336 Transactions. 



(3.) The occurrence of roches moutonnees or rounded hills of solid rock 



distributed over the area, 

 (4.) The occurrence of grooved or ice-worn surfaces of rock generally 

 throughout the district that has been covered. Such sur- 

 faces will naturally he more numerous and conspicuous where 

 any elevations rise in the path of the ice. 

 (5.) Boulders of rocks foreign to the locality will be found in great 

 nrmabers in positions where they cannot have been deposited 

 by streams that formerly existed or on prehistoric sea-beaches. 

 In the publication to which reference has been made there is no mention 

 of any observations near the coast-line in connection with the subjects of 

 these five headings, with the exception of No. 2. This is very noticeable, 

 for it is explicitly stated that the evidences of glaciation are remarkably 

 fresh even in the mountain regions, where geological processes are most 

 active, and at the level that is described as the upper limit of the ice-sheet, 

 which would therefore be from the first diminution of the glacial covering 

 subject to the healing and conceahng processes of nature. It is evident 

 that the lapse of time and the effect of weathering cannot be appealed to as 

 causing the blotting-out or disappearance of other evidence near the coast- 

 line. 



It is, however, advisable in a discussion of this kind to consider what 

 observations have been made by geologists in regard to each one of these 

 criteria. 



(1.) There is no continuous line of morainic material near the east coast 

 that has yet been described by any geologist. The terminal moraine at 

 Henley is quite isolated. It is opposite the watershed between the Clutha 

 and Taieri basins — that is, opposite to the highest line of country — and it is 

 therefore the most likely place for a glacier to exist if climatic conditions 

 allowed of an accumulation of ice. It is also well known that the material 

 of the moraine dips uniformly to the west at an angle of 15° to 20°. The 

 inclination is constant from Henley to a point three miles to the east. Such 

 an inclination means that the Henley side is noAv 5,000 ft. lower than when 

 deposited, or that the other side is higher by that amount, or that one is 

 higher and the other lower by 2,500 ft. than in their original position. 

 This shows that earth-movements of some importance have taken place 

 subsequently to the deposition of the moraine, and this may account for its 

 present low-lying position. The materials of the moraine have often been 

 described, and its nature is well known to geologists. Its structure is re- 

 markabh'' similar to the morainic material partly assorted by water through 

 which the Tekapo and Pukaki Rivers flow when they issue from lakes of the 

 same names. The great local thickness — 800 ft. at least — and the abrupt 

 termination in all directions show that this mass of fragmental material is 

 not a boulder-clay — a conclusion that would naturally be drawn from an 

 inspection of its material alone. It is only necessary to say, in regard to 

 the latter point, that in many places for great thicknesses, especially on 

 the landward margin of the moraine, there is no clay, but merely an un- 

 assorted mass of large and small angular pebbles. 



A moraine has been described in the Leith Valley. It is a mound 8 ft. 

 high and a few hundred yards in length. It contains no schist boulders, 

 but some andesite is said to have been found in it. I have seen no speci- 

 men of this rock in it ; neither do I know of any occurrence of andesite 

 in the Leith Valley basin above this point. There appears to be no 



