312 T'ransactions.— Geology. 
limits of constant frozen ground—that is, the region of glaciers and icebergs ; 
and, in the first place, T use, as my stepping-stone, the remains of moraines 
that are to be, at this day, seen at the lower extremes of our interior lakes, 
three of which I have personally examined, viz., at Pukaki, Ohau, and Waka- 
tipu. Here a geological lesson may be read as plain as the A B C, that the 
extremities of the glaciers—now only to be discovered in the far distance, high 
up in the recesses of Mount Cook, Mount Stokes, and Earnslaw—once reached 
to these lower levels, at which time they pushed forward rocks, stones, and 
masses of ice, in the manner that alpine glaciers do at the present day. The 
action may be termed that of mountain glaciers, The remains of the moraines 
are the proof of that action, and so of the existence of the glacier itself ; but 
we have to do with glaciers of another description, preceding these, and far 
exceeding them in extent and influence. These I will term, for the sake of 
distinction, as ferrene glaciers. The proof of the existence of these, with their 
accompanying icebergs, is to be found in the boulder deposits so numerous in 
many parts of this Province ; and of those nearest at hand I may mention the 
deposits on the Kaikorai and Caversham ranges. Here the surface of the 
ground is bestrewed with them, and the cuttings of the road and railway works 
exhibit them imbedded in marl and clay, overlying the sandstone. At the 
various eminences of the ranges, they have served, by their having been 
deposited in clusters, to preserve the ground from erosion—even when that 
ground consisted of easily transported sand beds—and their original position is 
easily to be indicated on the spurs of the Waikari Hills, from whence portions 
of terrene glaciers stretched down the Kaikorai Valley to the ocean, bearing 
with them stones and material, and casting them off at intervals, as parts of 
the congealed masses broke off and fell into what, at that time, was the bed of 
the sea. But the most remarkable and extensive boulder deposit that I have 
seen exists at the gorge of the Kawarau and plains of Cromwell, strewed 
between the gorge and the town of that name in greater numbers as the gorge 
is approached, and placed in such a manner as small icebergs floating out of 
the valley would not fail to do, being parallel with the water's motion, and 
tending to the eddies on each side of the channel. Some of these boulders are 
larger than shepherds’ huts, and being laid on the surface of the gravelly plain, 
far from their original locations, are a subject of wonder to the simple and < 
unlearned. Boulders in the same manner appear below the Clyde Gorge, but 
not to so great an extent, yet in principle bearing out the same glacial action 
or floatage proceeding therefrom by icebergs. 
Other proofs of terrene glaciers and icebergs are to be found in this district, 
in numerous boulders with striæ, or ice-scores, on them. I first had the 
pleasure of pointing out these to my friend, Mr. 
L. O. Beal, who read a paper 
to this society on a kindred subject. (See Trans, 
N.Z. Inst., Vol. IIL, p. 270.) 
