324: Transactions. — Geology. 



and when we examine their contents we find that they consist of particles of 

 broken, worn, and ground-up rocks, whose originals ai'e in tlie enclosing 

 mountains ; hence, as travelled particles, we conclude they come from thence. 



To estimate the importance of the power that brought them to their 

 present site is, for the human mind, difficult. The formation of the Manuherikia 

 I roughly estimate at 900 feet in depth, i miles in breadth, and 20 to 30 miles 

 in length ; those of the Upper Clutha may be one-third less than these. Then, 

 if we were to try to imagine what power would transport the Peninsula of 

 Otago to Green Island, we would have some notion. We are, then, conclusively 

 led to the glacial action that we have been already considering for a satisfactory 

 solution of the problem. This alpne could do the work, and this — on pondering 

 on what has already been adduced— would do it so naturally that I need not 

 take up more of your time on the subject, but rather confine myself to an 

 explanation of the 'modus operandi. 



It has been proved, I hope to your satisfaction, that terrene glaciers at one 

 time covered our island, and that also the island itself was sunk considerably 

 under the ocean. How these things came about does not matter to the present 

 argument. That they wei'e so is all that we want to know. Whether we had 

 borrowed water from the Northern Hemisphere, and then lost it ; or, whether 

 the internal forces of the earth sank our land, and then raised it, is of no 

 consequence. Indeed, great savans, as well as great preachers, allow of no 

 obstacles to a favourite theory or belief. Thus, Lyell, to prove alternation of 

 heat and cold, by the exercise of a little imagination puts Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, and America, at the equator, and as quickly sets them at the poles ; 

 and Dr. Lang, of Sydney, to prove that the Polynesians and Americans 

 descended from a common stock, lays dry the mighty and deep Pacific, and even 

 Madagascar and New Zealand have been joined that the moas might have 

 social intercourse. 



Then, if the facts be admitted, even though the causes be unknown, we 

 will have the mountains at near 3,000 feet less in elevation \ Mount Cook, 

 instead of towering 12,460 feet, would yet be majestic at 9,460; and the 

 valleys of the Waitaki, Clutha, Taieri^ etc., would be under the sea, and, in 

 their upper portions, inlets thereof. At this epoch the dry land and shores 

 would be covered with glaciei's, the sea with icebergs, the temperature and 

 constant attrition of which would allow no shell fish to exist. Hence their 

 absence in the drifts. 



Now, to form an idea of how the terraces are left on diy land in their 

 present aspect, we must observe miniature operations of the present date ; the 

 principle being tbe same, the results of similar nature. If we take the shores 

 of a lake, such as that of Wakatipu or Wauaka, or the banks of a lai'ge river, 

 such as Molyneux or Waitaki, which are subject to periodical rises and falls, 



