CHAMPION BOAT RACE.

Kumara Times, Issue 887, 4 August 1879, Page 2

CHAMPION BOAT RACE.

PROFESSOR HAAST ON THE GEOLOGY OF CANTERBURY AND WESTLAND.

[Press,] We shall not dwell on the second part of the book, which deals with the “ Physical Geography” of Canterbury and Westland. This part consists chiefly of descriptions of the different mountain ranges, and glaciers, as connected with the river and lake systems of the country. There are, however, two or three statements here which will be new to many readers, and which deserve a good deal of attention. The theory of Dr von Haast that the Canterbury plains have been formed by glacier action, and that in past ages the glaciers of the Southern Alps extended very far beyond their present limits is, we suppose, now pretty generally accepted. Indeed, any one who has travelled over the West Coast road, and who has seen the plain indications of ice action on the rocks, can have little doubt on this last point. In the Waimakariri, as far down at least as the Cass, and in the Broken river district, strise, or ice grooves, are distinctly and commonly visible. At the present day there is only a collection of very small glaciers at the head of the Waimakariri. It is clear, therefore, that the ice-fields there have in later ages shrunk very considerably. The excellent map given by Dr von Haast to show the extent of the ancient glaciers may perhaps startle some readers, but we see no reason why it should not be correct, and it certainly helps greatly to a clearer notion of the mode of formation of the Canterbury plains. Another statemeut in this part is, not less curious. Mr E. DoOson, C.E., about 3865, in a report on the West Coast road, inserted a map showing that the main valleys of the Southern Alps radiate generally from a common centre, and this centre he placed at some point in the sea a few miles west of Hokitij|a. Mr Dobson’s map is to be found also in the work which we are reviewing, and Dr von Haast draws thence the conclusion (which will be new to most readers) that at some past epoch “an abysiological force of enormous power situated near that point,” dislocated the original mountain ranges and occasioned the remarkable phenomenon which we have noticed. This conclusion would seem from the evidenee to be not too much forced, and we should like to see the curious fact upon which it is based further followed up. The third part deals with the geological features of Canterbury and Westland In detail, and Dr von Haast has incorporated therein also the discussion of certain ethnological questions, concerning which we shall have a little to say presently. We should exceed our Space if we noticed all the points of interest contained in the purely geological chapters, but we may remark on a few of them. There is one very curious fact to be found here. It appears, from the investigations of the author, that the whole range of the Southern Alps may be looked on as only the eastern side, or wing, of an enormous anticlinal arrangement, the western side of which has disappeared. That is to say, we may look on this stupendous range as practically much the same as one slope of a huge roof, of which the other slope has been somehow entirely, or almost entirely, destroyed. Had this other side 'also still remained, the fact would not be so peculiar; it is the disappearance of such a tremendous mass whilst the opposite side has been left, which is curious. There is another strange fact; that the terrific convulsions which the ranges must have undergone and which pushed them up into their present elevation have been sncceeded by enormous periods of waste which have produced an apparently paraThe excellent section from west to east, through Mount Cook to Banks’ Peninsula, attached to page 240 of the report, shows that the mountains instead of occupying the position of anticlinal arches, are placed just where the strata form synclinal trough, whilst the anticlinals are exactly under the main valleys. It would have been interesting if Dr von Haast had given instances for comparison, if any such occur in other countries, of a like arrangement. In dealing with the question of the great glacier period in New Zealand, a period for which, whilst there seems to be little doubt of its occurrence, it is difficult to account, Dr von Haast refers to a theory propounded by a recent author, Mr T. Belt. This theory supposes a state of things exactly the converse of that which has hitherto been believed in by geologists. To use the words of the work before us, it has always been believed that, whatever changes may have taken place on the surface of the earth, “ the level of the seals always the same.” Mr Belt has put forward the somewhat startling notion that at various times, and more especially in the Great Ice Age, the level of the ocean has been lowered. Former geologists, in order to account for the enormous paloeozoic glaciers, assumed a considerable rise in the land. Mr Belt argues, on the contrary, that, during the ice period, “ the vast amount of water abstracted from the ocean and locked up in mountains of ice around the t wo poles would lower the general level of the ocean about 2000 ft.” Certainly, such a hypothesis as this would account for the increased cold of the mountains just as well as the hypothesis that the land might have been raised 2000 ft; but Dr von Haast does not go so far as to give his adhesion to the new theory, and we must say that, in default of much more conclusive evidence in its favor than seems to have been as yet produced, we think he is quite right. Facts and arguments of conclusive nature may be brought by Mr Belt hereafter, but we should imagine

that a main difficulty would be to account for the commencement and for the conclusion of the ice age on his theory ; that is, how did the abnormal accumulation of ice at the poles begin, and why were they dispersed ? Without saying now that the new theory is absurd or impossible, we should like to be better informed as to the nature of the cosmical phenomena which originally brought about so enormous a depression of the ocean level, and likewise, of those which afterwards restored it. We imagine tha tthe hesitation of Dr von Haast to adopt the view of Mr Belt may possibly be due to some such desire as we have expressed, to know more on these points.

The IClnneae plan for stopping larrikinism is to lock a wooden collar round the necks of the calpri',B on conviction, and compel them to keepjthe gutters and streets clear.