THE VIC'I'ORIAN NATUKALI&T. 35 



rocks, and working its way along some of these underground 

 channels, and choking up others with detritus, the supply and 

 discharges of the lake are tolerably well balanced. Let a drainage 

 system lower than the lip of the upper valley be once established 

 and the river would cease to flow over the edge of the upper valley. 

 After lunch we packed up, and saddled the horses, and about 

 3 p.m. were ready to depart. Coming down to the lake had been 

 bad enough, but going up proved to be a good deal worse. We 

 had to lead the horses, of course, and had not gone much more 

 than a hundred yards when Dr. Dendy's horse got its off hind 

 leg into a hole at the foot of a ledge, which was concealed by a 

 few loose stones lying over it. In spile of all efforts to hold him 

 up by the head, he rolled over on to a lower ledge and lay on his 

 back, still caught by the one leg, with the others in the air kicking 

 wildly. He must have lain in this fix for nearly 20 minutes, the 

 bone of his leg bent and expected to snap at any moment. We 

 called back our leader and Alfred, tied up all the other horses, and 

 bent all our energies on extricating the poor brute if possible. 

 The first thing was to slip a halter round his free hind leg, and to 

 hold it forward while we removed the loose stones and widened 

 the hole as much as we could. Dr. Dendy got the tomahawk and 

 cut down a sapling, out of which we made a lever, which we 

 pushed under the animal's shoulder. Then Alfred tugging at 

 his head with the halter, and two of the others pulling with 

 all their might on the long arm of the lever, we succeeded in 

 lifting him up on his three legs, when, to our delight and relief 

 (for one of us had got out a cartridge expecting to have to put 

 him out of his misery), he lifted the other foot out of the 

 hole and stood upright on the ledge. As we knew must be the 

 case, however, he was badly lamed. We had lost a good deal of 

 time, but we started again, picking our way as carefully as we 

 could, driving or coaxing the lame horse. Presently, as we were 

 making a narrow sidling track along a steep place where only one 

 horse could go at a time, poor old Brownie stumbled with his hind 

 legs on some loose stones, and tumbled down the rocky slope 

 below, rolling over and over until brought up some 30 feet below 

 between a big fallen log and the hillside, where he lay sprawling, 

 with his legs in the air. Fortunately he was carrying the bedding, 

 and so was not hurt. It was certainly a comical sight, and made 

 even the horseman who had to follow on the same track laugh ; 

 but we were late already, and wanted to get to a safe camp before 

 dark, and this mishap was thus serious enough. There was 

 nothing for it but to climb down after the brute, unpack 

 him, lead him up again to the pass, and bring up the 

 pack bit by bit. Brownie as nearly as possible went down 

 again on this second passage, but was held on the track by 

 main force. There was a tin billy strapped on the back of the 



