360 EVIDENCES OF EXTENSIVE GLACIER ACTION AT ilT. KOSCIUSKO, 



origin mainly to the fact that the valley V)elow it has been filled 

 to some extent with rock fragments and large blocks, probably 

 brought there through the action of glaciei- currents, but the 

 declivities of the enclosing ranges are steep enough to allow the 

 deposition to be attributed to landslips. However, ice-action has 

 originated the moraine in the lake, and theiefore the tilling of the 

 valley is likely, to some extent at any rate, due to the same cause. 



Into the very height of summ.er some snow-fields remain on 

 the eastern side of the Main Range, and a few never entirely 

 disappear. The general extent of the deposits is indicated by the 

 total absence of all ve^jetation, and their area is theiefore easily 

 traced by a fringe of verdure. Most of them disappear rapidly 

 towards the end of February, and those that do not vanish 

 entirely are by that time reduced to their minimum extent. It 

 depends both upon the greater or lesser quantity of snow-drifts 

 during the winter as well as upon the higher or lower average 

 temperature whether these snow-fields disappear earlier or later. 

 Those nestling on the precipitous declivities below the peaks of 

 Mt. Kosciusko and Mt. Twynam are perhaps the only ones that 

 never entirely disappear even in the hottest summers, and it may 

 safely be said that they remain permanent over a limited area. 

 The conditions are most favourable for the retention of snow in 

 these places, the elevation for one thing, as w^ell as the fact that 

 the rugged peaks furnish many clefts for the accumulation of it 

 and that the spots are only touched by the solar rays during the 

 early part of the day when they do not furnisli much heat, combine 

 to prevent as rapid a melting in these places as elsewhere. 



Daring my late visit I found snow in many more places 

 remaining at the end of February than I noticed on my previous 

 visit in 1889. This must be entirely attributable to the prevail- 

 ing cool weather during the last summer, because I was informed 

 that the snow-fall had been much lighter than usual during the 

 preceding winter.* This year the winter set in very early on 

 these heights. Already the middle of February began to get 



* There was even snow left in the shaded clefts just above Lake Aiere- 

 wether between 600 and 700 feet below the summit of Mt. Twynam. 



