plateau before mentioned.  Some of the leaders near the edge took alarm, and a few fell over the cliff.  Seeing their comrades disappear, others followed, and then the whole mob made for the precipice, and jumped frantically over.  The fall was about twenty feet only, but the animals followed each other with such rapidity that in a few minutes some three hundred sheep lay in a mass, piled on top of each other.  It was with great difficulty the dogs and men prevented the whole mob following suit, in which case there would have been great loss; as it was, nearly one hundred sheep were smothered before it was possible to extricate them.

There is another danger to which they are exposed when driving them over new ground.  There is a small plant, I forget the name of it, but it is well known to every shepherd, and grows in luxuriance along some of the river beds.  It is about a foot high and has dark green leaves.  If by any chance a mob of hungry sheep are driven into this plant, they will attack it ravenously, and in a few minutes they will stagger and fall as if intoxicated, and if not immediately attended to they will die.  The only chance for them is to bleed them by driving in the blade of a small knife each side of the nose.  The blood will flow black and thick, and the animal will speedily recover, but delay is fatal.

We travelled steadily about 15 miles each day, and in due time reached the north bank of the Hurunui river, only to find no sign of Mr. Lee or the Inspector.  This was specially disappointing as our supply of flour and sugar was getting very low, and we were promised a fresh supply at this point.  For several days neither the supplies nor Mr. Lee appeared.  The little flour remaining was full of maggots, our tea and tobacco were finished, and we had to live on mutton boiled in a frying-pan (we were obliged to kill a sheep).  There was no feeding ground near the river, the country having been recently burnt, and so we were obliged to take the sheep daily a couple of miles inland, carrying with us some of the mutton and water, and drink the latter nearly hot, travelling back to the river-bed at nightfall to camp the sheep in an angle between two streams, by which means we contrived to obtain a little rest.

One day we varied our food by securing some fresh pork in a somewhat novel manner.  There were many wild pigs about but we had no means of shooting or otherwise killing them.  One day while driving our sheep inland, we came across a mob of pigs in a dry nallah, all of which bolted except a full-grown sow and a litter of young ones, which could not run with the herd; and as the mother would not leave them behind, she decided to stay, and if need be fight for her family.  It was a touching picture, no doubt, but there is not much room for sentiment when the stomach is empty and the body weary and unsatisfied.  The prospect of fresh pork that night in lieu of the everlasting mutton, the cooking of which we had varied in every way we could devise was very tempting, and we set to work to make some plan for capturing the sow; the baby piggies were too young and delicate for our taste.