Wellington Philosophical Society. 385 
The specimen on which the paper was founded was exhibited. It was 
found on the beach at Kaikoura by Mr. J. R. W. Taylor, and was presented 
by him to the Museum. 
2. *On the Fossil Reptilia of New Zealand," by James Hector, M.D., 
F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand. (Transactions, 
p. 333.) 
Specimens illustrating this paper were exhibited. 
3. * Description of the Patent Slip at Evans Bay, Wellington, and of the 
mode of erecting or constructing the same," by J. Rees George, C.E. 
(Transactions, p. 14.) 
The author illustrated his paper with a large number of drawings and 
sections. 
Mr. O'Neill, C.E., and Mr. W. Travers complimented the author on the 
able and successful manner in which this work had been carried out, and said 
it was a credit to the Province, and the paper would prove of great use to - 
engineers. 
4. * On the Extinct Glaciers of the Middle Island of New Zealand," by 
W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S. (Transactions, p. 297.) 
Dr. Hector said that one cause for the former greater extent of the New 
Zealand glaciers appears to have been lost sight of in recent discussions on the 
subject. He had pointed it out to Sir Charles Lyell, who mentions it in 
the last edition of his “ Principles," and also applies the same idea to the 
European Alps. The theory was that the elevation of the New Zealand 
mountains was probably coincident with the submergence of the low land in 
the interior of Australia, which is covered with a post pliocene marine 
formation. The equatorial north-west winds would thus impinge on the New 
Zealand Alps without, as at present, being deprived of a large amount of 
the aqueous vapour by passing over the arid plains of Australia, and by the 
condensation of snow by the mountains, would be therefore very much in 
excess, and consequently the glaciers much larger than at present. According 
to this view the true place to seek for evidence of the age of the glacier 
period in the Alps of East Australia and New Zealand is in the interior of 
Australia. A slighter degree of change at a later date must also have 
been due to the destruction of a large forest growth in Australia by fire, 
during the early period of its occupation by those we now call the aborigines, 
which is rendered probable by the circumstances under which the Diprotodon 
and other extinct and gigantic Marsupiates are found, and such a change must 
also have exercised an indirect influence on the climate of New Zealand. Не ` 
differed from Mr, Travers’ explanation of the phenomenon of Lake Guyon, 
as he considered it to be a portion of a valley that had existed prior to the 
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