310 Transactions. — Geology. 



lowering tho sea beds, in producing the contortions and anticlinations of strata, 

 and in levelling and abrading their surfaces : again, and most of all, what 

 affects man of this nineteenth century most nearly, in vitilizing the products 

 of the carboniferous period, by depositing them in our coal beds and alter- 

 nating them, for this, our age of iron — the age of accelerated intercourse by 

 steamships and railway — with the valuable black band. These events, then, 

 have passed, and our consideration is confined to an epoch immediately 

 preceding the present, and our range of actual observation to a small portion 

 of the most remote of British colonies. 



But we must pause a little yet, and borrow information from abroad, for 

 we must not speak too abniptly of the glacial epoch, an epoch of constantly 

 frozen ground, covering those pleasant spots where now the Taieri and Oamaru 

 farmers gather in their golden crojDS of wheat and barley. We must look a 

 little over the woild, and, with the help of one of Keith Johnston's physical 

 atlases, bring home certain facts to the mind. Our latitude is 46° south ; 

 longitude, 170° east. Now, there are two extensive regions in the world 

 situated in the same latitude north, and ranging between 60° and 150° east, 

 and 60° and 120° west, longitude, whose ground is constantly frozen, and 

 whose glaciers, when on the coast, stretch down to the sea level, i.e., in Asia 

 and North America. The circumstance suggested to have existed in New 

 Zealand has therefore extensive exposition on the earth at this jiresent time. 

 With so much of preface, then, in deference to the tender consciences of the 

 doubtful, we may proceed with our demonstration. 



That the limit of constantly-frozen ground overspread this region will not 

 only have to be proved, I hope to your satisfaction, but that the present 

 surface of the earth was also under water will have to be demonstrated. In 

 support of this latter proposition, were I to appeal to your belief I think I 

 would have ready concurrence, for this is an idea implanted in the mind by 

 our earliest lessons, and, further, it is an universal one maintained by all 

 nations, whether civilized or barbarous. But in this arena of philosophy you 

 have a right to demand proof before belief, and I will shortly recount a few 

 examples. In Europe the lofty Apennines and Pyrenees, in their limestone 

 formations bearing marine fossils, convey a practical and convincing argument 

 that their slopes, and even summits, were once below the ocean, and that they 

 had either, in the course of geological ages, risen or the water had become 

 depressed. And, as it has been in Eui'ope, so it has been no otherwise with 

 us, for we have the limestone in various pai'ts of this portion of New Zealand 

 bearing marine fossils now raised considei-ably above the level of the ocean. 



Fii-st, I may mention, because it is neai-est to hand, the Caversham free- 

 stone, attaining an elevation of 400 feet above the sea level, from which are 

 gathered, as may be seen in the Museum, the Terebratula, Fecien, and other 



