96 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 
Next, the configuration of the catchment area in its main features is of 
great importance. This consists of the Mount Ida range and the Xakanuis 
on the north; the Rock and Pillar, Lammerlaw, and Rough Ridge on st, 
south, and west; and the Upper Taieri or Maniototo Plains in the centre, 
which latter average about 1400 feet above sea-level. And, lastly, the soil 
generally over the whole area is dry, in many places shingly, and, asa 
whole, has become so baked on the surface by grass fires and stocking that 
the rainfalls run off with great rapidity—greater, it is thought by many, 
than was the case before the interior was settled. But there is one remark- 
able exception to this general character of the soil. The plateau, or elevated 
plain which forms the top of the Lammerlaw and Rock and Pillar Moun- 
tains, contains a large morass of 8000 acres in extent, besides numerous 
smaller swamps, with bogs and lagoons. This sponge-like and porous soil, 
with lagoons, is more or less characteristic of the whole catchment area of 
the Taieri, above the Styx Stream, including the Serpentine Flat, 1800 feet 
above sea-level. 
Effects. 
Bearing in mind, then, these facts—the direction of the rainstorms which, 
at their worst, come from §.E. to 5.W., the exposure and resistance offered 
by the faces of the mountains to these storms, and the nature of the soil on 
the mountain tops and on the plains, with the relative heights of these 
localities—what should we expect? We should expect the rain-clouds, which 
come up in a storm from the Southern Ocean, on reaching our coast, and 
losing the contents of their lower strata among the coast hills, would pass 
on until caught by the higher ranges which surround the sources of the 
Taieri River. There, rolling up the slopes of the Lammerlaw and Rock 
and Pillar Mountains, and forming an eddy on the flat summits, they would 
become piled up, and their rate of travelling or velocity being thus reduced, 
they would naturally deposit the greater portion of their contents on and 
around the tops of these ranges. The remainder of the rain-clouds would 
pass on and become gradually dispersed by the higher temperature of the 
interior plains. The more northerly columns of the rain-clouds would draw 
along the Horse Range to the highest peaks of the Kakanui Mountains and 
Kyeburn Hill, and lose the greater amount of their contents among these 
peaks. At the same time the Maniototo Plain itself, lying immediately west of 
these ranges, together with its western boundaries, the Mount Ida Range and 
northern part of the Rough Ridge, would have but a reduced balance of rain- 
fall to receive, reduced still further by the superior warmth of the plain itself. 
Evidences of Distribution of Rainfall. 
And what do we find to be the case? The experience of the oldest 
settlers on the Upper Taieri Plains goes to show that the above 
