W. Travers. — Ori Extinct Glaciers in the South Island. 299 



especially when taken in connection with the ascertained facts to which I shall 

 call attention in the sequel. Assuming, then, that under existing climatal 

 conditions an average elevation of not less than 13,000 to 14,000 feet would 

 be necessary, in those parts of the Middle Island range which do not now 

 exceed 9,000 feet in height, for the formation and existence of such glaciers as 

 undoubtedly once occupied the valleys of the Hurunui, the Waimakariri, and 

 the Rakaia — the highest summits in the vicinity of which do not now exceed 

 the latter altitude — we must either accept a change in climate of a very 

 remarkable character, but of which we have no evidence whatever, or attribute 

 the disappearance of such glaciers to a diminution of not less than 4,000 to 

 6,000 feet in the general height of the range in question, as compared with its 

 altitude when the glaciers referred to attained their gi-eatest extension. 



I may add that I am the more inclined to adopt the latter hypothesis, not 

 only because the evidences in support of it are precisely the same as those 

 which have led to similar conclusions respecting the former extension of the 

 Swiss glaciers, but also because it is more in accordance with the principles 

 which govei-n sound geological enquiry. One circumstance, moreover, is very 

 noticeable in connection with the extinct glaciers to the north of Mount Cook, 

 namely, that the extent of each appears to have borne a distinct relation to 

 the altitude of the mountains in which it arose ; for we find, not only with 

 those which still occujiy the Mount Cook valleys, but also with those which 

 formerly occupied the valleys radiating from the Spencer Mountains, that the 

 lateral moraines occur at far greater heights, and the terminal moraines extend 

 to far greater distances, and are much more extensive in their dimensions, than 

 those which were deposited by the glaciers which occupied any part of the 

 range intervening between these two great mountain masses. 



Assuming then that— at the time when the valleys above referred to were 

 occupied by glaciers of the first order — the Middle Island range, generally, 

 stood at an additional elevation of not less than 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, 

 not only must the present islands of New Zealand proper have been connected, 

 but an immense area of dry land must have existed in all directions around 

 them, probably extending, to the eastward, far beyond the chain of islands 

 which curves round them on that side, from Raoul Island in the north, by the 

 Chatham Group, to the Antipodes Islands in the south, all of which stUl 

 bear a vegetation nearly identical with that of the parent land. To what 

 extent the depression which led to the disappearance of the glaciers in 

 question may have exceeded the maximum above referred to, I am not prepared 

 to say, and, although both Captain Hutton and Dr. Haast have mentioned 

 facts which lead to the belief that the eastern side of the Middle Island has 

 risen since the last great depression, the extent to which this is indicated in 

 their statements is too trifling to settle the question. 



