A stratigraphic and pollen‐analytical analysis was carried out on a section near a chert quarry in the Nairn River catchment on Chatham Island in an attempt to reconstruct past vegetation changes resulting from man's influence. The stratigraphy showed that a slope deposit containing rock fragments, burnt peat and charcoal formed below the chert outcrop. A radiocarbon date indicates that the deposit has grown since 220 ± 140 B.P. The pollen record suggests a local change from Dracophyllum arboreum forest to Myrsine forest and thence to a bracken‐grassland formation. This is interpreted as being at least partly due to the use of fire by the Moriori people.
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Dodson et al. (1978) studied this question.
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