Geological Survey of Canterbury. 15 



supply of valuable facts, and proceeding along the right bank of the 

 Eangitata I arrived on the 28th at the Peel Forest station. On the 

 way I examined the porphyritic zone in the McLeod range, and the 

 tertiary outlier with seams of brown coal in Coal Creek, passing over 

 the low saddle by whicb, in the great glacier period, one of the 

 branches of the Eangitata glacier reached the Canterbury plains- 

 For some days I was occupied with a geological exploration of 

 Mount Peel, and a survey of the morainic accumulations in the banks 

 of the Eangitata, after which I descended the river to the upper ferry, 

 as owing to a heavy freshet it was impossible to cross it on horseback. 

 I proceeded next across the plains to the Southern Hinds, which I 

 ascended to its source, and after paying a visit to the Grawler downs, 

 the geological structure of which proved of considerable geological 

 importance, I crossed the Northern Hinds and Southern Ashburton, 

 and reached the Mount Somers station on the evening of May 9th. 

 On . the outlying spur of the small terraced hill between the two last- 

 mentioned rivers, I found that some large rocky projections, the so- 

 called Two Brothers, consisted of palagonite tufa, a very interesting 

 volcanic deposit, which was hitherto known only to exist in 

 a few other localities in the Northern Hemisphere. Having 

 devoted some days to an examination of the extensive porphyritic zone 

 of Mount Somers, and the tertiary beds at its base with the 

 picturesque limestone caves washed out in them, I again ascended the 

 Southern Ashburton on May 11th, to the junction of the Eiver Stour. 

 Following this tributary to the saddle by which the Upper Ashburton 

 plains are reached, we had from this spot a most beautiful view. 

 Immediately in front of us a small nearly circular lake lying 

 between the moraines, which here cross the valley from side to side, 

 enlivened by numerous waterfowl, formed a charming foreground, the 

 middle portion consisted of the Ashburton plains with its lakes and 

 water-courses, above which the wild serrated A rrowsmith range, covered 

 with perpetual snow, rose majestically into the glorious evening sky 

 illuminated brilliantly by the last rays of the sun. On the 13th 

 of May I crossed with my pack-horses the Eibbon-wood range, which 

 is here over 5000 feet high, in order to reach the valley of the Ashburton 

 near its sources. Owing to the great steepness of that range on its 

 western side, where the horses had to be led down amongst 

 rocky precipices and moving shingle reaches, we had the greatest 

 difficulty in reaching the bottom of the valley, and it was quite 

 dark before a suitable spot was found where the tent could 

 be pitched. Next evening we camped at the highest spot in the 



