290 Transactions. 



this part of the range until Mr. A.ston paid it a flying visit in 

 the early summer of last year. In his company and that of a 

 small party of friends I had the pleasure of visiting the Mount 

 Hector district at the end of January of the present year. The 

 visit was, unfortunately, too short and hurried to allow of close 

 or extensive observation, but a brief record of it may not be 

 devoid of interest, and may haply prove an aid and stimulus 

 to further exploration. 



The whole of the main Tararua Range appears to be of 

 comparatively recent elevation, in the geological sense of the 

 term " recent." The river-valleys issuing from its heights are 

 deep, narrow, and steep-sloped, while their upper parts are 

 gorge-like. Alluvial flats bordering the river-bed are absent. 

 or very scanty. Such as exist are composed of shingle overlaid 

 by sand and finer sediment, and are practically destitute of 

 swamp. The very gradual elevation of the range is attested 

 by the existence of the Manawatu Grorge, which crosses the 

 range at its northern extremity, and carries the drainage of the 

 eastern slopes of a large part of the Tararua and Ruahine 

 Ranges, as well as that of the lower eastern hilly country, to 

 the west coast of the Island. Obviously the elevation of the 

 mountain axis was so slow as to allow the Manawatu River to 

 deepen its valley almost as rapidly as the land was elevated. 

 The erosion of the gorge did not, indeed, continuously keep 

 pace with the upheaval of the range, for at one stage the water 

 coming from the eastern part of its basin was ponded back, 

 and formed an extensive lake in the district of which Woodville 

 is now the centre. But its waters appear never to have risen 

 high enough to flow eastward by any of the depressions lying 

 on that side of the basin. The main Tararua Range thus pre- 

 sents a striking contrast to the lower ranges that run southward 

 from it as far as Wellington Harbour. Here the Hutt Valley, 

 formerly eroded to a much greater depth than is now seen, 

 has been rilled up to a comparatively high level by the waste 

 of the mountains, owing to continuous recent depression. The 

 wide valley-flats of the Wainuioinala and other streams in this 

 region equally testify to former deep erosion I dlowed by a 

 filling-up of the valley as a result of depression. 



The whole of the slopes of the Tararua Range were at no 

 distant historical date completely clothed with forest. On the 

 lower slopes much of this covering has been cleared and the 

 land converted into pasture, but the main slopes to a great 

 width are still forest-clad, though the process of clearing goes 

 steadily forward. The whole tract above the level of the forest 

 and its limiting zone of subalpine scrub is still virgin country — 

 a fine specimen of primitive montane New Zealand, as yet 



