284 REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 



Waihola basin is a steep escarpment rising to a level surface 1,500ft. 

 above the floor of the basin. This surface is nearly on a level with the 

 summit of the schistose hills beyond the moraine. This suggests the 

 idea that the Waihola basin is situated on the site of an infallen block. 

 The constant north-westerly dip of the moraine on the south-east side 

 of the basinalso supports this idea. 



If this explanation is correct it follows that the Taieri moraine 

 does not owe its present position to severer climatic conditions nor to 

 regional depression, but to a local earth movement, of which the steep 

 N.W. scarp of the Waihola basin and the N.W. dip of the moraine are 

 the visible signs. 



Little attention has hitherto been called to the fact that the large 

 glaciers of the past in New Zealand gave rise to several streams at the 

 terminal face. The lakes that now occupy the lower portion of many 

 of the glacial beds have, of course, a single outlet, and it is too often 

 assumed that this was the course of the only stream that flowed from 

 the glacial front. The road to Lake Te Anau follows a valley that was 

 evidently a second outflow, and several others can be found when the 

 moraine is inspected. 



At the present day the Mueller glacier has a second outlet. The 

 main stream flows from its terminal face ; but a mile above this there 

 is an outlet through the southern lateral moraine. Down this channel 

 torrents of water flow in continuous wet weather, after the glacier has 

 " filled up." 



An exploration expedition was conducted in December, 1905, and 

 January, 1906, up the north branch of the Clinton Valley, which had 

 never before been visited. The valley is 14 miles in length, and ends 

 in a precipitous unscalable cirque, rising, apparently, 2,500ft. from the 

 valley bottom, which is itself 2,700ft. above sea-level at its termination. 



Nine miles from the cirque it was found possible to scale the fall 

 of a hanging valley, whose termination was 1,100ft. above the floor of 

 the main valley. A little way along the hanging valley there is a further 

 abrupt step of 500ft., beyond which is a perfect rock basin one mile 

 long and half a mile wide. Icebergs were floating on the lake. The 

 outlet is over solid diorite gneiss. The lake is bounded on three sides 

 by steep mountain slopes, and on two sides by relatively low cols. 

 One of these leads over to the Neale Valley, but is apparently too 

 precipitous for use. The other, on the north side, leads to the head 

 waters of Joe's River, which Mr. W. Gr. Grave, of our party, followed 

 to Lake Ada, in the Arthur Valley. This is the second practicable 

 route that has been explored between Milford Sound and Lake Te 

 Anau. 



There is one feature in the north branch of the Clinton that seems 

 to me to have escaped notice in similar regions. I refer to avalanche 

 tarns. The first avalanches of spring do not affect the rock walls of 

 the valley, but consist of pure snow that forms a cone at the foot of 

 the avalanche precipice. Later avalanches bring down much rock, 

 which rolls down the previous cone, and forms a ring of debris round it. 



