EXPLANATION OF THE MAPS. 
46 
stretches along the East Coast, from Cape Pallisser to the 
East Cape. Different peaks, which have names, such as 
Tararua, Buahine, Kaimanawa, le Waiti, are of pretty nearly 
equal height. The highest summits reach only from 5,000 
to 6,000 feet, and are therefore much less than the 
height of the Southern Alps. These mountains are an almost 
terra incognita , and doubtless contain treasures of many kinds. 
The Northern Island is also rich in Volcanic phenomona. 
The high plateau on the Western side of this mountain chain, 
sloping off towards the North and South, forms the remaining 
part of the Island, and is pierced to a great depth in more 
than a hundred places by Volcanie agencies. 
High Trachytic Volcanoes, and a great number of small 
Basaltic eruption-cones, of quite a recent age, and a long 
chain of hot springs which, like the Greysers of Iceland, 
at intermittent periods, throw up masses of boiling water in 
steaming fountains, Eumaroles and Solfataras in a multitude 
of forms of the utmost conceivable grandeur, offer to the 
geologist a rich field for research, and to the traveller some 
of the most remarkable scenes of nature. 
The extraordinarily diversified surface formation of New 
Zealand leads to the inference of a most varied geological 
conformation. The commencement of a geological examina¬ 
tion of the North and South Islands has proved this 
to the fullest extent, during the last few years. The geologic 
detail maps of my own observations, and partly those of my 
friend Haast’s, show manifold changes in strata and in 
minerals. They show that, throughout the whole chain, from 
the oldest metamorphic formation to the latest sediment 
layers, and also from the earliest plutonic rocks, up to the 
latest volcanic formation, all the principal genera are 
represented. 
New Zealand is rich in minerals of all kinds, and all those 
which are now found—as gold, copper, iron, chrome, graphite 
and coal—can only be regarded as the first-fruits of future 
treasures to be brought to light in years to come. 
The fossil fauna and flora of New Zealand, as far as at 
present known, differs entirely from that of Australia, and 
many geological facts prove that New Zealand, surrounded 
by the ocean, has been an island—though not in its present 
