174 Transactions. — Geology. 



sixty miles. The glacier wliich filled Lake Wakatipu did uot 

 drain into the Clutha, but went due south by Athol to the 

 Oreti River. The united glaciers of Lakes Te Anau and 

 Manapouri extended to Blackmount, on the Eiver Waiau, 

 a distance of sixty-five miles, thus being the largest of the 

 New Zealand glaciers. There is also in Otago the remark- 

 able isolated moraine in the Lower Taieri, which forms low 

 hills — some 400 ft. or 500 ft. in height — between Lake Wai- 

 hola and the sea. This moraine may perhaps be older than 

 any of the others. A few marine fossils have been found 

 in the sandy clays underlying it, which seem to indicate 

 a Miocene age for those beds, so that the moraine itself may 

 belong to the older Pliocene.''' 



In Nelson the terminal moraines of the largest of the 

 ancient glaciers are about 2,000 ft. above the present sea-level. 

 In South Canterbury they go to 1,000 ft., and in South Otago 

 to 600 ft. ; but in Westland and in the West Coast Sounds 

 the glaciers advanced to below the present sea-level. There 

 are, however, no stratified till-deposits, and nowhere do we 

 find the moraines enclosing marine shells, so that there is no 

 evidence that these glaciers descended into the sea. Another 

 remarkable feature is that no boulder-clay has as yet been 

 detected in New Zealand — nothing but the ordinary moraines 

 of valley glaciers. Neither are there any true erratics — that 

 is, large blocks of rock which have been transferred from one 

 drainage system into another. All our erratics have come 

 down the valley in which we now find them. 



Now comes the question, What was the cause of this great 

 accumulation of ice in our mountains? We cannot account 

 for it by a colder climate, for there is not the least palaeonto- 

 logical or biological evidence to show that our climate has ever 

 been colder than it is now. On the contrary, all the evidence 

 goes to show that it was formerly warmer. Thus in the south 

 we find local outliers of warmth-loving plants and animals 

 which flourish much better in the North Island. Such are the 

 nikau palm {Areca sapida) on Banks Peninsula and at West- 

 port, where also Lomaria frazeri occurs, a fern which is not 

 found elsewhere south of Auckland. These are survivals of a 

 more genial age in the South Island. Indeed, the greater part 

 of our present flora is of subtropical origin, as also was that of 

 Europe before the cold of the glacial epoch killed it off and 

 largely replaced it by a northern flora. Nothing of that kind 

 has happened in New Zealand. Again, several northern ma- 

 rine shells still live in Foveaux Strait, such as Triton spenglcri, 

 Scaiaria zelehori, and Cookia sulcata. If New Zealand had 

 lately passed through a cold phase all these plants and 



* Report Aast. Aseoc. Adv. Science, vol. v., p. 232 ; Adelaide, 1893. 



