MIDDLE ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. 101 



island runs down its western side : the highest mountains are here, 

 the oldest, geologically speaking, — granites, porphyries, crystalline lime- 

 stones. These form a stupendous mountain-chain, capped with per- 

 petual snow, which catches the westerly wind sweeping across the 

 Southern Ocean, and causes a precipitation of the moisture with which 

 it is charged. ^ The west coast is accordingly extremely humid : this 

 is the character of the country wdiicli lies to the west of Blind Bay, 

 On the eastern side of Blind Bay we have a different country, — different, 

 geologically speaking, and different in point of climate. The mountain- 



Waimea 



W; 



I found here also 



th 



broken through however in several places by dykes and masses of igne- 

 ous rocks, hornblende, and basalt. The mountain from which I got 

 many of the plants I sent to you, Gordon's Nob, consists of roofing- 

 slate, set nearly upon its edge. Its summit is almost destitute of vege- 

 tation; the vertical strata cropping up through large fields of slate- 

 fragments of all sizes, upon which almost the only thing growing was 

 the EupJirasiay^ with here and there a dense globular patch of the 

 Raouliuy studded over with its starry white flowers. 



e Cruciferous plant which you mention as new, and remark as an 

 only specimen.f I looked anxiously for another, but it was the only 

 one I could find. 



The mountain-range east of the Waimea is divided by the long val- 

 ley of the Wairau, from another range to the east of that valley, of a 

 more recent geological character : the rocks of which it consists are 

 sandstones, conglomerates, and non-crystalline limestones; and, as show- 

 ing the connection between soil and the character of the vegetation, 

 while on the west of the Wairau Eiver the mountains bounding the 

 valley are clothed with Fern and Forest, and offer no pasture, those 

 on the eastern side, to which I have just referred, are almost uniformly 

 grassy; this may in fact be said to be the northern limit of the grassy 

 countiy which stretches down along the eastern coast of the Middle 

 Island as far as Foveaux Straits, This country, though the hilly por- 

 tion of it is extremely rugged, is nevertheless traversable, the vegeta- 

 tion opposing very liLtle impediment to moving about ; but in most 

 other parts of New Zealand locomotion is a very serious matter when- 

 ever you leave a beaten path; for not only are the hill-sides very steep 



* E. cuneata, Forst. ? t Thlasp ? austrah, ii.f. 



