214 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



meet with a few examples of the Alpine flora of New 

 Zealand. Here, and on the top of Maimgatua (which, 

 however, is nearly a thousand feet higher), are several 

 plants of the Antarctic type, similar to those which are 

 found on the granite peat-covered country about Port 

 Pegasus, in Stewart Island. Down the slopes, too, of this 

 hill occur beds of both forms of the Alpine tutu Coriaria 

 thymifolia, identical with the Andean form, and C. angus- 

 tissiina, the delicate-leaved ground tutu of Otago, together 

 with the mountain species of mako-mako (Aristotelia 

 frutecosa). On a still hot summer's day the abundance of 

 insect life on this hill is surprising, moths rise from the 

 vegetation in myriads as one walks over the damp cool 

 and springy surface. Formerly the drier ground used to be 

 alive with grasshoppers, but the starlings appear of recent 

 years to have nearly exterminated these and some other 

 insects. The hill to-day is a much more desolate and a less 

 interesting spot than it must have been half a century ago, 

 when both animal and vegetable life were more abundant. 

 To-day with the exception of a few patches of bush it is 

 the only outlier of the native vegetation within many 

 miles of Dunedin which has not been utterly invaded and 

 occupied by the introduced flora. 



The top of Swampy Hill is not a pleasant spot to be on 

 when a thick north-east mist comes over it, as it frequently 

 does. The ground is sufficiently level to be utterly puzzling 

 without a compass, and the comparative uniformity of the 

 vegetation and the uncertain character of the footing com- 

 bine to make it most difficult to find one's way over in a 

 fog. Yet it must be remembered that in the early days of 

 this settlement this high and wide tract of open country 

 was the only route by which cattle could be taken from 

 north to south, as the whole coast line was densely 

 bush-clad. I have heard old settlers and drovers describe 

 their experiences when bringing large mobs down from 

 Waikouaiti to the Taieri Plain and the open south country, 

 and finding the whole hilltop covered with a dense bank of 

 fog for several days. Truly we who live comfortably in our 

 town houses can hardly realise the severe conditions which 



