W. Travers.—On Extinct Glaciers in the South Island. 297 
during a period of elevation, during which many of the existing raised beaches 
and auriferous leads were formed ; that continued subsidence followed the 
close of the glacial period, and that subsidence is still continuing. 
If this is correct we must expect to find traces of ancient beaches overlaid 
by glacial drift, and glacial drift at far lower levels than many of the beaches, 
Of the latter there are abundant examples south of Hokitika, where the 
morainic accumulations cover a great portion of the level country, which 
I have already described. Of the former there is an excellent example north 
of the Buller River, whete the auriferous beach drifts on the slopes of Mount 
Rochfort are covered by a large mass of sandstone boulders derived from the 
Mount Rochfort sandstones, and evidently transported to their present position 
by glacial action. 
In the foregoing the term “ glacial period” means thé last period of great 
glacial extension. 
Art. L.—On the Extinct Glaciers of the Middle Island of New Zealand. 
By W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S., a Governor of the New Zealand Institute. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th October, 1873.] 
THERE are few points of geological interest more strikingly brought under the 
notice of the traveller in the great mountain range of the Middle Island of 
New Zealand, than the evidences of the former extension of a glacier system, 
of which the numerous glaciers of the first order still occupying the valleys 
radiating from Mount Cook are, without doubt, a continuing remnant. 
Indeed, it is scarcely too much to say, that every great valley stretching into 
the main range, from one end of the island to the other, affords unmistakable 
proofs of having, at some time, been occupied by ice ; and it is my purpose in 
the present paper, after making g l observation as to the bearing of this 
fact upon other geological questions affecting both islands, to describe, in some 
detail, the particular evidences of glacier action which are to be seen in the 
valleys of the Buller and the Dillon, two of the largest rivers in the Province 
of Nelson. 
Now it must be evident that the disappearance of the enormous glaciers 
which, as will be seen in the sequel, formerly filled the upper parts of these 
two valleys—as well as of those which occupied the valleys of the Hurunui, the 
Waimakariri, and the Rakaia, in the Canterbury Province— must be attributed 
either to a singular change in climate, or to a great diminution in altitude 
above sea level of the mountain chain in question. 
Those who are curious upon the first point, as a possible cause, will find 
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