W. Travers.—On Extinct Glaciers in the South Island. 299 
especially when taken in connection with the ascertained facts to which I shall 
call attention in the sequel. Assuming, then, that under existing climatal 
- conditions an average elevation of not less than 13,000 to 14,000 feet would 
be necessary, in those parts of the Middle Island range which do not now 
exceed 9,000 feet in height, for the formation and existence of such glaciers as 
undoubtedly once occupied the valleys of the Hurunui, the Waimakariri, and 
the Rakaia—the highest summits in the vicinity of which do not now exceed 
the latter altitude—we must either accept a change in climate of a very 
. remarkable character, but of which we have no evidence whatever, or attribute 
the disappearance of such glaciers to a diminution of not less than 4,000 to 
5,000 feet in the general height of the range in question, as compared with its 
altitude when the glaciers referred to attained their greatest extension. 
I may add that I am the more inclined to adopt the latter hypothesis, not 
only because the evidences in support of it are precisely the same as those 
which have led to similar conclusions respecting the former extension of the 
Swiss glaciers, but also because it is more in accordance with the principles 
which govern sound geological enquiry. One circumstance, moreover, is very 
noticeable in connection with the extinct glaciers to the north of Mount Cook, 
namely, that the extent of each appears to have borne a distinct relation to 
the altitude of the mountains in which it arose ; for we find, not only with 
those which still occupy the Mount Cook valleys, but also with those which 
formerly occupied the valleys radiating from the Spencer Mountains, that the 
lateral moraines occur at far greater heights, and the terminal moraines extend 
to far greater distances, and are much more extensive in their dimensions, than 
those which were deposited by the glaciers which occupied any part of the 
range intervening between these two great mountain masses. 
Assuming then that—at the time when the valleys above referred to were 
occupied by glaciers of the first order—the Middle Island range, generally, 
stood at an additional elevation of not less than 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, 
not only must the present islands of New Zealand proper have been connected, 
but an immense area of dry land must have existed in all directions around 
them, probably extending, to the eastward, far beyond the chain of islands 
which curves round them on that side, from Raoul Island in the north, by the 
Chatham Group, to the Antipodes Islands in the south, all of which still 
bear a vegetation nearly identical with that of the parent land. To what 
extent the depression which led to the disappearance of the glaciers in 
question may have exceeded the maximum above referred to, I am not prepared 
to say, and, although both Captain Hutton and Dr. Haast have mentioned 
facts which lead to the belief that the eastern side of the Middle Island has 
risen since the last great depression, the extent to which this is indicated in 
their statements is too trifling to settle the question, 
