252 Ancient Glaciers of New Zealand. 



Southern Alps, — a great chain of snow-clad mountains, that 

 well deserve their name, as they are not inferior in the wild- 

 ness and grandeur of their scenery to the Alps of Switzer- 

 land. This range of mountains seems formerly to have been 

 a sloping table-land, the highest remaining point being the 

 sharp and serrated summit of Mt. Cook, which reaches an 

 elevation of 13,200 feet above the sea, and is by far the 

 grandest object in New Zealand. This lofty peak is sur- 

 rounded by a host of sister mountains, many of which attain 

 an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. Among the 

 best known of these are Mt. Tasmau, Mt. Arrowsmith, Mt. 

 Aspiring, etc. As the snow-line is situated at a height of 

 from 7,500 to 8,000 feet above the sea, all the central por- 

 tion of this mountain-range is wrapped in perpetual snow. 



The prevailing winds of New Zealand are from the west- 

 ward. These winds, laden with the moisture gathered dur- 

 ing their long journey over the South Indian Ocean, on 

 coming in contact with these high mountains, are forced up- 

 wards to an elevation of 10,000 feet or more ; and becoming 

 rarified and chilled by their contact with the cold summits, 

 part with the greater portion of their moisture in the form 

 of snow and ice. In this manner, on all the higher portions 

 of the mountains, immense ice-fields accumulate, that receive 

 new additions from nearly every breath of air that passes 

 over them. The result of this process of condensation, if 

 carried on unchecked, it would be difficult to conceive. A 

 compensation is found, however, in the fact that the ice flows 

 down from the mountains in the great ice-rivers that are 

 known as glaciers ; the character and laws of which have 

 been well studied in Switzerland. 



The effect produced on the climate of the South Island, 

 by the lofty mountains along the West Coast, is shown by 

 the great contrast in the amounts of rain that fall on their 

 eastern and western slopes. From May to the end of De- 

 cember, in 1856, the rain-foil at Hokitika, on the West 

 Coast, amounted to 96-082 inches ; while at Christchurch, 



