RAMBLES ROUND DUNEDIN. 199 



But the mind dwelling on the past history of this stretch 

 of dunes goes back in imagination to the time when the 

 peninsula was an island separated from the mainland by a 

 somewhat deep channel. We cannot say how long ago 

 this was, but the fact is incontrovertible. The Flat, as we 

 now call it, is only a little above high-water mark, and no 

 doubt some of us can recall the time when it was a 

 succession of lagoons and morasses which in time of heavy 

 rain and high tides used to form a continuous sheet of 

 water. I remember that shortly after houses began to 

 spring up in South Dunedin there came such a conjunc- 

 tion of wind and weather that the inhabitants had to be 

 got away from their dwellings in boats. 



When the first settlers came to Dunedin they found 

 a tract of low -lying alluvial land covered with bush in 

 many parts forming the Harbour shores north of Bell Hill. 

 Standing on this rocky eminence, near where the First 

 Church now stands, and looking north to another hill 

 of which a portion still remains between North Dunedin 

 and Pelichet Bay, they saw a marshy tract of land, 

 passage through which was very difficult. First a large 

 stream with deeply cut bed came down from Roslyn, 

 passing near the site of the present Boys' High School, 

 down by the line of York Place and St Andrew Street. 

 Then another passed down near Frederick Street, and 

 besides a number of smaller channels and deep swamps 

 there was finally the Leith itself. Looking south-east 

 there were many fine streams, one down the line of 

 Maclaggan Street emptying itself into the bay near the 

 site of the Customs House, and up to this point boats came 

 for some time after the settlement was founded. Indeed 

 they used to be taken up at high-water to the back of 

 what is now Wood's Hotel. Another large stream flowed 

 down the Glen, and still another down the middle of 

 Caversham. These and many others brought debris from 

 the higher land, and deposited it at the lower levels till 

 they filled up the shallow arm of the sea at the foot of the 

 hills and thus gradually formed the flat portion of our 

 town site. It is not many years ago since a line of borings 



