Wellington Philosophical Society. 525 
the surface at least of the Canterbury plains was not so simple a process as stated. As 
stated, it might suit the conditions of a small deposit, but these fans were twenty to 
thirty miles m diameter, and could only have been built up by successive changes in the 
courses of rivers as they gradually raised their beds and then broke away from them. 
The resulting fan was made up of many river beds, radiating from one point or gorge. A 
most important feature not mentioned by the author was the formation of secondary fans 
in front of those earlier ones formed by the gradual erosion and deepening of the notch or 
gorge in the rocky bed through which the river was finally liberated from the mountains. 
As this notch was lowered the river became confined to a deep terraced valley excavated 
in the shingle of the earlier fans, the shingle removed going to raise the bed in a lower 
part of its course. This, in his Mr cun gave rise to the apparent coneave surface of the 
plains in the author's section. 
Mr. Travers pointed out that the essential point in the fan-like arrangement of 
detritus was the diminished velocity of the river after escaping from the upper part of its 
course whence the detritus was derived. He described the prodigious effects of the great 
flood of 1867 on the valley deposits of the Wairau River, high level terraces of gravel 
having been completely swept away by lateral tributaries, leaving shelves of bare rock, 
while the rocky and previously impassable bed of the main river was converted into a 
smooth surface or plain for miles. That was the effect of one short flood, and he 
thought that it was evidence that no flood of similar magnitude had occurred since the 
terrace skirting the valley had been formed. 
. Hector stated that the amount of detritus carried out to sea on that occasion had 
added ten chains width to the beach for miles along the coast, so that the fences running 
out on the shore had to be lengthened 
Mr. Maxwell, in reply, considered the remarks made did not conflict with the 
views expressed in this paper, but only extended their application. His object was to 
refute the idea that the changes in the direction of such rivers could be controlled by the 
rotation of the earth, as suggested by Dr. Haast and Mr. Baines in the last volume of 
** Transactions." 
2. “Some Notes on the D'Urville Island Copper Mine," by S. H. 
Cox, F.C.8., F.G.S., Assistant Geologist, 
ABSTRACT. 
The mine is situated at the southern end of D'Urville Island, the copper 
occurring in a belt of serpentine, which may be traced from the Dun Moun- 
tain, at Nelson, to the Croixelles, and again throughout the length of 
D'Urville Island. This belt of serpentine is in contact with certain coarse- 
grained green sandstones and banded slates of the Maitai series, in which 
veins of quartz with nests of pyrites occur, the strike of the slates being 
about N.N.E. 
Outerops of cuprite, coated with malachite and azurite, have been traced 
at intervals over a distance of 900 yards, or thereabouts, in a N.E. and 
S.W. direction, these outcrops generally occurring on a bare ridge of 
serpentine, which is about the centre line of the piece of ground which has 
been leased from the Maoris for mining operations, and four small shafts 
have been sunk to prove the ore at different points, These shafts do not 
