GLACIAL ACTION IN AUSTRALASIA. 237 



The Upper Rangitata Valley I have not visited, but Sir Julius 

 YOU Haast says that this glacier, during the time of its greatest 

 exieusion, reached "several miles into the Canterbury Plains, 

 crossing the front ranges, before the lower gorge was cut, by a 

 saddle to the south of it.'^^ Sir J. von Haast recommends the 

 banks of the Potts River as a good place for studying the glacier 

 deposits, one of which he thinks to be a ground moraine, the only 

 one as yet noticed in New Zealand. The Rangitata glacier is 

 estimated to have been forty-eight miles in length. The head 

 waters of the River Waitaki includes the basins of Lake Tekapo, 

 Pukaki, and Ohau. and the ancient glaciers descended, undoubtedly, 

 to beyond the lower ends of these lakes ; but whether they con- 

 tinued on until they met and, united together, formed a Waitaki 

 glacier appears to be doubtful. Sir Julius von Haast was of 

 opinion that they did do so, and says that the lowest moraine 

 deposits of the Waitaki glacier which he was able to trace are 

 situated six miles below the junction of the Hakateramea River, 

 and consequently he makes this ancient glacier to have been 112 

 miles in length. Mr. McKay, however, doubts this, and thinks 

 that the moraine deposits at Wharekauri and Upper Ferry are 

 local, and have been brought by glaciers from the Kurow and 

 Hakateramea Mountains. f I am inclined to agree with Mr. 

 McKay, because I could see no evidence of a glacier having ever 

 come down the Ahuriri Valley. 



Westland. — Lake Brunner is due to the terminal moraine of the 

 ancient glacier of the Teremakau : and the country about Kumara 

 is covered by immense morainic accumulations which have, for the 

 most part, come down the valley of the Hokitika. At Bold Head, 

 a little south of Koss, the morainic accumulations reach the sea 

 level, and continue all along the coast to Bruce Bay.| According 

 to von Haast these moraines afford proofs of several oscillations in 

 the glaciers, but no marine shells have been found in them, and it 

 is doubtful if they were deposited at the low level at which they 

 now stand. 



Otago. — Both Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka are bounded at 

 their southern ends by moraines which slope gradually away into 

 the alluvial gravels of the plains below them. Further down the 

 Clutha River a large moraine once existed at the junction of the 

 Lindis, and large angular blocks of rock are found in the river 

 alluvium as far down as Cromwell. These are very conspicuous 

 near Cromwell at the entrance to the Kawarau Gorge. Below 



• Haast, Geolour of Canterbury and Westland, p. 390. See also McKay, Rep. Geol. 

 Explorations, 1877-8, p. 108. 



+ Haast, Geology of Canterbury and Westland, p. 389, and Report on the Head- waters of 

 the Waitaki River". Christchurch, 1865; and Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, 1865, p. 

 135. Hutton, Geology of Otago, Dunedin, 1875, p. 88. Mr. McKav, Hep. Geol! Explora- 

 tions, 1881, pp bO and 98 ; Green, High Alps of New Zealand, p. 128-134. 



± Haast, Geology of Canterbury and Westland, Christchurch, 1879, p. 392 ; Cox, Rep. 

 Geol. Explorations, 1S74-6, pp. 85 and 93. 



