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 Kakanuis 

 on the north ; the Eock and Pillar, Lammerlaw, and Eough Eidge on east, 

 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, as a 

 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 Eock and Pillar Moun- 

 tains, contains a large morass of 3000 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 du-ection of the rainstorms which, 

 at their worst, come from S.E. to S.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 Eiver. There, rolling up the slopes of the Lammerlaw and Eock 

 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 Eange 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 Eange and 

 northern part of the Eough Eidge, 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 



