Cotton. — Warped Land-surface at Port Nicholson. 137 



decay. These stacks are exceptional features of the high-standing coastal 

 platforms, the smoothness of which seems at first sight remarkable when 

 they are compared with the rugged rock platforms of the modern shore- 

 line ; but the explanation seems to be that the rocky prominences soon 

 succumb to subaerial weathering. At the extremity of Baring Head a 

 rocky table which evidently was cut very nearly at sea-level, being perhaps 

 bare" at low water, now forms the outer part of the platform remnant 

 (Plate XXXI, fig. 1), and is separated from the ancient cliff behind it by 

 the bed of a channel 6 ft. or 8 ft. lower, floored with coarse sand containing 

 gravel lenses. This outlying reef was evidently the outcrop of a belt of 

 resistant rock. It and the ancient channel behind it are distinctly trace- 

 able along the platform for half a mile northward. 



The small streams which drain the surface of the platform appear to 

 be all consequent. On the eastern side of Baring Head they flow directly 

 towards the sea, but on the north-western side the little streams from 

 i.ie cliff above join one which flows for a few hundred yards lengthwise 

 (northward) along the platform before turning seaward. This is quite clearly 

 guided by the channel between the land and the ancient outlying reef 

 described above. The northward direction agrees with the direction of 

 tilting of the platform. No abandoned courses or gaps in the outer reef 

 were observed which would indicate that streams had been diverted either 

 by capture or by tilting from former more direct courses to the sea. On 

 the surface of the platform the streams flow in widely-opened shallow 

 valleys in the soft veneer of gravel and sand, and they have cut notches 

 in the bed-rock only at the cliff ed edge of the platform. The above 

 description does not apply to larger, extended streams, such as the Wainui- 

 o-mata, which crosses the platform at grade in a deep valley, or a smaller 

 extended stream between the latter and the Orongorongo, which has deeply 

 notched the platform. 



At Baring Head there are also two verv distinct remnants of benches 

 at heights of 80 ft. and 160 ft. respectively above the Baring Head plat- 

 form (fig. 2). At the back and front of each there is a distinct cliff, and 

 the covering of gravel on the highest is still quite fresh. Where observed 

 in a prominent outcrop the gravel consists of a mixture of large and small 

 pebbles without any finer material, and is loosely cemented with iron oxide. 

 These benches are drained by channels which cross them at right angles. 

 As in the case of all uplifted platforms backed by cliffs, it is difficult to 

 determine the exact levels of the ancient shore-lines because of the amotint 

 of talus material overlying them. For this reason, together with the fact 

 that the remnants do not extend for more than a few hundred yards along 

 the western sid<? of Baring Head, it was not found practicable to decide 

 whether thev are tilted to exactlv the same extent as the Baring Head 

 platform or not, though when they are viewed from a distance the impression 

 received is that the benches are approximately parallel. 



Eastward of Baring Head, between the Wainui-o-mata and Orongorongo 

 Kivers, the two benches last mentioned do not survive, but above the 

 eastward continuation of the Baring Head platform (which rises here to 

 450 ft.) there are other well-preserved remnants at a much greater height 

 (Plate XXX, fig. 2). The most prominent of these is the next above the 

 Baring Head platform. It is of considerable width, is submaturely dissected, 

 and rises to a height of 900 ft. at the eastern end. This may b3 termed 

 the " Orongorongo platform." It and the two higher remnants, which are 

 several hundred feet higher and are nearly as well preserved (Plate XXX. 

 fig. 2), are seen from seaward to be distinctly tilted westward, and their 



