424 AUSTEALASIA. 



brian peninsula, while the north-east extremity recalls the " heel " of Otranto. 

 Nevertheless, in their general relief the two antipodal regions present scarcely 

 any analogy. 



The general lie of the land is from south-west to north-east, and the submarine 

 exploration of the Pacific also shows that in this part of the ocean the other insular 

 groups are disposed in a like direction. The same remark applies to various 

 other islets, such as the little Auckland Archipelago, the volcanic rocks of Camp- 

 bell and Macquarie, and Emerald Island, discovered at the beginning of this 

 century. North of New Zealand the chain of upheaved land becomes slightly 

 deflected and is continued through the Kermadec Islets to the Tonga Archipelago. 

 Lastly, the Chatham, Bounty, and Antipodes groups, lying more to the east, are 

 all disposed parallel to the general axis of New Zealand. The Antipodes, better 

 named the Penantipodes by Waterhouse, who discovered them in 1850, scarcely 

 deserve their name, for they do not stand quite opposite the Observatory of Green- 

 wich, as was supposed by the English explorer. Their position (49° 42' south lat., 

 178° 43' east long.) corresponds exactly to Barfleur Point on the opposite face of 

 the globe, that is, 120 miles south-west of the astronomic point indicated by 

 Waterhouse. The Antipodes are inaccessible granite rocks pierced with caverns 

 and galleries through which the water rushes with thundering echoes. Mount 

 Galloway, culminating point of the large island, rises to a height of 1,320 feet. 



On the west the mainland is continued by two elevated submarine banks, 

 which take a north-westerly direction. One of these banks, terminating in the 

 pyramidal rocks of the Lord Howe group, is separated by deep waters from 

 Moreton Bay on the Queensland coast. The other, forming a seaward prolongation, 

 of the north-west peninsula of New Zealand, rises above the surface at Norfolk 

 Island, and again at the Chesterfield Reefs, west of New Caledonia, beyond which 

 it merg-es in the Great Barrier Beef. These relativelv shallow oceanic waters, 

 where the soundings seldom reveal depths of over 900 fathoms, are supposed by 

 some geologists to indicate the line of direction of the now submerged lands 

 formerly connecting New Zealand and Australia in a vast continent corresponding 

 to Africa and South America in other parts of the southern hemisphere. Accord- 

 ing to this view the New Zealand highlands would form the eastern coast range of 

 the drowned continent, although, unlike most other coast ranges, they do not 

 rise above the deepest oceanic waters. The sea is much shallower at the foot of 

 the New Zealand Alps than along the east side of the Australian Alps. 



Physical Features or South Island. 



The Alpine chain which gives the South Island such a striking resemblance 

 to the Scandinavian uplands begins with the volcanic group of the Snares, beyond 

 which it traverses Stewart Island, a fragment of a hilly plateau, consisting, like 

 the mainland, of granites and old sedimentary formations. The backbone of the 

 South Island mainly follows the west coast, which is very steep, with rocky walls 

 rising in many places abruptly above the neighbouring waters. On the other 

 hand the eastern slope is relatively but slightly inclined, but here the fall is 



