44 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



windward, where it ceases to have onward motion, and, rising higher and 

 higher, its leeward side towards the fence soon shows a face as steep as the 

 material will allow of. The drift still rises, and the crest rolls over the steep 

 side, continually approaching the fence, until at last it is buried. A forest 

 has the same effect and ultimate fate. Of what use, then, is planting young 

 trees, if fences and old " bush" are of so little avail ] Bat tlie sarue 

 experience shows that if the drift can be arrested at its source, then all to 

 leeward may be gradually worked on and reclaimed. 



There can be little doubt that these hills have been originally blown u}3 

 from the sea sand, but this has been most likely during a gradual elevation of 

 the land. The closing in of the vaIIe3'S above mentioned with nearly 500 feet 

 of sand seems conclusive on that point. But it is most unlikely that any rein- 

 forcement of sand is now got from the l^each. The hills in general I'ise 100 feet 

 to 300 feet abruptly from high-water mark, and the drift does not appear to 

 rise much above the surface. The face of the coast then, and the tops of the 

 first hills, are the places where, if anywhere, an effectual start can be made to 

 arrest the evil. 



In Mr. "VVhitcombe's paper much valuable information is given as to the 

 methods found successful in France, and a record is given of the plants and 

 trees found most efficacious. But it seems in the case of the hills under 

 reference in our Province, that the violence of the south-west winds is such 

 that it would not joi-event any shrubs or trees from having the sand blown 

 from under them, unless it is first protected by a sward of some grassy sort of 

 vegetation. The effects of the prevalent winds are strikingly indicated by the 

 appearance of the "bush" near the Manukau South Head. The prevailing 

 timber is puriri, and the bi'anches and foliage look as if shorn, and have a 

 singular overlapping appearance, one tree with another, as of a roof shingled 

 and lapped the wrong way. 



The reclamation of the Surrey Hills, in Sydney, is a case in point. There 

 the sand was of a nature even less adapted to support vegetation, being 

 shaj-per and more suitable for builders' use. Yet these heights, which not long 

 ago were a waste of driving sand, are now covered with a beautiful swai'd of 

 grass. The means in detail by which this was acconiplished is unknown to 

 the writer, but he has a recollection of hearing a descri})tion of a method 

 adopted in some of the Western Isles of Scotland, and which was successful. 

 There the difficulty was, as with us, to keep the seeds of the grasses stable 

 sufficiently long to allow of germination and striking root. The grasses 

 selected were, when seeded and ripe, spun into hay ropes without thresliin"'. 

 These ropes were pegged to the sand all over the area to be reclaimed, in 

 chequered lines. The seed was thus enabled to germinate and take firm hold, 

 and soon the whole was an uniform mass of vegetation. Such a process is 



