Wellington Philosophical Society. 379 



supposition would necessitate the subsequent total removal of tlie barrier from. 

 Cape Terawiti to Pencarrow lighthouse, which must have existed to form the 

 lake. This could not liave been removed since the period in which Mr. 

 Crawford supposed that the harbour existed as a lake, and if therefore it had 

 ever been a lake it must have been at a much more remote period, probably 

 not later than the lower eocene. 



Mr. W. Travers attributed the boulders mentioned by the aiithor to ballast 

 for canoes. He had observed no trace of glacial action in the district, and it 

 was impossible for him to conceive why the appearance of the action of ice 

 should be absent if it was to that that the excavation of the harbour was to 

 be attributed. 



The Hon. Mr. Mantell thought that more facts were required to prove 

 the correctness of Mr. Crawford's views. Sir Charles Lyell had collected many 

 interesting facts regai'ding the effects of earthquakes in this district. He might 

 mention, as an additional fact, that in 1855 a fence in the Wairarapa lying 

 north and south had all the rails drawn from the mortise holes, while one 

 Ijing east and west had remained uninjured. 



The author considered that a glacier did pass down from the Hutt. He 

 did not think thei'e had been an outlet to Island Bay, but that the original 

 outlet was through Evans Bay, He agreed that a lake generally had only 

 one outlet, but that meant one at a time. There is no reason why lakes may 

 not have had different outlets in different periods. 



2. "On Cnemiornis calcitrans, Owen, showing its Affinity to the Lamelli- 

 rostrate Natatores," by James Hector, M.D., F.R.S. (Transactions, p. 76.) 



The skeleton, on which the author founded his paper, was exhibited. 

 The Hon. Captain Eraser, who discovered the bones, gave some interestiug 

 information regarding the locality where they were obtained. 



3. A letter respecting the Recent Change in the Apex of Mount Cook, 

 received from Mr. Edmund Barff, was communicated by Dr. Hector. 



" 2nd July, 1873. — When I visited the southern parts of Westland in 

 your company several years since, you remarked, on one occasion, that if ever 

 a favourable opportunity should present itself for making the ascent of Mount 

 Cook, an effort should be made to explore the mountain. It appears to me that 

 there is such an opportunity at the present time. There has been an immense 

 landslip on the south-western side of the peak, which appears to have originally 

 covered a surface of at least a mile and a half in diameter, and which, viewed 

 through a telescope at this distance, is seen to be scattered over the side of the 

 mountain in immense irregular masses of rock. The slip occurred three weeks 

 since, and it is a somewhat strange circumstance that the miners who are 

 working in close proximity to the Fiancis Joseph Glacier heard no sound 



