66 Transactions. 



to demonstrate the conspicuous part played by fluviatile drifts in the 

 structure of such deposits. In all cases the observations were made at 

 points free from re-sorting. 



The great Clyde moraine contains about 60 per cent, of silts., sands, 

 and gravels of fluviatile origin ; the Queenstown Domain moraine, 55 per 

 cent. ; the Kingston moraine, 55 per cent. ; the Manapouri moraine, 65 

 per cent. The Clyde, Kingston, and Manapouri moraines appear to rest 

 on beds of fluviatile drift. I have not yet made a, quantitative estimate 

 of the material composing the Tasman terminal moraine, but if my recol- 

 lection is not at fault I should say that fluviatile drift is conspicuously 

 represented. According to many independent writers, the Pleistocene 

 glacial deposits of Canada and the United States contain a large, or even 

 dominant, proportion of fluviatile material. 



A Question of Nomenclature. 



Before going further I wish to express my views as to some new 

 names that have been lately suggested by Thomson. In my paper 

 (1905, pp. 497-501) "On the Marine Tertiaries of Otago and Southland" 

 I recognized (a) that the main orographical features of New Zealand were 

 determined by an early Cretaceous diastrophic movement that folded and 

 elevated the Juro-Triassic and older formations, and (b) that the Upper 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary strata were laid down as " marginal " deposits on 

 a platform that contoured around the early Cretaceous strand. These 

 views I reiterated in 1910 (p. 85). Thomson (1917 p. 407), in a discussion 

 of the younger covering strata, thought it " desirable for many purposes 

 in New Zealand geology to have a name which will embrace them all, a 

 name which will replace the earlier name of ' marginal rocks ' used by Park 

 and myself, and the physiographic and structural term of ' covering strata,' 

 when an age significance is intended." 



I was the first to describe (1905) the late Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 strata as " marginal," and have no recollection that this term was used 

 by Thomson till many years afterwards. Apart from this, I am in 

 agreement with him that the substitution of a name for my " marginal " 

 strata is desirable. But the term " Notocene," which he has suggested, 

 is inappropriate ; and I agree with Marshall (1919, p. 240) that it is 

 unscientific. The suffix " cene " (from hainos = recent) is used as the 

 termination of the four epochs into which the Cainozoic era has been 

 divided, and to use it in the structure of a word intended to cover the 

 Upper Cretaceous and the whole of the Cainozoic would be certain to lead 

 to misunderstanding. Moreover, there is nothing recent about the Albian 

 and later groups of the Upper Cretaceous, in the sense that " cene " is 

 used in the words Eocene and Miocene. If it had not been previously 

 used in a much narrower sense — that is, as meaning Cretaceo -Eocene — 

 Hector's term " Cretaceo-Tertiary " would be quite satisfactory, but it 

 must also be ruled out on the score of possible confusion. 



Following the precedent set by the Geological Survey of India, a 

 native group-name may be appropriately used for the marginal Cretaceo- 

 Pliocene strata of New Zealand. The name I now suggest is " Awatean."* 



For the post-Jurassic and pre-Albian N.E.-S.W. orogenic movements 

 that folded and elevated the Juro-Triassic of the main chains I propose 

 to use the term " Rangitatan movement." 



* Awatea was the name of the great Polynesian deity who heralded the emergence 

 of the land from the void. 



