longest ten miles in length, and their streams are diminutive torrents which fail altogether or carry but little water in dry weather. In their lower reaches their floors are flat, owing to the aggradation of the streams incompetent to carry their load, and to material which has been swept in by wave and tide and deposited in the sheltered waters at the head of the submerged valleys. This action is well seen in Okain's and Le Bon's Bays, whose streams are tidal for some distance near their mouth; but in these the filling-in has not reached such a mature stage as in the case of Peraki This effect is more marked on the southern and eastern coasts, which experience to a greater degree the strong northerly drift sweeping up the coast and dropping its load of coarse material on the southern margin of the peninsula, while the fine material is carried farther and contributes markedly to the filling of the lower reaches of the bays, if it be not swept into the deeper water off shore and thus be removed beyond the sphere of influence of waves and shore currents. When viewed from the sea the land presents, as Cook said, a bold, irregular surface, and the exposed headlands are terminated in high sea-cut cliffs, which reach a height of nearly 800 ft. on the eastern edge of the land. Here they are exposed to the full force of the gales from the south and east, under whose influence the waves have cut back all the headlands which project in that direction, in marked contrast to the spurs which project into the plain, whose terminations are hardly truncated at all, except near the coast, where within comparatively recent times they have been subject to the action of the sea. When the peninsula was first discovered by Europeans it was almost completely clothed with forest, the only bare patches being the tops of the highest hills and on the extremities of the spurs reaching down to the sea; but this has been cleared off as settlement progressed, so that patches of forest more than a few acres in extent are few and far between The rainfall amounts to between 30 in. and 40 in. per year, and is well distributed over the entire period, so that under its influence and with the advantage of a rich soil the hills are excellently adapted for pastoral purposes, and are noted for the rich grasses with which they are covered and for the excellent stock they produce. After this general description I pass on to the more particular account of the principal physical features—viz, Lyttelton and Akaroa Harbours; and, after dealing with them, to the more important minor ones, such as Little River Valley, Kaituna Valley, Port Levy, and Pigeon Bay. 1. Lyttelton Harbour. (Plate XXV, figs 1 and 2) Lyttelton Harbour is about eleven miles long by three wide in its widest part, which is opposite the town of Lyttelton, its general width being from one and a half miles to two miles; the entrance is one mile in width The northern side of the harbour is but slightly indented, and the land rises steeply to the crater-ring, the highest points being Mount Pleasant (1,638 ft.), just behind the town of Lyttelton; the Sugarloaf (1,630 ft), farther west; Cass Peak (1,780 ft.) and Cooper's Knob (1,880 ft.), towards the western end of the harbour. A little distance beyond this elevation the crater-ring is completely broken down, and the divide between the inside and the outside slopes of the harbour is for a space of about three miles reduced to approximately 400 ft., and in two places, first at the head of Gebbie's Valley and again a little farther east at the head of the parallel McQueen's Valley, the ridge is reduced below that height and forms two passes, which are known from