256 Ancient Glaciers of New Zealand. 



known markings due to glacial action. The sides of these 

 narrow valleys are frequently towering mountain-peaks, two 

 or three thousand feet high, descending in some places per- 

 pendicularly into the debris at their base, which fills the bot- 

 tom of the valley to a great depth. 



(4.) The numerous lakes of the South Island, filling rock- 

 basins that have been excavated by ice-action, sometimes 

 lower than the level of the sea, bear similar testimony, as 

 well as the fiords along the West Coast, like Milford Sound 

 and Martin's Bay. These are deep, narrow sounds, that 

 penetrate far into the mountains, "but universally become 

 shallower at their entrance into the sea;" and are in fact 

 glacier-worn basins, of the same character as the lake-basins, 

 excepting that they are at a lower level, and open to the 

 ocean. They afford, perhaps, one of the strongest indica- 

 tions of the great extent and duration of the ancient glaciers. 



During our connection with the U. S. Transit of Venus 

 Expedition, we were stationed at Queenstown, N. Z., on the 

 shore of Lake Wakatipu. As the great glaciers to which 

 the valley of "this lake owes its origin, maybe taken as an 

 example of the hundreds of ice-streams that in past time 

 flowed from the Southern Alps, we may obtain from the rec- 

 ords that they here left behind them some idea of the phe- 

 nomena of what may prove to be the "glacial epoch" in New 

 Zealand. 



Lake Wakatipu is situated about 100 miles from the south- 

 ern end of the South Island, and extends into the very heart 

 of the mountains. We will not attempt a description of its 

 scenery which, as has been said, equals, or even exceeds in 

 grandeur, the lake scenery of Switzerland, but will endeavor 

 merely to tell as briefly as possible, the story of its form- 

 ation. 



The lake is of a sigmoidal shape, about seventy miles long, 

 and from one to three miles broad. Its waters are very clear 

 and cold, and have been sounded to the extraordinary depth 

 of 1,400 feet. The surface of the lake is about 1,000 feet 



