Hill. — Geology of Hawke's Bay. 461 



tion, moisture, protection from warm winds, and a suitable 

 basin of accumulation of neve or firii to provide a supply for 

 tbe glacier, and these conditions are certainly not possible at 

 the present time either on the Kaweka or she Euahine Moun- 

 tains. 



Nor do the immense deposits which represent the Pleisto- 

 cene older period, such as are scattered over the district out- 

 side the area just described, supply satisfactory evidence in 

 favour of an extended glacial cap on the mountains and reach- 

 ing to the plains below The pumice deposits in many places 

 are more than 100ft, in thickness, and the shingle, though not 

 composed of material derived from lava or other volcanic pro- 

 ducts, contains many specimens of trachyte ; and, judging by 

 what was thrown from the several craters during the eruption 

 at Tarawera in 1886, it is quite possible that all or most of the 

 shingle which is interbedded with the pumice was thrown from 

 a volcanic orifice. Whether this was the case or not, we are 

 forced to recognize that the time when the deposits took place 

 was one of great volcanic activity, and when most of the 

 country was covered with volcanic ejectamenta. The blue 

 clays, with many pumice pebbles scattered through them, and 

 containing an abundance of marine shells, show that differen- 

 tial earth - movements were in progress whilst the Lower 

 Pleistocene beds were being deposited. These blue clays are 

 succeeded by pumiceous sands and lignites at the Kidnappers, 

 and by fine pumiceous mud-clay at Poverty Bay, which are 

 crowded with leaves of every variety and size. In the Pa- 

 tangata beds, the Unio and other fresh- w r ater shells are found 

 in abundance in the lignite beds ; and at Ovmond and Gisborne, 

 in the Poverty Bay district, specimens of a small fish like the 

 inanga, so common in the underground streams flowing from 

 Tongariro into Lake Rotoaira, are common, as also a Unio 

 and other shell-fish. In the same beds feather impressions 

 have also been obtained. These beds, in which so many traces 

 of animal and vegetable life are found, show 7 that the land was 

 probably rising at the time of their deposition, and they further 

 show that the country, in part at least, was covered with a 

 varied vegetation, possessing all the characteristics of the pre- 

 sent flora. 



I do not profess to be able to distinguish the different 

 kinds of trees which characterized the Lower Pleistocene 

 period simply from the leaf - impressions in my possession, 

 but there can be no doubt they illustrate the flora not of a 

 locality, but of a large district in both vertical and horizon- 

 t tl space. And this leads me to one of those aspects 

 in connection with so-called glacial phenomena that have 

 always appeared to me to receive too scant attention at the 

 hands of the glacialists. Because plants indicating a cold 



