460 Transactions. — Geology. 



white with snow, and the question came to my mind how this 

 deep valley had been scooped out, as the scooping had evi- 

 dently taken place since the formation of the ridges. Was it 

 by means of water or ice, or was the valley simply a great 

 rift that had been made by the elevation of the mountains ? 

 The evidence in favour of ice- and water-action seemed to me 

 the more probable, and this opinion has been strengthened 

 lately by reading the account given by Wright, in "Man and the 

 Glacial Period," page 30, on the formation of what are known 

 as "kames," or ridges. He says, "I have witnessed the 

 formation of a long ridge of gravel by the gradual falling-in of 

 the roof of a tunnel which had been occupied by a subglacial 

 stream, and over which there was deposited a great amount 

 of morainic matter. As the roof gave way this was constantly 

 falling to the bottom, where, being exempt from further erosive 

 agencies, it must remain as a gravel-ridge or kame." 



The extreme length of the ridges to the west of the Eua- 

 taniwha makes it improbable that they were formed solely by 

 the action of ice ; but the products and the arrangement of 

 the material are such as to suggest drift accumulations where 

 water has played an important part. For years I have 

 endeavoured to find out how such striking landmarks as those 

 to be seen near Hampden and Te Ongaonga, on the Eua- 

 taniwha Plain, could be formed, and during the flood in this 

 district in December last year I noticed on the beach at 

 Waitangi, near Farndon, that ridges had been made by the 

 waves of the sea washing over the beach and carrying shingle 

 into a backwater area connected with the Ngaruroro Eiver. 

 These ridges had faces and an outline corresponding in every 

 way with those described as facing the Euataniwha Plain on 

 its western margin. Geikie, in his Geology, page 892, men- 

 tions kames, but is doubtful as to the way they are formed. 

 There is one other place near the mountains that requires 

 notice. Between the Kaweka Eange and a lower line of hills 

 farther to the east, and known as Blowhard, there is a deep 

 and somewhat wide valley of sterile country composed of a 

 kind of brown tufaceous clay containing here and there peculiar 

 patches of subangular pumice pebbles. Interbedded with this 

 deposit are very large boulders and rough stones of all sizes 

 and shapes. The valley is parallel with the Kaweka Eange, 

 but does not now receive the drainage from it. The country 

 is much broken, and the limestones which top the hills at 

 Blowhard, both when in situ and when lying about in large 

 blocks, contain flutings and ridges, the origin of which it is hard 

 to interpret. There are several lakes within the area named, 

 and the coai*se accumulations of shingle, &c, in the vicinity 

 may represent the products of glaciers. But glaciers can only 

 exist in temperate climes under special conditions as to eleva- 



