604 Transactions. 



New Zealand glacial period up to the year 1907 was the same as that 

 of Hutton ; but the fresh evidence discovered at Wakatipu and Wanaka, 

 a re-examination of the glaciation of the coastal land between the Clutha 

 and Canterbury, and the glacial deposits of the North Island, have led 

 me to the belief that the glaciation of New Zealand was on a scale too 

 gigantic to be accounted the work of valley-glaciers. Hutton has shown 

 that nearly half of the South Island was glaciated with an ice-sheet. I 

 have ventured, in the light of fresh evidence unknown to Hutton, to extend 

 the limits of the glaciation over the greater portion of the South Island, 



I am in agreement with Hutton and Hector that the glaciation was 

 caused by a general elevation of the land, the uplift amounting to 3,000 ft. 

 or more. This elevation would extend the Hmits of New Zealand many 

 hundreds of miles to the eastward, and six or seven hundred miles to the 

 southward, the southward limit reaching within seven hundred miles or 

 less of the Antarctic continent. If the New Zealand uplift affected the 

 south polar region, then glacial New Zealand would be separated from 

 the Antarctic land by a relatively narrow stretch of sea. 



The question that at once arises is, could New Zealand suffer such 

 intense glaciation without lands in the same latitudes in other parts of 

 the Southern Hemisphere being equally glaciated ? The evidence on this 

 point is clear and emphatic, leaving to my mind no further room for doubt 

 that the whole of the higher latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere were 

 glaciated contemporaneously with the Pleistocene glaciation of the Northern 

 Hemisphere. 



The land-areas that extend southward to the glaciated latitudes of New 

 Zealand are South America and Tasmania. It will be interesting to see 

 what is said by recognised authorities as to the glaciation of these lands. 



The glaciation of Tasmania in the Pleistocene has now been placed 

 beyond all doubt. Evidence of glacial action in that State was first dis- 

 covered by Mr. Charles Gould,* in the Cuvier Valley, and reported by him 

 in 1860 ; but, though challenged and denied for some years, the high-level 

 glaciation was at last established by Dunn and Moore. Mount Tyndall, 

 on the authority of Moore, is polished and striated at an altitude of 

 3,850 ft. Mr. A. Montgomery, sometime Government Geologist of Tas- 

 mania, has described important glacial phenomena in the vicinity of Mount 

 Pelion and Lake Eyre. Morainic deposits and perfect roches nioutonnees. 

 together with erratics, are described bv him as traceable from 2,000 ft. to 

 2,792 ft. above the sea. 



The West Coast Range, Eldon Range, and Mount Ida were covered 

 with glaciers which flowed westward into the valley of the King River, the 

 Macintosh River, and the Henty. The lowest moraines formed by these 

 glaciers, on the authority of Professor Gregory, occur at a height of about 

 400 ft. above the sea. This is confirmed by Professor David, who states 

 that in the Pleistocene time the glacial ice came to within a few hundred 

 feet of sea-level, if not down to sea-level itself. Important contributions 

 to the glaciation of Tasmania have also been made by Johnston, Twelve- 

 trees, Kitson, Waller, and others. An excellent summary of glacial action 

 in that State and in Australia is given by Mr, Johnstonf in a paper on the 

 " Glacial Epoch of Australasia." 



* C. Gould. " A Report of the Exploration of the Western Country," Pari. Paper, 

 Tasmania, No. G, ISfiO. 



t R. M. Johnston, Papers and Proceedings, Royal Society of Tasmania, 1893. 



