MOKCAN. — Tile hjiKOtix Eorhx of tJir W'diJii Qoldfehl . 275 



(12.) 1908. Bell, J. M., and Eraser, C. " The Great Waihi Mine." Can- 

 adian Min. Joiirn., vol. 29, pp. 388-93 (15tli August) and 420-24 

 (1st September). 



(13.) 1908. Maclaren, J. Malcolm. " Gold : its Geological Occurrence and 

 Geographical Distribution." 



(14.) 1909. Finlayson, A. M. " Problems in the Geology of the Hauraki 

 Goldfields, New Zealand." " Economic Geology," vol. 4, No. 7, 

 pp. 632-45. 



(15.) 1910. Park, James. " The Geology of New Zealand." 



(16.) 1910. Bell, J. M. " The Waihi Goldfield." Proc. Aust. Inst. Min. 

 Eng., voh 7, No. 1. 



Art, XXXII. — A Note on the Structure of the Southern Alps. 

 By P. G. Morgan, M.A. 



{Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 5th October, 1910.] 



In Hochstetter's " New Zealand " (English translation), on page 487, two 

 geological sections from east to west across the South Island will be found. 

 One of these, after Hector, is drawn through Otago ; the other, drawn 

 through Canterbury and Westland, was supplied by Von Haast, and il- 

 lustrates with a considerable degree of correctness the structure of the 

 Southern Alps. In discussing the latter feature, Hochstetter says, " A 

 simple glance at the above sections shows, farthermore, that only the eastern 

 half of a complete mountain-chain has been preserved, while the western 

 half is buried in the depth of the main " (1,* p. 489). As a matter of fact, 

 however, the sections do not prove the truth of Hochstetter's statement, 

 which rests rather upon a hypothetical basis. One object of this note is 

 to show that, on the contrary, the Southern , Alps are not, as Hochstetter 

 supposed, the remnant of a vastly larger range that once extended far to 

 the westward of their present limits, but retain the same, or almost the 

 same, dimensions as at any past period of their history. 



Hochstetter's opinion, however, has been adopted by most New Zealand 

 geologists. In 1879 Von Haast writes, " This remarkable chain, of which 

 the geological structure is generally uniform throughout, is only the eastern 

 wing of a huge anticlinal arrangement, of which the western portion has 

 either been destroyed or submerged below the Pacific Ocean. It has thus 

 the same one-sided arrangement, so conspicuous in almost every alpine 

 chain of which the geological structure is known. The axis of this anti- 

 cline consists of granite and other plutonic rocks" (2, p. 242). 



At a later date Hutton, repeating part of Von Haast's statement almost 

 word for word, says that " the mountain-range is only the eastern half of a 

 huge geanticlinal arrangement of contorted rocks, the western half having 



* This and other numbers similarly enclosed in brackets refer to list of literatuie 

 at end. 



