1G4 Essaijs. 



liglited either by tlie Maoris — where there are any Maoris — or by the 

 colonist, to increase the extent of his pastures, the vegetation is soon 

 reduced to the grasses, ferns, and those other families of plants which main- 

 tain their ground, though annually scorched. 



By a process of this sort it is reasonable to suppose that the forest has 

 been cleared away from the great breadth of the eastern and interior por- 

 tions of the South Island. Grroves of trees and even forests are still met 

 with there ; but they occur in localities which favour the above hypothesis. 

 For where they now exist, the surface is either so broken and mountainous 

 as to be worthless for occupation ; or they are surrounded by swamps and 

 running water ; or, as in the southern portions of the country, the climate 

 is so humid as to be unfavourable to the spreading of bush fires. Proceed- 

 ing, for instance, from Cape Campbell southwards, the country is treeless 

 until the ground begins to rise rapidly towards the flanks of the Kaikoura 

 Mountains, the seaward aspect of which is clothed with forest. The lime- 

 stone downs which skii't the coast to the south of the Kaikouras are entirely 

 without timber. On the Canterbury Plains a few groves survive, surrounded 

 by swamps. The ragged surface of Banks Peninsula is almost equally 

 divided between forest and open country, the former, however, chiefly 

 occupying the hollows and moister portions. Proceeding still further soilth, 

 for a distance of 200 miles, no timber to speak of is met with until we reach 

 the promontory which contains the ha,i"bour of Otago, where a broken 

 surface and the prevalence of rain have combined to preserve a noble 

 breadth of forest. To the same cause the wooded ranges which border the 

 coast between the Clutha and the Mataura appear to owe their existence, 

 while the picturesque groves and masses of wood which are sown broadcast 

 over the fertile plains of Southland still live, I should say, by virtue of 

 the superior dampness of the soil and the corresjjonding humidity of the 

 climate. 



While the characteristic feature of the eastern half of the South Island 

 of jSTew Zealand is a grassy surface, now feeding several millions of sheep, 

 that of its western mountains and sea-board is almost unbroken forest. 

 Of the character of that forest at the level of the sea I have had but limited 

 means of judging ; but in the interior, and more especially at the higher levels, 

 one genus of trees, the Iffagus or birch of the colonists, occupies the ground 

 to the exclusion of almost everything else, and impresses its peculiar physi- 

 ognomy upon the landscape. In the Provinces of ]>7elson and Marlborough, 

 with Avhich I am more especially acquainted, I should say that of those 

 portions clothed with wood, certainly uineteen-twentieths are covered with 

 the different varieties of Fagus. It appears to be, as in the Fuegian Islands, 

 the characteristic tree of the country. A fringe of land bordering the coasts, 



