UNGULATA 55 



On the North-west side of Isolated Hill is a gently-sloping tussock land 

 stretching down towards the Ure river, on which are hundreds of wild 

 sheep in small flocks of about half-a-dozen in each. All, — rams, ewes, and 

 particularly the lambs, are, as far as we could see, in excellent condition. 

 Some were curiously marked and coloured. One had a brown body, black 

 legs and face, and white forehead. The rams had large horns, and all were 

 tamer than ordinary domestic sheep. Their food appears to consist of the 

 Silver Tussock, Poa ceespitosa, which was well eaten doWn; a Poa like P. 

 coletisoi; the Spear Grass, Aciphylla Colensoi; and several other native plants 

 and shrubs. 



In another place he says: "these sheep destroy the Gaya trees" 

 (the mountain ribbon-wood, Gaya Lyallii), " by eating the bark, which 

 we watched one stripping off in large sheets." 



Sheep have been liberated on the Auckland Islands at various 

 times since 1890, and on the Antipodes between 1886 and 1900, but 

 they either died off or were killed by castaways. They were also 

 liberated on Campbell Island between 1888 and 1890. In 1896 the 

 island was taken up as a sheep run (a piece of vandalism on the part 

 of the man who did it, and the Government which granted it), and 

 in 1903 there were about 4500 sheep on it. The changes produced in 

 the vegetation have been described and discussed at length by Dr 

 Cockayne. In 1907, according to Laing, there were some 8000 sheep 

 on the island, and the transformation and destruction of the native 

 flora was going on at a great rate. 



They were introduced into Chatham Island in the early forties, 

 but as late as 1855 there were only about 200 of them. When sheep 

 stations were organised in 1866 there were about 2000 on the island, 

 and by 1900 they had increased to about 60,000, and a number of them 

 were wild. They have profoundly altered the native vegetation by 

 eating out many species, such as Myosotidium nobile, Aciphylla 

 Traversii, Veronica Dieffenbachii and allied species, all of which they 

 eat greedily. 



At the present time (1919) several hundred wild sheep are rurming on 

 the island of Kapiti which is now a plant and animal sanctuary. Steps are 

 being taken to destroy these animals. Nearly all of them carry long, 

 filthy dags ; very many of them have the wool torn more or less completely 

 from the back by the bushes. Not only do they prevent to a very large 

 extent the growth of young trees, but they open up the forest to the sweep 

 of the wind. They prepare it for invasion by grass, tauhinu (Pomaderris 

 phyliccefolia), manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), and other hardy plants. 

 Although the manuka is one of the least objectionable of these invaders, 

 yet in dry situations, such as some of the spurs, where it harbours no moss 

 or liverworts, very little humus is formed, and that little is quickly washed 

 away by rain. On some spurs — for example, on one just south of Waterfall 

 — ^where manuka has replaced the forest, much soil has been removed. 



