Crawford. — Port Nicholson a Fresh-water Lake. 293 



the gi'avels and clays which fill the basin of this valley been deposited in the 

 waters of the harbour, which, on that supposition, would then have flowed up 

 the valley, remains of marine oiigiu must have been found. 



The formation of Thorndon Flat, although difi&cult to account for without 

 the assistance of the above theory, becomes comparatively easy when supposed 

 to be a gentle deposit in a fresh- water lake . This I suppose it to be. The more 

 I consider the question the more it appears to me impossible to suppose that 

 Port Nicholson could have been for ages anything else than a fresh-water lake. 



The question still remains for consideration how the basin of the lake and 

 valley was originally excavated, for excavated it must have been. 



Although unwilling, without due cause, to drag in the much-abused agency 

 of ice, yet I must say that I think the most reasonable theory we can form on 

 the subject is, that the great work of excavation was at least commenced, and 

 in great part executed, by the agency of a glacier. If we suppose a great 

 elevation of land in the neighbourhood, possibly including the whole of Cook 

 Strait to Taranaki and Cape Farewell, and the still, at that time, undenuded 

 state of the higher parts of Tararua, it is easy to conceive, or possibly difficult 

 to resist, the inference that a n6vg crowned the higher plateau, and a glacier 

 once filled the valley of the Hutt and the hai-bour of Port Nicholson, and so 

 far excavated the valley as to prepare a basin for a lake and subsequent 

 harbour. This would appear to me to be the simplest explanation of the 

 changes which have taken place. It will be seen that the chief foundations 

 for the theory are the peculiar denudation of the district and the boulder-bank 

 in Evans Bay. With regard to the latter it is not necessary to suppose that 

 the boulders were brought from a distance, for they might have been derived 

 from the remains of the Evans Bay denudation. Some few boulders of granites 

 and schists, which I have found on the isthmus, arrived there, no doubt, at a 

 comparatively recent period, and since the re-arrangement of the boulder bank 

 by the sea. 



It may seem absurd to notice a curious idea of which many people seem to 

 have got hold, from what information it would be difficult to determine, viz., 

 that Captain Cook sailed into Port Nicholson through the passage of Evans 

 Bay. The best authority on the subject ought to be Capt. Cook himself, and, 

 as he does not mention his visit to this port, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 his ships never entered it. But I think I have shown conclusively that he 

 could not have entered by Evans Bay, for, even supposing that the land at the 

 time of his visit to New Zealand stood at a lower level of fifteen feet — which 

 supposition would require an extraordinary stretch of imagination — that 

 depression would only allow about a foot or two of water at high tide for the 

 passage of his ships, and, notwithstanding the smaller size of the vessels in 

 those days, that depth of water was clearly insufficient. 



