TARDIGRADA OF NEW ZEALAND 



Collecting in New Zealand. Tardigrada were collected in a great number of 

 localities fairly representative of all the varied climates of the country in both of 

 the large islands : in the moist sub-tropical bush of the extreme North, beyond 

 Auckland in the volcanic district of Rotarua in the cold lake district of the South 

 Island and among the Alpine ranges of Mount Cook. 



New Zealand stretches from nearly 34 S. latitude to nearly 47 S., and Stewart 

 Island passes the 47th parallel by a few miles. The districts visited stretched 

 between 36 and 47 S. 



On the arrival of the Nimrod in the end of 1907 there was one month available 

 for work in New Zealand. After a day or two spent in the neighbourhood of 

 Christchurch a party set out for the Hermitage at Mount Cook. Dr. Mackay was 

 bent on mountain-climbing : Dr. Michell assisted me in collecting. 



From the railway terminus at Fairlie two days were occupied in getting to the 

 Hermitage. The first day's journey was made on foot, ending at a guest-house 

 on the shore of Lake Tekapo, whose green, milky water made a strange outlandish- 

 looking landscape. The chalky water was examined for pelagic animals, which were 

 present but not abundant. 



Next day we went by motor-coach to the Hermitage. The hostel stands at an 

 elevation of more than 2000 feet above sea-level. The valley bottoms of the Tasman 

 and Hooker Rivers had the aspect of Scottish Moorland, and abounded in similar 

 mosses, peat-mosses and others, albeit the flowering plants were very different. No 

 Scotch thistle is so formidable a foe as a New Zealand " Spaniard." 



The home-like character of this moorland was only disturbed by the wide 

 desolate beds of the glacial rivers, miles across at places, a vast stony waste, 

 intersected, now when the rivers were low, by innumerable branching channels. 



The moorlands of Mount Cook were not nearly so prolific in forms of microscopic 

 life as similar places in Scotland would be, although this district yielded the greater 

 part of our New Zealand species. The Sphagnum was particularly unproductive. 

 This may be due to the fact that the mosses have to endure much greater heat, and 

 are dried up for longer periods. 



While I collected in the valley and at moderate elevations, my companions 

 climbed some of the peaks in the neighbourhood, and they were always mindful to 



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