IN THE SOUTH ISLAND OP NEW ZEALAND, ETC. 109 
Mr. Maclaren in Viet. Inst. Trans., vol. xxxiv, present similar 
features. This is the oldest geological formation in New 
Zealand, and is exceptionally rich in minerals. Little, how- 
ever, has been done to exploit it, except in the case of gold, of 
which a considerable quantity is now being obtained. There is 
every reason to believe that all this broken country was once 
at a much higher elevation (Bell), that the Sounds are simply 
drowned river valleys, and though they were in the ice-age 
filled with glaciers, as shown by the smoothings on the rock 
sides, and by the bar at the mouth of each — due primarily to 
moraine deposit, not tidal action — it may yet be shown that even 
in this case the valley is continued out to sea, as is the case in 
the similar Norwegian fjords. Further north there are several 
lakes — Lakes Mclverow, Mapourika, Kanieri and others — 
which have terminal moraines and great depth, so that here 
is a parallelism going far to corroborate the opinions of 
Mr. McKay, the late Captain Hutton, F.G.S., and Mr. J. McBell 
of the Department Mines, N.Z., that this closure of the sunken 
river valleys is mainly due to the deposition of morainic debris. 
In conclusion, I only venture to suggest that other causes 
than the excavating power of glaciers may account for the great 
depths in lakes and fjords, as it is well known that there have 
been great earth movements in time past. Neither the 
Kaikouras nor the Spencer Mountains in the north, both 
ranges close on 10,000 feet, show any sign of glacial action 
(Hutton) — evidence that they have been uplifted since the 
glacial period — and since that time there has been a period of 
great subsidence and denudation followed by a general uplift, 
which apparently still continues, at least on the east coast ; I 
could instance many closed valleys caused by the rising of the 
coast line. At Amuri Bluff, 100 miles north of Christchurch, 
there is a terrace with modern sea shells 500 feet above high 
water mark (McKay) ; at Motunau, 50 miles north, a raised 
beach with similar shells 150 feet above the sea (Hutton). A 
deposit of silt occurs on Banks’ Peninsula to a height of 800 feet 
(Hutton) ; and there is every reason to believe that Captain 
Cook sailed inside Banks’ Peninsula, i.c., over the present site 
of Christchurch ; and, either from the deposition of shingle and 
other matter brought down by the great rivers — as some 
maintain — or from the gradual uplifting of the eastern side of 
the Island, there is no doubt that within the period of my 
observation (the last thirty-five years), the high water mark on 
the Canterbury coast has markedly receded. 
