51 
Concerning the history and development of the geography 
and chartography of NewZealand , I may well be allowed to direct 
the attention of the reader to the remarks , which Dr. A. Peter- 
mann has attached to the “Geological and Topographical Atlas of New 
Zealand.” 1 
The extraordinary variety of the surface , — as displayed, 
in a vertical direction , in the long and rugged mountain chains , in 
isolated mountain groups or in extensive plateaus and broad flats, 
and , in a horizontal direction , in the numerous indentations of the 
coast-line , — leads one to infer a very manifold geological compo- 
sition of the soil, ddie first geological explorations of North and 
South Islands proved this very satisfactorily. 
The geological maps of districts of the Provinces of Auckland 
and Nelson, as published according to my own and my friend Dr. 
Haast’s observations , — although those maps in comparison to 
the geological surveys of West European countries may be desig- 
nated as only the first outlines of the geological constitution of 
those districts, — nevertheless indicate an extremely manifold 
series of formations and rocks. And although it has been impos- 
sible hitherto, to parallelize the New Zealand strata according to 
their palaeontological character with the European series of strata; 
yet this much appears from the facts gathered from observations 
hitherto made, that the stratified rocks from the oldest metain or- 
pine to the newest sedimentary formations, and the eruptive for- 
mations from the oldest plutonic rocks to the youngest volcanic 
lavas are all represented in this country. 
In the tabular view of the formations and strata occurring upon 
New Zealand, which I shall present in this chapter, I have first 
laid down the results of my own observations upon North and South 
Islands, without omitting, however, to add to them the most im- 
portant facts ascertained up to the conclusion of this work by the 
investigations of Dr. IJaast in the Provinces of Nelson and Canter- 
bur)' , and by the researches of Dr. Hector in the Province of Otago 
i See Dr. Fischer, the Geology of New Zealand, Auckland 1864. p. 3. 
