404 Transactions. — Geology. 



staff on Mount Victoria, whicli is only separated from the sea now by a low 

 sandy neck, wliicli has no doubt been formed as the land gradually rose. 

 This channel now filled with mud and mangrove flats, and only navigable 

 for small boats at high water, bears on its cliffs the evident impress of much 

 larger waves than ever can arise there now. At Motutapu in several places, 

 but particularly on the east side of Drunken Bay, is a well preserved raised 

 beach, about the same general level as the others, which was formed when 

 there was a deep water-channel between it and Eangitoto, and which owes 

 its preservation to its sheltered position. The steep cliff on the right hand 

 of the path leading down from the Supreme Court to Mechanics' Bay is the 

 work of the sea when it stood at a higher level, and when the Bay extended 

 up to near Fraser and Tinne's foundry. 



If we continue our survey northwards from Auckland, the same evidence 

 of elevation will be found. Time was when Whangaparaoa was not, as now, 

 a peninsula, but an island, the old channel separating it from the main is 

 still clearly visible, its floor being at about the same level of 15 feet above 

 high water-mark. The flat north of Orewa, and that on which the Waiwera 

 Hotel stands, are old sea beaches, whilst the small island off that place, the 

 native name of which is Mahurangi (whence the name has been transferred 

 by the settlers to the harbour to the north of it. The proper name of which 

 is Waihe), has probably only become such by the action of the sea since 

 this elevation. Native tradition speaks of this island as having been a large 

 pa in comparatively modern times, though but a mere rock now. The flats 

 between Waipu and Whangarei Heads, and extending up that harbour for 

 some distance, are another illustration of a sea-bottom, now dry land. 

 Here we learn of a probable depression going on in quite recent times. It 

 is stated that within the last generation some of the mangrove flats in the 

 harbour had dry flats on them, used by the Maoris as cultivations, but now 

 washed by the spring tides. Further northwards again the same thing is 

 seen. The flat on which the Town of Eussell is built was at one time 

 covered by the sea, which then separated the hill standing to the south-west 

 of the town from the mainland, forming an island. At Whangaroa, at 

 Mangonui, at Eangaounu Bay, the evidence is everywhere the same. At 

 the latter place, the flats of the Awanui and Victoria River rise gradually up 

 as a continuation of the sea-bottom, which a submergence of a very few feet 

 would again convert into a channel running across to the West Coast, thus 

 forming again, as it has done before, the northern termination of this island, 

 and leaving the North Cape and Mount Carmel as separate islands. 



The west coast shows the same line of elevation, with probably others 

 more ancient than the 15 feet one. At Hokianga there are several well- 

 marked beaches, notably the flats inside the heads at Pakia, whilst in 



