AN ANCIENT FOREST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 203, 16 January 1913, Page 8

AN ANCIENT FOREST.

UNCOVERED BY THE SEA. DISCOVERY IN THE NORTH. Auckland, Wednesday. An interesting discovery of an ancient forest, which at one time was buried by the sea, has been made in the North Auckland district. A week or so ago, Mr. John Macintosh, a gum merchant of Houhora, and Mr. John Reid, also a resident of Houhora, were out riding in search of some lost cattle in the vicinity of Mangonui Bluff, which lies some 15 miles south of Cape Maria Van Dieman on the west coast. Mr. Macintosh's course took him for some miles along .the beach, in a region which neither white man nor native freIquents. The land here from sea to sea [measures only 17 miles across, and is part of a Government kauri gum reserve. I When just south of Mangouui Bluff, Mr. .Macintosh found himself on the edge of [a partly-exposed forest, and he told a Herald' representative that the sight which confronted him was one of the most wonderful he had ever seen. "The trees, which cover an area of some 30 acres," he said, "run nearly down to the water's edge. From what I could see. I eame to the conclusion that they were thousands of years old. They had at one time been covered by the sea, but Recently they must, have just been under the sand, and the winds and tides had gradually uncovered them. At one time, evidently just before they were buried through the sinking of the land, a terrific hurricane must have swept over this part of the country. None of the trees have been left whole, but they are all cut off about 7ft from the ground. The appearance of acres and acres of these rimu and totara trees all beheaded is most remarkable. I closely inspected some of the vegetation, and found that the forest, where the hurricane had not wrought havoc, was in a remarkable state of preservation. The bark of the trees was in every case just as it grew when the trees' were alive; the rata vines and other undergrowth twined in and out just as in a growing bush, and'the wood in the treetrunks, although hardened with age, had, as far as I could see, been preserved in a remarkable manner."

| It is thought that it must only be a very short time since the unearthing of this remarkable piece of bush. Strong winds and high tides are constantly changing the sandy -beaches of this lonely part of New Zealand, and these have evidently shifted the sands from the trees.