Park. — The Great Ice Age of New Zealand. 591 



Aiid it may be as well at this point to inquire what other evidence we have 

 that the ice-sheet reached thus far eastward. 



At Munro's Gully, Blue Spur, and Weatherstone's, in the lower Clutha, 

 there is a thick deposit of fluvio-glacial drift resting on a mica-schist floor. 

 The drift is mainly composed of round<3d boulders of greywacke and angular 

 masses of mica-schist. The greywackes are erratic, and must have been 

 transported from a distance. The mica-schist is local. Hutton thought 

 that the parent source of the greywacke was the Tapanui Kange, lying 

 some twenty miles to the westward ; and in this surmise I think he was 

 probably right. 



The well-known Taieri Moraine forms the front of the coastal range 

 lying between the Taieri Plain and the sea, extending from Mount Misery^ 

 south of Milton, to Allanton, a distance of twenty-five miles. It attains its 

 greatest development between Waihola and Otokaia, where it forms hills 

 varying from 250 ft. to 700 ft, high. 



It is easily divisible into two unequal parts — namely, an upper and a 

 lower series. The upper division is mainly composed of coarse angular 

 fragments and blocks of semi-metamorphic mica-schist, mingled with gritty 

 silt and a certain proportion of semi-rounded schistose gravel. The whole 

 mass is partially consolidated into a breccia-conglomerate. The pervading 

 colour is light red. 



The thickness of this division is some 450 ft. In the upper portion of 

 it there occur many masses of schist ranging from 6 ft. to 12 ft. in diameter.^ 

 These are perhaps more abundant behind Waihola and Henley than elsewhere. 



The whole of the material shows a certain rude stratification that can 

 be easily distinguished along the bank of the Taieri River and in the high, 

 slips near the crown of the hills behind Henley Inn. 



The lower division comprises the main portion of this glacial drift. It 

 is beautifully exposed in the road-cuttings that follow the north bank of 

 the Taieri River from the bridge at Henley to the upper end of the gorge. 

 It consists of a great succession of red clays, gritty and sandy clays, and^ 

 beds of well-waterworn gravel that commonly contain a large proportion 

 of small angular fragments of mica-schist. In a few places there are beds 

 of angular masses of rubbly schist in which many blocks are over a foot, 

 in diameter. 



The whole of the material is well stratified, and diagonal bedding is not 

 uncommon. The dip is towards the north-north-west for a distance of 

 two miles, at angles varying from 10° to 33°. The mean angle is not less 

 than 16°, giving an apparent thickness of over 3,000 ft. At Cotter's Gully, 

 and also opposite Crab Island, there is a distinct steeping of the incHnation; 

 of the beds, which, taken in conjunction with the long lines of escarpment 

 on the south side of the river, may be taken to indicate faulting. If the 

 suggested faulting has taken place to such an extent as to cause the repeti- 

 tion of the beds, I estimate that the thickness must in any case exceed 

 1,000 ft. But I ■wish to make it clear that it was the extraordinary 

 apparent thickness of the beds that first suggested repetition rather than 

 any physical appearance of faulting, of which there is no satisfactory 

 evidence. I wish further to say that Sir James Hector,* in his diagram- 

 matic representation of this section, shows a continuous dip from the upper 

 end of the gorge to the summit of the coarser upper member of the series 

 facing the Taieri Plain. 



* J. Hector, Rep. Geol. Exp., 1890-91, p, Ix, 



