628 Transactions. 
is met by the line of the depression nearly at right angles; but in the case 
of the next terrace the circumstances are entirely different (see Plate 65, 
figp. 2. Here the angle between the line of the depression and that of 
the edge of the terrace is considerably less than a right angle, and on the 
north-eastern side the bank is much higher than on the south-western side ; 
whereas on the ridge leading up to Bryant's Hill, where the slope of the 
ground is to the north-east, the bank is decidely higher on the south- 
western side. A distinctive feature is the presence of a raised bank on 
either side, somewhat like a natural or artifical river levee, with a height 
above the level of neighbouring land-surface ranging usually from 0 to 4 ft., 
but occasionally as much as 6ft. Where it could be examined it proved 
to be formed of wind-blown material similar to the soil covering large areas 
of the Canterbury Plains. The accumulation of loose material is most 
marked at the upper end nearest the river, whence plentiful supplies are 
derived, partly from the present river-bed, and partly from the glacial 
silts of the old Rakaia lake, which occupied a depression behind the rock 
bar nedr the gorge immediately after the retreat of the ice. The fine 
materialis swept from this area by the powerful north-west winds which 
are a notable meteorological feature of the district (note such names as 
“ Windwhistle Point " and “ Windwhistle House "). In none of the loose 
material did we see any angular blocks, although Haast says that they 
do oceur sparingly. There is no doubt whatsoever that the formation of 
the levee must be credited almost wholly to wind-action. 
The floor of the depression is eovered with rounded and subangular 
blocks with an admixture of soil similar to that composing the bank. 
The soil is in places somewhat scanty, but occasionally it forms rough 
irregular mounds. These were considered by Haast to be morainic heaps, 
but those examined by us were rather of the nature of dunes, such as oceur 
now in places near the edge of the high terraces. There are similar banks 
of wind-blown material off the line of the “ Railroad " to the west, where 
there is a considerable area of land from which the soil has been swept 
o 
the neighbourhood, it is quite possible that some of the heaps in the floor 
of the depression may be morainic or may have a core of morainic material. 
In places, usually along the base of a terrace, the floor of the depression 1$ 
swampy, the water which accumulates being due either to the formation of © 
pond-like hollows in the dune-complex, or to the presence of a small stream 
which has followed along the bottom of an old river-terrace, where the E 
ground is, as a rule, somewhat lower. es 
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the “ Railroad " is the way it 
climbs the old river-terraces, and specially the third terrace, about three- — 
quarters of a mile below the Bayfield Homestead. The terrace is һе 
about 20 ft. in height, and the line of the “ Railroad ” turns off at an anglè _ 
“of 15°, ascends the rise obliquely, and then reverts to its former direction — 
(see Plate 65, fig. 2). Whatever the cause of this landscape feature, it 18 
certainly of a date posterior to the formation of this terrace and the others — 
