Ancient Glaciers of JVeio Zealand. 253 



east of the mountains, during the same period, it reached 

 only 17*395 inches. 



The glaciers that for long ages have descended from these 

 constantly accumulating snow-fields, have cut the high table- 

 land from which the Southern Alps were formed, into many 

 deep valleys and canons; through these the traveller obtains 

 an easy access to the very heart of the mountains. It is 

 only in the extreme upper portion of these valleys that the 

 glaciers are now found ; but the great valleys that extend 

 beyond them, and that now are dotted with villages and 

 farms, have been excavated by the ancient glaciers, Avhich 

 form the subject of our sketch. Many of these old valleys 

 have been worn into rock-basins by the action of the ice ; 

 and these, having become filled with water, now form some 

 of the most charming features in the wonderful scenery of 

 the South Island. 



The existing glaciers of New Zealand are all confined to 

 the Southern Alps, and occupy the higher portions of nearly 

 all the principal valleys. Many of these ice-fields are of 

 great size, and by their slow melting afford a never-failing 

 supply to numerous rapid rivers. While glaciers of consid- 

 erable extent are found in many places throughout the moun- 

 tains, they have their greatest extension, as we should natur- 

 ally expect, around the highest peaks. At Mt. Cook, five 

 glaciers have been discovered, flowing in a southerly direc- 

 tion, and supplying the lakes that form the source of the 

 Waitaki river. The largest of these is the Great Tasman 

 Glacier, which has a length of eighteen miles, and a breadth 

 at its terminal face, of nearly two miles; it is the largest 

 glacier yet discovered in New Zealand. Dr. Haast describes 

 it as being so completely covered with an immense bed of 

 debris, as to conceal the ice beneath, which could only be 

 seen in the deep transverse crevasses. About nine miles up 

 the valley this great glacier receives a tributary stream of ice 

 one mile in breadth, descending in two arms from Mt. Cook, 

 Mt. Tasman, and the neighboring peaks. 



