Returning from this digression to the older palaeozoic rocks of our Alps, we find that they have been derived from the detritus of large mountain chains which had similar constituents, and formed probably a large continent, of which all traces have disappeared; the eruptive and plutonic rocks on the western side of the island and the volcanic rocks on the eastern side, having entirely changed the configuration of the ground.

Judging from the observed effects we may safely conclude that a continent or large island, with huge mountain chains formerly existed in the neighbourhood of the spot, now occupied by these islands. These mountains were gradually worn down and their detritus carried into the sea, until the whole, assisted by a downward motion, disappeared below the waves, and whilst these older regions remained deep below the sea, the newer deposits derived from their destruction were brought up by plutonic and volcanic action during the secondary and tertiary periods.

As before stated, the general strike of the rocks forming the main range is nearly from N.E. to S.W., and no cleavage or even foliation is visible, except in the most westerly parts, of which I have hereafter to speak more fully, but the rocks are jointed in a most remarkable manner.

I have not yet been able to find a general law applying to the joints, and I shall leave this difficult subject to my more extended report, in which I shall discuss the matter. There are often three or four joints intersecting each other, generally with slicken-sides, coated with a green or white siliceous glaze. Some of these are very smooth, and show clearly that the two sides of the joints have undergone several convulsive frictions, and that their faces no longer coincide, a throw upwards or downwards having taken place. This is very well shown by the older quartz veins, which intersect some of the thick bedded sandstones in all directions, and which, at the joints, no longer preserve their continuity. The joints pass sharply not only through fine-grained rocks, but also through the hard conglomerates, the pebbles being cut through in the most defined manner.

One highly striking observation which thrusts itself upon the explorer, is the enormous waste which goes on amongst the rocks.

I have seen mountains rising from 5000 to 6000 feet above the valleys, everywhere covered with rubbish. They were in fact one continuous talus of detritus from summit to foot with hardly any rocks visible in situ, but the reason is obvious, when we consider the frequent thunderstorms with lightning by which the rocks must be riven, the heavy falls of rain by which the loose pieces are washed down, and the great difference between the diurnal and nocturnal temperatures. From observations which I made in this region, at an altitude of more than 3000 feet, I ascertained that the temperature for at least six months in the year falls generally during the night below freezing point, whilst generally by day the sun is so powerful that even in the middle of winter, in the shade, the temperature is much above freezing point, and in the sun is really warm, the days being generally very fine and the sky cloudless during that season. If we further consider the continual changes between the hot north-west and the cold south-east winds by which the mountains are alternately swept, it is evident that by the condensation of the clouds (forming ice in the fissures), another and powerful agency for the destruction of the rocks must be furnished. All these causes, however, would not produce such results, if the rocks themselves, in their lithological character, and in their vertical or nearly vertical positions did not offer the greatest facilities for their disintegration.

In the Alps proper no signs of ores were observed by me, and only a few veins of calcareous spar, without doubt of younger date than the quartz veins, were detected. I found also in some of the rivers heavy spar, but without meeting it in situ. The carboniferous rocks near their contact with the large volcanic zone, broken through as they are by dioritic rocks, by melaphyres and amygdaloids offer us better prospect of ores. A piece of grey copper ore, mixed with malachite, found in one of the streams joining the Ashburton, and the existence of various carbonates in the Mount Torlesse range lead us fairly to expect that workable mines may be discovered.

On the Moorhouse range where we meet with rocks having a somewhat metamorphic character, in some of the quartz veins small crystals or concretions of iron, copper, and arsenical pyrites occur, several of the sandstones being at the same time highly ferruginous. My endeavours to find characteristic fossils have not met with success. Although I devoted many hours to the search, the only traces of animal or vegetable life that I was able to discover were a fossil, in a very fragmentary state, without doubt belonging to the serpulidae, in a fine bluish clayslate from Mount Forbes, near the sources of the Rangitata, and the tracks of annelids in a carbonaceous slaty shale from the summit of Mount Observation, between the junction of the rivers Godley and Macaulay. Although in the Moorhouse range, south-west of Mount Cook, no direct evidence can be detected of a contact with hypogene rocks, the strata begin to be more or less altered, the clayslates become foliated, and have a silky lustre, the sand stones quartzitic, and hornstones and cherts are abundant.

Great quantities of quartz partly in veins feather-edging or inter-stratified amongst the fine silky schists, make their appearance, and as the gold-fields of Otago are situated in rocks of the same character, it is to be hoped that in this south-western corner of our Alps, from which I was driven by the inclemency of the weather, I shall be able to discover gold in more or less payable quantities.

The carboniferous rocks in our Province are of very considerable extent, but here also