258 PROCEBDINOS OP THB GEOLOGICAl SOCIETY. [Feb. 7, 



probable, however, looking to the course and general appearance of 

 the valley of the Roturoa, that the glacier stretched as far as the 

 Buller, iUling the present valley with moraine matter as it receded, 

 becoming stationary for some time near the present margin of the 

 lake where the moraine attains its greatest height. 



Lake Howick, in its deepest part (rather less than haKway up), 

 is upwards of 1000 feet deep, and again shallows as you approach 

 the moraine. The outlet has made its way through the moraine, 

 exhibiting a section about 30 feet in height. 



Of course it is impossible to say to what depth the moraine matter 

 in front of these two lakes extends ; but I cannot help thinking that, 

 if it could be traced downwards, we should find it lying on the same 

 foundations as the post- Pliocene beds above referred to, — from which 

 we might conclude that, enormous as the period must have been, the 

 sites of these lakes were occupied by ice when the period of depres- 

 sion commenced during which those beds were deposited, and so 

 continued for some time after the reelevation of the land above the 

 level of the sea. At all events it appears to me, in view of the facts 

 above mentioned, impossible to admit that these basins owe their 

 existence to the scooping power of ice. I should gladly have de- 

 voted a longer time than I was able to give to the examination of 

 this district at the period of my visit to it, but the fact was, that my 

 son and one of my men had several of their toe nails washed off, and 

 our hands and bodies were so stained that it took nearly three weeks 

 to get them clean again. The utmost devotion to science was scarcely 

 proof against such weather. 



I will now mention the facts observed by me in the valleys of the 

 Dillon and Clarence, as these valleys present features of exceeding 

 interest in connexion with former glacial action. As a general rule 

 in this country, in valleys which have never been occupied by glaciers, 

 the spurs of the ranges on each side interlock ; whilst in those which 

 have been occupied by glaciers we constantly find the points of the 

 spurs on one side or other of the valley cut off, the faces of the spurs 

 then being A-shaped, and rising at a very steep angle. I have ob- 

 served the latter feature to obtain in all the valleys in which I have 

 found old moraines, and I think it may be a good guide in deter- 

 mining the longitudinal extent of former glacier action. 



The upper part of the river Dillon flows through a valley now 

 occupied by me as a cattle-station. N'ow, stretching across the 

 valley, from the mouth of the "Henry" to the range on the eastern 

 side of the river, is a huge moraine, filling the valley for nearly 

 three miles of its length. This moraine rises about 100 feet above 

 the level of the valley on its upper side. After the retreat of the 

 glacier, and until the river, aided by the waters of the Henry, had 

 worn a channel through this moraine, the upper valley was filled 

 with water, and the margin of the lake so formed, as seen on the 

 moraine, about 30 feet above the level of the valley, is as fresh as if 

 it had only been emptied a weeTc ago. About 14 miles up the valley 

 is another and much smaller moraine, showing where the glacier had 

 rested during its retreat. 



