62 Transactions. 



Mount Una, and the bed of the stream (about 3,300 ft. altitude) contains 

 fragments of melting neve about 10 ft. thick. Judging by appearances, 

 this neve, would scarcely last through the summer. The lowest portion 

 was detached from the rest, and was about 100 yards long and 25 yards 

 wide. It was bisected by the stream. A little clear ice was visible at the 

 foot of the neve. A pronounced hanging valley on the right of the stream 

 and the remnants of a lateral moraine showed that at one time a glacier 

 of respectable dimensions had filled the creek-bed. The valley is an open 

 one, about 100 yards wide. 



The country becomes progressively drier as we go eastward from the 

 Waiau to the Wairau Valley. There are few shingle-slips to be seen on 

 Mount Faerie Queen, as looked at from the Ada Valley. Those on Mount 

 Una, as viewed from Glacier Valley, are a little more extensive, but in the 

 neighbourhood of Lake Tennyson they become more numerous and occupy 

 a larger area. The Wairau Valley, from a saddle above Lake Tennyson, 

 appeared as dry as the region in the neighbourhood of Mount Arrowsmith. 

 Doubtless the westerly rains pass over the saddle into the fertile Ada Valley 

 and Stanley Vale, but are unable to penetrate to the country at the head- 

 waters of the Wairau. 



The greater denudation in the Waiau Valley prevents the accumulation 

 of shingle-slips there. 



Vegetation. 



In the absence of meteorological statistics, it is, of course, impossible 

 to show directly how climatic conditions are affecting the vegetation, and 

 indirect evidence only is available. The conditions in the district, however, 

 resemble those that prevail in the Mount Arrowsmith region, as the plant 

 formations are very similar, and a large number of species are common to 

 both districts. Indeed, the general description given of the plant forma- 

 tions in the Arrowsmith district* would apply to this with but few modifi- 

 cations. Rock, river-fan, river-bed, tussock steppe, bog, lake, forest, fell - 

 field, and shingle-slip present similar features and similar plant- associations 

 in both districts. Certain subassociations of the Arrowsmith district were, 

 however, not noticed in the Spenser Mountains. Dwarf Carmichaelias were 

 observed only in the Waiau River bed near Hanmer, and there only a few 

 plants of an unidentified species. The accompanying species of the Mount 

 Arrowsmith district — e.g. Veronica pimeleoides var. minor and Muehlen- 

 beckia ephedroides — were not observed in the more northern area, nor did 

 we see in the Spenser Mountains any such forest as the subalpine totara 

 forest of the Upper Rakaia Valley. Indeed, forest-trees of any kind, with 

 the exception of species of Nothofagus, Noihopanax, Gaya, and Pittosporum, 

 were completely absent from the Spenser Mountains. The complete absence 

 of any of the species forming the usual coastal forests of New Zealand is 

 perhaps the most remarkable feature of the district. The subalpine scrub 

 is also poorly represented both in quantity and number of species. River 

 steppe, fell-field, shingle-slip, and rock occupy nine-tenths of the district. 

 The Nothofas/us forest was found only in the river-valleys, and decreased 

 in quantity from west to east. Only a few acres are to be seen in the 

 Upper Clarence Valley, close to the sides of Lake Tennyson. The upper 

 portion of the Ada Valley, however, contains considerable quantities of 

 the forest, and has contained more ; but some has been destroyed by fire 



* Cockayne and Laing, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 43, p. 345. 



