324  Transactions.—G ecology. 
and when we examine their contents we find that they consist of particles of 
broken, worn, and ground-up rocks, whose originals are in the enclosing 
mountains ; hence, as travelled particles, we conclude they come from thence. 
To estimate the importance of the power that brought them to their 
present site is, for the human mind, difficult. The formation of the Manuherikia 
I roughly estimate at 900 feet in depth, 4 miles in breadth, and 20 to 30 miles 
in length ; those of the Upper Clutha may be one-third less than these. Then, 
if we were to try to imagine what power would transport the Peninsula of 
Otago to Green Island, we would have some notion. We are, then, conclusively 
led to the glacial action that we have been already considering for a satisfactory 
solution of the problem. This alone could do the work, and this—on pondering 
on what has already been adduced—would do it so naturally that I need not 
take up more of your time on the subject, but rather confine myself to an 
explanation of the modus operandi. 
It has been proved, I hope to your satisfaction, that terrene glaciers at one 
time covered our island, and that also the island itself was sunk considerably 
under the ocean. How these things came about does not matter to the present 
argument. That they were so is all that we want to know. Whether we had 
borrowed water from the Northern Hemisphere, and then lost it ; or, whether 
the internal forces of the earth sank our land, and then raised it, is of no 
consequence. Indeed, great savans, as well as great preachers, allow of no 
obstacles to a favourite theory or belief. Thus, Lyell, to prove alternation of 
heat and cold, by the exercise of a little imagination puts Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and America, at the equator, and as quickly sets them at the poles ; 
and Dr. Lang, of Sydney, to prove that the Polynesians and Americans 
descended from a common stock, lays dry the mighty and deep Pacific, and even 
Madagascar and New Zealand have been joined that the moas might have 
social intercourse, 
Then, if the facts be admitted, even though the causes be unknown, we 
will have the mountains at near 3,000 feet less in elevation ; Mount Cook, 
instead of towering 12,460 feet, would yet be majestic at 9,460; and the 
valleys of the Waitaki, Clutha, Taieri, ete., would be under the sea, and, in 
their upper portions, inlets thereof, At this epoch the dry land and shores 
would be covered with glaciers, the sea with icebergs, the temperature and 
constant attrition of which would allow no shell fish to exist. Hence their 
absence in the drifts. 
Now, to form an idea of how the terraces are left on dry land in their 
present aspect, we must observe miniature operations of the present date ; the 
principle being the same, the results of similar nature. If we take the shores 
of a lake, such as that of Wakatipu or Wanaka, or the banks of a large river, 
such as Molyneux or Waitaki, which are subject to periodical rises and falls, 
