486 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



It is a solitary island, but it has two outlying rocks. One called the 

 " Bishop and Clerk " lies 30 miles to the south of the south end ; the other 

 called the "Judge and Clerk " is 7 miles to the north of the North Head. 



It is exceedingly hilly. The hills, however, are of no great height, not 

 more than 600 or 700 feet I should think. They rise as a rule almost 

 directly from the sea, leaving but a narrow interval of shingly beach, while 

 occasional spurs run out from wide open bays which afford no shelter 

 to vessels. Towards the north end of the west coast there is a greater 

 extent of flat land between the hills and the sea. Between the steeper part 

 of the hill-side and the shingle, there is always a more gently sloping belt of 

 extremely swampy land. And here the tussock grass grows in "Maori heads " 

 above the soft treacherous mud. At both ends of the island, however, the 

 land rises in cliffs abruptly from the sea ; and the North Head forms a bluff 

 distinct from the rest of the island, and only connected with it by a narrow 

 neck of sand, through which the sea in stormy weather has been known to 

 break. 



The west coast is, as might be expected, more cut into by the sea than 

 the east, but there are no bays suitable for harbours. At the south-west 

 corner of the island, there is, indeed, a beautiful deep bay called " Caroline 

 Cove," completely sheltered from every side except the south-west. It is 

 completely open to that quarter however, and as the prevailing wind blows 

 from the south-west, and therefore straight into the bay, it would rather 

 prove a trap than a shelter to any vessel that anchored in it. There are still 

 visible on the beach the remains of a vessel which was wrecked in this man- 

 ner. The sealing vessels always lie some distance off the coast ready to slip 

 and go to sea at any moment. The oil in large casks is floated out to them. 



The Caroline Cove wreck is not the only vessel that has gone ashore on 

 Maccmarie Island ; and there are still to be seen the graves of some of the 

 shipwrecked seamen. On the bit of plank which served as headstone for 

 one of them I was able to decipher the name, John Bilsham, but the date 

 was illegible. 



The interior of the island shows the rocky tops of the hills blown per- 

 fectly bare by the wind, and fissured by the frosts ; and in the hollows of 

 the uplands lie a number of little lakes, which empty themselves by streams. 

 These either make valleys for themselves down to the sea, or tumble down 

 the steep hill-sides in miniature cascades. 



The general appearance of a Maccmarie Island landscape is barren in 

 the extreme. There is not a tree or shrub on the island, and what vegeta- 

 tion there is has a great deal of sameness, long stretches of yellowish 

 tussock, with occasional great patches of the bright-green Stilbocaiya jiolaris, 

 or of the peculiar sage-green Pleurophyllum. These, with the rich brown 



