1855.] C. FORBES — NEW ZEALAND. 523 



The mountains which bound the view inland, rising in rugged 

 peaks precipitously from the sea to the height of 3000 feet, and 

 many of them entirely destitute towards their summits of all traces 

 of vegetation, are composed of a coarse flesh-coloured granite, and 

 are part of that series of mountain-ranges which form, no doubt, the 

 axis of elevation of the south-west and western coasts. Resting on 

 their flanks are metamorphic rocks ; and a dark blue trap with a 

 slaty fracture forms numerous islands in the harbour, and immediately 

 underlies the coal-deposits. 



The sandstones of Preservation Harbour are continued into Chalky 

 Bay, where the white surfaces of the decomposing cliffs appear like 

 the chalky cliff's of the English Channel, and hence the name of the 

 bay. From Chalky Bay to JNIilford Haven, the formation of the coast 

 is one uniform succession of lofty rugged mountains ; peak rising 

 above peak as far as the eye can reach inland. The coast, trending 

 to northward and eastward, is cut up into numerous harbours, run- 

 ning at right angles with the line of coast, which are separated by 

 precipitous ridges of from 2000 to 4000 feet elevation, running in a 

 N.W. to a S.E. direction. These harbours, which are of immense 

 depth, in some places 200 fathoms, vary from half a mile to about 

 two miles in width at the mouth, and penetrate from eight to fifteen 

 or twenty miles into the interior. A transverse ridge, following the 

 line of coast, seems to have existed throughout, for in all, the depth 

 of water is much less at the mouth, and in many of them one or two 

 islands lie across the mouth. The ravines or cracks forming these 

 rift-like harbours are no doubt to be ascribed to an elevating force, 

 the axis of which exists in the south-west point of the Island, inland 

 from Dusky and Chalky Bays. The mountains rise precipitously 

 from the sea, covered with a thick vegetation two-thirds of the way 

 up. Where the timber ceases, a coarse wiry grass succeeds ; and 

 immense masses of bare rock form the summits. Where the moun- 

 tains meet, at the heads of the harbours, the torrents, which con- 

 stantly flow over their weather-worn faces, have formed a level plain 

 of limited extent, formed by the detritus and boulders washed down 

 from the decomposing rocks. A thick growth of timber and un- 

 derwood covers these plains, and aff'ords shelter to the Kiwi, the 

 Kakapo, and the Weka. Mountain-torrents, running over immense 

 boulders of granitic and igneous rocks of various kinds, bring down 

 the finer particles and deposit them in the sea, filling up the harbours 

 and affording a limited anchorage. 



The rocks that are found in all these harbours are identical, and 

 are granitic rocks of various kinds (containing in some cases large 

 square crystals resembling garnet in colour), gneiss, mica-slate, mi- 

 caceous schists abounding in garnets, slaty metamorphic rocks, horn- 

 blende-rock, which forms the great mass of Breaksea Island, and 

 many rocks of the same character, passing one into the other. At 

 the entrance of the harbours, on each side, are found the slaty meta- 

 morphic rocks tilted at a high angle, dipping to the N.W. towards 

 the head of the harbour, and at the head, where the ridges join, 

 these are found to rest on the granitic and other crystalline rocks. 



VOL. XI. PART I. 2 N 



