Fauna and Flora of New Zealand. 97 



and the rainfall on them is certainly not greater. But this por- 

 tion of the New-Zealand Alps has no glaciers at all comparable to 

 the large ones supposed to have formerly existed in the Trans- 

 vaal, although it is 18° further south, and is much nearer to 

 the sea, so that a reduction of temperature sufficient to bring 

 glaciers to the Transvaal would be equivalent to moving it 

 at least 20° further south. Now Kerguelen Land, situated 

 in 48° S., would also be virtually removed 20° further south 

 — that is to a latitude where, as I have already mentioned, 

 no vegetation, except perhaps a few mosses and lichens, 

 could exist. If this has been so, the whole of its present 

 phanerogamic flora must have been introduced since this 

 glacial epoch. But as out of its twenty-one species of flower- 

 ing plants there are two genera and eleven species found only 

 there or in the neighbouring islands, we cannot suppose that 

 its flora dates from the Pleistocene. Consequently this 

 glacial epoch, if it ever took place, must have been long- 

 anterior to the glacial epoch of Europe. 



Proofs of a former extension of glaciers undoubtedly occur 

 in South America as far north as 42° S., which is about the 

 northerly limit of glacier-marks in New Zealand. But in 

 South America there is no evidence as to their date. This 

 is, however, unnecessary, for we have already seen that the 

 ancient glaciers of New Zealand, of Australia, and of South 

 Africa (if any) belong to periods very different from the 

 glacial epoch of Europe. Mr. Wallace therefore was hardly 

 justified in assuming, without making a personal examina- 

 tion, that " the close similarity in the state of preservation of 

 the ice-marks and the known activity of denudation as a de- 

 stroying agent, forbid the idea that they belong to widely 

 separated epochs "* ; and consequently his argument that 

 " if we reject the influence of high eccentricity as the cause 

 of this almost universal glaciation, we must postulate a general 

 elevation of all these mountains about the same time "f, falls 

 to the ground. 



I believe that almost all New-Zealand geologists are now 

 agreed that our last great gdacier epoch was in the Pliocene 

 period \ ; and it seems that an elevation of the land in Plio- 

 cene times affords the only satisfactory explanation of the 

 phenomena. The question now arises, Did the Pliocene ex- 

 tension of land-area include the outlying islands ? This is a 



* ' Island Life/ p. 504. t Loc. cit. p. 504. 



J Travers, Trans. N. Z. lust. vi. p. 302; Dr. von Haast, Geol. of Can- 

 terbury, p. 372 ; Dr. Hector, Geol. Reports, 1883, p. xiii ; 8. II. Cox, 

 Geol. Reports, 1883, p. 9. Mr. Dobson alone would put it liter, Trans. 

 N. Z. Inst. vii. p. 440. 



