IX 
GOLD-WASHING 
259 
the shadow of some overhanging rocks, already the 
glow-worms were beginning to light their lamps. 
Next morning I was away over the hills, which 
here are no longer bare and barren. The magnificent 
forest trees clothe the near mountains from base to 
summit, while those behind are veiled in white garments 
of perpetual snow. At the back of the hotel (a con- 
venient centre for many of the best walking expeditions) 
and only half a mile away, is the valley of the Dart River 
with Mount Cosmos nearly opposite, and glacier after 
glacier in succession, until the ice-fields of Mount 
Aspiring are lost behind the bush-clad slopes of Mount 
Cunningham. 
I drove one afternoon with the proprietor of the 
hotel to see two young miners at work in a gully on 
one of the mountain-sides. We left the horses below 
and climbed over the great rocks and up the bed of the 
stream where they were sluicing. I asked for a tin 
dish to go fossicking, and washed up my first gold — 
two nuggets, which were afterwards weighed and proved 
worth nineteen shillings and sixpence. It was most 
exciting, and I bought one of them as a memento of 
my first venture in prospecting. We had our five 
o’clock billy tea with them in their tent ; and the 
camp-oven bread that they had just baked was very 
good. They were two fine specimens of New Zealanders, 
and I thoroughly enjoyed my five-o’clock tea with 
them. Coming home, the sun had crowned Mount 
Earnslaw with a golden glory, and even the wind 
seemed hushed to sleep, as if afraid of ruffling the 
mirror-like surface of the beautiful lake. 
Sitting over the fire, waiting for the lights to be lit, 
a native robin hopped into the room and pecked up 
crumbs at my feet, and then flew out through the 
window. I had heard of their tameness in the bush 
