W. Travebs. — Supposed Pleistocene Glaciation of Xeio Zealand. 429 



prevailing winds of the present day. There is no reason for believing that the 

 moisture they then brought with them was greater than it is now. The 



country is still high enough, according to Dr. Haast, to produce all the effects 

 assigned to the action of these winds in former times, for in the paragraph 

 numbered 3 he says, in continuation of the passage last above quoted, that 

 " the n6ves would soon have attained an enormous extent, and would have 

 considerably lowered the line of perpetual snow, even had the land not been 

 raised to a higher elevation than at present" (a circumstance which, by the way, 

 he utterly repudiates in his recent presidential address), and, he adds, " the 

 consequence would have been that glaciers of much larger extent would have 

 descended down the natural outlets." Now, assuming that the " causes" 

 mentioned by Dr. Haast would have been sufficient to bring about the 

 suggested glaciation, it is certainly inconceivable, seeing that the same 

 " causes " are still in active operation, why the ice sheet should have melted 



away. 



But Dr. Haast is utterly in error as to the direction of one of the winds 

 which prevail on the coasts of the South Island, and which he describes as the 

 "polar south-east wind." Such a wind, as a surface wind, is entirely 

 unknown in these latitudes, either to physical geographers or to the present 

 inhabitants of the island, and, indeed, its existence is a pure and unwarranted 

 assumption. The prevalent winds of the South Island are the general 

 westerly winds which are laid down on the wind charts of physical geographers 

 as occurring between the thirtieth and sixtieth parallels of south latitude, and 

 are, in effect, the same as the prevalent westerly winds which impinge on the 



western coast of South America. 



Mr. Darwin, speaking of the effect produced by these winds, tells us that 

 " the windy, humid, and equable climate of Terra del Fuego extends with only 

 a small increase of heat for many degrees along the coast of that continent. 

 The forests for 600 miles northward of Cape Horn have a very similar aspect. 

 As a proof of the equable climate, even for 300 or 400 miles still further north- 

 ward, I may mention (he says) that in Chiloe (corresponding in latitude with 

 the northern parts of Spain) the peach seldom produces fruit, whilst strawberries 

 apples thrive to perfection. Even the crops of barley and wheat are often 

 brought into the houses to be dried and ripened. At Valdivia (in the same 

 latitude of 40° with Madrid) grapes and figs ripen, but are not common; 

 olives seldom ripen even partially, and oranges not at all. These fruits, in 

 corresponding latitudes in Europe, are known to succeed to perfection. 

 Although the humid and equable climate of Chiloe, and of the coast north- 

 ward and southward of it, is so unfavourable to our fruits, yet the native 

 forests, from latitude 45° to 38°, almost rival in luxuriance those of glowing 

 intertropical regions. Stately trees of many kinds, with smooth and highly 



and 



