Soils and Soil-formers.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OP NEW ZEALAND. 755 



Instances of this antiseptic action are well known in Europe, Two bodies 

 were found in a Thuringian bog ; from their clothing it was deduced that they were 

 German merchants of the time of Julius Caesar or Augustus. A mummy-like body 

 in the Copenhagen Museum, found fastened to a pole in a bog in Jutland, appears 

 to have been that of Queen Gunhilde of Norway, who in A.D. 965 was enticed to 

 Denmark by King Harold on a promise of marriage, and who was assassinated and 

 sunk in a bog in the above manner.* 



The ground outside the castaways' camp at Disappointment Island (see fig. 13, 

 p. xxxiii) was strewn with the half-devoured bodies of fat young mollymawks — 

 the six months' accumulation of camp-refuse. These had not putrefied, but were 

 covered by a growth of red mould or fungus. According to Kostyschoff (12), moulds 

 alone produce the dark-coloured matters which give soils rich in vegetable matter 

 their colour. The soil of this island is jet-black in colour. Although the breaking- 

 down of vegetable matter in ordinary soils into humus may usually be ascribed 

 to the action of bacteria, it is easy to imagine that in those soils where we have — 

 (a) an acid reaction, deleterious to bacteria ; (6) a high percentage of salt (sodium- 

 chloride), which is, according to Hall (13), particularly harmful to bacterial action 

 in soils ; (c) fairly low temperature ; (d) soil and atmosphere saturated with water ; 

 (e) absence of carbonate of lime — then the presence of bacteria may be reduced 

 to a minimum, or altogether wanting, and their function usurped by moulds or fungi. 

 A bacteriological analysis of these soils would, I am sure, prove highly interesting, 

 even if the results were entirely negative. 



As soon as the medium becomes decidedly acid bacteria do not thrive. Clarke (20) 

 states that the formation of humus acids appears to take place by a fermenta- 

 tive process, which eliminates some carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in the form of 

 carbon-dioxide, methane, and water. Micro-organisms play some part in pro- 

 ducing the changes observed. On this point, however, there is some doubt, 

 Friih and Schroter (21), for example, regarding the microbian influence as very 

 small. 



It is somewhat singular that no species of the family Coniferae occurs on these 

 islands, although coniferous trees form a great part of the forest of Stewart Island. 

 Endemic leguminous plants are wanting alike at both these habitats. Clovers were 

 observed only on Enderby Island, where there is an abundance of calcareous sand 

 and phosphate of lime in the soil. A study of the soil's action on bacteria may pos- 

 sibly enable one to say if members of those families which depend to some extent 

 on nodular colonies of bacteria on the roots could exist in such a soil. 



* The action of peat and humus on bone appears to vary considerably. In Ireland numerous 

 skeletons of the great Irish elk have been obtained from the bogs, although the animal itself was 

 extinct before the beginning of the authentic history of the country. — Greikie(28). 



In New Zealand, Hutton (29) and Booth (30) explored the Hamilton (Otago) peat-moss, " a small 

 dry basin 50 ft. in diameter, and from 5 ft. to 6 ft. deep in the lowest part, excavated out of a bed of 

 clay. This small basin was filled with peat and bones inextricably mixed, and forming a compact 

 layer 2 ft. to 4 ft. thick, and before being disturbed its surface was rather higher than the surround- 

 ing country, which was quite flat for a distance of 200 yards. Out of this small hole was taken 

 about 7 tons weight of moa-bones, more than half of them quite rotten, the remains of at least 

 four hundred birds. Mr. A. Hamilton also informs me that bones taken from a swamp at Swampy 

 Hill, Dunedin, were quite rotten. 



