A GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13991, 28 August 1909, Page 7

A GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM.

FROM MOUNT COOK. The later geograpnical history ol Souun Camerb..ry cwiiiauis many puzzies for solution. Mr T. i-). i>urneit has touiiu one oil uie Kitt'i-r siwjjes ol liie LiieDig range, at Mount tuuii fetation. On siiiKiug some holes Uiere ne uug through six inches of good black surface su^i; uieu uuougii t<> m. feet of yellow sandy clay, live lrom stoiiea; beneatlt tins struck aiiomei Diacu sou on the surface and intermixed witli strong moraine; and among tlie black soil are many chips, ot cnarcoal. 'J.lie yellow sanay clay, lrom its position on tlie lull slope. .hi" iJnrnett/ concludes must have come tnere as oust blown oil the lasmau river-bed. The puzzle here is to account lor an oiu soil-growing wood oil tne moraine; (2) the burning of .the wood; (3) the absence of active tn-*posio ot oust tiuring the time ol the formation of the black soil and tne growth of die bush; the beginning and continuance lor some'time of the deposit of dust; and (o) the cessation of this deposit', indicated bj tlie presence of a good black soil ■ n the surface. Perhaps (o) sliould be omitted. It is possible that the dust is arriving still, as 7-apidly as ever, the humus disappearing from beneath the upper six inches as the surtace rises. Tlie evidence of woody growth, and the action of fire, oil the surface ol tne moraine before the dust began to arrive, is interesting. Perhaps the explanation lies in a supposition that when the Tasman glacier retreated I'niiii Lake Pukaki, this lake extended far above the eastern foot of the Liebig range; in which case there would biT lio riverbed to speak of to furnish dust, but there might be enough to make a light coat of soil oil the twinned lateral moraine. If that were the case a long time would elapse before the lake was filled up with shingle and sand to the extent or exposing a large area to dust-iaismg gales. Then there is the fire that made the charcoal in that long-ago time to be accounted for. The trees or scrub burned were not of the same age as tho fragments of totara that were found scattered over so much ol t.he surface of South Canterbury, tor such fragments are found on the present surface of • Mount Cook run. They are, fcavs Mr Burnett, remains of trees very much larger than tlie apologies for'totara trees now growing in a "few spots in that region.