310 Transactions.— Geology. 
lowering the sea beds, in producing the contortions and anticlinations of strata, 
and in levelling and abrading their surfaces; again, and most of all, what 
affects man of this nineteenth century most nearly, in utilizing the products 
of the carboniferous period, by depositing them in our coal beds and alter- 
nating them, for this, our age of iron—the age of accelerated intercourse by 
steamships and railway—with the valuable black band. These events, then, 
have passed, and our consideration is confined to an epoch immediately 
preceding the present, and our range of actual observation to a small portion 
of the most remote of British colonies. 
But we must pause a little yet, and borrow information from abroad, for 
we must not speak too abruptly of the glacial epoch, an epoch of constantly 
frozen ground, covering those pleasant spots where now the Taieri and Oamaru 
farmers gather in their golden crops of wheat and barley. We must look a 
little over the world, and, with the help of one of Keith Johnston's physical 
atlases, bring home certain facts to tbe mind. Our latitude is 46? south ; 
longitude, 170? east. Now, there are two extensive regions in the world 
Situated in the same latitude north, and ranging between 60° and 150? east, 
and 60? and 120? west, longitude, whose ground is constantly frozen, and 
whose glaciers, when on the coast, stretch down to the sea level, i.e., in Asia 
and North America. The circumstance suggested to have existed in New 
Zealand has therefore extensive exposition on the earth at this present time. 
With so much of preface, then, in deference to the tender consciences of the 
doubtful, we may proceed with our demonstration. 
That the limit of constantly-frozen ground overspread this region will not 
only have to be proved, I hope to your satisfaction, but that the present 
surface of the earth was also under water will have to be demonstrated. In 
support of this latter proposition, were I to appeal to your belief I think I 
would have ready concurrence, for this is ап idea implanted in the mind by 
our earliest lessons, and, further, it is an universal one maintained by all 
nations, whether civilized or barbarous. But in this arena of philosophy you 
` have а right to demand proof before belief, and I will shortly recount a few 
examples. In Europe the lofty Apennines and Pyrenees, in their limestone 
formations bearing marine fossils, convey a practical and convincing argument 
that their slopes, and even summits, were once below the ocean, and that they 
had either, in the course of geological ages, risen or the water had become 
depressed. And, as it has been in Europe, so it has been no otherwise with 
us, for we have the limestone in various parts of this portion of New Zealand 
bearing marine fossils now raised considerably above the level of the ocean. 
First, I may mention, because it is nearest to hand, the Caversham free- 
stone, attaining an elevation of 400 feet above the sea level, from which are 
gathered, as may be seen in the Museum, the Terebratula, Pecten, and other 
