Neii' Zealand in the Ice Acre. — Hitchcock. 271 
NEW ZEALAND IN THE ICE AGE.* 
By C. H. Hitchcock. LL. D. 
PLATES XXIV- XX\'I. 
It was my good fortune two or three years since to spend 
a month in New Zealand, travelhng- the entire length of the 
two principal islands. During this period I noted the peculiar 
characteristics of the glacial phenomena; and will briefly de- 
scribe them as they appeared to one familiar with the ice- 
markings of North America. The New Zealand geologists 
have been diligent in their study of these vestiges, with con- 
siderable divergence in their opinions. I append a listf of the 
papers wiitten by them which I have consulted, including ex- 
jjlorations in the Southern Alps among the living glaciers, 
The conclusions to be stated later are my own. 
New Zealand consists mainly of two large islands, the one 
southwest of the other in direct line, both together being 
about one thousand miles long. It is only the southern island 
that possesses active glaciers and important evidence of ancient 
ice-action. It has an area of 55,000 square miles, the two to- 
gether amounting to 100,000. The trend is northeast and 
southwest ; width on the average 140 miles ; length about 500, 
lies between latitudes 41° 30' and 46° 40', longitudes 166° 30' 
and 174° 30' west of Greenwich. A range of high mountains 
is situated nearer the west than the east coast, reaching the 
maximum of 12,349 feet in Mt. Cook. Only two other peaks 
exceed 11,000 feet, and there are thirteen more than 10,000 
feet high in the Southern Alps. The predominant winds are 
from the northwest and there is a greater precipitation of 
moisture on the northwest coast, the extreme annual amounts 
of rain fall being 126 inches at Hokitika on the northwest and 
twenty-five inches at Christ Church on the southern side. 
* Read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
at the New York meeting. 
t New Zealand, its Physical Geography. Geolc>gy and Natural History, etc. 
liy F. VoN HocHSTETTER, 1867. English edition. 
Geology of Canterbury and Westland. By Julius Haast, 1879. 
With Axe and Rope in the New Zealand Alps. By G. E. Mannering, 1891. 
Camp Life in Fiordland. By William McHutcheson, 1892. 
Official Reports of the Department of Lands, 1893-1897. By S. Percy 
Smith, General Surveyor. 
Pioneer work in the Alps of New Zealand. By A. P. Harper. 1896. 
Climbs in the New Zealand Alps. By E. A. Fitzgekald, 1896. 
Report of the Research Committee appointed to collect evidence as to 
glacial action in Australasia in Tertiary or Post Tertiary time. Captain F. 
W. Hutton, reporter for New Zealand. From Proc. Australasian Association 
for the Advancement of Science. 
