GLACIAL COMMITTEE. 241 



of North Westland. The chief characteristics have been noted 

 previously by Haast, McKay, and others, but he draws attention to 

 certain deposits which may be attributed to an early Tertiary glaciation, 

 although he considers that the evidence is not conclusive, and he also 

 emphasizes the important point that there is no sign of former glaciation 

 on the Paparoa Ranges immediately to the north-east of Greymouth. 

 He insists, too, on the important efiect of the glaciers in concentrating 

 the gold into payable leads and deposits. 



Volume XLIII. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 

 also contains a paper by Speight on the " Physiography of Mount 

 Arrowsmith Region." This deals chiefly with the glaciers at the heads 

 of the Rangitata, Ashburton, and Rakaia Rivers, and with the land 

 features which resulted from the former glaciation. The author notes 

 that the length of the Lyell Glacier, formerly supposed to be 8 miles, is 

 certainly less than 5 miles. In Part II. of this paper, Cockayne and 

 Laing describe the possible sequence of events in the re-instatement of 

 vegetation on the glaciated land surface. 



The same author has recently visited Red Cliff Gully on the 

 Rakaia River, with the object of describing its features. It might be 

 noted that Castle Rock, a prominent mass in the floor of the Rakaia 

 Valley, opposite Redcliff Gully, and mentioned by Hutton in his paper 

 on the " Origin of the New Zealand Fauna and Flora," is not a mass of 

 limestone, as stated by that author, but is composed entirely of grey- 

 wacke and slaty shale. This militates strongly against Hutton's 

 argument that the valleys of the Canterbury Rivers were eroded in 

 early Tertiary times to a greater depth than at present, an argument 

 ■which Hutton uses to oppose Haast's contention that the extension of 

 the glaciers in Pleistocene times was due to the more extensive snow- 

 fields which accumulated on the larger plateau elements then occupying 

 the site of the Southern Alps, whose present form arose therefrom owing 

 to excessive erosion. 



The 1910 volume of the GeographicalJournal cont&ms an interesting 

 paper by A. E. Kitson and E. 0. Thiele on the "Geography of the 

 Upper Waitaki Basin, New Zealand." This gives an excellent 

 summary of what has been already written concerning this noted 

 glacial region. The authors emphasize the former extent of the glaciers, 

 and generally endorse the opinion that the Upper Waitaki Basm owed 

 its formation primarily to faulting and fracture, with probable warping 

 during late Tertiary times, the basins so formed being modified subse- 

 quently by glacial erosion and deposition. 



The author of this report has furnished to the " Quaternary Climate" 

 Committee a brief statement, concerning the variations of certain 

 glaciers in the Southern Alps, which should be taken here. I refer the 

 section to this without quoting it. It is an aspect of the subject which 

 has a bearing on the work of both committees. 



