264 



surface and run out into the sea, giving some very curious examples of wave 

 action, the line of sand is very thin, the grass approaching, here and there, 

 quite close to high-water mai-k. As we proceed northward, the sand gradually 

 widens, forming a long flat or slightly undulating expanse, of about a quarter 

 of a mile in width, with a line of low hillocks on the inner side. At the 

 mouth of the Kaikorai River, there is a curions shifting bar, which is driven 

 upwards by the force of the surf in fine weather when the liver is low, and 

 then, when the water inside has acquired vohime enough, it washes away the 

 sand, and scoops out a deep channel, which remains until the water has all run 

 off, when the surf commences to re-form the bar. 



North of the Kaikorai the beach assumes a slightly different character — 

 the line of sand hills becomes more regular, and from the mouth of the lagoon 

 gradually approaches the beach, until, about half way from the rocks at Green 

 Island, the line of hills is the same as high-water mark. Along this part of 

 the beach the hills present a bold irregular front, rising at a very sharp grade 

 to a height of from thirty to forty feet. Inside this line the surface is very 

 irregular, and is worn by the action of the wind into the most fantastically 

 shaped hills and hollows. Here and there the hollows are deep enough to show 

 the original clay bottom, and some of them usually contain small lodges of 

 fresh water, the drainage of the surrounding hummocks. Crossing direct 

 through the sand to the fields on the inner side — and a most fatiguing walk it 

 is — a pretty good idea is got of the depth of the formation, as well as of the 

 general direction of its motion, for the sand is found encroaching on the grass 

 in many places ; and as we get nearer Green Island Bush, the ti-ees are being 

 gradually covered fiom sight. Indeed, on going down again from the district 

 road towards the beach, through the bush, the rate at which the sand is 

 invading the land becomes painfully evident. Large numbers of ti'ees and 

 bushes are completely buried, and the contrast between the dazzling white 

 sand and the dark green of the vegetation is remarkable. Trees do not seem 

 to live very long after they are covei^ed to any depth by the sand, and in this 

 way a sort of gauge is got by which to estimate the progress inland of the 

 sand bank. After a broadleaf (Pukatea — Griselinia littoralis) has been buried 

 to a depth of five or six feet from the groTind, it begins to decay, so that in a 

 season or two the tree dies, and the branches protruding above the sand 

 become quite brittle and dry. From a repeated examination, the writer thinks 

 that the sand is advancing into the thick scrubby bush in this quarter about 

 ten or twelve feet a year. From this point northward, there is properly no 

 beach, the coast line being occupied by a series of high cliffs, and it is not until 

 we approach Dunedin that the sand becomes again the boundary between land 

 and water. This part of the coast, however, is so well known that nothing 

 need be said about it, so we will at once pass on to Lawyer's Head and 

 Tomahawk. 



