Aston. — Raised Beaches of (Jape Turakirae. 209 



of large boulders 3 ft. to 8 ft. in diameter, but running roughly parallel with 

 the sea throughout the length of the boulder-strewn plain are two excellently 

 defined shingle beaches. These stand out most conspicuously, and form 

 natural roadways along which one may drive. For the greater part the 

 shingle presents an appearance differing little from that of beaches which 

 often exist now at the ocean's marge. In many places the shingle is, how- 

 ever, overgrown with Muehlenbeckia complexa, or with grasses and other 

 plants. The main impression left on one's mind is that marvellously little 

 alteration has taken place in the peopling of these areas by plants, and in 

 the external appearance of the shingle generally, in the hundreds of years 

 which have probably elapsed since each was rapidly elevated. The survival 

 of the beaches as shingle involves the fact that it is composed of the harder 

 portions of the country rock, and which would hence, in the equable 

 climate, offer a considerable resistance to the weathering influences ; 

 isolated by boulder plains on all sides, little dust could blow in and form 

 soil between the interstices, and without soil little atmospheric moisture 

 could be retained. Only specially adapted shingle -plants, such as 

 Muehlenbeckia, could, therefore, hope to survive in such a station. 



Happily, we are not entirely in the dark as to the rapidity with which 

 these beaches may be elevated beyond the reach of the breakers. It is 

 well known that the coast at Mukumuku was elevated 9 ft. during the 

 earthquakes of 1855 (see Crawford, Trans. N.Z. Inst., Essay, vol. 1, p. 18). 

 Knowing this, the author carefully searched the boulder-strewn shore a 

 little above high-water mark, and was rewarded by finding traces of a 

 shingle beach about that altitude above high-water mark. Further search 

 nearer Mukumuku showed a long strip of shingle beach quite as well 

 developed as the older beaches. The fact that the sea is now breaking on 

 boulders and monoliths somewhat discounts the thought that beach No. 1 

 may be a mere storm beach. Exploring the country adjacent to the hills, 

 two much older shingle beaches were found. These nearly everywhere 

 have been obhterated by the debris carried down by temporary creeks from 

 the steep hillsides, the site of the older beaches being now occupied by fans 

 of angular shingle, mixed with finer detritus, many acres in extent, which 

 may or may not support a flora. This recent alluvium has buried these 

 two older beaches many feet below the surface, but where fragments of 

 them remain one is again struck with the extremely recent appearance 

 of the beach, as Plate XIV, fig. 1, truly depicts. The interesting fact that 

 the younger of these beaches is that more thickly populated by a flora is 

 probably accounted for by the difference in size of the component stones, 

 which explanation must also suffice for the fact that much of the newer fan- 

 material supports dense formations of herbage or arboreal growth. Five 

 distinct shingle beaches have now been mentioned, which for the sake of 

 ease of reference may be designated by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and £, No. 1 

 being the youngest (the 1855) beach and No. 5 the oldest. Observations 

 taken with a surveying aneroid show that the level of each of these beaches 

 is practically constant along its entire length — that is to say, beach No. 1 

 is approximately 9 ft. (see Plate XIII, fig. 4), beach No. 2 is 40 ft., beach 

 No. 3 is 60 ft. (see Plate XIV, fig. 2), beach No. 4 is 80 ft. (see Plate XIII, 

 fig. 2), and beach No. 5 is 95 ft. (see Plate XIV. fig. 1) above high-water 

 mark. 



The material of which all this elevated country is composed has so far 

 been roughly classified as boulders and shingle, but there is a third most 

 extraordinary component, the solitary monoliths which stand out some- 



