RETURN TO THE BLUFF.

Colonist, Volume L, Issue 12105, 2 December 1907, Page 3

RETURN TO THE BLUFF.

(Pev United Pres3 Association.) Invercargiil, Dec. 1. The s.s. Hinemoa returned on Saturday afternoon with the members of the^ seienticfi expedition, who went to the Campbell and Auckland Islands, to collect and classify what knowledge of those islands it was possible forthem to acquire. They secured twelve oages of bn'ds, including ten flightless ducks and twenty-four parrakeets. Among the latter are some Antipodes parrakfteta, which are among the rarest birds in the world: and some are Auckland Islands species. Some birds were got at the Snares, but all died. Tbe birds brought back will be liberated on Kapiti Island. The most interesting spot visited was Disappointment Island, and thirtyone species of. flowering plants and ferns were found on that island. The mernbors of the expedition wer( well satisfied with their researches in regard to botanical work, anc some facts not previously knowr were discovered as to the adaptation of the various plants to the extraor dinary conditions of the sub-An-tarctic climate. About a dozec species of plants were found, addi tional to those discovered by forme expeditions. Some tree ferns wer< found growing in Norman's Inlet they being the moat southerly tre< ferns. Hitherto those growing ai Stewart Island were credited as be ing the most southerly ones. Th( members of the expedition worke< from twelve to sixeen hours per day and often had to cut tracks. Th< rata trees were seldom more thai twenty feet high, and their trunks spread along th 9 ground in a weirc and uncanny manner. The flowen are described ag being remarkably tine. Those on tbe mainland wer mostly white, yellow, purple, am blue. Some of the mountain flow ers were of the loveiiest shades o blue ever seen. The sheep wbic] were liberated on the island hay nearly all disappeared. There j evidence of there being plenty o wild pigs, and they are doing great deal of mischief to the vege tafcion. The magnetic survey obser vations were very successful. / large number of sample's of soi from different' altitudes were ob taiipd. The remains of prehistori glacie»s were found in. praeli?jll all- the valleys. Raiii fell on ever day bot one during the stay c the expedition. Forty speoiinen of insects were obtained, twelve bf £ng previously unknown in the lis

of insect life on tlie Auckland islands. The bad weather hampered the work of tbo oflleml photographer.