Hill. — Geology of Hcwke's Bay. 465 



scattered through the lignite and pumice beds of the Lower 

 Pleistocene period do not support the view that the climate 

 differed in any material point from what we have at the present 

 time, as represented by plain and mountain. It may perhaps 

 be urged against this that the deposits containing the fossil 

 leaves represent an interglacial period, and that the shingle 

 and conglomerates above and below the leaf-beds represent 

 two or more Glacial periods. But this is impossible, for the 

 reason that all the beds belonging to the Lower Pleistocene 

 deposits are strictly conformable to one another, and it would 

 be manifestly impossible for such to be the case had the beds 

 been laid down in different epochs. To me it is quite evident 

 that the shingle was carried down in a manner similar to the 

 pumice, and probably from the same source, but in what way 

 the deposition took place — whether into a lake or estuary, or 

 into a series of depressions which afterwards became part of a 

 river-bed— I cannot say. During the deposition of the lower 

 beds of the Pleistocene period — that is, during the time which 

 followed the elevation of the Pliocene limestones until the 

 elevation of the Euahine and Kaweka Eanges — the climatic 

 conditions prevailing in the North Island seem to have under- 

 gone little or no change. The conformity of the beds shows 

 this to be so, and the fossil flora and fauna testify to the fact. 

 If glaciers of any size ever existed on these mountains the 

 products are to be found on the Euataniwha Plain, in the 

 valley between Blowhard and the Kaweka Eange, and in the 

 kames, which have been described as forming such a character- 

 istic feature along the western margin of the Euataniwha. 

 The evidence here is much stronger than on the moun- 

 tains themselves of the former existence of glaciers, and 

 it is also stronger than that supplied by the distribution of 

 the so-called loessic clays, the high-level shingle deposits, or 

 the rounded and worn limestones on the Napier and adjacent 

 hills. There, if anywhere in the district, is evidence forth- 

 coming of morainic accumulations of drifts and of glacial 

 products generally. But unless the elevation of the moun- 

 tains was much greater than at present, which seems very 

 unlikely, some other cause must be found to account for 

 their existence should it be found that glaciers have occupied 

 the mountains and valleys along the western part of this 

 district. 



In any case it appears that the reason urged for the exist- 

 ence of a Glacial period in the South Island by Haast, Hutton, 

 and Travers — namely, a great elevation of the land — can 

 hardly apply to this Island, as there is nothing whatever to 

 show that the mountains were ever higher than they now are. 

 Evidence of elevation and depression since the close of the 

 Pliocene period is to be met with everywhere, but the eleva- 

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