386 Transactions. 



and would extend the fringe of land a considerable distance beyond the 

 present outer margin of the peninsula. 



Another proof of increased height may be obtained from the character 

 of the vegetation of the mountain-tops. If they were once higher we should 

 expect to find survivals of an alpine or at all events a subalpine flora. 

 This is exactly what we do get. R. M. Laing* has shown that certain 

 forms occurring on the summits are closely related to those found on the 

 Alps fifty miles away to the west. This author, however, says in conclu- 

 sion, " Whether this florula is to be regarded as a collection of waifs and 

 strays or the remnant of a more widespread flora of glacial times I shall 

 not endeavour to discuss here." Dr. Cockayne is of the opinion that the 

 latter explanation is probably the more correct one of the two. 



There is no doubt, however, of the greater height, and this corre- 

 sponded with the time of the severe glaciation which this country experi- 

 enced in Pleistocene times and later. It is generally agreed, however, that 

 increased height of the land, and not a marked refrigeration of the climate, 

 was the cause of the extension of the ice ; but there is no evidence that the 

 peninsula had a covering of ice or even nourished glaciers in its higher 

 valleys. Their form gives no suggestion that this was the case, and there 

 are no accumulations of angular boulders which might be called morainic 

 in character. The only evidence of the neighbourhood of glaciers is afforded 

 by the covering of loess which is found widely distributed at all levels and 

 in various positions in the area. It is found on the extremities of the ridges 

 dividing the bavs on the north and east, on the southern slopes which reach 

 down towards Lake Ellesmere, and on the western slopes above the Canter- 

 bury Plains, and it is found very thick in places within the calderas. It 

 is found at all levels up to 2,000 ft., but it is specially thick on the ridges, 

 and, above all, on those within the Lyttelton caldera, which lie at the back 

 of Qnail Island, where the capping is in places 25 ft. thick. This is well 

 seen on the ridge between Governor's Bay and the Head of the Bay, in a 

 road cutting. Captain Huttonf considered this a marine deposit, aild if so 

 it would imply a depression of the land at least 2,000 ft. below its present 

 level. The genera] absence of marine fossils, the. presence of remains of 

 Dinomis and other land-birds, as well as its peculiar distribution, is against 

 a marine origin being assigned to it. It is in all probability a rock-flour 

 formed by glacier erosion, transported out on to the plains by glacial 

 torrents, and distributed by winds during a time of drier and more steppe- 

 like climate. On the slopes of the hills it would receive an admixture of 

 clay derived from the weathering of the silicates contained in the volcanic 

 rocks, so that it should not be regarded as a typical loess such as exists 

 in Europe and America, but as a " pseudo-loess," as it has been called by 

 Heim.J 



Although the later major movements of the land have been in a 

 downward direction, there is evidence of a recent rise of from 2 ft. 

 to 3 ft. at least. In some of the sheltered bays there are beaches with 

 Recent marine shells some distance above high -water mark. The best 

 illustration of this is found on the south side of Quail Island, where a well- 



*R. M. Laing, On a Subalpine Element in the Flora of Banks Peninsula, Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. 46, 1914, p. 57. 



fF. W. Hptton, Note on the Silt Deposit at Lyttelton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 15, 

 1883, p. 411. 



t A. Heim, Neujahrsblatt, 107. Zurich, 1905, p. 38. 



