Speight. — Terrace-development of Canterbury Rivers. 33 



terrace, while an even coast-line will show none. Thus we have 

 the remarkable shore platforms at Kaikoura Peninsula, but 

 hardly any sign of them on the steep hills to the north and 

 south. The conditions would be extremely favourable for the 

 cutting of distinct shore platforms on the spurs of Banks Penin- 

 sula during a period of depression. 



(2.) The existence of the silt deposit or loess was held by 

 Captain Hutton to be a proof of subsidence. If it is a marine 

 deposit, it undoubtedly proves that the land was much lower — 

 quite 1,000 ft. — as may be inferred from the distribution of the 

 deposit, and its present occurrence so far above sea-level would 

 be a proof of subsequent elevation. However, there are strong 

 reasons for believing it is a wind deposit, and I know from 

 conversations with Captain Hutton that he was not quite satis- 

 fied with some of his evidence. One difficulty which strikes me 

 with regard to Captain Hutton's contention is the following : 

 The so-called silt must have' been formed of glacial rock-flour 

 during a period of severe glaciation — i.e., during a period of 

 marked elevation of the land. All observers are agreed, I 

 believe, in this. Now, Captain Hutton's theory demands that 

 it should have been distributed into its present position by 

 marine action during a time of depression of the land. It is 

 absolutely impossible that the two processes could have gone 

 on simultaneously in the Canterbury area. If the silt were 

 swept down by great rivers issuing from the glaciers and dis- 

 tributed by the sea at their mouths, the area of deposition would 

 be forty or fifty miles to the eastward of the present coast-line. 

 Further, if the sea advanced to cover the Canterbury Plains, 

 the glaciers would then have disappeared, or have lingered on 

 only the very highest parts of the Southern Alps. The sea must 

 therefore have distributed the silt during a time of depression 

 posterior to the time of elevation when glaciation was at its 

 maximum. It would have been expected that the silt would be 

 thickest in the hollows and on lower ground. Such is not the 

 case, however ; it shows a marked tendency to be thickest on 

 the spurs and to thin out on low ground. In this way it closely 

 resembles the distribution of the loess in the Valley of the 

 Mississippi, to explain which the aid of the sea has never been 

 called in. 



Professor A. Heim, of the University of Zurich, an observer 

 of wide experience, and an authority of the greatest weight on 

 glacial and allied problems, differed with Captain Hutton on 

 this point. After a visit to New Zealand he published in Zurich, 

 in the year 1905, a paper which has many valuable observations 

 on geological problems in this country. The following is a 

 translation of his remarks in this work on our so-called loess : 

 2— Trans. 



