The Nature Column.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 4, 9 April 1920, Page 6

The Nature Column.

NATURE ROUND LAKE MONOWAI One of the things about Cleughearn which strikes the eye most forcihly, is the quantity and variety of wild flowers. Mountain daisies (Celmisias) of different sorts, some with flowers 4 inches across, mountain lillies (Ranunculus) with their beautiful clusters of white blooms and leaves occasionally as large as a dinner plate, and yellow Senecies, are the principal constituents in these wild gardens, which not imcommonly cover whole hillsides with a blaze of white and yellow. The smallest pine tree in the xvorld grows here, it reaches but a few inches in lieight, and the average person would centainly not take it for a tree. The curious whipcord veronica with its leafless cord-like stems is also common. The tussocks in sheltered places grow to a great size, and occasionally form quite an obstacle to walking. On the bare wind-swept tops plants grows close together and form cushions. The shingle slope vegetation is very curious, a number of the plants have thick woolly leaves, and quite a small plant rnake have a root several feet loug. They look just like the artificial flowers our graridmothers used to work in wool. The peaks are formed of synclines. A svncline by the way, is the bot-tom or valley part of an earth fold which is made so much harder- by compression that it becomes resistant to erosion, and later , becomes a high part of the land owing to the anticlines or high pai'ts of the earth fold having worn away. This particular structure goes to show that these peaks have been formed by erosion and not by earthfolding. The Green Lake about two square miles in extent seems to have had a gla-cial origin. Its shores are extreme ly precipitous in most places. The hills 011 the west side are apparently of a low morainic character. To the north, with a considerable valley between it- and Cut-h-bert peak, rises Mt. Burns over 5000 feet high. It forms practically one side of the Green Lake. On this mountain the writer experienced the highest wind it has ever been his lot to be out in. Progress had to he made on all fours and the pressure of ihe wind on the nostrils caused an unpleasant- sense of suffocation. There ig a flne slab hut, built almost entirely with an axe, about 1000 feet from the top of Cuthbert peak. From this point down to the Monowai flat a sheep track leads tlrrough the birch bush. The trip on a fine day is very pleasant. It takes about two and a half hours. Bird life is not- very plentiful. The floor 01 the forest seems to be built up on i'oots and gives out a hollow sound as you tramp along. Pack horses are very carefui 011 this track, but even so, they frequently fall through the rotten footing. The Monowai flat seems to possess one of those peculiar soils which the agriculturist has dubbed waterproof. It supports but a scanty vegetation. Lowly plants with a little- grass, manuka, and bcg pine grow upon it. At first sight an inexperienced traveller is apt to think the bog pine to be the common maerocarpa he sees at home, but on further examina-tion he speedily perceives a difference. In the upper part of the flat small mounds of earth and stones thickly scattered around give one the impression of a graveyard.

We are most of us familiar with the sight of a forest giant upxooted, and lying with a large bail of earth attached to the roots. The tree when it rots away will leave the mound of earth standing to witness its downfall. This seems to be the process by which the mounds in question were formed. The flat to the ordinary person is a somewhat dreary waste, but to tbe botanist the mat of lowly plants with which it is carpeted are of considerable interest. The Monowai river flows down one side of the flat and farther down the Borland flows down the other side, but at a lower level in a deep gorge. The Monowai could be run across the flat and emptied into the Borland which flows through a deep gorge with sheer sidcs. It would be a cheap scheme but would not develop more than 14,000 horse-power. The Monowai river is only a few miles long and falis over 200 feet. It rushes along very swiftly and the volume of water is considerable towards the lower end where it enters the Waiau it has cut a deep .gorge. Some little distance from the Waiau a sheep bridge affords means of crossing dryfoot-. At this point is to be seen the guage by which the river is measured, and just above this will be a weir and inlet of the pipe line.