18G4.] KEENE KEW SOUTH WAXES. 137 



That the character of our alpine climate (of a continental nature 

 on the eastern side of the central chain) disappears as soon as changes 

 in the orographical configuration are met with, is instructively seen 

 in the valleys of the Paver Makarora (Lake Wanaka) and the Eiver 

 Hunter (Lake Hawea), both of the same breadth, altitude, and 

 direction, and for at least fifteen miles above the lakes, vsdth an equal 

 gradient. Whilst in the former, over the low pass across the Central 

 Alps which bears my name, the moist winds from the west coast 

 can advance nearly to Lake Wanaka before all their moisture is 

 extracted or condensed, the latter valley has a high mountain-range 

 at its head covered with perpetual snow, and is therefore not exposed 

 to the same amount of warm moisture. Consequently the valley of 

 the Hunter has all the characteristic vegetation of a true alpine 

 valley, abounding in Aciphyllce, C'elmisioe, and coniferous subalpine 

 and alpine shrubs and trees, whilst in the Makarora Valley they are 

 missing, exhibiting a flora more similar to that of the west coast, or 

 the lower regions of the east coast. 



I have made this observation in order to show that the least change 

 in the orographical conditions of this island gives at once to the 

 flora an entirely different character, which, taking the preceding 

 remarks into account, may offer a still stronger argument in aid of 

 the hypothesis started in this note. 



Thus the existence of the Moa bones found amongst the Pleistocene 

 terminal and lateral moraines induces us, more than any other 

 reason, to adopt the conclusion that nearly the same meteorological 

 conditions existed then as now ; offering at the same time a further 

 reason for accepting the theory of large plateau-like ranges rising 

 above the line of perpetual snow, as a principal cause for the greater 

 glaciation of New Zealand during the Pleistocene epoch. 



Dbcembee 21, 1864. 



Henry Bowman Brady, Esq., F.L.S., ISTewcastle-on-Tyne; Ptichard 

 Brown, Esq. ; Major William Howley Goodenough, E.A. ; John 

 Jones, Esq., The Trindle, Dudley; and John Reginald Yorke, Esq., 

 M.P., Tewkesbury, were elected Fellows. 



M. Jules Desnoyers, of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, was elected 

 a Foreign Member. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. On the CoAL-MEASTTEEs of New SoTJTir Wales, with Spieifee, 

 Glossopteris, and Lepidoden^dron. By William Keene, Esq., 

 Examiner of Coal-fields and Keeper of Mining Records, New South 

 Wales. 



(In a letter to the Assistant-Secretary.) 

 The main feature in the geology of New South Wales is the " Syd- 

 ney Sandstone," and in no case has any younger rock come under 



