Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/48

32 the afternoon these gentlemen came on board the steamer, and we got an accession to our yet trivial collection in the form of a Kakapo (or ground parrot, a rather large bird of brilliant green plumage), and a Toke-weka—a bird larger than the common Kiwi, resembling an Emu, and accepted as probably a lineal descendant of some branch of the family of Moa. They had with them a dog, which bore upon his pate traces of an encounter with a “wig-seal”—a father among seals, five of which the party had killed. This was not his first encounter with seals, as he had been previously the associate of Maori sealers, and he was received by his owner with all the attention due to a conquering hero.

I have said that at Preservation Inlet we met Mr Beverly, of Dunedin, and in him we met an enthusiastic, and, what is more to the purpose, an intelligent student of Nature. It will not be difficult to estimate his enthusiasm, when it is told that, for three weeks, he had been buffeted about the Straits in the roughest of weather; that, for a fortnight afterwards, usually under a drenching rain, he had been walking, climbing, and creeping among the dripping foliage of this West Coast; and in that time had accumulated a valuable collection of plants, shrubs, and trees, and it was in the hope of increasing his store and his lore that he agreed to join us on the journey to Martin’s Bay.

Let us sit down on the deck with Mr Beverly for a few minutes; examine his collections; and listen to his comments.—In his opinion, there is no country of so short an age which has been so thoroughly searched by botanists, yet he had got many new descriptions of plants, and, before leaving us, he expected to obtain more. Dr Hector and Mr Buchanan had brought from the West Coast a number of specimens of plants; but no one had yet attempted to bring round live plants, and the season at which Dr Hector visited the coast was not favourable for procuring seeds. It was Mr Beverly’s impression that he had exhausted nearly all the known plants to be found between Preservation Inlet and Breaksea Sound; and I believe he got several more at Milford Sound. But, at nearly every camping-place, something new presented itself; and, even as a botanist, it would take years to prospect the country. In exchange for what was thus obtained from Nature’s garden on the West side, Mr Beverly brought with him gum-tree and other seeds; and so did Mr M‘Indoe, who was also a passenger by the “Geelong.” Dr Hector had done the same on the occasion of his visit, and no doubt the produce of these seeds are now flourishing, although the soil, in some parts, is not the choice of gums, as it consists of a mossy deposit upon the granite rock.

The tree which is most abundant among the forests of this part of the West Coast is the birch. It is the predominant feature of the forest inland, as well as along the beach; and, in a few words, it may be described as a tree both useful and ornamental. Next in number and in value is the iron-wood, or rata, of two kinds, one of which is found on the East Coast. It is heavy, durable, and for ships’ knees or similar purposes there is nothing equal to it. The bastard birch, or karmai, is a tree seldom found in