42 Reviews—Dr. Haast’s Geology of Canterbury, N. Zealand.” ’ 
of information on the physical geography, geology, zoology, and 
botany of the region, than purely scientific reports can generally 
convey to him; at the same time he will fully appreciate (from the 
details given) the dangers and difficulties of a field geologist who 
seeks his way in an unknown country without a map to guide or 
information to assist him. However, the grand scenery traversed, 
as partly illustrated by the series of lithographs inserted in the work, 
the interesting glacial and other plkenomena observed, the diversity 
and beauty of the flora, must have partly compensated for the 
arduous labours incident to these explorations. Although many 
details are given in the first part as to the physical aspect of the 
Southern Alps, the physical geography of the provinces is more 
specially described in the second part, which treats of the orogra- 
phical features and the nature and extent of the glaciers, rivers, 
lakes, and plains. 
The Southern Alps (the principal watershed of which is the 
boundary-line between the two provinces) form part of the high 
longitudinal chain running from §.W. to N.E., and constitutes the 
main axis and characteristic feature of New Zealand. They 
consist almost entirely of Paleozoic rocks (the granitic axis is 
only exposed in Westland), thrown in large steep folds, which have 
been so much denuded, that the synclinals, or lower portions of the 
folds, now form the summits of the mountain ranges, whilst the 
valleys are generally formed along the anticlinals or saddles. It is 
partly owing to the orographical features that the climate on both 
sides the Alps has been so remarkably modified. The western 
side falls almost precipitously towards the sea, while the eastern 
side slopes down much more gradually. Extensive fields of 
perpetual snow repose on the slopes, from which large glaciers 
descend far into the valleys, but the snow-line on the western side 
of the Alps is much lower when compared with the eastern slopes, 
owing to the far greater rainfall on that side. “This difference is 
well exhibited by the great Tasman glacier, which, although of much 
larger dimensions than the Francis Joseph glacier, yet descends only 
to 2456 feet above the sea-level, whilst the latter reaches more than 
1700 feet lower, namely, to 705 feet above the sea:” 
The third part is devoted to the geological structure, and consists 
of a series of chapters containing descriptions of the extent, character, 
and position of the rocks and strata which Dr. Haast has recognized 
as occurring in the provinces. Local names are applied to most of 
the formations, and which are considered respectively to represent, 
the Azoic, Silurian, Carboniferous?, Cretaceo-Tertiary, Miocene, 
Pliocene, Quaternary, and Recent periods. 
In the chapter on economical substances, it is noticed that, though 
gold and some other metallic ores occur in Westland, the geological 
features of the Canterbury province are not favourable for their 
presence. Although the older Coal-measures similar to those of 
New South Wales are wanting, extensive and valuable beds of 
brown coal occur in the Waipara (Cretaceo-Tertiary) and Oamaru 
(Miocene) formations, especially in the former. The chapters on 
