Park. — Glaciation on the Shores of Cook Strait. 585 



Art. LX. — Some Evidences of Glaciation on the Shores of Cook Strait 



and Golden Bay. 



By Professor James Park, F.G.S. 

 [Read before the Olaijo Institute, 7th December, 1909.] 



Somes Island, in Wellington Harbour, when viewed from the narrows at 

 the Heads, is seen to possess the lion form of contour that is well known 

 to be characteristic of ice erosion in all glaciated regions. 



Fig. 1. — Somes Island, as seex from Narrows at Wellington Heads. 



At Pencarrow Head, on the north side of the entrance to Wellington 

 Harbour, the land on the seaward side is seen to present rock shelves 

 and fine smooth-flowing contours ; and a rock shelf or terrace runs parallel 

 with the coast, beginning a short distance past the beacon and running 

 south to Pencarrow Head. This shelf is not horizontal, but rises with a 

 long gentle gradient towards the headland. 



Fig. 2. — Showing Rock Shelf at Wellington Heads running Southward to 



Pencarrow Head. 



Proceeding along the coast towards Cape Terawhiti, in Cook Strait, 

 the shore is seen to be fringed with the remains of a rock shelf or platform 

 that can be traced almost continuously from a point half a mile on the 

 north-west side of Terawhiti Stream to Macmenamen's homestead, a dis- 

 tance of four miles. A small remnant of this bench can still be traced at 

 Cape Terawhiti when viewed in profile. 



The rock shelf fringing the coast at Macmenamen's and Karori Stream 

 is so broad and conspicuous that it can be clearly observed when some 

 miles ofishore. 



This platform varies from 90 ft. to 300 ft. high. It is excavated in the 

 claystones and greywacke which compose the mainland, and is in many 

 places covered with a skin of gravelly material. It passes around the coast- 

 line without reference to the adjacent contours, and is deeply notched by 

 the streams that enter the sea from the neighbouring ranges. 



From Terawhiti Stream the shelf extends around the coast to Macmena- 

 men's homestead, near which the ill-fated s.s. " Penguin " came to grief 

 in 1909. 



