450 Transactions —Geology. 
Racecourse Hill is oblong in form and rises about 50 feet above the plain. 
Little Racecourse Hill is long, narrow, and rather curved, the concavity 
facing the east end of the Malvern Hills. Its height above the plain is 
about 80 or 40 feet. Gravel deposits are also found in places round the 
base of the Malvern Hills, at estimated altitudes of from 50-70 feet above 
the present level of the plains.* Ice-borne erratics are found in the upper 
portions of the triangle and extend down as far as the ford just below the 
junction of the Kowhai and the Waimakariri. These erraties are embedded 
in river shingle. Dr. von Haast also mentions large morainic accumula- 
tions on the western slopes of Abner's Head, a part of the Malvern Hills.+ 
In addition to these shingle hills, three others, formed of rocks of far more 
ancient date than the gravels, rise through the plains. They are View 
Hill, Gorge Hills and Burnt Hills. 
The Waimakariri River, rising in the heart of the New Zealand Alps, 
breaks abruptly into the middle of the north side of this triangle through a 
deep rocky gorge, called the Upper Gorge, at the eastern base of Mount 
Torlesse, and runs with a southerly course for about two miles, until it is 
joined by the Kowhai 
coming in an easterly 
192 direction from the 
apex of the triangle. 
The Waimakairi 
then flows ina 
south-easterly direc- 
tion for about 44 
miles to Gorge Hill, 
which it cuts into 
two portions—Gorge 
Hill on the south- 
west and Little 
Gorge Hil on the 
(2/25 te Forge Hill 
i puis 
a 
e 
= north-east —forming 
S È sd ENE. what is called the 
: M q È Lower Gorge. This 
E $ i E z È s is erossed by the 
5 E È È ^ x bridge for the Ox- 
TIA È dts S 
: ford and Sheffield 
ZZ Slates FEA Cravels railway now in 
course of construc- 
tion. 
* See Geological Reports for 1873-74, p. 67. 
1 Geology of Canterbury and Westland, p. 392, 
