256 PBOCEBDINGB OF THB GEOLOGICAL 80CIETY. [Fcb. 7, 



have their sources in these mountains, flowing from them to the 

 north, south, east, and west. Amongst the rivers on the northern 

 side of the range is the Buller or Eotoiti flowing out of Lake Arthur, 

 and the Eoturoa flowing out of Lake Howick. On the south side of 

 Mount Franklin is the River Waiau or Dillon, and the Clarence, which 

 flows out of Lake Tennyson. It is chiefly to the above-named lakes 

 and the valleys of the rivers that I shall refer. 



A line of road leads from the town of Nelson, in Blind Bay, to a 

 place called the " Old Pass," nearly due south of Ben Nevis, and 

 continues thence past Lake Arthur and along the course of the 

 E-otoiti and Buller rivers to the junction of the Eoturoa with the 

 latter. If from this point a line be drawn to the source of the 

 Todmor river (a feeder of the Motueka) and continued down the 

 eastern bank of the latter, it will again reach the sea. 



Stretching along the northern bank of the Eotoiti river, and com- 

 mencing nearly due north of Lake Arthur, is a range of hills marked 

 as being 2324 feet in height. Now this range of hills, and all the 

 spurs running north from it within the space above described, are 

 composed of post-Pliocene boulder-beds, gravels, and sands, in no 

 degree cemented, very little inclined in stratification, and in many 

 places exhibiting perpendicular sections several hundred feet high, 

 particularly wherever the foot of the hills has been washed by rivers. 

 The materials are all water- worn, and exhibit the common appear- 

 ance of river or beach shingle ; they overhe older Tertiary rocks, 

 to which Dr. Haast assigned a Miocene age ; but I am inclined to 

 think he is in error in this respect, looking to the great similarity 

 between most of the embedded fossil shells, and the shells now living 

 in the adjacent seas. 



These post-Pliocene beds extend northward as far as " "Wakefield,'* 

 terminating abruptly in chfFs, the bases of which have evidently been 

 formerly washed by the Wairoa river. 



A little to the westward of the north-western corner of Lake 

 Arthur is a small stream flowing into the outlet, and some miles 

 further south a river called the Howard flows through a valley* 

 bounded on both sides by hills composed of eoctremely loose material. 



Now the whole valley, nearly a mile and a half wide, between the 

 the margin of Lake Arthur and the above-mentioned range of hills 

 in front of it, is occupied by a huge moraine, the extremity of which 

 rests upon the flanks of these hills, stretching right and left aloDg 

 their line in the direction, on the one side, of the Old Pass, and on 

 the other, of the course of the Eotoiti. Many of the blocks of rock 

 composing this moraine measure from 15 to 20 feet square, and all 

 are composed of debris from the ranges on each side of the lake, 

 afibrding sufiicient proof that they were deposited by a huge glacier 

 which formerly occupied its site. 



In the direction of the Old Pass the moraine does not stretch fur- 



* The hills lying between this small stream and the Howard are also com- 

 posed of the same Post-pliocene boulders, gravels, and sands as those above 

 mentioned. In effect the River Eotoiti runs, as far as its confluence, with the 

 Howard. 



