Physiography, Geology.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



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to exist — e.g., Bristow Rock, \ying five miles north of the entrance to Port Ross ; 

 and no doubt others occur whose positions are at present unknown. Their fre- 

 quent Occurrence points distinctly to shallow water in the neighbourhood, and to 

 the island being a remnant of a much larger land. A sounding taken by the 

 " Hinemoa " twenty miles north of Enderby Island gave a depth of 95 fathoms. 



The theory of the former extension of the land is supported by the form of the 

 present coast-line. The eastern side is a paradise of safe and commodious harbours. 

 Dumont D'Urville called Port Ross, at the north end of the group, the finest harbour 

 in the world. Carnley Harbour, in the south, disputes this claim, for it is a 

 magnificent sheet of water. Between these two there are a number of inlets, of which 

 Norman's Inlet, Cascade Inlet, and Smith's Harbour are the chief. While Carnley 



Pig. 1. — West Coast of Auckland Island, near Cape Beistow. 



The precipitous cliffs are 600 ft. high, and are composed of regular flows of basalt and beds of scoria dipping 



west at very low angles. 



Harbour occupies j'the site of an old volcano, modified subsequently by subaerial 

 erosive agents, the others are drowned valleys, eroded at a time when the land was 

 higher, first by stream-action and then were modified by glacier-action. They are 

 now depressed, so that the sea occupies their lower reaches. 



The western coast presents a marked contrast. Instead of a series of bays and 

 inlets, it presents an almost unbroken wall of rock for a length of over twenty miles. 

 The perpendicular cliffs, composed of numerous and regular flows of basalt, rise to 



(fig. 1). It is extremely probable that this coast was 



a height of over 1,200 ft 



