common peculiarity of most New 

 Zealand lakes.) Thinking that with great care I might steer 

 my horse round the tree without slipping into deep water, I 

 followed on, but soon had my horse swimming, and he would 

 persist in going under the bough, which then came directljr 

 across my chest. Hanging on by one hand to the saddle I 

 kept the horse from progressing, but was unable to turn 

 him outward beyond the bough. Finding my efforts 

 fruitless, the only alternative was for me to turn a 

 half-somersault over his tail, and sink to the bottom, 

 some 10 ft. On coming up I followed my horse under 

 the bough, and went along some distance further, where 

 the precipitous rocks of the mountains reached out to the 

 deep water. Seeing this I sent my dog Maori to turn the 

 cattle back, keeping out of the way myself by standing among 

 the prickly shrubs ; but instead of turning back the cattle 

 swam out into the lake, where I at once lost sight; of their 

 bobbing heads, for it was now the dusk of the evening. For a 

 time their hard breathing was heard, and then no sound. 

 After a while they were heard again, and I congratulated 

 myself, thinking they were swimming ashore again ; but no, 

 all again were lost to hearing, and, as it was now almost dark, 

 I felt considerably dejected, thinking of my drowning cattle. 

 This, if I am not mistaken, was in the month of May, and as 

 the nights were liable to be frosty I did not know how I 

 should pass the night. My matches were wet, as also my 

 clothing and my one blanket. No food, no fire. Collect- 

 ing a large heap of the grass that was lying around as it had 

 died — perhaps years ago, for the living grass grew in a strag- 

 gling way up through this hay-like substance — I took off my 

 wet clothing, and with some excusable shrinking put on my 

 waterproof overcoat and crawled under the pigs' bed of dead 

 grass. In the morning frost was on my clothing, so I waited 

 for the sun to warm things up a bit before donning the wet 



