BY PROF. DAVID, RICHARD HELMS, AND E. F. PITTMAN. 57 



authorities that New Zealand during Cainozoic time has passed 

 through an epoch when the glaciers have had a far greater 

 development than at present, for whereas the largest modern 

 glacier of New Zealand, the Tasman Glacier, is 18 miles in length, 

 some of the New Zealand glaciers in Post-Miocene time were 

 upwards of 50 miles long, and in the case of the Wakatipu 

 Glacier, 80 miles long. Captain Hutton has furnished a map 

 showing the relative sizes of the areas formerly glaciated and 

 those at present occupied by glaciers in New Zealand. 



The two chief points at present at issue in connection with the 

 glaciation of New Zealand are: — [a) As to the date of this 

 glacier epoch ; (6) as to whether it was due ^^i) to a general 

 refrigeration of the climate in the Southern Hemisphere, or (ii) 

 to the New Zealand mountains standing several thousand feet 

 higher than they do at present. 



Captain Hutton inclines to the last-mentioned view as to the 

 cause of the New Zealand Glacier Epoch. He says (30, 

 p. 211), "I have elsewhere given reasons for concluding 

 that the former great extension of our glaciers was caused by 

 greater elevation of the land during the interval between the 

 Pareora System and the marine beds of the Wangauui System. 

 As these beds are fossiliferous in the North Island only, where 

 there are no traces of former glaciation, it is not possible to get 

 direct proof of this, but in Otago the old Taieri moraine, between 

 Lake Waihola and the sea, which forms low rounded hills 

 between 400 and 500 feet in height, is on the seaward side, 

 covered nearly to the top by marine gravels, which may belong 

 to this sytem or may be younger." 



In the Wanganui System, Captain Hutton states (ibidem) that 

 from 70 to 90 per cent, of the mollusca and all the brachiopoda 

 are recent. He also states (32, p. 174) that marine fossils in 

 the sandy clays underlying the old Taieri moraine appear to 

 indicate a Miocene Age for these beds, and he suggests that the 

 moraine may be older Pliocene. 



He adds that Dr. von Haast found moa l)ones in morainic 

 deposits belonging to the Wanganui System. He further states 



