SHELLS ON MOUNT EDEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15265, 1 April 1913, Page 4

SHELLS ON MOUNT EDEN.

Sir,—l have read with much interest ttiei '.J: letters in the Herald on the above subject.,, 'j.% but the real answer to the controversy is 0, written by the hand of nature in "TJi# rH Testimony of the Rocks." Some years ago, .■># on visiting Mangere, I caw oyster shells V - encrusted on the lava rocks far above sea ; ' level, and as they had the pearly gloss still ' on them they are comparatively recent, goo- ? logically speaking." These lava rocks must have beenunder the sea, and for a consider- '-"-I • able time near t shore level. Anything » ■.'! . interesting which enables us, however' '!h , feebly, to trace- and speculate on the great 3 ■ tidal waves which crumple the earth's eur- > face. Most of the dry land as we now see . it hag been sea. bottoms; and islands, aye ' $ 1 continents have boen submerged, and tfiis • iv process of change is still going much faster • - vl than we imagine, for with our short base : • lipo of a few decades, and imperfect at that, >3 we cannot gauge* even approximately, the 'U aeons of the past. Some, parhaps many, of: '- : : our volcanoes have boon under thosea, and;; in their elevation they would bring up sea:t'•/ wreck of all sorts, henoe those,'shells.. CM !; ■ course, the Maori? brought, pipia to all their ' j s mountain'camps, bet these have a modem >' look about them. . Bobbot Sloan. Tftkapuna. ■■■, ■■ .•••;• • • ;<irasi ' 1 ; 1 111 r V • _ I