

BY RICHARD HELMS. 357 



out from under it Hows clown the sides and ledges of the rocks 

 and loiips in numerous waterfalls over a surface that for many 

 thousand years did not see daylight, when it was covered by a 

 massive layer of ice. At the foot of the range the water feeds a 

 lake,''' that now reflects the azure of the sky, but darkened with 

 greater intensity on account of its depth, having its placid surface 

 exposed to the gay sunlight that for eons of time was hidden in 

 darkness by the rigid cover that slid high above it slowly into the 

 valley below. It remained a solid block of ice long after the 

 sliding glaciers had ceased passing over it, and their abrading 

 action stopped depositing the debris below and around it. Thus 

 it rested ; but now this eye in the Alpine landscape does not 

 always reproduce the surrounding cliffs on a smooth surface. 

 The waterfowl disporting themselves upon it sometimes ripple the 

 water,, and when the searching gales which frequently sweep the 

 neighbouring heights reach this sheltered position it may even be 

 agitated into waves. 



To the south-east of this lake an extraordinary and almost 

 unique feature is met with, of which but few similar and none 

 else so perfect exist. 



The peculiar formation cannot be better described than by 

 calling it a moraine-dam, because it resembles an artificially 

 heaped up railway embankment more than anything else I know 

 of. Running in an almost E.N.E. and W.S.W. direction, it 

 extends for about a third of a mile in a straight line, with even 

 scarps on both sides, and has a flat top, which is about half a 

 chain wide. At its eastern side it leans against a granite out- 

 crop, and towards the west it finishes with a spreading talus just 

 as if truck loads of stufi* had been tipped over in that direction. 

 It is in places upwards of a hundred feet higher than the valley 

 it forms with the adjoining secondary and portion of the Main 

 Range, and is entirely composed of granite and slate fragments 

 mixed with earth. 



* Lake Merewether. Named by me in honour of the worthy president 

 of the N S.W. branch of the R. Geog. Soc. 



