In Two Days'
Time It Had Gone Down Sufficiently To Allow Of Our Getting The Sheep
Over, And We Did So Without The Loss Of A Single One.
I hardly know why I have introduced this into an account of a trip with
a bullock dray; it is, however, a colonial incident, such as might
happen any day.
In a life of continual excitement one thinks very
little of these things. They may, however, serve to give English
readers a glimpse of some of the numerous incidents which, constantly
occurring in one shape or other, render the life of a colonist not only
endurable, but actually pleasant.
CHAPTER IX
Plants of Canterbury - Turnip - Tutu - Ferns - Ti Palm - Birds - Paradise
Duck - Tern - Quail - Wood Hen - Robin - Linnet - Pigeon - Moa - New Parroquet -
Quadrupeds - Eels - Insects - Weta - Lizards.
The flora of this province is very disappointing, and the absence of
beautiful flowers adds to the uninteresting character which too
generally pervades the scenery, save among the great Southern Alps
themselves. There is no burst of bloom as there is in Switzerland and
Italy, and the trees being, with few insignificant exceptions, all
evergreen, the difference between winter and summer is chiefly
perceptible by the state of the grass and the temperature. I do not
know one really pretty flower which belongs to the plains; I believe
there are one or two, but they are rare, and form no feature in the
landscape. I never yet saw a blue flower growing wild here, nor indeed
one of any other colour but white or yellow; if there are such they do
not prevail, and their absence is sensibly felt.
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