MOERAKI. 189 



the placid summer sea lies in alternate bands of emerald 

 and purple, the mind can drink in the beauties of Nature 

 without feeling wearied or satiated. 



Wherever comparatively recent volcanic action has left 

 its mark Nature has toned down her roughnesses and 

 hidden her angry work under softened outlines. Moeraki 

 lies in a bay formed by a mass of eruptive rock which has 

 been thrown out seawards in comparatively recent times. 

 If we surmount the rounded hills which lie behind the 

 point we find hard straight walls and dykes of lava 

 running out to sea, thus breaking up the coast line into an 

 ever-varying succession of headlands and reefs alternating 

 with sandy bays. Between and over these dykes of hard 

 trap rock lie masses of tufas and volcanic debris, which 

 have crumbled under the influence of the ages into a rich 

 brown soil, in which, wherever there is sufficient moisture, 

 everything grows luxuriantly. Some, however, of these 

 beds of volcanic ash have broken down into a peculiarly 

 tenacious clay, and by the lodgment of water in the hollows 

 of the high ground this has oozed down every here and 

 there, causing extensive landslips, so that the whole face of 

 the hillside towards the bay is broken by these slides. 

 Wherever this clay is exposed and dried it becomes very 

 hard, but in wet weather it is a revelation to all newcomers, 

 who perhaps incautiously step on it once when going down 

 to the beach, but who usually take care not to repeat the 

 experiment. Probably the clay contains a certain admixture 

 of hydrated magnesium silicate, a substance which com- 

 municates a slippery or soapy consistence to minerals in 

 which it is present. 



A change has come over the vegetation of Moeraki since 

 I saw it first, which was early in the seventies. Introduced 

 plants have nearly quite crowded out all the smaller 

 indigenous plant life. The common Hedge Mustard,* a 

 rather harsh-looking crucifer, has taken possession of very 

 considerable areas, and grows most luxuriantly, throwing 

 up long nearly straight stems against which its stiff 



* Sisymbrium ojfitinale. 



