44:6 Transactions. — Geology. 



Southward of Hokitika enormous glaciers covered the face of the country, 

 leaving mountains of moraine matter to indicate their former dimensions ; 

 lateral moraines run from the foot of the mountains to the sea, but nowhere 

 could I observe any trace of marine action posterior to the glacial times. 



In a repoi-t on the West Coast Gold Fields, made by Dr. Haast for the 

 Canterbury Government in 1865, after a careful examination of the country 

 and the gold workings, the auriferous drift covering the face of the country 

 from the Grey to the Mikonui — and which is no doubt of the same age as that 

 occurring throughout the Grey Valley — is attributed to the pliocene period. 

 Throughout the report he speaks of the loose nature of this drift, and 

 attributes its preservation to favourable circumstances, it having been destroyed 

 in many places by glacial action. He describes the drift overlaid by moraine 

 matter at Kanieri, near Hokitika, and in all cases, so far as I can learn, he 

 makes no mention of any recent raised beaches, or any trace of marine action 

 on the great moraines — matters which could scarcely have escaped his 

 observation. 



I think, from the consideration of the foregoing, it may be safely assumed 

 that no general elevation has occurred since the glacial period, and that if 

 subsidence was the cause of the extinction of the glaciers, subsidence may be 

 considered as the latest movement. The age of the youngest member of the 

 " great gold drift" series, to meet the hypothesis of Messrs. Hutton and 

 Travers, must not be later than miocene, and, as I have previously remarked, 

 there is no evidence advanced to support the belief in such an age. 



The elevation and subsequent subsidence hypothesis, as accounting for the 

 former great extension and after extinction of the glaciers, may be considered 

 a good provisional one, as readily accounting for a great variety of phenomena. 

 But, having already given my own views, I need not repeat them, and shall 

 now leave the subject, trusting that I have discussed the matter clearly, and 

 have given fairly the views of the authors of the papers under discussion. 



Before concluding, I may remark that the evidences of glacial action so 

 widely distributed over the South Island of New Zealand, and occurring 

 on so grand a scale as to attract attention even from the most uncultivated 

 observer, form one of the most interesting of the geological records which the 

 lovers of science are called upon to decipher. 



