trees 60 to 80 feet in height rise to a perfect taper like young plants without a twist in the stem or gnarled branch to indicate rough usage from stormy weather, showing the perfect shelter afforded by this deep mountain valley. Both these rivers reach the sea level by cascades, to the foot of which we easily got in the boat. The river to the north is deep and placid for nearly a mile above its mouth to where it issues from a narrow and gloomy rent in the rocks, through which there was barely room to push the boat against the rapid current to the foot of the cascade, which is 25 feet. The walls of this remarkable chasm are about 200 feet high, and the narrow pool, as near as we ventured to the foot of the fall, was 36 feet deep.

The fall upon the other stream, which enters the basin from the east, is only a few feet in height, but it falls at once into a pool, bounded by precipices that have even a greater depth than the above.

The flats along the lower part of these streams are true valley deposits, such as may be seen in any mountain valley formed by the gradual change of the water-course from side to side; and as I did not discover any remains above high water mark of the brackish water deposit with esturine shells, which is now slowly filling up the basin, or any trace of terraces round the mouths of the rivers, I conclude that the land at the head of this Sound, unlike most parts of the New Zealand coast, is not rising; and the consideration of the nature of the falls almost demonstrates that it is, on the other hand, an area that is being submerged.

The examination of the walls of the chasm, through which the first-mentioned river falls, convinced me that it has been cut by the action of the falling water, which may have followed a pre-existing fissure. The rock is a granular quartzite, compact and close grained in texture, but still such a rock that can be slowly worn away by the mechanical action of running water. The depth of the rocky chasm below the fall must, therefore, of itself prove that the fall was once higher, and as it now falls to the sea level as a necessary consequence, it follows that the land must then have been more elevated.

At night we encamped between two streams that enter the Sound from rugged valleys in the Kakapo Mountains, a range along the west side of the Sound, which has been named after the kakapo or nocturnal ground parrot, an interesting bird, now almost peculiar to the S.W. corner of this Island. On a flat round the edge of high water mark we found abundant traces of that bird, as they come out of the woods during the night to feed on the grass, chewing it into pellets, which they spit out after extracting the juice. During the night we heard all round us their harsh croaking cry, and also the screaming whistle of the kiwis.

The morning of the 22nd of June was close, with drizzling rain, and though the tops of the mountains were clear, the sky was obscured by heavy masses of vapor, and Henry said that although it was dead calm at the head of the Sound, yet it must be blowing a heavy gale from the N.W. outside. During the forenoon I continued to skirt along the western side of Edwardson Sound, and found a marked change in its geological character from that of the eastern side. Upon the latter side the prevailing formation is a fine grained gneiss, the foliation and bedding of which trends north and south, and below Cunaris Sound to Southport the formation is an interesting group of silicious felstones, greenstones, glossy clay slates, and mica schists, the extent and relations of which I shall hereafter describe in detail.

Continuing on the same side of the Sound, Garden Island to Gulche’s Head, the formation is coarse crystalline red granite, apparently in direct contact with the last-mentioned group of rocks. I now found that the west side of the Sound is composed of grey granite, of hard uniform texture and large tabular structure, so that immense blocks could easily be removed. It would form a splendid building material, and might be quarried close to where the largest shipping might lie in perfect safety. There is to be sure no anchorage ground, owing to the great depth of water, but the shore here forms a natural wharf, quite equal to the best that could be artificially formed. The situation best adapted for a quarry is about two miles from the head of the Sound, where there is a low range of hills, between the water’s edge and the higher mountains. Lower down there is a small Bay, with fair anchorage ground, but exposed to the swell that comes up the Sound even thus far. The gneiss rocks prevail here for a short distance, but the granite again reappears and forms the shore right down to Northport. The mountains slope steeply to a great height, and sometimes present a sheer precipice for the first few hundred feet; but at one point where the average slope was continued to the water’s edge, and appeared to the eye very highly inclined, I found that the top of a peak 3300 feet high, and in view at ten yards from the shore, was elevated 30 degrees. Although a slope having such an average inclination is practically useless and even inaccessible, it is interesting to find that the walls of these Sounds are those of true valleys, and not those of fissures formed of paroxysmal forces. I obtained abundant proof of the true nature of their origin by the erosion of glaciers, but the discussion of these I shall defer until I can compare the observations regarding the subject made on other parts of the Coast.