320 Transactions. — Geology. 



mile ; and of the Waiaviki, 10 miles, with a varying width of | to | of a njile. 

 Thus has the undulating and varying surface of this part of our territory, 

 during the post-tertiary period, been moulded to its present form, great valleys 

 have been scooped out, and hills removed. Under what conditions, then, could 

 these mighty works have taken place, is a question now to be considered. 



To approach this question we must now turn to higher latitudes, and 

 fortunate it is that a solution is to be attained not far distant, through the 

 discoveries and researches of the eminent explorer Sir James C. Ross, whose 

 works I read, with intense interest, in 1848, and which I have the pleasure to 

 lay on the table. Just 23 degrees due south, i.e., only six days distant by 

 steam vessel, lies South Victoria, a region which now possesses the climate 

 that New Zealand had ; whose physical geography is the same ; and, being 

 volcanic, may be said to be a continuation of our colonial territory. The 

 beautiful drawings given in the work display the same serrated ridges which 

 are now to be seen in our great western mountains (see Reid's Antarctic 

 Voyages Yol. I., page 183), and the smoking summit of Tongariro is to be 

 discovered in that of Mount Erebus (see page 216, Vol. I.). To illustrate the 

 subject, I cannot do better than transcribe the explorer's own words. He says : — 



" It was a beautifully clear evening, and we had a most enchanting view 

 of the two magnificent ranges of mountains, whose lofty peaks, perfectly 

 covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations varying from seven to ten 

 thousand feet above the ocean. The glaciers that filled their intervening 

 valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected in 

 many places several miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty, perpendicular 

 clifis. In a few places the rocks broke through their icy covering, by which 

 alone we could be assured that land formed the nucleus of this, to appearance, 

 enormous iceberg." 



Again : " The height of Mount Sabine was found, by means of several 

 measvirements, to be i-ather less than ten thousand feet, and about thirty 

 miles from the coast. The elevations of the other mountains were not deter- 

 mined with accuracy, but we judged them to vary from seven to nine thousand 

 feet ; and, altogether, they presented as grand and magnificent a view as can 

 well be imagined." 



Again : " We found the shores of the mainland completely covered with 

 ice, projecting into the sea." 



" We stood to the southward, close to some land which had been in sight 

 since the preceding noon, and which we then called ' High Island.' It proved 

 to be a mountain 12,400 feet of elevation above the level of the sea, emitting 

 flame and smoke in great profusion. At first the smoke appeared like snow- 

 drift, but, as we drew nearer, its true character became manifest. The 

 discovery of an active volcano in so high a southern latitude cannot but be 



