441 Transactions. — Geology. 



leads, now lying at high levels, to the drift and gold of the leads lying along 

 the coast above the present level of the sea, which so exactly resemble the 

 beach leads at present forming that I cannot doubt but they have been 

 formed in a similar manner. 



I may here mention that an elevation theory is not by any means generally 

 accejjted as the chief cause of glacial extension. Dr. Haast, who has studied 

 glacial phenomena more than any other geologist in New Zealand, from what 

 I can learn from his writings, does not appear to consider former glaciation 

 due to greater elevation ; and Dr. Hector, in his address published in the 

 sixth volume of the Transactions, suggests a larger area of ground both above 

 high water mark and above the snow line, and alterations in the surroundings 

 of New Zealand.* 



Recent upheaval is the last phase to be considered, and in this I do not 

 agree with either Captain Hutton or Mr. Travers ; and I cannot see that any 

 evidence in favour of recent elevation is given by either of the above named 

 gentlemen ; had any recent elevation taken place anywhere round the shores 

 of Blind Bay, traces should certainly be existing at present. I am well 

 acquainted with the north and west coast of the Nelson Province, and the 

 east and west coast of the Canterbury Province, but know of no raised beaches 

 which I should consider of late date. It is true, I conceive the auriferous 

 drifts which are worked for gold on the coast, at levels varying from fifty to 

 400 feet above sea level, owe their shape to the combined action of sea and 

 river currents j but I believe these leads or beaches to have been deposited prior 

 to the glacial period, as in several places they are covered with moraine matter. 



The Canterbury plains show no signs of raised beaches, and Dr. Haast's 

 report upon the formation proves beyond all doubt their fluviatile origin. In 

 a paper on the Glacial Period, published in the last volume of the Transactions 

 of the New Zealand Institute, I stated that the drift formation of the Canter- 

 bury plains began during the pliocene period, when I considered the greater 

 part of the lower lands of the South Island were submerged beneath the sea. 

 This statement requires qualification; if I am correct in imagining a great 

 submergence to have taken place previously to the glacial epoch, marine 

 deposits and gravel drift would undoubtedly have been formed, but the 

 enormous amount of dctntus brought down by the rivers during the glacial 

 period would be sufficient to entirely bury all evidence of marine action 

 throughout the area now occupied by the Canterbury jilains. This want of 

 evidence of marine action is the gi-eatest difficulty to my mind in the 

 way of the elevation theory, witliout we assume the elevation to have been 

 chiefly conflned to the western side of the island, which rose and fell without 

 affecting the general level of the east coast. 



♦ TrauB. and Proc. N.Z. Inst., VI., pp. 374 and 385. 



