4-0 Transactions. — Geology. 



the now extinct Dinornithidce, of which Dr. Haast himself assures us that a 

 large number of species existed during pleistocene times. The climate of the 

 South Island is remarkably good, every species of temperate fruit and a large 

 number of plants which require to be cultivated under glass in England 



floui-ishin 



Such are the existing surface features of a tract of country which, if we 

 are to believe Dr. Haast, was subjected, in very recent geological times, after 

 repeated submergences, and when (as he assures us) its elevation above sea 

 level was much less than it is at present, to a glaciation as rigorous as that of 

 Greenland and the antarctic lands. 



Returning now to the quotations already made from the learned doctor's 

 report, let us enquire more closely into the geological and other changes which 

 he calls upon his readers to believe that the district in question has undergone 

 since the close of the tertiary period. In the first place, we are told that the 

 whole South Island has risen not less than 13,000 feet above sea level ; then, 

 that almost immediately upon and during the continuance of its emergence 

 it became subjected to, and then remained for a large though indefinite period 

 involved in, a glaciation of the character already frequently alluded to ; and, 

 lastly, we are required to believe, that it must have acquired all its present 



the same period. And yet, in the teeth of all this, 



ithin 



durin 



alleged glaciation " the configuration of the area now occupied by the Canter- 



ains 



Banks Peninsula as an island," the learned doctor has, in a recent address, as 

 President of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, whilst reaffirming in 



durin 



times 



His language is as follows : 



" If elevation had taken place during the postpliocene or glacier period, 

 Banks Peninsula would certainly show this most conspicuously ; but what 

 does a close examination of that interesting isolated volcanic region reveal to 



us? "We 



about 



undergoing probably a similar submergence. It is true that its lower portion 



in several localities, up to 800 feet, is covered more or less with silt— a fine 

 loam 



true 



the decomposition of the rocks in situ, or partly brought down from higher 

 regions by running water. Moa bones and pieces of small land shells have 

 been found in these deposits, of which there are many splendid sections to be 

 examined, but nowhere the least sign of marine life could be detected in them. 

 This fact alone shows that the emergence theory has not the least foundation ; 



