Cockayne. — Begrotvth of Burnt Forest. 399 



protected from injury would in due time attain to maturity. 

 Of course, anything like a real restoration of the original bush 

 is out of the question, but the second growth has a beauty of 

 its own, which is by no means to be despised. . . . It is 

 interesting to notice that everywhere the trees which are 

 characteristic of the locality are not long in making their 

 appearance." 



The late Mr. T. Kirk, F.L.S., has gone into the matter 

 with somewhat greater detail.''' " On the west coast of the 

 South Island," he writes, "much of the New Zealand forest, 

 when burnt off, is temporarily replaced by a robust growth 

 of a large native groundsel {Erechtites prenanthoides, DC), 

 which often attains the height of 5 ft., most of it disappearing 

 before the close of the third year, when its place is taken by 

 fern, or more rarely by shrubs and trees"; and, regarding a 

 fire in the Hope Valley, he states : " The burnt area on each 

 side of the road-line was thickly dotted with the rare pine, 

 Podocarpus aciitifolius, T. Kirk, although very few specimens 

 of the plant were to be seen in the immediate vicinity " ; and 

 he concludes his remarks thus: "Much, however, has yet 

 to be learned with regard to phenomena of this kind in New 

 Zealand." 



During a stay of six weeks' duration this summer — Decem- 

 ber, 1897, and January, 1898 — on the summit of Arthur's Pass, 

 I was enabled to take the fairly copious notes embodied in 

 this paper on the effect of two fires which had devastated the 

 vegetation of that locality, the one a recent and the other 

 a burning of more distant date. Such notes will, I think, 

 tend to show what would be the ultimate results of fires 

 in localities similar to Arthur's Pass, to such, indeed, on the 

 western side of the dividing-range, or on the eastern within 

 the limits of the heavy western rainfall and its accompany- 

 ing misty weather. 



Eegarding the first fire, I can give no exact date ; possibly 

 it took place twenty or "more years ago, or there may have 

 been several fires during the period that the pass has been 

 used for traffic. But of the recent fire more exact informa- 

 tion is to hand : it took place in the year 1890, and was the 

 work of the Midland Railway survey. This fire, originating 

 somewhere on the left bank of Peg Leg Creek, near its junc- 

 tion with the Otira River, crossed that river and ascended the 

 Westland spur of Mount Rolleston to a height of 1,000 m. or 

 more, while on the Arthur's Pass side it followed the Otira 

 River for about 1 kilom. towards its source ; also, spreading 

 round the Canterbury spur of Mount Rolleston, it ascended 



* " The Displacement of Species in New Zealand," by T. Kirk, 

 F.L.S. (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxviii., p. 16). 



