PBOCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF LONDON. 133 



2. " Note on communicating tlie Notes and Map of Dr. Julius 

 Haast, upon the Grlaciers and Eock-basius of New Zealand." By- 

 Sir E. I. Murchison, K.C.B., E.E.S., F.aS.— In this note Sir Eo- 

 derick Murchison states that Dr. Haast has informed him in a letter 

 that he has for the last five years attentively follovsred the discussions 

 on Grlacier-theories, that in March. 1862, he came, independently of 

 other authors, to the same conclusions in New Zealand that Professor 

 Eamsay did in Europe, and that his views have been printed in his 

 Colonial Eeports as Geologist of the Province of Canterbury. Sir 

 Eoderick also stated that the constant field and other occupations of 

 Dr. Haast have hitherto prevented his carrying out his intention of 

 writing a paper for the G-eological Society ; but he has sent the 

 following notes as a resume of his views. Though opposed to the 

 theory of the excavation of basins in hard rocks by the action of ice. 

 Sir Eoderick commended the researches of Dr. Haast as showing the 

 mutations of the surface in successive geological periods. 



3. " Notes on the Causes which have led to the Excavation of 

 deep Lake-basins in hard Eocks in the Southern Alps of New Zea- 

 land." By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S. Communicated by Sir E. I. 

 Murchison, K.C.B.,E.E.S.,E.Gr.S. — Eeferring first to the submergence 

 of New Zealand during the Pliocene period, and to its subsequent 

 elevation, the author stated that the chief physical feature of the 

 country after that elevation was a high mountain- range, from which 

 glaciers of enormous volume, owing to peculiar meteorological condi- 

 tions, descended into the plain below, removing in their course the 

 loose Tertiary strata, and thus widening and enlarging the pre- 

 existing depressions, the occurrence of which had at first determined 

 the course of the glaciers. — The author then observes that, the 

 country having acquired a temporary stability, the glaciers became 

 comparatively stationary, and therefore formed moraines, the mate- 

 rials of which were cemented together by the mud deposited from 

 the water issuing from the glaciers ; new moraine matter would then 

 raise the bed of the outlet and dam up the water below the glacier, 

 and from this moment, he believes, the formation and scooping out 

 of the rock-basin begins ; for the ice being pressed downwards, and 

 prevented by the moraine from descending, its force would be ex- 

 pended in excavating a basin in the rock below. 



4. " Note on a Sketch 3Iap of the Province of Canterbury, New 

 Zealand, showing the glaciation during the Pleistocene and Eeceut 

 times, as far as explored." By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S. Com- 



