1 1 70 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



some of the feeders produced by the Ball and Hochstetter Glaciers. Away to the 



left the lofty peak of Mount Sefton stands strikingly forth, its clear-cut outline in 



\ 

 bold relief against the sky. 



Proceeding steadily on, the broad valley of the Hooker to the left of Mount Cook 

 opens up, and a sight is obtained of the Hermitage, snugly ensconced under the shelter 

 of the bush-clad slopes of the moraine formed by the Mueller Glacier. Then, rounding 

 the tremendous rocky bluff variously called Gibraltar and Sebastopol, Mount Sefton 



comes once more within the range of vision, 

 and, as one nears the Hermitage, Mount Cook 

 himself, or as the natives have more aptly termed 

 him, .lorangi, "The Cloud- piercer," glides 

 majestically into view. 



A three-mile drive from Gibraltar conducts 

 to the Hermitage, and Mount Sefton welcomes 

 the arrival of the visitor to its solitudes by a 

 thunderous discharge of mi<rhtv avalanches down 



o o J 



his embattled sides. The giant Aorangi dwarfs 

 all the companion peaks. Since the ascent of 

 the Rev. W. S. Green, with his two Swiss 

 mountaineers, in 1882, no one seems to have 

 essayed the perilous feat of mounting to its 

 summit. After climbing to an altitude of some 

 four thousand feet above the sea-level, the 

 adventurous travellers found themselves abreast 

 of the southern arctc of the Mountain whose 

 glittering mass of ice-precipices and hanging gla- 

 ciers stood up over eight thousand feet above 

 them. " The actual summit, a rlattish cap ol 

 ice, did not become visible, clear of a lower 

 peak, till we had advanced about half-a-mile 



farther. Mount Tasman was hidden by the shoulder of Mount Cook, but the great 

 ice-fall of the Hochstetter Glacier, pouring down from the hollow between these two 

 mountains, presented us with as grand a spectacle as it is possible to conceive. Rising 

 beyond this glacier the square-topped Mount Haiclinger, robed in white glaciers, stood 

 as the next worthy member of this giant family. After dwelling on some smaller peaks, 

 our eyes swept round to the great mass of Mount de la Beche, looking something like 

 Mount Rosa, and occupying a conspicuous position between two main branches of the 

 Glacier. Farther off, Mount Elie de Beaumont appeared, and then the great buttresses 

 of the Make Brim Range, which flanked the side of the Glacier opposite Mount Cook, 

 and shut out from our view its own finest peak and Mount Darwin beyond. 1 he 

 glacier on which we stood, having an area about twice as great as that of the Great 

 Aletsch, the largest glacier in Switzerland, is really a union of many fine streams of 

 ice, which, coming in on all sides in graceful curves, bear along their tale of boulders 

 to swell the great rampart of moraine which gave us such difficulty to surmount. The 



AN Al.riXE CI.I.MliER. 



