HaasT.— Address. 97 
be fifty feet or it may be five hundred. The nature and condition of this 
old river-bed indieates that a strong current and clear water prevailed. 
When the eountry sank it must have continued until the sea flowed over 
the present Thames and Waikato Valleys, and since which time it has 
receded to its present coast by the re-elevation of the country. 
At one time, too, the waters of the middle Waikato rose above the level 
of the so-called delta. Then were deposited these vast beds of pumice, 
gravel and sand, bearing evidence of subsequent disturbing upheaval. The 
present argillaceous ranges were then so many islands, the tops of sub- 
merged mountains or hills. In a ravine which, a few years ago, the waters 
of a shallow swamp in Ngaruawahia worked out of the pumice of that town- 
ship, are seen the stumps of trees, fifteen feet below the present surface, 
standing on the rich soil in which they grew. Next we trace a level of the 
river intermediate between that lacustrine era and the present, when the 
flats of the delta were left dry, and a new channel, yet clearly traceable, 
carried the waters for a time, and then were formed most probably the 
alluvial clay flats of Taupiri Gorge. The current was then too rapid for the 
deposit of pumice sand, for we only find it in isolated pockets as if 
deposited by eddies. In the wide-spreading valley below, however, the 
light and all but floating sand was laid over the whole low country, 
covering the ** sunken forest," and leaving it much as we find it. Another 
slight rise in the country, and the present aspect of affairs was presented— 
the river has cut lower through the sands, leaving the swamps of the delta 
far above its level, and again exposing to our view the ‘ forest.” 
We have thus attempted to sketch a very shadowy outline of some very 
momentous changes which have occurred in this part of our island. The 
details will yet. we hope, be filled in by more able hands, guided by scientific 
geological knowledge and research. 
Arr. IV.—Address. By Professor Jurus von Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., 
President of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 
Plate I 
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 5th April, 1877.] 
Ir has hitherto been the custom that your newly-elected president, when 
he takes office, should deliver an address to you, in which either a résumé 
of scientific progress during the year is offered to you, or some subject of 
local bearing is treated more fully. In taking the presidential chair, I shall 
