. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. NEW ZEALAND—SOUTH ISLAND. 429 indented seaboard. As in the nortliern region, the New Zealand fiords, or sounds, as they are here called, occur only at the issue or at the converging points, where glaciers filled the primitive valleys, protecting them from the deposits of débris which were formed round about wherever the surface was not covered with layers of ice. Neither moraines nor alluvial matter could help to fill these profound depressions, which were preserved in their original form by the frozen streams occupying all their cavities. But as
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. NEW ZEALAND—SOUTH ISLAND. 429 indented seaboard. As in the nortliern region, the New Zealand fiords, or sounds, as they are here called, occur only at the issue or at the converging points, where glaciers filled the primitive valleys, protecting them from the deposits of débris which were formed round about wherever the surface was not covered with layers of ice. Neither moraines nor alluvial matter could help to fill these profound depressions, which were preserved in their original form by the frozen streams occupying all their cavities. But as soon as the glaciers withdrew above sea-level and their lower reaches became gradually converted into running waters, the levelling-up process set in. Avalanches, landslips, torrents, marine waves, and currents combined to fill up the Fig. 185.—Beeaksea and Dusky Sounds. Scale 1 : 600, Depths 0 to 50 Fathoms. 50 to 100 Fathoms. 100 Fathoms and upwards. 12 Miles. basins, which thus became transformed at first to chains of lakes, then to swampv tracts and fertile plains. All the fiords that formerly existed north of 44° S. lati- tude have already been obliterated, and those still surviving are now all concentrated in a space about 80 miles long in the south-west corner of South Island. The largest, as was to be expected, are those which open exactly at the southern extremity of the seaboard. Such are Preservation Inlet, Dark Cloud Inlet (Chalky Sound), and Dusky Sound, which last has an area of no less than 80 square miles. The northernmost fiord in New Zealand, or in any region of the southern hemi- sphere, is Milford Sound, a magnificent sheet of water, in which are mirrored the surrounding snowy crests, glittering peaks and verdant headlands. Sheer above. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
