TowNSON. — On Vegetation of Westport District. 391 



in fog, and on both occasions I had the misfortune to be en- 

 veloped in it. An old survey track had to be reblazed and opened 

 up with a bill-hook, and much precious time was lost in track- 

 cutting. The mountain rises to a height of 4,800 ft., its ridge 

 extending apparently for some miles and describing three parts 

 of a circle, where, in the hollow thus enclosed, and 500 ft. below 

 the ridge, lies a beautiful lake, deep, dark, and placid, and it looks 

 to be at least half a mile in diameter. A grand precipice rises 

 sheer from its eastern bank, making a most imposing picture, 

 whilst a number of lakelets in adjoining hollows greatly enhance 

 its beauty. Here I found Olearia lacunosa on the forest- margin ; 

 Helichrysum grandiceps and H. hellidioides amongst the rocks 

 on the ridge ; and Veronica carnosida, Poa novcB-zecdandice, 

 and Agrostis dyeri amongst the rough boulders which surround 

 the lake. So far as I could see, Ranunculus, Aciphylla, and 

 Myosotis were unrepresented. 



From Mokihinui I walked to Karamea by the inland track, 

 the road zigzagging up the steep bank of the Rough-and-Tumble 

 until, after crossing the saddle, it descends again into the valley 

 of the Little Wanganui. If I remember rightly, Arthropodium 

 candidum was the only addition made to my collection on the 

 side of this track, and my trip to Karamea was remarkably 

 barren in results. For one reason, it is difficult country to 

 travel about in, as most of the roads at that time consisted of 

 disconnected sections, whilst lagoons and back-waters proved 

 very embarrassing. I gathered Carmichcelia jlagelliformis on 

 the banks of the salt-water lagoons, and I noticed some fine 

 clumps of Corynocarpus Icevigata, evidently about the sites of 

 ancient Maori camping-places. There was evidence of a large 

 number of Maoris having once lived near the estuary of the 

 Karamea River, and I have had numerous stone axes sent to 

 me from that locality. 



I returned to Mokihinui along the beach track, parts of which 

 can only be negotiated at low water. After being ferried across 

 the Little Wanganui River your route lays for miles over a 

 rough boulder-strewn beach, and you can only progress by 

 jumping from one to another, and it makes progression slow 

 and difficult, especially in rough weather when the spaces be- 

 tween the boulders are filled in with spume from the breakers. 

 At a point known as Big Hill the track takes to the bush, through 

 which you climb up several hundred feet on the cliff-face ; and I 

 noticed that in places where the water ran across the track 

 it left a deposit on all that it touched, coating over grass, moss- 

 leaves, and ferns with a crust of lime, with which the water is 

 highly impregnated. Corysanthes macrantha is very abundant 

 on this bluff, and I found Veronica macrocarpa var. crassifolia 



