BY DR. R. V. LEXDEXFELD, PH.D. 807 



The South-west corner of the Middle Island of New Zealand is 

 a plateau 3000 to 5000 feet in height, which sinks abruptly towards 

 the Western Ocean. 



Numerous valleys extend from the open sea towards the interior of 

 the Island which are remarkable for their small width the steepness 

 of their rocky sides and their length. Along a coast line of 150 

 miles there are fourteen such Sounds which are similar to one 

 another, about a mile broad and from ten to thirty miles long. 



The sea stretches nearly to the ends of these valleys filling them 

 up from side to side. The rocks rise steep and abruptly from the 

 s ea on all sides. The water in these Sounds is extremely deep 

 averaging 100 fathoms, but what appeal's particularly remarkable 

 is the fact that the water in many cases is deeper towards the 

 interior than it is at the mouth. Small rivers pour from the sides 

 of these Sounds into the sea, and there is always a larger one at the 

 end. But it does not appear that the debris brought down by 

 these mountains torrents has affected the depth of the water in 

 the Sounds. And scarcely do we find a small delta pent up 

 between the rocks at the mouths of the terminal rivers. This 

 together with the great depth and the fact, that the rivers bring- 

 down a great amount of rock and sand, shows that the Sounds 

 cannot have existed long, for otherwise they would necessarily 

 have been filled up more or less by the material which is contin- 

 ually being deposited at the bottom of their still waters. 



The chai-acter of the sides of the valleys shows, that they were 

 originally produced by flowing water and that they were filled with 

 glacier streams afterwards. As long as they were filled with ice 

 nothing could be deposited in them, and we must assume that the 

 land sank whilst this was the case ; because if it had not been so, 

 the originally shallow part would have been filled up by the rivers, 

 partly at least, more rapidly than it could sink as such high 

 mountains stand around it. Finally, when the land had sunk so 

 much, that the bottom of the valley was 100 fathoms below the 

 sea it got warmer and the ice receded up the mountains, and the 



