88 Capt. F. W. Hutton on the Origin of the 



proofs. If these glaciers had reached the sea, their moraines 

 would show traces of having been deposited in water quite as 

 much as the shingle spits between the moraines. 



In the third place, the cold that would be necessary to bring 

 back our glaciers to their former dimensions would be suffi- 

 cient to exterminate throughout New Zealand all but the more 

 cold-loving species of plants and animals *. But we find, as 

 I showed in my last address, that the principal part of our 

 subtropical fauna and flora was introduced before the Miocene 

 period, and has flourished ever since. It has, however, been 

 lately suggested that the survival of our terrestrial fauna and 

 flora through a cold glacial epoch may have been due to the 

 sea standing at that time at a lower level than at present, and 

 so affording room for the plants and animals to retire to f. 

 No doubt Sir W. Thomson has calculated that the ice-cap 

 covering northern Europe and America during the glacial 

 epoch might have caused, by its attraction, a rise of the ocean 

 of some 380 feet at the north pole and a lowering to the same 

 extent at the south pole J, and that the amount of water 

 taken from the ocean to form the ice might have lowered the 

 level 120 feet all over the world, thus reducing the rise at 

 the north pole to perhaps 260 feet and increasing the fall at 

 the south pole to 500 feet at most ; that is, a fall of about 300 

 feet in the latitude of New Zealand. But this fall would occur 

 when the ice-cap was on the northern hemisphere. If the 

 ice-cap shifted to the south the ocean would stand about 70 

 feet higher instead of lower round our islands, and conse- 

 quently there would be no low-lying land for the plants and 

 animals to retreat to. It is no doubt true, as mentioned by 

 Dr. A. Geikie, that the Pleistocene raised beaches and shore 

 deposits of New Zealand indicate a greater elevation of the 

 southern than of the northern parts of the country § ; but our 

 knowledge on this subject is not yet sufficiently exact to enable 

 us to draw any conclusions. At present it appears as if these 

 deposits indicated an elevation of 10 feet near Auckland, 



* Trans. N. Z. Institute, viii. p. 385. 



f Dr. v. Haast, Geol. of Canterbury and Westland, p. 381. 



X Archdeacon Pratt and the Rev. O. Fisher make it more, but only on 

 the supposition that the interior of the earth is fluid. Mr. Belt's calcula- 

 tions on this subject are of no value, as the enormous simultaneous ice- 

 caps supposed by him to have occurred are quite incredible. 



§ ' Text-book of Geology,' p. 280. Dr. von Haast, however, who is 

 the authority quoted by Dr. Geikie, is of the opposite opinion. He says, 

 " One fact, however, is certain — namely, that the land in Post-pliocene 

 times in the northern part of the province [of Canterbury] along the east 

 coast stood at a loicer level than at the central and southern portions '• 

 (Geol. Cant, p. 366). 



