248 PROCEEDINGS OF CECTION C. 



(v) The disappearance of the Moa was attributed by Hutton 

 to a pluvial climate, just as the disappearance of the giant 

 marsupials of Australia is attributed to an arid climate. 

 Hutton also accounted for the large number of young 

 birds in the swamps containing Moas by the floods which 

 occurred during the pluvial climate. 



(vi) It has been urged by some that the plains of aggradation 

 formed at the base of the New Zealand Alps could only 

 have been formed during a plu^aal period, when the rivers 

 were highly charged with waste. On the other hand, 

 there is a strong body of opinion that their formation was 

 contemporaneous with the extension of the glaciers when 

 the effects of frost action were more marked and the 

 rivers were incompetent to deal with the load they carried. 



Although the different threads of this line of evidence are none of 

 them parbicularly strong, still their combination establishes a strong case 

 in favour of a humid climate having obtained over the eastern slopes 

 of the South Island of New Zealand, and it is fairly certain that the 

 climate as a whole is becoming increasingly drier at the present time. 

 This last statement is based on the fact that small water-courses carry 

 less water — a fact also attributable to the disappearance of the forests, 

 as both are attributable to an increase in desiccation, but it is strongly 

 supported by the general retreat of the terminals of the glaciers of the 

 Southern Alps, especially those of the middle district of Canterbury r.t 

 the head of the Rakaia and Rangitata rivers. The s^jrinkage of the 

 Oameron and Rangitata glaciers has been noted previously, and the 

 Lyell Glacier at the head of the Rakaia, if one can trust the sketches 

 of Haast, has certainly retreated some hundreds of yards since he saw 

 it in 1866. 



The Committee is indebted to Mr. A. Graham, the guide at the 

 Franz Josef Glacier, for the following facts about it-s present condition. 

 In a private letter to the Secretary, he says, " The most striking change 

 as compared with the date of Dr. Bell's report, is the great shrinkage 

 in the body of ice, as each wall of the glacier shows a lowering of from 

 90 to 120 feet, but of course it must be remcm.bered that at the time 

 when the observations were taken the glacier showed an extraordinary 

 advancement and also a very great increase in the volume of ice, for 

 I can remember when I first came to the glacier about twelve years ago 

 it was much less in volume than at the present time. The river issues 

 from the ice right against the west wall as when Dr. Bell reported on 

 it, but between pegs 1 and 2 (of Bell's map) it has cut a channel along 

 the side of the ice for about 15 chains. No. 1 peg is now covered with 

 moraine by the receding glacier ; No. 3 is 50 feet from the ice ; No. 4, 

 80 feet ; No. 5, 270 feet ; No. 6, 260 feet ; No. 7, 45 feet. Although 

 tie line of ice at the term.i^ial face does not appear to- have gone back 



