GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 



195 



south the mountains bulge out, somewhat in the shape of a dumb- 

 bell, the handle being bordered on the west by the plains of West- 

 land, and on the east by the plains of Canterbury. The southern 

 end of the dumbbell is also notched by the plains of Southland. 

 The mountains are formed by a main anticlinal curve (fig. 1, a a) 

 running from the neighbourhood of Lake Wanaka, in Ota'go, in a 

 north-easterly direction to Tasman's Bay, and forming the ge-anti- 

 clinal of New Zealand. The greater part of the west side of this 

 anticlinal has been removed by denudation in Westland, so that the 



Fig. 1. — The South Island of Mw Zealand. 



|::/:-| 



Plains. 





Anticlinals 







Synclinals. 



— 



Fatilt. 



X 



Mt'Cook. 



ridge of the Alps no longer coincides with the axis of the curve, but 

 forms part of its south-easterly face. On the Canterbury side the 

 rocks are thrown into three broad synclines (fig. 1, 6, c, cZ), sepa- 

 rated by two anticlines (fig. 1, e, f) running more or less at right 

 angles to the main anticKne. The most southerly of these syn- 

 clines (6) goes from the neighbourhood of Palmerston, in Otago, in 

 a northerly direction to Lake Pukaki ; the second (c) from the 

 Gawler Downs, in South Canterburj^ in a westerly direction to the 

 junction of the Havelock and Clyde rivers, in the Upper Pangitata ; 

 the third (d) runs from Waiau in a northerly direction to the 

 neighbourhood of the Wairau Gorge, in ITelson Province. The 



