THE FOSSIL LEAVES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7978, 6 April 1904, Page 4

THE FOSSIL LEAVES.

CAPTAIN BUTTON'S VIEWS. Captain Button is very much interested' in the fossil leaves found by Mr Ferrar in the sandstone, at a high altitude, in South Victoria Land. The .sandstones , Captain Hutton remarked to an interviewer, probably belonged to the Tertiary or Cretaceous age. There was evidence to show that in Miooene times the climate of New Zealand, at any rate, was much wanner than at present. The explorers saw granite and gneiss that were probably very old. The sandstones seemed to be contemporaneous with; the { older volcanic rocks. Along the coast, there were younger volcanic rocks and hills. It was probable that when Mie climate was waifflc'er, there was a greater snowfall, and the glaciers were more extensive. The sandstone in which the leaf impressions were found contained numerous pebbles of quartz up to six inches in diameter. Those pebbles must, have, come from a granite area, andi they were probably the remains of granite mountains wMch had existed at one time, but had been removed.