W. Tea VERS. — Supposed Pleistocene Glaciation of New Zealand. 415 



somewliere above, instead of being coincident with, sea level. But, although 

 I am unable to reconcile the apparent discrepancy, I have thought it necessary 

 to call special attention to this particular proposition, as it contains an admis- 

 sion of considerable importance to my own arguments. 



Such, then, are the propositions which Dr. Haast lays down for our 

 acceptance, without, however, condescending to offer any arguments in support 

 of them, or to state any relevant facts from which they could be independently 

 deduced, and I need not say how unfortunate and embarrassing this is in con- 

 nection with any discussion of the questions at issue between us. In a scientific 

 enquiry " a point which can be proved should not be assumed," and it was 

 Dr. Haast's undoubted duty, when laying down such propositions as those 

 which are fairly deducible from his report, to have stated, clearly and defi- 

 nitely, the nature of the evidences which had led him to adopt them. But, 

 notwithstanding these disadvantages, and in spite of the difficulty of assigning 

 any meaning which should be consistent with received geological principles to 

 much of his language, I propose to examine the above stated propositions at 

 some length. In the first place, however, in order that the character of the 

 glaciation with which Dr. Haast has chosen to invest the islands of New 

 Zealand in pleistocene times may be understood, I extract the following des- 

 criptions of the present glaciation of Greenland, and of that of the antarctic 

 lands, from authors of undoubted authority : — 



" "Whatever it may have been when Captain Inglefield saw it a year ago," 

 says Dr. Kane, speaking of Greenland even before the close of the northern 

 summer, " the aspect of this coast is now most uninviting. As we look far off 

 to the west, the snow comes down with heavy uniformity to the water's edge, 

 and the patches of land seem as rare as the summer's snow on the hills about 

 Sukkertoppen and Piskernaes. All the back country appears one great rolling 

 distance of glacier." 



Mr. Geikie, in his work on " The Great Ice Age," page 54, thus speaks of 

 the existing glaciation of Greenland : — 



" We have now acquired some knowledge that bears upon the origin of the 

 Scottish till, but we shall gather yet further aid in our attempts to decipher 

 the history of that deposit by taking a peep at some arctic country. For this 

 purpose we cannot do better than select ice-covered Greenland. That desolate 

 region of the far north, despite the bleak and barren aspect of its coasts, and the 

 horrors of the ice-choked seas that must be traversed to reach its more northern 

 shores, has nevertheless been frequently visited by daring navigators, who 

 have pushed their investigations many hundred miles north of the Danish settle- 

 ments. The accounts which they give are chiefly taken up with descriptions 

 of the wild ice-bound coast of Greenland, few attempts having been made to 

 penetrate into the interior. But that cannot be said to be altogether a terra 



