PREHISTORIC FOREST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 January 1928, Page 3

PREHISTORIC FOREST

REVELATION AT AIM PUN I HUGE STUMPS IN NEW COURSE BEFORE Till.: MAORIS CAM K The most remarkable development at Ar.'ipuiii has been the exposure of the stumps of an ancient Forest evidently destroyed by the last, deposit, of pumice from some volcano (says the "N.Z. Herald"). No authority in geology lias yet reported upon the matter, but it is evident, that the forest grew and nourished after the Waikalo River left the coui'so which is now the headrace and cut the gorge over 200 ft deep in which Mt lias now been dammed. Tlirco geological periods, it appears, hiive been cross-sectioned by the river in its new year adventures on. the Waifcfi Flat. The earliest is shown by boulders and rocks that are well worn by water. Obviously the river once flowed there. In the second period this old bed filled, the water was diverted and upon the now layer that is now clay,, a forest grew. It could not have started to grow less than 600 or 800 years ago, for among the many stumps of rimu and nialai there aro some 4ft in diameter, indicating such an age. The tops of these stumps, some of which are now standing 18ft. to 20ft. ahove the rushing water, mark the level of the swamp water and their wonderful state of preservation is evidently due to this form of sealing. On somo the bark still"firmly holds. Some punga stems have been noticed. The appearance oT charcoal suggests that the forest was destroyed after the puinic layer was deposited, which marks the_ beginning of the third geological period. What the theories are as to the length of the pumice period i.s not at present known, but clearly centuries have passed since the trees died. Hence they were growing long before tjia Maoris came to New Zealand, and doubtless long before the Norman Conquest—possibly they spread their first leaves to the sun at a much earlier time. But sealed from the air'by swamp water, the stumps still stand, and when they are washed down stream, as undoubtedly they will be as the water undermines them, river-bank people will drag them ashore, and some of them may yet become fence posts. Certainly they will supply many a. "back log" for the winter fires and their end will be ashes. It is significant that no timbor was uncovered above the level of the stumps. Probably fire took most of it, and decay the i-cst. On the upper 7 art of' the flat the stumps are very thick.