Hutron.—On the Last Great Glacier Period in N.Z. 387 
of limestone and calcareous sandstone of upper-eocene age ; these rocks are all 
planed down to a uniform level and covered by a thin layer of silt and gravel, 
which is at the same altitude as the thick gravel beds that form the other 
parts of the plain ; the same thing on a smaller scale occurs in the Waimea 
plains, in Southland, where the eocene limestone is also covered with gravel, 
and cannot be distinguished in outline from the terraces; we know of no 
agency but marine denudation that could effect this, The seaward plains 
show their origin still more distinctly by their uniform level all round the 
southern face of the Hokanuis, and from the terraces being sometimes arranged 
more or less parallel to the present coast. It is no objection to the marine 
theory that beds of lignite are found under these deposits, on the contrary it 
is much in favour of it, as it is well known that vegetable remains are very 
sparingly distributed in river alluviums, for they are scattered widely by the 
currents, while, on the other hand, we know that most coal seams are covered 
by marine beds. Indeed the occurrence of vegetable remains on a large 
scale below alluvial plains is a certain proof that those plains were formed 
either by lakes or by the sea, and not by rivers. These vegetable deposits 
accumulated during the depression which preceded the elevation. 
Of the Canterbury plains I speak with much diffidence as I have not 
visited them, and because Dr. Haast, after a careful examination, has come to 
the conclusion that they have been formed by the rivers during a long course 
of depression (Report on the Canterbury Plains, 1864), but judging from the 
sections that he gives in his report I cannot understand how they can have an 
entirely fluviatile origin, for in a line parallel to the coast they are nearly 
level from the Waimakariri to the Rangitata, the highest portion being about 
the Waimakariri. “Now each of the rivers must have poured out an amount 
of detritus proportional to its size, and therefore the plains should be higher 
about the larger rivers than about the smaller ones; but the fact is that the 
country about the Hinds and Ashburton, two small rivers, is higher than that 
about the Rangitata, a large river, and nearly as high as that about the 
Rakaia, the largest river on the plains. If we suppose that the larger rivers 
after raising their own beds wandered about the plains helping the smaller 
ones, I can then see no reason why all the smaller rivers should have after- 
wards left the common channel, and each pursued its own way direct to the 
sea. Neither does Dr. Haast explain how it is that the gravel formation of 
the plains wraps round the spurs of the hills at the same level that it has at 
the river gorges, nor how it is that the plains of the Rakaia and Waimakariri 
are nearly at the same level on each side of the Malvern hills, while the beds 
of the rivers are at very different levels, nor why the tertiary rocks between 
the junction of the Kowai and the Gorge hill, and at the gorge of the 
Rakaia, are levelled on the top. Dr. Haast not only believes in a general 
