BURIED FORESTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1921, Page 6

BURIED FORESTS.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS. Writes Mr. W. W. Smith, the wellknown botanist and naturalist: Referring to the article on this subject published in the News a fortnight ago, I may state that there is nothing remarkable in the finding of old kauri and other tree logs in the recentlydrained swamps at Papakura. Large sohd logs of over a dozen species bf endemic trees have been found in swamps in many parts of the Dominion. In many cases the trees formerly grew in valleys or depressions of the land surface, the natural drainage of which became obstructed, resulting in the formation of more or less exteiTsive swamps. As the trees matured they fell and became submerged. Gradually as the fine silt was deposited, the bark of the trunks became thickly coated withmud, thus preventing decay of the timber. In due time, and according to the quantity and nature of the vegetation macerating in the swamps, the mud generally assumes a chocolate brown color, which frequently discolors the timber for several 'inches under the bark. In times of tumult and war the Maoris frequently hid their more valuable family relics in swamps, especially in the South Island. During the reclamation of old swamps on the Canterbury Plains by the early settlers they met with many large old prostrate trunks, which could only have originated on their sites as described above. By the generosity of those early and progressive pioneers the splendid Canterbury Museum possesses . many valuable relics of the several ex- | tinct Maori tribes of the South Island, ' which were collected during the draining of the ancient swamps on the plains. Many of the logs had been charred by fire, but the timber was quite sound. When kauri gum diggers north of Auckland are probing the treeless swampy areas for gum they frequently meet with huge buried tree trunks on sites where no trees have grown for centuries.