478 
JOURNEY IN THE COLONY. 
[1.813. 
by a narrow pass between high mountains, so narrow 
in some parts that there was hardl}^ room for Little 
Mountain River to get along : of necessity therefore 
the road, with great labour, is cut out on the sides of 
the mountains. The sun being set, and the heavens 
covered with thick clouds, it soon became very dark; 
and it was unpleasant travelling on a road where one 
wrong step of a horse might occasion the tumbling of 
the waggon a hundred feet down the side of a steep 
mountain. In about an hour we were met by a chain 
of waggons, which had to pass us, where there was 
hardly room for a boor's wife to pass ; but pass they 
must, or all must wait until the morning light. Our 
waggon was lifted a little way up the side of the moun- 
tain, when the three first waggons passed in safety; 
but the two side wheels of the fourth went over the 
edge of the road, and had they not got the oxen imme- 
diately to stop, it must have rolled to the bottom of 
the mountain, dragging the twelve or fourteen oxen 
after it. With much difficulty the waggon was restored 
to the path. The succeeding waggon having broke 
down, we could not pass it till it was repaired. We 
sat in the dark, I know not how long, till this waggon 
was mended and had passed us, after which we got 
forward out of the pass to a good road. We arrived 
at Mr. De Lange's about ten o'clock at night, where we 
soon forgot the difficulties we had met with on our way 
to it. 
22nd. Day light in the morning discovered that we 
had got into one of the most pleasant and handsome 
