Soils and Soil-formers.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. TS? 



NOTES ON THE ABOVE SAMPLES AND ANALYSES. 

 Micaceous Humus Soils (15 per cent, inorganic). 



J 791 -3. — Collected on the 15tli November, 1907, on the main Snares Island, 

 at an altitude of 150 ft. on the west side, on a slope facing north-east. J 791-3 

 are a series taken from the face of a bed of humus which is exposed. The samples 

 were obtained by cutting several inches into the face and rejecting the portion 

 exposed to the weather. 



J 791, representing the top 18 in. of soil, contains much undecomposed remains of 

 the two grasses, Poa litorosa and P. foliosa (trace), which constitute the phanerogamic 

 flora of this soil. This soil was honeycombed by bird holes and runs. 



J 792, collected below J 791, and representing the next 2 ft. 6 in., containing 

 peaty soil, with some undecomposed grass-leaves, together with an amount of mica 

 present in fairly large particles. This sample was collected in a canvas bag ; the 

 amount lost on air drying does not, therefore, represent the field samples in this 

 particular. 



J 793, collected below J 792, represents the next 4 ft. of peat, containing mica. 

 This was also collected in a canvas bag. 



The most interesting fact brought out by these analyses is the gradual increase 

 in the salts from sea-water from the surface downwards. Thus, below 4 ft. under 

 the surface there is twice as much soluble salts as on the surface layer. In the most 

 soluble of the sea-salts present — magnesic chloride — the sample from the lowest 

 4 ft. contains five times the quantity found in the sample from the layer immediately 

 above it. 



K 2660 was collected from a Poa foliosa formation, on the 6th January, 1909, 

 on the Snares main island, a few yards from where J 792 was taken over twelve 

 months previously. The flora was entirely Poa foliosa, and the sample was taken 

 to 1 ft. in depth. This formation is much more compact than that of Poa litorosa, 

 and easy to walk on. 



K 3049 is the subsoil, taken to the depth of 1 ft. below K 2660. 



Hill Humus Soils (25-30 per cent, inorganic). 



J 795-6. — Hill soils collected on Adams Island on the 18th and 19th November, 

 1907. 



J 795 was got at an altitude of 700 ft., in a Pleurofhyllum Hookeri meadow. 

 The flora was P. Hookeri, Danthonia hromoides, Coprosma cuneata, Gentiana, Celmisia 

 vernicosa, Veronica Benfhami, Bulbinella Rossii, Dracophyllum longifolium (stunted), 

 Carpha alpina, Hierochloe Brunonis, Lycopodium fastigiatum, Oreobolus pectinatus, 

 Hymenophyllum multifidum. This was a black well-decomposed soil, having a 

 northerly aspect, and was taken to a depth of 9 in. 



J 796 was collected at 1,400 ft. elevation, taken on a different spur, and to the 

 west of situations of previous samples, facing north-west. The flora was a nearly 

 pure Danthonia hromoides (snowgrass) formation, but containing also Pleurophyllum 

 Hookeri, P. speciosum, Ligusticum latifolium, and Hymenophyllum multifdimi. A 

 good many bare patches were seen on these spurs, the soil and vegetation having 



