The Terraces, Which Are So Abundant All Over The Back Country, And Which
Rise, One Behind Another, To The Number, It May Be, Of Twenty Or Thirty,
With The Most Unpicturesque Regularity (On My Run There Are Fully
Twenty), Are Supposed To Be Elevated Sea-Beaches.
They are to be seen
even as high as four or five thousand feet above the level of the sea,
and I doubt not that a geologist might find traces of them higher still.
Therefore, though, when first looking at the plains and river-bed flats
which are so abundant in the back country, one might be inclined to
think that no other agent than the rivers themselves had been at work,
and though, when one sees the delta below, and the empty gully above,
like a minute-glass after the egg has been boiled - the top glass empty
of the sand, and the bottom glass full of it - one is tempted to rest
satisfied; yet when we look closer, we shall find that more is wanted in
order to account for the phenomena exhibited, and the geologists of the
island supply that more, by means of upheaval.
I pay the tribute of a humble salaam to science, and return to my
subject.
We crossed the old river-bed of the Waimakiriri, and crawled slowly on
to Main's, through the descending twilight. One sees Main's about six
miles off, and it appears to be about six hours before one reaches it.
A little hump for the house, and a longer hump for the stables.
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