808 THE TIME OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NEW ZEALAND. 



sea filled the vacant place ; then the process of filling in commenced, 

 and we can calculate irom the quantity of material deposited at the 

 river mouths the time which has elapsed since then. 



There is no doubt, that the New Zealand Glaciers were large all 

 over the Island at the same period, and that therefore the Glacial 

 period was simultaneous with the subsidence of land and later 

 than the formation of the Sounds. 



The minuteness of the Deltas mentioned above would lead one 

 to suppose that they are of no great age and comparing them to 

 similar alluvial formations which have been produced in the 

 European Alps in historic time, one must come to the conclusion, 

 that the Glacial period in New Zealand has not been more remote 

 than two or three thousand years. This would account also for the 

 extremely fresh appearance of the old moraines and ice scratches 



This part of the West coast, has, as far as it is known, never 

 been inhabited by Maoris and the Middle Island never appears to 

 have been at all thickly populated by them. To judge from their 

 myths, they immigrated from the North, probably after it had 

 begun to get warmer, and with them came animals and plants, the 

 Glacial Fauna and Flora receding with the Glaciers at the margins 

 of which even now the greatest number of plants and even birds 

 are found. 





