178 CLIMATE OF [PART I. 



shire, may, in the course of time, be converted into 

 pastures at least equalling those on the hilly portion 

 of that county. Everywhere also trees and shrubs 

 grow to the margin of the sea, and suffer no harm 

 even from the salt spray. The humidity of New 

 Zealand is not considered to have much injurious 

 effect on animal life. Cattle and horses are in as 

 good a condition as can be expected from the present 

 scantiness of grass pastures : should they, however, 

 be found to suffer from the moisture, the cattle can 

 at all times be driven from the valleys up to the hills, 

 where the drainage renders the ground sufficiently 

 dry. I much doubt whether as good a report can 

 be given regarding sheep, which always seemed to 

 suffer from wet, as well as from want of suitable 

 food ; and it cannot be denied that this moisture, 

 with all its beneficial influence on the vegetation of 

 the country which includes the tree-ferns, generally 

 confined to the tropics, and a species of palm will 

 be injurious to those fruits which are claimed as 

 the ornaments, and almost as the symbols, of south- 

 ern Europe, to the olive, the vine, and the orange ; 

 and that New Zealand does not rank higher in this 

 respect than the south of England. The humidity 

 will also, it is to be feared, be injurious to the silk- 

 worm. 



The physical configuration of New Zealand, and 

 the geological formation of the hills, are in general 

 such that the rain is rapidly carried towards the 

 coast in countless streams and rivulets : the lakes, 



