GEOLOGY. 35 



Shonlcl the islands of that region become at any time thoroughly well 

 known, and a similar or identical feature be observed at different points, 

 much could be learned regarding the distribution of land in that part of 

 the world during the later Tertiary period. 



Many of the hills slope smoothly up to abruptly projecting rocky 

 crowns of basalt. Some are quite smooth in outline, without these char- 

 acteristic rocky crowns. Others, runniug in general southwest aad 

 northeast, are long and barrow-like, and seem to have been thrown up 

 only or chiefly by the action of the winds, which are in this part of the 

 world remarkable for their violence. The lee (north and east) sides of 

 the larger hills are covered by broken rocks of all sizes, irregularly 

 heaped together; while the weather, or south and west, sides are less 

 rocky and covered by fine gravel. 



Some ranges, especially those fronting the southeast, present abrupt 

 cliffs, intersected by broad rock-strewn plateaux. On the tops of these 

 cliff-walls, particularly in the small gorges that notch their crests, are 

 frequent pillar-shaped rocks, standing alone and near together, and 

 curiously carved, as if by the action of the wind and sand. On the 

 higher slopes it was a common thing to find bowlders of great size rest- 

 ing upon flat rocks, in such a position that it seemed quite impossible 

 for them to have rolled thither. I never succeeded in finding surface- 

 scratches indicative of former glacial action, nor would the abruptness 

 of the physical outline of the country agree with such a supposition. 

 It would seem that the present hills were at first lofty and irregular pro- 

 jections of basalt, from which fragments have continually been broken 

 off by the violence of the winds and the action of ice. These fragments 

 have gradually become piled up against the bases of the hills on their 

 lee sides until the long southeasterly slopes now existing have been 

 built up, from which the remainder of the original rock projects as a 

 more or less rounded crown. On the weather or southwesterly sides 

 the approach is generally more abrupt, less marked by large bowlders, 

 and covered by small, flat gravel, through which the bed-rock frequently 

 crops out. Possibly accumulations of snow, filling the shallower 

 hollows in winter and sliding down the hillsides in summer, may have 

 their effect in moving the bowlders above referred to. Such a body 

 of snow still existed on Mount Crozier so late as December, which had 

 been frozen by night and thawed by day until it had become nearly solid 

 ice, quite capable of carrying rocks of considerable size with it should it 

 ever slide down the hill-side. 



