Vegetation of the Kaweka Range By N. L. Elder [Received by the Editor, August 29, 1958.] Abstract The Kaweka Range, a short section of the Cook Strait-East Cape mountain axis of the North Island, lying between 39° 05′ and 39° 30′ S., is distinguished by several special features. It is probably the driest section of the axis; it originally carried a considerable depth of pumice from the Taupo and earlier showers; and sheep were run over the greater part of it from the earliest days of European settlement. Much of the present-day plant cover has been affected by stocking and burning; while the pumice cover is especially subject to erosion. Consequently the following survey is concerned largely with an induced vegetation and the changes taking place in it, and special attention has necessarily been given to the scanty historical evidence of the pre-European cover. The period of investigation, 33 years, has been long enough to yield evidence of appreciable changes and to permit the recording of some vestiges, now vanished, of the former cover. That part of the area not affected by direct human action has features of ecological significance. It abuts on the silver-beech forest of the northern Kaimanawa Range and contains part of the ecotone between pure silver-beech and pure mountain-beech forest, though these forests are not in a virgin state, since for a long period red deer have been in undisturbed occupation. Evidence of wide fluctuations in browsing pressure without human interference is of significance; while there has been a recent invasion of part of the area by Japanese deer, with the consequent development of different browsing patterns. Boundaries The Oamaru and Mohaka Rivers (Map 1) form a convenient northern boundary with the Kaimanawa-Ahimanawa forests; the upper Taruarau and Ngaruroro Rivers a western boundary with the Ngamatea Plateau tussock; the lower courses of these rivers a southern boundary; and the limit of pasture on the Hawke's Bay side the eastern boundary. This gives a rectangle 25 miles by 16 miles; the southern portion, the downfaulted area between the Ruahine Range and the Kaweka Range proper, being included because it carries a similar vegetation which has a similar history of use. Structure The Kaweka Range is a greywacke block sloping gently to the N.W. from the high scarp (5,657ft maximum). This escarpment is the highest point in Hawke's Bay, and on its eastern side is separated from the more easterly Black Birch Range and the McIntosh Plateau by a fault—the Kaweka fault. The gentle slope west of the Kaweka crest falls away for about 12 miles between the Ngaruroro and Mohaka stream systems to the Oamaru valley. The surface is cut up into a series of ridges and plateau remains. Remnants of the slope may be seen on looking across the Ngaruroro into the upper valley of the Taruarau. Subsidiary ridges run roughly north and south, for instance the Black Birch Range and Don Juan. The ridge of the Manson Country continues the line of the Pukuohikarua Ridge. Te Iringa and the Comet continue the line of the main Kaweka Range across the Ngaruroro. Faults separate all the mentioned ranges. Fault Lines Indications of recent fault movements are conspicuous both on the ground and in aerial photographs, along the eastern slopes and foothills, particularly in the Black Birch Range, in the vicinity of Kuripapango, and at the mouth of the Omahaki