1104 president's address. 



the Geology of tlie Bluff district, shows that Bluif Harbour was at 

 no remote period a fresh water lake (occupying, I suppose, a Fiord 

 excavated by ice at a far more distant time). John Goodall, 

 M. Inst. C.E., shows (p. 455) that the formation of the Timaru 

 Downs, which was regarded by Haast as Loess, or Wind and Eain 

 Formation, and by Hutton to a Marine origin, is in reality of 

 Volcanic, consisting of stratified deposits of volcanic cinder, ash, 

 and mud upon a substratum of basalt or lava, which is presumed 

 to have flowed from the same or neighbouring vents. On the 

 Tasmanian and Australian species of Stenopora. Professor H. 

 A. Nicholson, Ann. and Mag. XVI. 1886 (p. 173). Baron v. 

 Ettingshausen publishes in the Geological Magazine Aug., 

 1887 (p. 359), an account of the Tertiary Flora of Australia, 

 drawn from Mr. Wilkinson's collections from New England. 

 This paper is an abstract of contributions to the Tertiary Flora of 

 Australia (Parts I. and II.). Denkschriften K. Akad. d. W. 

 Wien. Also ib. (p. 363) a sketch of the N.Z. Tertiary Flora, 

 being an abstract of the paper to which reference has been 

 already made. Proc. Inst. N.Z. I.e. 



The Department of Mines, Sydney, has recently issued a 

 Eeport on the Geology of the Vegetable Creek Tin Mining Field, 

 New England District, Avith Maps and Sections, by T. W. 

 Edgeworth David, B.A., F.G.S., Geological Surveyor. 



The Disturbances at Tarawera, N.Z. 



These extraordinary phenomena have naturally given origin to 

 a large number of papers which argue mainly on two different if 

 not opposite hypotheses. The one regards the earthquakes and 

 eruptions as no more than a sudden increase and culmination 

 of the activities previously familiarly known in the district, 

 referring the catastrophe to a larger admittance of water to 

 regions of intensely high, but not rising temperature, at no great 

 depth below the surface. Those who maintain this view, which 

 has been called the Geyser theoiy by Mr. Griffiths, speak with so 



