Geological Survey of Canterbury. 93 



heavy surf breaking incessantly on the sandy shores. At the mouth 

 of the Totara we found two stores, of which one was kept by a ferryman. 

 Already here, I would observe, that great changes are continually 

 taking place in the position of the mouth of the rivers south of the 

 Hokitika. The Totara, which, when surveyed only two years ago, had 

 a straight entrance, runs now nearly two miles along the coast towards 

 north before it falls into the sea ; and it was then so deep at its mouth 

 and along that channel parallel to the sea coast, that even on horseback 

 it was difficult to cross. "We therefore availed ourselves of the boat 

 to reach the other bank, and continued our road to the Mikonui, the 

 beach continuing to be of the some low, sandy character. The Mikonui 

 is easily crossed on foot in three branches, reaching only to the knees 

 when it is low, as it is generally the case in winter ; but with the least 

 fresh it is a matter of great difficulty, and can only be accomplished 

 with a good horse. On the northern side of this river a store was 

 established, whence many parties working in its branches obtained their 

 provisions. On the southern side of the Mikonui, the features of the 

 country soon change, and instead of a low, sandy beach, Boldhead 

 appeared before us, which was reached after a walk of three miles. 

 This interesting bluff, the first one of a great many succeeding each 

 other towards south, rises about 150 feet above the sea-level, and forms 

 very often an almost vertical wall, against which, at high water, the 

 waves of the sea break furiously, whilst, at low water, it is possible to 

 travel along it, even on horseback, on the boulders of which the littoral 

 zone is here composed, or on small sandy beaches between them. This 

 and all similar headlands, a hundred miles south, were formed by 

 the retreat of former huge glaciers, which, in the era immediately pre- 

 ceding the present one, reached here the sea. "When retreating, they 

 heaped up in their former channel the debris which had, in the alpine 

 ranges, fallen upon them, consisting of angular blocks, often of 

 enormous dimensions, and silt. If anything will give to the geologist an 

 insight into the power which glaciers have of destroying gigantic 

 mountains, and of carrying their debris away into lower regions, a journey 

 to that part of the West Coast will easily effect this object. At the same 

 time the mineralogical character of the rocks themselves, of which these 

 large cliffs are partly composed, shows clearly that by far the greater 

 part has been derived from the very summits of the central chain — 

 they being identical with those composing the moraines of the large 

 glaciers on the eastern sides, without any sign of plutonic or typical 

 metamorphic rocks amongst them, which appear only at the western 

 base of the Southern Alps. And that the sea had already destroyed a 



