KOTIWHENU 113 
where scrub had been cut for firewood, but even 
here tupari seedlings and young trees of other 
sorts in lesser numbers and luxuriance were 
thickly reappearing. There was not a cabbage 
tree on the island. The giant nettle was rare. 
I do not recollect the black vine, often so abun- 
‘dant on the fertile peats of these islands of the 
south. 
The deeper the blanketing of peat, the more 
suitable does an island become for Petrel. Be- 
cause Kotiwhenu was a peat island, large portions 
of the surface were worn bare by bird trafiic— 
seedling trees, grasses, and ferns trampled down 
and worn away. 
As on all “ birding ” islands, paths—of a sort— 
were numerous and fairly well defined. A main 
track more or less free of fallen trees circled the 
island. Other routes of a foot or two wide opened 
up the points and peninsulas. Perpetual stooping 
and crawling, so tiresome on the mainland, was 
unnecessary. Conditions were indeed almost ideal : 
insect pests were absent, there were no sand-flies 
by day, there were no mosquitoes by night. 
Blow-flies were unknown, we had no anxiety as to 
provisions, we had no trouble as to blankets hung 
out to air or left on the bunks. 
The weather was extraordinarily changeful. 
Sometimes in a single day we experienced every 
vicissitude marked on the meteorological chart— 
H 
