Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 10.djvu/27



, in a paper which appears in the last volume of the "Transactions of the N.Z. Institute," has shown that the presumed cause of the shrinking of the glaciers of the New Zealand Alps to their present from their ancient colossal dimensions, is more than "a shrewd guess," and that the examination of its former and existing littoral marine fauna, goes far to prove that it was due—not to a change of climate during a period of Southern Polar Glaciation—but to the diminished elevation of that cordillera, combined with other influences, of which presently. He concludes his remarks with the following observation, "the evidences seem to be in favour of there never having been a Glacial Epoch in New Zealand, and consequently none in the Southern Hemisphere:" that is to say, that there never was a period when a general ice-cap covered these islands as it does the greater part of Greenland to-day, and as so many deem it an established fact that, pressing down from polar regions, a well nigh universal one overwhelmed the whole of nearly both hemispheres in post-pliocene times—against part of which theory New Zealand may be deemed to present very strong evidence.

The term "glacial" is a most convenient one by which to designate those periods of intense cold to which, in their turn, various portions of existing lands are now, and have in all time past been subjected from local causes which admit of explanation, as well as from others affecting broad belts stretching, now in one meridian, now in another, towards the tropics, which may hereafter be understood.