PREFACE. 



When, shortly before the abolition of the Provinces, in 1876, the Govern- 

 ment of the Province of Canterbury intrusted me with the preparation of 

 a final report on the Physical Geography and Geology of this Province, I 

 was well aware that I had accepted an arduous task, as I felt that 

 my duties as Director of the Canterbury Museum would generally 

 claim my whole attention. As the work proceeded, I found that I could 

 devote only at intervals the necessary time to its preparation, and on 

 different occasions the manuscript had to be laid aside for several months 

 at a time. In fact, when the mind has to be devoted to the consideration 

 of such important questions as those treated in this work, it ought to be 

 free from the ever-recurring daily anxieties of a responsible official 

 position. And, on this score, I may be allowed to claim the indulgence 

 of the reader for many shortcomings in this report, and for the delay in 

 issuing it from the press, more than two years after its publication was 

 undertaken by me. 



As the Province of Westland, (up to 1866 a portion of the Canterbury 

 Province), had before its separation repeatedly been visited by me, 

 I was induced on that account to include its description in this publica- 

 tion. Moreover, it would be extremely difficult to offer a satisfactory 

 account of the Physical Geography and Geology of the Southern Alps 

 without treating also of the character of their western slopes. It has been 

 my endeavour to give in this publication not only the substance of all my 

 previous official reports in a more condensed form, but also to add a great 

 deal of new unpublished matter, all of which has been accumulating for 

 years past. I have endeavoured to avoid, as much as possible, entering 

 into controversies, and have only done so in order to answer objections 

 made in other scientific publications against my views or theories 

 published in former reports. 



