STOCKING AND SCOUR 199 



from the run. A previous chapter dealing with fern -crushing has 

 shown in detail the destruction of the ancient vegetation of the 

 run by sheep. The reader will remember how, during the first year 

 of heavy stocking, the vast thickets of tutu which used to grow on 

 the southern and eastern slopes were annihilated, how the bracken 

 lost firstly its exuberance of growth, then became stunted in height, 

 and ultimately in many parts perished. With the annihilation of 

 these tall growths and others that succeeded them, the ground was 

 no longer shaded from sun, no longer sheltered from the elements. 

 Its naked surface was in summer-time burnt into dry dust, in winter 

 beaten upon by torrents of rain. 



The slipping of the marl hills on eastern and the subcutaneous 

 erosion of central and western Tutira have also been described. These 

 processes yet continue, and will continue ; but in addition there has 

 been established by the tread of sheep a new kind of wear and tear. 

 The surface of the central station, once as absorbent as a sponge, now 

 supports tens of thousands of sheep -paths, each of them acting as a 

 shallow open drain. They are, moreover, so toughened and puddled 

 with pulverised sheep-droppings that even after the heaviest of deluges 

 they continue to rush off flood-water. I have seen them washed so 

 perfectly clean of dirt and dust that the blanched, flaccid, fibrous 

 roots of grasses and weeds showed up white like thread. Down these 

 miniature gutters, grit, dust, and gravel are carried wholesale. Except 

 on the flattest portions of central Tutira, the bed of every creek, 

 rivulet, and rill has been metalled by the shingles and sands 

 crumbled into it by sheeps' feet, or blown and washed down by 

 wind and rain. Creek crossings, at one time barely capable of sup- 

 porting a man on horseback, can now be negotiated by a loaded 

 dray. Immensely increased quantities of material have found their 

 way to the main streams too. The fluctuations of the streams them- 

 selves are more marked : there is a higher rise in flood, a lower fall 

 in drought. Instead of a permanent percolation from the whole body 

 of the countryside, there is a violent brief surface scour. Even locally 

 the results of stocking have not yet been fully recognised. Loss of 

 bridges and culverts, recurring flood after flood, cannot be due to 

 miscalculation of catchment area or to lack of information in regard 

 to rainfall ; it is owing to insufficient allowance for the hardening of 



