318 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
A favorable morning tide bore us into the harbor while Orion 
was still brilliant in the northeastern sky and the Southern 
Cross hung inverted in the west. 
Cook Strait is on the line of one of the major faults of New 
Zealand, and not only has there been a depression and a remark- 
able dislocation along the straits region but, according to Dr. 
Park, ‘‘North Island has been thrust eastward some distance 
relatively to the South Island.’’ At nearly right angles to this 
fault extend the Whakatane fault, mentioned in connection 
with the voleanic phenomena of North Island, and the Wairarapa 
fault along which earth-rents could be traced for many miles on 
both sides of the strait during the earthquakes of the fifties. At 
Nelson the southern end of the Whakatane fault has brought 
the coal-bearing Miocene beds against the Triassic. 
Nelson is an attractive town of ten thousand inhabitants. The 
surrounding region is noted for fruit-growing, and we saw here 
some of the largest orchards and berry patches in New Zealand. 
The place is famous for its jams and preserves which find a 
ready market throughout the Dominion. The climate of the 
region is remarkably mild with a rainfall of close to thirty-six 
inches and an average of three hundred sunny days per year. 
The harbor, Nelson Haven, lies behind a natural mole of coarse 
gravel and boulders. The material is of glacial origin heaped 
up as a result of the opposing action of strong heavily laden 
post-glacial streams and powerful ocean currents driven into the 
bay by the prevailing winds. This Nelson Boulder Bank, as it 
is called, is a very conspicuous physiographic feature, especially 
at low tide. 
GENERAL FEATURES OF SOUTH ISLAND 
South Island has an area of 58,525 square miles, being a 
fourth larger than North Island and a little larger than the 
state of Iowa. Its length is close to five hundred miles, and its 
mean width is about one hundred miles. Its population—close 
to half a million—is but about two-thirds that of the warmer 
North Island. 
The great Southern Alps extending parallel to the western 
coast from Tasman Bay to the fiords of Otago are a magnificent 
chain of mountains ranging from six to ten thousand feet in 
height. They form a narrow snow-clad barrier for four hundred 
