150 AGATHIS AUSTRALIS. 
west coast between Port Waikato and Kawhia Harbour, where it attains its 
extreme southern limit. 
On the East Coast it is found on the Great and Little Barrier Islands, and 
in vast abundance on the Cape Colville Peninsula, especially on the eastern side 
as far south as Mercury Bay; on the inland side it is less abundant, and the 
last patch of forest is found in the vicinity of Te Aroha. It attains its southern 
limit on the East Coast a few miles from Maketu, where a clump of small trees 
is found in dense forest. 
It is a lowland tree, becoming rare at elevations exceeding 1,500ft., although 
solitary specimens were observed on the slopes of Mount Wynyard at 2,5o0oft., 
or perhaps higher. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Agathis australis, Salisbury. 
Dammara australis, Lambert, ‘‘ Pinetum,”’ Ed. 2, t. 55. 
A lofty moneecious tree, 80ft. to 120ft. high, with a massive trunk clothed 
with smooth cinereous bark. In the young state, leaves spreading, distant, 
tin. to 3in. long, fin. to 3in. wide, narrow-lanceolate, very thick and coriaceous ; 
branches whorled. On old trees, leaves sessile, oblong or obovate, ereen, often 
close-set. Male catkins axillary, cylindrical, rin. to tin. long, obtuse, connec- 
tive peltate, imbricated ; anther-cells ten, twelve, or more, pendulous. Female, 
terminal, tin. long, ovoid, scales numerous ; ovule inverted, solitary at the base 
of each scale. Fruit, a woody ovoid or globose cone. Seed with a mem- 
branous wing. 
EXPLANATION OF PLates LXXIX:, LXXX., LXXXa., ann LXXXI. 
LXXIX. Agathis australis, Salisbury. Tree at Tararu Creek, Thames 
Goldfield. From a photograph presented by Foy Brothers. 
LXAX. Agathis australis, Salisbury. Branch from young plant, natural size. 
LXXXaA. Agathis australis, Salisbury. 1 and 2. Male catkins, natural size. 
3. Connective after the anther-vells have fallen. 4. Pollen-grains. 5. Female 
cone. 6. Scales of fruit. 7. Seeds. 8. Longitudinal section of a young cone. 
to. Seedling plant. All natural size, except 3. and 4, 
LXXXI. Agathis australis, Salisbury. Young and mature cones, natural 
s1ze. 
Tue Conversion or INaurt. 
The chief difficulties in the conversion of kauri arise from the broken and 
difficult country in which it is usually found, and the large size of the logs, which 
render them difficult to move by ordinary methods. 
If the trees are growing on the banks of a deep stream they are simply 
felled, cross-cut into suitable lengths, and the logs rolled into the water. When 
growing at any considerable distance from a creek or river it is necessary to form 
rolling-roads : these are broad tracks from 3o0ft. to 6oft. wide, in which every 
advantage is taken of the natural incline of the surface, all inequalities are 
levelled, holes filled up, and stumps cut level with the surface. The logs are 
propelled along these roads by ‘‘ timber-jacks’’ until they reach the water. The 
work of moving such heavy masses is, of necessity, very laborious, but long 
practice enables the bushmen to use their ‘‘jacks’’ with great intelligence and 
dexterity, and the logs are propelled with a rapidity which astonishes any one 
who witnesses it for the first time. Owing to the smaller size of the chief com- 
mercial timbers, in other parts of the colony the ‘‘jack’’ is but rarely required 
for moving logs, and is nowhere used so dexterously as in the kauri districts. 
