320 T'ransactions.— Geology. 
mile ; and of the Waiariki, 10 miles, with a varying width of 1 to lof a mile. 
Thus has the undulating and varying surface of this part of our territory, 
during the post-tertiary period, been moulded to its present form, great valleys 
have been scooped out, and hills removed. Under what conditions, then, could 
these mighty works have taken place, is a question now to be considered. 
To approach this question we must now turn to higher latitudes, and 
fortunate it is that a solution is to be attained not far distant, through the 
discoveries and researches of the eminent explorer Sir James C. Ross, whose 
works I read, with intense interest, in 1848, and which I have the pleasure to 
lay on the table. Just 23 degrees due south, i.e., only six days distant by 
steam vessel, lies South Victoria, a region which now possesses the climate 
that New Zealand had; whose physical geography is the same; and, being 
volcanic, may be said to be a continuation of our colonial territory. The 
beautiful drawings given in the work display the same serrated ridges which 
are now to be seen in our great western mountains (see Reid’s Antarctic 
Voyages Vol. L, page 183), and the smoking summit of Tongariro is to be 
discovered in that of Mount Erebus (see page 216, Vol. L). To illustrate the 
subject, I cannot do better than transcribe the explorer's own words. He says:— 
“It wasa beautifully clear evening, and we had a most enchanting view 
of the two magnificent ranges of mountains, whose lofty peaks, perfectly 
covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations varying from seven to ten 
thousand {еб above the ocean. The glaciers that filled their intervening 
valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected in 
many places several miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty, perpendicular 
cliffs. In а few places the rocks broke through their icy covering, by which 
alone we could be assured that land formed the nucleus of this, to appearance, 
enormous iceberg." 
Again: * The height of Mount Sabine was found, by means of several 
measurements, to be rather less than ten thousand feet, and about thirty 
miles from the coast. The elevations of the other mountains were not deter- 
mined with accuracy, but we judged them to vary from seven to nine thousand 
feet ; and, altogether, they presented as grand and magnificent a view as can 
well be imagined." 
Again: “ We found the shores of the mainland completely covered with 
ice, projecting into the sea." 
* We stood to the southward, close to some land which had been in sight 
since the preceding noon, and which we then called ‘High Island. Tt proved 
io be a mountain 12,400 feet of elevation above the level of the sea, emitting 
flame and smoke in great profusion. At first the smoke appeared like snow- 
drift, but, as we drew nearer, its true character became manifest. The 
discovery of an active volcano in go high a southern latitude cannot but be 
