THE CHARTOGRAPHERS OF THE STATION 



185 



the Maheawha crossing of the Tutira stream to the summit of the 

 Image Hill. 



The double hedge-line belongs to a later period, its growth syn- 

 chronising with the increase of the flock. By the 'nineties, the numbers 

 of sheep and lambs shorn on the station had trebled. In addition, ten, 

 twelve, and fifteen thousand sheep used yearly to be borrowed for 

 crushing purposes during the spring months. Huge hungry mobs 

 driven in and out from the wool-shed during the shearing season passed 

 along the stock-routes. About their centres the current of a drove of 

 animals is like that of a watercourse, strongest in mid-stream vegeta- 

 tion was worn away, crushed and 

 destroyed. On the flanks and wings, 

 attrition, though less marked, was yet 

 sufficiently strong perceptibly to check 

 growth. The consequence was that on 

 the edges of each stock-track seeds 

 hitherto unable to germinate for want 

 of light, plants hitherto unable to 

 breathe for want of air, took posses- 

 sion, succulent green stuff such as 

 white clover, suckling, cape-weed, and 

 sorrel seized on the open soil. 



Fire still ran over great areas 

 from time to time, though not with 

 the same sweeping violence as of yore. 

 The bracken had become stunted and 

 sparse, there was less of it everywhere 

 to carry a fire. The heat, therefore, and height of a conflagration 

 already weakened, was still further diminished as it reached the wings 

 of the stock-track. As in the miracle of Gideon's fleece, what happened 

 on the neighbouring lands did not happen on the stock-routes, they 

 remained green when the ground alongside was black. 



The spread of Leptospermum scoparium manuka has been 

 described ; it appeared during the 'nineties on every scrap of land 

 open to the sun, and germinated thickly over the breadth of the stock- 

 routes. In the middle of each, however, where the current was 

 most violent, its delicate seedlings were trampled and trodden into 

 the ground, and were thus destroyed. On the other hand, plants on 



Double hedge line. 



