Mannering. — On the Mnrchiaon Glacier. 361 



Topographical. 



The scene ou the other side of the saddle was enveloped 

 iu mist, but after a few moments the fog vanished as if by 

 magic, disclosing directly at our feet a large glacier, with a 

 strange peak immediately op^oosite to us. We expected to 

 gaze ou Mount De la Beche, Mount Green, Mount Elie 

 de Beaumont, and the Hoclistetter Dome, and all the well- 

 known features at the head of the Tasman, and it was not 

 until we suddenly discovered that the flow of the glacier 

 below us pursued a course to our right (whereas the Tasman 

 would have shown a directly opposite course) that we realised 

 -we were in full view of the true head of the Murchison Glacier, 

 which commenced at our left, and led down a valley in an 

 easterly direction, curving round the rocky spur (a saddle in 

 which \<e were now- on), and eventually assumed a south- 

 westerly course. The total length of the glacier we estimated 

 at from twelve to sixteen miles — probably nearer the latter 

 figure — and its width from a mile and a half to two miles on 

 the average, thus making it second in size only to the great 

 Tasman Glacier. 



We ascended to some rocks on our right, 300ft. above the 

 saddle, and here, building a small cairn, deposited a record of 

 our ascent. From these rocks, looking in a direction north by 

 west, over the top of the strange peak directly opposite, can be 

 seen what can hardly be any other mountain than the Hocli- 

 stetter Dome, whose summit two of us had trodden in the 

 previous autumn. The double dome of snow is a unique and 

 almost unmistakable landmark seen from the Tasman, but I 

 have never observed it before from an immediate southerly 

 stavxdpoint ; yet we w-ere agreed as to its identity : and, if 

 we are correct in our conclusion, then glaring errors exist in 

 von Haast's and von Lendenfeld's maps, and also in that issued 

 by the Survey Ofiice in Wellington for the use of tourists. 



I am well aware of the danger of making topographical 

 assertions when one is not acquainted with some knowledge 

 of surveying, and where all distances have to be estimated, 

 and the fixing of well-known peaks is uncertain ; and I base all 

 my remarks on the topography of this part on the assumption 

 that the peak we observed north by west from our standpoint 

 is the Hochstetter Dome. Did space permit I could adduce 

 many reasons for the assumption, apart from the fact that the 

 peak is well known to me from the Tasman, and that no 

 mountains similarly capped exist in the vicinity. 



This, then, being the case, the point on whix;li we now 

 stood must be on the eastern slopes of Mount Darwin, which 

 loitli the Malte Brun Range is encircled by the Murchison and 

 Tasman Glaciers. At the left of the conspicuous peak over 



