Canterlury and Westland. 237 



In Dr. C. Forbes' paper " On the Geology of New Zealand, with 

 notes on its carboniferous deposits " — (Quarterly Journal Geological 

 Society of London, "Vol. XI., 1855), we meet with a short description 

 of the Canterbury plains, and the statement that they consist of a 

 gravel formation, covered by alluvial deposits in the neighbourhood of 

 the rivers. The author also observes that the plains are much cut up 

 by immense dry water-courses, down which the mountain torrents must, 

 at one time have rushed in great floods ; he thus clearly recognised the 

 character of the broad shallow water-courses on the fans, in which the 

 rivers by which they were formed were flowing in succession. Dr. 

 Eorbes also visited the Mount Grey district, and by following the 

 course of the Kowai, discovered a fossiliferous bed belonging to the 

 Pareora formation, describing its contents correctly ; he at the same time 

 alludes to a seam of lignite, four feet thick at the foot of Mount Grey. 

 Further on, he speaks of the gravel which forms the substratum through- 

 out the Canterbury plains, and states his conviction that Banks' Penin- 

 sula, at a very recent period, must have been an island ; he then cor- 

 rectly describes the chain of sandhills, having all the appearance of 

 once having formed the sea shore from the mouth of the Waimakariri 

 to the Waihora (Lake Ellesmere). He also points out that the soil 

 covering the slopes of Banks' Peninsula consists of a yellow arenaceous 

 clay, and that many specimens of the Moa are imbedded in it. 



In the year 1864, after my researches in the Geology of Canterbury 

 had already considerably advanced, Mr. W. T. Doyne, M.I.C.E., whose 

 professional services shortly before had been secured by the Provincial 

 Government, received instructions to report, from an engineering 

 point of view, upon several of the rivers flowing through the 

 Canterbury plains. In June, 1864, that gentleman furnished the 

 Government with a very able report " Upon the Plains and Eivers of 

 Canterbury," in which he also treated of the general characteristics of 

 the Canterbury plains, and the rivers by which they were traversed 

 or which take their rise in them, some interesting and instructive 

 sections accompanying this Eeport, which was printed in folio at the 

 Press office in 1864. A second report " Upon the Eiver Waimakariri 

 and the Lower Plains " was furnished to the Provincial Government, 

 November 30th, 1865, by that Engineer. It was printed in folio at 

 the Press office in the same year, and its value is enhanced by many 

 illustrations, of which those proving the correctness of my fan theory, 

 as put forward in my previous Eeport on the formation of the 

 Canterbury plains, are very instructive. One of these illustrations 



