522 Transactions. 



seen projecting from the steep slopes fronting tlie sea : and half a mile 

 from the sea the course of Shades Creek is blocked up and rendered 

 impassable with piles of fossiliferous boulders that have fallen from the 

 adjacent morainic ridges (see Plate XXI). 



The presence of such a vast accumulation of ice-formed and ice-borne 

 detritus on the present shore-line offers a temptation to speculate as to the 

 former existence of an ice-sheet that may have stretched far beyond the 

 present strand. Of a great extension beyond the present shore-line there 

 is, however, not much evidence. An examination of the detritus shows 

 that it is mainly fluvio-glacial and glacial, such as might very easily be 

 formed at or near the edge of a piedmont ice -sheet. 



The morainic reefs off the mouth of the Kekerangu River lie at their 

 furthest limit half a mile from the shore. They may possibly extend as 

 submerged reefs another half-mile or more to seaward ; but, notwithstand- 

 ing this possibility, I am inclined to think that the present strand marks 

 approximately the eastern extension of the Pleistocene glaciers during the 

 period of maximum refrigeration. 



The Kekerangu and Shades Moraines, although so far north, rank among 

 the finest examples of glacial deposits in the South Island, and among the 

 most accessible. They are, unlike the Cape Campbell Moraine, close to 

 the main coach-road connecting Flaxbourne and Kaikoura, and can be 

 reached from either Blenheim or Kaikoura in a day. 



A prominent feature of these moraines is the presence in them of large 

 angular blocks of different rocks plucked from the bed-rock in the neigh- 

 bourhood or transported from a distant watershed. 



In the face of the cliff forming Homai, the south headland at Kekerangu 

 (Plate XXII), there are many large angular blocks, among which two con- 

 spicuous masses of Amuri limestone* immediately catch the eye when 

 standing on the beach. The most northerly mass measures 32 ft. by 30 ft. 

 by 20 ft. ; but it should lie mentioned that these dimensions may be much 

 greater, as the distance the block extends into the cliif cannot be seen. 

 The southerly block measures 38 ft. by 20 ft. by 11 ft., the last dimension 

 being the distance the mass is seen to project beyond the cliff-face. 



Some 25 yards south of the last mentioned block of Amuri limestone, 

 and at about the same height, there is a large mass of soft blue foramin- 

 iferous clay from the Awatere beds near Flaxbourne or Seddon, which 

 measures in the two dimensions that are exposed 30 ft. by 22 ft. 



Besides these, this moraine also contains large slablike masses of soft 

 Tertiary sandstone, with numerous fossil shells, and blue shaly clay with 

 leaf-impressions, the largest slab seen by me measuring 10 ft. long, 6 ft. 

 wide, and 2 ft. thick. 



The included blocks of rock in the Shades Moraine are more numerous 

 and larger than at Kekerangu. In the face of Deadman's Hill, as seen from 

 the beach, three masses of Amuri limestone are particularly conspicuous. 

 The largest measures in the two dimensions that are exposed 72 ft. by 24 ft. ; 

 the second, 51 ft. by 28 ft. ; and the smallest and most southerly, 46 ft. by 

 32 ft. by 30 ft., the last dimension not being fully exposed. 



Mount V^ernon Drifts. 

 These form the Vernon Hills, lying from two to five miles south of Blen- 

 heim, and extending from the sea along the west side of the Wairnu ^'allev 



* Those arc shown in lig. !).'}, p. 202, " The Gooloify of New Zcalan<I."" 1)\- James 

 VA.rk, 1910. I'lioto by A. McKay, K.G.S. 



