"Walsh. — On the Destruction of the New Zealand Bush. 495 



do, once it has felt the heat of the fire its life is a thing of the 

 past. 



The first fire in a kauri bush may go on for months, and 

 unless a strong wind is blowing, in exceptionally dry weather, 

 its progress is generally slow, and often is scarcely per- 

 ceptible. But when the second fire passes over it the de- 

 struction, only begun before, is quickly completed. By two 

 or three years' time the ground is covered with fallen leaves 

 and twigs and fragments of gum, together with the wreck 

 of the bark, split up and flaked off in thick broad sheets. 

 The sapwood, pierced by the worm and rotted by the action 

 of the weather, is in a condition of tinder. A rank growth 

 of ferns, rushes, and coarse grasses, nourished by the ash, 

 has quickly taken possesion of the soil, and helps to carry 

 the fire along. The fire once kindled spreads with frightful 

 rapidity. A roaring torrent sweeps through the bush ; every 

 tree becomes a blazing torch, and the whole ground is covered 

 with a sheet of billowy flame ; and in an incredibly short time 

 all that is left are a few smoking trunks and fallen logs. But 

 the fire has not yet quite done with the kauri bush. By 

 degrees the fern gives place to the tea-tree, and, as this is 

 burnt by successive fires, before many years are past scarcely 

 a charred stump remains to mark the site of one of the 

 grandest triumphs of nature in the vegetable kingdom. 



Prevention and Eestoration. 



The question may naturally be asked, Are there no means 

 of prevention and restoration ? 



In regard to prevention the answer has already been 

 anticipated. All that is necessary is to hermetically seal the 

 bush against the incursion of stock and make adequate pro- 

 vision against fires. But the remedy, though simple enough, 

 is not always easy of application. It is obvious that no such 

 general measure could be adopted in the case of the bush at 

 large, especially in the neighbourhood of settlement, where 

 all unoccupied land is used as a common run. However much 

 we may lament it, the great bulk of the bush will have to 

 take its chance; and, in regard to detached portions of small 

 area, such as a man might hope to preserve on his farm, 

 there are several difficulties to contend with which generally 

 render an attempt in this direction fruitless. Not only are 

 they in continual danger from accidental fires, but from want 

 of the shelter of the surrounding bush, of which they origi- 

 nally formed a portion, they die back at the edges, and sooner 

 or later resolve themselves into clumps of scrubby survivals 

 of some of the more hardy varieties. It is possible that, by 

 planting some quick-growing trees, such as the Australian 

 wattles, round the portions intended to be preserved, both a 



