36 Reports and Proceedings. 
Roderick Murchison stated that Dr. Haast has informed him in a letter 
that he has for the last five years attentively followed the discussions 
on Glacier-theories; that in March 1862 he came, independently of 
other authors, to the same conclusions in New Zealand that Prof. 
Ramsay did in Europe, and that his views have been printed in his 
Colonial Reports as Geologist of the Province of Canterbury. Sir 
Roderick also stated that the constant occupations of Dr. Haast, 
in the field and elsewhere, have hitherto prevented his carrying out 
his intention of writing a paper for the Geclogical Society; but 
he has sent the following notes as a résumé of his views. Though 
opposed to the theory of the excavation of basins in hard rocks by 
the action of ice, Sir Roderick commended the researches of Dr. 
Haast as showing the mutations of the surface in successive geo- 
logical periods. 
3. Notes on the Causes which have led to the Excavation of 
deep Lake-basins in hard Rocks in the Southern Alps of New Zea- 
land.’ By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S. Communicated by Sir R. 
Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.—Referring first to the submer- 
gence of New Zealand during the Pliocene period, and to its subse- 
quent elevation, the author stated that the chief physical feature of 
the country after that elevation was a high mountain-range, from 
which glaciers of enormous volume, owing to peculiar meteorological 
conditions, descended into the plain below, removing in their course 
the loose Tertiary strata, and thus widening and enlarging the pre- 
existing depressions, the occurrence of which had at first determined 
the course of the glaciers. The author then observed that, the 
country having acquired a temporary stability, the glaciers became 
comparatively stationary, and therefore formed moraines, the mate- 
rials of which were cemented together by the mud deposited from 
the water issuing from the glacier; new moraine-matter would then 
raise the bed of the outlet and dam up the water below the glacier: 
and from this moment, he believes, the formation and scooping out 
of the rock-basin begins ; for, the ice being pressed downwards, and 
prevented by the moraine from descending, its force would be 
expended in excavating a basin in the rock below. 
4. ‘Note on aSketch-Map of the Province of Canterbury, New 
Zealand, showing the Glaciation during the Pleistocene and Recent 
Times, as far as explored.’ By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S. Com- 
municated by Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.—This paper 
contained a generalexplanation of a Sketch-Map illustrating the past 
and present distribution of the glaciers on the eastern side of the 
Southern Alps of New Zealand, as well as the author’s views on the 
excavation of Lake-basins in hard rocks, as shown by the coin- 
cidence between the positions of the lakes and the terminations of 
the ancient glaciers. 
Royat GEroLogicaL Society or IreLAND.— The first meeting for 
the session 1864—5 took place on the 9th November, in the New 
Buildings, Trinity College, Dublin. The chair was taken by R. 
Caldwell, Esq. ‘The minutes of the last meeting having been read 
