Canterbury and Westland. 241 



" Dana has drawn attention to the fact that a line drawn from the 

 Pitcairn Island (in the Paumotau Group) in a westerly direction 

 passing north of the Society, Samoa, and Solomon Islands, to the 

 Palaos Islands (East of the Philippine Islands), will form pretty 

 correctly the boundary between the Atoll — or Low islands to the north 

 and the High islands to the south. He denotes the broad arm of the 

 sea between this line and the nearest High islands in the north-east, 

 the Sandwich Islands — a plateau nearly 2000 nautical miles broad, 

 and 6000 nautical miles long, dotted all over with about 200 Atoll 

 Islands — as a great area of depression. Nearly all groups of islands 

 belonging to this zone, strike in a south-east and north-west direction, 

 and a line drawn from Pitcairn Island, in a N. 52° "W. direction to the 

 centre of the Japanese Archipelago, would be the central line of this 

 area of depression, and the axis of its greatest depth. However, if we 

 place this line on a map on Mercator's projection, it will be found 

 that, beginning at Pitcairn Island, such a line drawn in a direction of 

 N. 45° "W. will reach the northern coast of the Japanese Island of 

 Jesso, and will probably still more correctly form the middle line of 

 the area of depression under consideration. Now if, according to the 

 direction of the Southern Alps which form the highest chain of 

 mountains in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, we take the mean 

 longitudinal direction of the islands forming New Zealand to be 

 N. 45° E., we observe then that two principal lines, the line of 

 depression and the line of elevation, cross each other at a right angle. 

 It is remarkable that the general geological importance of these two 

 directions for the Pacific Ocean, is also strikingly observable in the 

 confirmation of the eastern coast line of the Australian Continent. 

 The east coast of Australia and the west coast of New Zealand form 

 almost parallel lines, although separated from each other by nearly 

 1000 nautical miles. "The principal elevations of New Zealand, 

 plutonic as well as volcanic, conform to the north-east direction of 

 the line of elevation, whilst the great diagonal fissures by which 

 Eoveaux and Cook's Straits were formed lie in the direction o£ the 

 great line of depression, to which also the third great area of dislo- 

 cation which the northern portion of the Northern Island owes its 

 origin to, also conforms." 



Thus, looking at New Zealand as a whole, from a geological point 

 of view, we observe that its principal characteristic feature consists of 

 a high longitudinal chain, which runs from Windsor Point, the most 

 westerly part of the South Island, to the East Cape, the most easterly 



