Speight. — Th^ Poxt-glncial CUivaie of ('anterhvry. 413 



immediately on them. These men noticed hirge logs of totara {Podocarpus 

 totara) among the grass and in slips and swamps over very wide areas in 

 Canterbury. The logs were frequently charred, and it was immediately 

 assumed that the former forests were entirely destro3^ed by fire. The whole 

 question is greatlv complicated by the destruction of the evidence by the 

 ftres lit by settlers in the early days to clear the country from the rank 

 growth of tussock-grass, so that now there is little proof of absolute value 

 still remaining except in the records and recollection of these settlers. In 

 those cases where I have had to rely on the evidence of such observers I 

 have given their names, and I take the opportunity to thank them for much 

 information of value on the point. 



Large totara logs lay plentifully on the foothills along the eastern base 

 of the mountain region of Canterbury. They were found in quantity on 

 the hills around Cheviot at a height of about 1,700 ft. (C. J. Westland) ; 

 on all the country between the Hurunui and the Waipara Eivers, and on 

 the Moeraki Downs, above a height of 800 ft. (P. J. Overton) ; on Teviot- 

 dale, near the coast-line ; at Amberley (James Hay) ; on the Malvern Hills, 

 as mentioned by Lady Barker in " Station Life in New Zealand." On 

 the arrival of Europeans the present Oxford Forest extended down the Eyre 

 River till it nearly junctioned with the bush then existing near Rangiora ; 

 this is proved by the logs formerly lying on that part of the plains. 

 Extensive tracts were covered with bush on the downs behind Timaru (J. 

 Hardcastle), for large logs of totara are even at the present time found in 

 the small creeks of that now treeless country. 



The same is true of other parts of the province near the mountain axis 

 of the Island, as, for example, the Mackenzie country, and the valley of 

 the Cameron River in the basin of the Upper Rakaia. On Banks Peninsula, 

 too, there is evidence for a former greater extent of forest. The top and 

 exposed northern slope of Mount Herbert, on the southern side of Lyttel- 

 ton Harbour, were bare of trees on the arrival of the earliest settlers, 

 although the gullies held patches of bush ; and the country was probably in 

 the same condition when Cook saw it from the ocean half a century before. 

 However, numerous logs of totara are even now found on the very summit 

 of the mountain. 



According to my own observations on Banks Peninsula, the points of 

 many of the spurs dividing the bays were absolutely treeless and covered 

 with tussock-grass for a considerable distance from their terminations. 

 This was especially the case on those spurs running north-east near Little 

 Akaloa and Pigeon Bay. It might be urged that salt-laden winds from the 

 sea had killed ofi the trees in these exposed positions were it not that certain 

 spurs equally exposed were wooded right up to the very edge of the clifEs. 

 According to observers of absolute reliability, in breaking up the open land 

 on such a spur for sowing down in English grasses, buried totara logs of 

 fair size were frequently found far from the edge of Aargin bush. 



I cannot get any satisfactory evidence that logs lay on the surface of 

 the Canterbury Plains south of the Waimakariri, but large trees of totara 

 have been found buried from 6 ft. to 10 ft. deep in the shingle-beds near 

 Christchurch — as, for instance, at the city waterworks, near the foot of the 

 Port Hills. These were undoubtedly of drift-wood, but the trees were in 

 some cases over 2 ft. in diameter, were perfectly sound, and were used for 

 posts in the fences round the buildings. The trees must have been brought 

 ■down from some forests that grew either on the plains or further away in 

 the mountains, probably by the Waimakariri River in one of its excursions 



