480 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XVIII. 
to " gentlemen from town " as they rode up the river- 
bank ; and new fields were to be noticed at every suc- 
cessive visit. 
Cattle-driving, too, on the pasture hills, afforded ex- 
ercise and excitement. Following the system pursued 
in New South Wales, owners of cattle brand their 
herd and let them run loose over the hills, and then 
drive them at a gallop into the stock-yard when they 
are wanted. The cattle get exceedingly wild and fast ; 
so that it requires bold and hard riding in some in- 
stances to head them. The gentlemen and the stock- 
keepers who had come from that country soon taught 
us the manner of proceeding; and idlers were often 
enlisted as volunteers when a grand muster was to be 
effected, or some particularly wild heifer to be found 
and driven in. The stock-whip, a very necessary in- 
strument for this work, requires some description for 
English readers. A stout wooden handle a foot in 
length is attached to a heavy thong of plaited hide, 
about fifteen feet long from the handle to the end of 
the lash. This whip is whirled two or three times 
round the head, and cracked with a report as loud as 
that of a pistol in the face of a stubborn animal. The 
wildest cattle when charging you will turn from it, if it 
be used with skill ; but an inexperienced hand is very 
apt to slice his own face or injure his horse severely, 
without at all alarming the cattle. 
About the middle of May, Mr. William Gordon 
Bell, a stout Scotch farmer, showed a noble example of 
enterprise by driving the first herd of cattle to PVan- 
ganui. Mr. Bell had enjoyed farming experience in 
several parts of the world. While connected with an 
estate in the West Indies, he had married a woman of 
colour, by whom he had a fine hardy family of two 
sons and two daughters. After residing some time in 
