446 Capt. F. W. Hutton on the Origin of the 
found in a similar position on the west coast of the South 
Island: thus lying at a low level on the geanticlinal axis. 
In the North Island the geanticlinal axis is covered by thick 
masses of Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks, which 
hide the Cretaceous system if it exists there. Evidently a 
great upheaval, followed by enormous denudation, must have 
taken place immediately before the deposition of this last 
rock-system, that is at the close of the Jurassic and com- 
mencement of the Cretaceous periods. There may be some 
doubt as to the exact time of this upheaval, but that the New- 
Zealand Alps were principally formed during the periods 
mentioned is unquestionable. 
The Cretaceous, or according to Dr. Hector the Cretaceo- 
Tertiary, system has also been much disturbed in places, and 
is everywhere denuded, and generally overlain unconform- 
ably by beds of Oligocene and Miocene age. This proves 
that a second elevation, probably of less extent than the first, 
took place in the Eocene period, and was followed by a second 
depression in the Oligocene. The Oligocene and Miocene 
marine rocks are largely developed, and extend to a height of 
2500 feet above the sea*, proving conclusively that during 
this period New Zealand was represented by a cluster of 
twenty or more islands, on which, as I pointed out in 1872, 
the various species of moa were probably developed+. Since 
that time a third elevation has taken place, the proofs of which 
I must defer to another opportunity. ‘These three elevations 
agree quite with the conclusions already arrived at by a study 
of the fauna and flora; and we must suppose that it was” 
during the Upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous period that 
New Zealand was joined to the South-Pacitie continent, 
while during part of the Hocene it extended towards New 
Caledonia, and again in the Pliocene towards the Kermadec 
Islands. 
Our general results, then, are that in early Mesozoic times 
New Zealand, Eastern Australia, and India formed one biolo- 
gical region, land probably extending continuously from New 
Zealand to New South Wales and Tasmania. At the close 
of the Jurassic period the New-Zealand Alps were upheaved, 
and the geosynclinal trough between New Zealand and Aus- 
* According to Dr. von Haast they ascend to 5000 feet above the sea, 
but is localities are given (‘Geol. of Canterbury and Westland,’ 1879, 
_ 805). 
+t Mr. Wallace agrees with this opinion, but in his ‘Island Life’ says 
that it is a pure hypothesis, of which we have no independent proof; he 
not, as I suppose, being aware of the distribution of our Miocene rocks, 
although I mentioned it in my paper (see Trans. N. Z. Inst. vol. vy. 
p. 253). 
