DISTRIBUTION FROM A GROWTH OF THE SANDHILLS. 14 1 



had no effect, with it the growth of foreshore and sandhill would 

 at most have been a little slower had there been no dredging at all, or 

 had the dredadngs been carried further to sea. 



3. — Distribution from a Growth of the Sandhills. 

 The stretch of land which has grown in front of the Clifton bluffs 

 is the source from which the sand of the sandhills has been derived, 

 but on it there are no conspicuous sandhills, though the surface 

 is far from even. Each of the scattered shrubs and clumps of 

 grass with which this area is dotted forms the nucleus of a small 

 hillock of sand, but it appears to be only after the wind has travelled a 

 certain distance over land that it is able to heap the sand into 

 conspicuous and definite sandhills. Inland the sand has become 

 heaped up against the high ground, and westward from the Clifton 

 pier the bluff has become obliterated by the accumulation of sand. 

 Behind the old bluff is a stretch of bare ground covered with small 

 pebbles which have been heaped by the wind into ridges of an inch 

 or so in height ; on this stretch the finer-grained sand cannot come to 

 rest, owing to the force of the wind, but inland of it scattered sandhills, 

 separated by stony ground, commence. Behind the scattered sand- 

 hills comes the main mass of them, where the ground is completely 

 covered by sand, while further east are more scattered sandhills. 



Though the windward and leeward limits of the area covered by 

 the sandhills behind Clifton resemble each other in the sandhills being 

 smaller and more scattered than in the central area, they differ in the 

 form of the sandhills. To leeward the sandhills dwindle in size, and 

 the furthest of these are low round-topped heaps of sands, the incipient 

 sandhills described further on. To windward this stage has been 

 passed and the hills are all fully formed with well defined windward 

 and leeward slopes. 



Below the western end of Clifton the sand has banked up against 

 the cliff, except where it has been removed artificially from in front 

 of the sacred cave just east of the pier, and heaps of sand have accu- 

 mulated behind the deserted houses on either side of the road. Still 

 further east the sand has not yet banked against the cliff, but there is 



( ' 9 ) 



