34 GLACIAL REMAINS IN THE NATIONAL PARK, 



III. THE WESTERN GLACIAL GROUP. (See Plate XIL). 

 The remaining area of glaciation lies west of the moun- 

 tain mass running like a wall north from Mt. Mawson to 

 the Derwent, and between that range and the Tyenna Peak- 

 Mt. Field West system. It includes the Belcher-Belton 

 Valley to the south, and the Hayes Valley farther north. 

 Geographically, these lie end to end, separated only by 

 the narrow ridge of K. Col. Before the glacial epoch these 

 two valleys were probably in existence, but sloped in a 

 broad, shallow hollow from K. Col, and the surrounding 

 mountain peaks. Snowfields accumulated around K. Col, 

 and probably precipitation in this part was heavier than 

 farther east. Huge glaciers flowed north and south from 

 K. Col, and their bases cut deep into the foot of that 

 saddle, excavating the pair of enormous cirques we now 

 ^ee, and making K. Col a wonderful example of a Razor- 

 back ridge, with sides that stand a thousand feet per- 

 pendicularly from the lakes below. Both sides of the ridge 

 are very much alike, and present an excellent example of 

 glacial symmetry, a very uncommon feature. 



(a) The Belcher-Belton Valley. (See Plates XIII. and 

 XIV.). 



The glacier that filled this valley grew from the enor- 

 mous snow-covered areas from Mt. Mawson past K. Col, 

 and the Florentine Peaks to Tyenna Peak. It has cut 

 into the mountain, forming an enormous cirque, over two 

 miles long and a mile across, and 1,100 feet deep at the 

 lowest point. It is really a composite cirque, consisting of 

 at least three smaller curves. Down each of these flowed 

 a tributary glacier, one from K. Col (see Plate XIV., Fig 4), 

 a second from the saddle north of the rugged Florentine 

 Peaks, and the third from the plateau betw^een those crags 

 and Tyenna Peak. 



This glacier must have pushed over two miles down 

 the valley to an altitude of about 2,700 feet, stopping near 

 the spot where now the button-grass ceases. The floor of 

 the valley is remarkably U-shaped, with a pair of ledges 

 half-way up the sides, on the western of which reposes 

 Lake Belton. The floor of this U is strewn for the whole 

 two miles with a deposit of boulder clay, in which lies 

 Lake Belcher. It is impossible to guess the depth of these 

 deposits, which are remarkably evenly distributed, although 

 piled here and there into the small ridges running at all 

 angles typical of terminal moraine country. In one place, 



