'^'20 Transactions. — Geology. 



the now extinct Dinomithidce, of wliich 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 

 flourishing luxuriantly. 



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 

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

 and in spite of the assertion in paragraph 3, that during the progi'ess of the 

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

 bury plaius must have been a broad arm or channel of the sea, surrounding 

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

 President of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, whilst reaffirming in 

 its entirety the report of 1864, absolutely repudiated all idea of elevation of 

 the area occupied by the Canterbury plains, either during his glacial period,, 

 or during post-pliocene times generally. 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 observe no trace of marine action, except the result of a slight 

 oscillation of about twenty feet, by which the peninsula has been raised after 

 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 — which, in many instances, is a true slope deposit, partly derived from 

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

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

 been found in these d(!posits, 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 ; 



