376 Geology of 



sea, as far as the level of the latter is concerned, were nearly the same 

 as they are at present. A great deal has teen written to show that 

 the period in question occurred either during a partial submergence 

 of the land, or when the latter stood at a higher elevation than it does 

 at present. It would lead me too far were I to notice here in detail 

 the different theories, but all the principal objections in the principal 

 papers on the subject will be fully answered in the following resume of 

 the points at issue. 



In alluding to the loess beds deposited on Banks' Peninsula I have 

 already pointed out that they have never been disturbed, and we can 

 therefore safely assume that they would have protected marine strata 

 reposing on the volcanic rocks, had they ever been existing. More- 

 over, the formation of the Canterbury plains in their upper portion by 

 morainic, and in their middle and lower portion by nuviatile accumu- 

 tions, is beyond a doubt. Doyne's levels have amply confirmed my 

 views, that the different river systems have formed huge fan-like 

 accumulations. At the same time all the boulders are sub-angular, 

 and all the sand and ooze of nuviatile origin, with the exception of 

 some beds belonging to the loess formation. "Where, at the lowest 

 portion of the plains on the northern banks of the JUakaia and near 

 Lake Ellesmere, and in a few other localities to the north of Banks' 

 Peninsula, a small fringe of marine shingle has been deposited only a 

 few feet above the present sea level, these beds can easily be recog- 

 nised at a glance. The broad flattened form of the stones distinguishes 

 them at once from the sub-angular nuviatile shingle or boulder 

 deposits near them. 



In the anniversary address of 1S74, delivered as President of the 

 Philosophical Institute of Canterbury on March 5th, and panted in 

 Vol. VI. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, I have 

 answered the arguments of Captain Hutton, the former chief ex- 

 ponent of the submergence theory, who, in his report on the Geology 

 of Otago seems now to have abandoned it altogether, and adopted the 

 theory of greater elevation. However, in his Beport on the North- 

 eastern Districts of the South Island (Geological Survey Beport, LS74) 

 he has stated as his own observation, that there exists between Mount 

 Hutt and Fighting Hill, at the narrowest part of the middle Bakaia 

 valley, a shingle bar, according to him, exactly resembling a bar across 

 a sound or harbour of the sea. I may, therefore, be allowed to offer 

 a section of the locality in question on plate No. 7 (No. 3), giving the 

 details, so as not to leave on the reader of that report any wrong 



