CHAPTER XVIII 
A GEOLOGIST’S IMPRESSIONS OF NEW 
ZEALAND 
By A. O. THomMaAsS 
The Dominion of New Zealand with an area of 104,471 square 
miles, is composed of two large, narrow islands and a number of 
smaller ones the most important of which is Stewart Island at the 
southernmost extremity. The distance from North Cape to South 
Cape is almost a thousand miles yet no point of land is over 
seventy-five miles from the sea. The islands lie in the open Pacific ; 
their northern extremity, in latitude 34 degrees north, is sub- 
tropical, while the southern extremity has long, cold, and wet 
winters. Invercargill, at the lower end of South Island, with a 
population 18,000 is the most southerly town in the world hav- 
ing hotels, street railways, parks, and similar improvements. The 
islands not only have a wide range of climate but have a great 
variation in altitude extending from marshy lowlands at sea level 
to the peaks of the southern Alps, some ten or twelve thousand 
feet high. Rainfall is likewise variable, but nowhere too light for 
abundant vegetation; in certain sections, as on the west face of 
the southern Alps, whose crests lie athwart the path of the pre- 
vailing northwesterlies, the rainfall is very heavy. A visit in 
July and August, the winter months, impresses one with the 
chilly, damp, cloudy weather, a condition that is more prevalent 
the farther south one goes. In the Dunedin region dwellings are 
usually provided with stoves, and some provision is made for 
wintering sheep and cattle. Complaints were heard here of a 
constant tendency of the population to shift northward to the 
Auckland district where the winters are more genial. 
Geographically, New Zealand is separated by some twelve hun- 
dred miles of water from Australia, the nearest land mass. A 
bathymetric map, based on the soundings of the Challenger and 
other vessels shows that a large area of land covered by less than 
one thousand fathoms of water extends for hundreds of miles to 
the south and east of South Island. On this, for example, lie the 
Auckland Islands in latitude 50 degrees and 40 minutes south 
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