TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 223 



shape, and very hilly. Its highest point is the conical peak of 

 Mount Honey, which rises to 1,866ft. on the southern side of 

 Perseverance Harbour. Lyall's Pyramid, on the opposite side, 

 is 1,273ft. ; Mount Paris and other points are intermediate. 

 The island is about eight miles from east to west, but rather 

 more from north to south, and is almost divided by Persever- 

 ance or Christmas Harbour, which opens on the south-east. 



Campbell Island consists chiefly of basaltic rocks with a 

 considerable extent of a compact limestone, which in some 

 places is overlaid by the basalt. In one locality an exposed 

 section shows basalt at the base, overlaid by a bed of limestone 

 3ft. to 4ft. in thickness ; this, again, by roughly columnar 

 basalt, which in its turn is also overlaid by limestone capped 

 with peat. I could not determine on a cursory examination 

 whether the basalt was interjected, or whether its position was 

 due to successive eruptions accompanied by subsidence. The 

 greater portion of the island is seamed with gullies of no great 

 depth, and the surface is covered with a layer of peat of vari- 

 able thickness ; swamps are numerous. Sphagnum is plentiful 

 on the crests of the ridges and the slopes of the hills. 



The vegetation is less varied than that of the Auckland 

 Islands, and is much less luxuriant. The rata {Metrosideros 

 lucida), the characteristic tree of those islands, is extremely 

 rare on Campbell Island, and of very low stature. In fact, the 

 ligneous vegetation is limited to four species of Goprosma — 

 C.fatidissima, C.cuneata, C.parviflora, G.ciliata — and ilJ^/rswte 

 divaricata, which form the bulk of the scrub, with occasional 

 specimens of DracopliyUmn loiigifolmm and D. urviUcanum, 

 Cassinia vauvilliersii, and Veronica elllptica ; the two last, 

 together with the true Dracophijllum scoparium, being found 

 only in open places. Usually the twiggy Coprosmas were so 

 interlaced with Myrsine divaricata that the scrub was almost 

 impassable, especially on sheltered slopes. Panax simplex, 

 which formed a large portion of the woody vegetation on the 

 Auckland Islands, has not been observed on Campbell Island. 



All through the island the ligneous vegetation presents a 

 starved and stunted appearance, except in a few slieltered posi- 

 tions. It ceases at low altitudes, in many places not rising 

 above 100ft. ; the highest point at which I found it trouble- 

 some was under 600ft. ; but in all cases it was succeeded by a 

 coarse growth of sedges and grasses of the same general cha- 

 racter as that on the Auckland Islands, although less luxuriant 

 except amongst rocks or in other sheltered positions. 



The Sphagnum swamps on the ridges are often dotted with 

 the dark green of Phyllachnc clavigera and Oreobolus pumilio, 

 Br. In still moister places Gentrolepis pallida is plentiful, 

 with large masses of Bostkovia gracilis and Astelia linearis. 

 The endemic Ahrotanclla rosulata occurred sparingly on ex- 



