EXPLANATION OF THE MAP. 
Ill 
character of the rocks differs greatly according to the nature 
of the eruptive masses, which comprise varieties of Serpentine, 
Diabas, Syenite, Hypersthenite, and Augite Porphyry. To 
the belt of Serpentine and Hypersthenite belongs the cele¬ 
brated Dun Mountain, the rich copper ores and chrome-iron 
from which have given rise to extensive mining operations. 
These mountain ranges terminate at Cook’s Straits in nume¬ 
rous islands and peninsulas, which inclose these fiord-like bays 
and sounds, Pelorus Sound and Queen Charlotte Sound, which 
even in Cook’s time were celebrated as most excellent har¬ 
bours. The mountains get gradually higher towards the 
south. Pen Nevis and Q-ordon’s Knob, which are visible from 
Nelson, rise to an elevation of 4,000 feet. The mountain 
range is then broken for a short distance, rising however again 
in the immediate vicinity of the southern banks of the Kotoiti 
Lake to a much greater height, forming Mounts Travers and 
Mackay, and further, in a south-westerly direction, to a height 
of 10,000 feet in the Spencer Mountains (Mount Pranklin 
and Mount Humboldt) much above the snowy line. This 
grand mountain chain forms a centre from which the principal 
rivers of the Province of Nelson have their source. It is to be 
regretted that the sandstones and clay-slates of this formation 
contain no fossils, and that the scanty traces of animal and 
vegetable remains which have been discovered give no certain 
clue to their geological age. There is only a single locality 
where fossils are to be found, and that is only at the extreme 
flank of the mountain system, near Richmond, a few miles south 
of Nelson, and these indicate amezozoic age. 
The country to the eastward of these mountain chains, from 
the Pelorus Sound to the Wairau Plains, and including the 
alluvial valleys of the Wairau, Awatere, and Waiautoa Kivers ; 
also the great mountain ranges, 8,000 to 9,000 feet in height, 
of the seaward and landward Kaikoras, and the lofty peaks 
which have been named after the Scandinavian gods—Odin 
9,700 feet; Thor, 8,700; and Prey a, 8,500—was withdrawn in 
1859 from the Province of Nelson, to form the Province of 
Marlborough. 
Between the eastern and western mountain ranges, is the 
deep indentation of the coast which forms Blind Bay, and from 
the southern extremity of which the land rises gradually to an 
