Mannering. — C;i the Murchison Glacier. 3o7 



he remaikecl a great difference in the appearance of the glacier, 

 which led him to believe that the shrinking was still going on. 

 ^ly own casual observations on the Tasman, Hooker, and 

 Mueller during the past five years bear this out in a decisive 

 manner. 



Nakkatim: of the Exploration of the Mukchison 

 Glacier. 



It was on the 10th of January of the present year that 

 Messrs. Arthur Harper, H. Montgomerie-Hamilton, James 

 Annan, and myself started from our camp at the eastern base 

 of Mount Cook — close to the Ball Glacier — for the Murchisou, 

 whose valle}'-mouth joins the eastern side of the Tasman 

 Glacier opposite to this point. 



Crossing the Tasman Glacier — here some two miles or two 

 miles and a half wide, and mostly covered with morainic detritus 

 — we ascended to a height of oOOft. or 600ft. on the shoulder of 

 the Malte Brun Eange, to get a glimpse up the valley from an 

 advantageous point. From here, however, we could but dis- 

 cern the bed of the Murchison Eiver and part of the terminal 

 face of the glacier, some four miles distant ; the major part of 

 the glacier-face being hidden by the spurs abutting from the 

 Malte Brun Eange. Our object was to v»'ork our way to the 

 head of tlie Murchison Glacier, climb over the saddle depicted 

 on the various maps, into the Tasman Glacier, and so on down 

 to our starting-point, and thus make a complete circuit of the 

 Malte Brun Eange. We were provisioned for two days, and 

 favoured with fine weather. 



Descending to the bed of the river, we wended our way up 

 the flat. The bed of the river occupies almost the entire sur- 

 face of the valley, and is composed of unusually small gra^vel, 

 wb'ch has been spread out with remarkable evenness, and is 

 tlu'eaded in all directions by streams from the glacier. The 

 incline of the river-bed is very slight, and is probably caused 

 by the lateral part of the Tasman Glacier blocking the whole 

 of the mouth of the valley, and acting as a dam to the shingle, 

 which would otherwise be washed down, leaving the coarser 

 detritus to form a bed at a steeper angle. 



About two miles up the valley an immense boulder-fan is 

 met with, formed by a talus of denuded rocks from the Malte 

 Brun Eange, and this is accompanied by a fine waterfall, hav- 

 ing its source in a secondary glacier in tlie heights above ; and 

 above the glacier again a snow- clad peak (probably one of the 

 peaks of Mount Chudleigh) appears. The whole scene presents 

 a picture of great beauty. Here we lunched, and spent some 

 time examining the interesting features of the spot. 



By constant action of the water a cylindrical groove has 

 been woi-n in the solid rock some Gft. or 8ft. in depth, 10ft. or 



