BY A. MONTGOMERY, M.A. 165 
say to points which are now that distance above the sea, for 
of course it is quite possible that there has been elevation or 
subsidence of the land as a whole since the ice age. Later 
on, however, I shall point out that there has been no subsi- 
dence of the country worth mentioning during the period 
when these masses of ice existed, but rather elevation, the 
land being probably higher now than then. Now if the ice 
lay so low in these valleys, what about other parts of the 
colony? The glaciers would not be likely to be confined to 
one district, but would be on the other high lands as well. 
Ben Lomond, Mount Wellington, and the Great Central 
Plateau probably also had their share of ice and perpetual 
snow. The great lakes on the Central Plateau are almost 
prima facie evidence of glaciation, ice being one of the most 
common causes of the formation of lakes. On Ben Lomond 
also there is a lake for which it is hard to account, except as 
having been formed by ice; and the peculiar flat shelf on the 
south side of the Butts at the foot of the talus slope, a plain 
some four or five miles long and two miles wide, on which 
most of the Ben Lomond mines are situated, is also difficult 
of explanation. It may perhaps have been the seat of a 
glacier, from which branches ran down Story’s Creek, the 
Castle Carey Creek, and Gipp’s Creek. On the slopes of 
Mount Nicholas the coal-bearing sandstones are overlaid by a 
heavy superficial covering of loose greenstone drift derived from 
the capping or central ridge, whichever it may prove to be, of the 
range. Going over this lately it seemed to me that simple 
landslips and rolling down of loose stones from the higher 
ground were not sufficient to account for the immense quan- 
tities of loose superficial rock, and one is strongly tempted 
to regard this as moraine stuff. More evidence is required 
before accepting this view, but it seems to me to have a 
good deal of probability. We shall probably yet have to 
ascribe the shape of a great many natural features of the 
country to glacial action, but while this is suggested as a 
potent cause I must admit that evidence is wanting to prove 
widespread glaciation in the eastern parts of the colony, and 
I mention the matter rather because it seems an almost 
necessary consequence of admitting the prevalence of ice in 
the western highlands that it should also have existed in the 
east, than on account of any direct proof. 
At the head of the Ring River on the western slope of 
Mount Reid there has been discovered a “deep lead ”’ which 
presents some features suggestive of ice action. The upper 
part of the filling of the old river valley forming the lead 
for upwards of 100 feet, and perhaps more, consists of very 
thin layers of fine sandy clay, perfectly horizontally bedded, 
the sediments having been plainly laid down in very still 
water. These clays are exactly like the glacial clays now 
