160 J. MALCOLM MACLAREN, ESQ., B.SC, F.G.S., ON 



seems tenable. For assuming, for the nonce, a colder climate 

 to have existed at that period, and disregarding changes of 

 elevation, the lower temperature requisite to extend the 

 glaciers to their former bounds would also have been suffi- 

 cient to extend them to the sea, and a boulder clay or 

 stratified morainic matter would have resulted, of whicli 

 some traces would surely have been found. Again in the 

 well-developed marine upper tertiaries of the North Island 

 there are species of shells which have persisted through 

 Pliocene and Pleistocene times up to the present, a persist- 

 ence hardly compatible with the assumption of a period of 

 intense cold for the neighbouring South Island. 



12. Rained Terraces of Recent Age. — With regard to recent 

 changes of elevation in the Sounds district, I must confess 

 that I am unable to adduce any evidence from personal 

 knowledge. The subject has, however, been investigated 

 by Captain Button, who mentions* distinctly formed terraces 

 at the entrance to Doubtful Inlet, the highest being about 

 800 feet above sea level. Professor Park, who made an 

 examination of the coast line near Martin's Bay,t saw there 

 terraces 100 to 300 feet above sea level. At Coal Island, 

 Preservation Inlet, there are sea-worn caves 10 to 20 feet 

 above sea level, and at Green Island, in the same inlet, there 

 is a pierced rock about 100 feet in height and completely 

 perforated at the level of a terrace, now 40 feet above sea 

 level. All these facts point, of course, towards elevation. 

 Sir James Hector, howevei-, many years ago, maintained 

 that the coast was sinking. His evidence, so far as I 

 remember it, was mainly negative, based on the failure to 

 find certain estuarine beds which should have been found 

 above sea level had the coast been rising. But the failure 

 may have been due to other causes than non-elevation, and 

 it must not be forgotten that in the fjords themselves the 

 dense vegetation renders the determination of ancient 

 terraces almost impossible. In any case the evidence in 

 favour of elevation, being positive, by far outweighs that for 

 subsidence. That oscillation is taking place at the present 

 time, the gently sloping shore (25*^ to 40^) of the west coast 

 furnishes conclusive proof, for otherwise the thundering 

 billows of one of the most tumultuous seas in the world 



* Hutton : Geology of Otago, ]i. 80. 



+ Park : Report of Geological Survey of New Zealand. 



