M7 6 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



parts of the great eastern plain, nearly all Canterbury and Westland being visible. \\Y 

 could trace the- ^n-at mountain chain from Nelson to Otago, and survey the land from 

 sea to sea. The grandeur of the scenery around aroused in us an idea of the sublime ; 

 we felt ourselves nearer to the Absolute, and felt proud and happy with the thought 

 that all the grand glaciers and rocks around were conquered by our energy and skill." 



From the Hermitage one may cross the Mueller Glacier to the foot of Mount 

 Sefton. It is a walk of only twenty minutes to the Glacier, and on the way across 

 the frozen mass, the spot is passed where the Mueller River, after having travelled for 

 miles under great fields of ice, bursts forth into the open light of day and speeds on 

 its impetuous course to join the Tasman. The ice-caves must not be overlooked. 

 Beneath one's feet is heard the subterranean torrent as it hurries with unceasing roar to 

 its place of emergence, while overhead and around there is diffused an intense blue 

 colour, caused by the sunlight penetrating the walls and roof of ice. These ice-caves 

 and crevasses are objects of very great interest to visitors. Having at last scrambled 

 over the glacier with its moraine debris, the adventurous tourist arrives at the foot of 

 the striking Moorhouse Range crowned by the bold summit of Mount Sefton, "which 

 with its huge snow-fields and numerous tributary glaciers descending into the valley forms 

 one of the most striking vistas in the Southern Alps." Dense masses of cloud encom- 

 pass and swathe the central part of its colossal bulk, but far above them swells and 

 towers aloft the stately summit ribbed and flecked with ice, forming pinnacles, cascades, 

 and other fantastic shapes which glow with all the colours of the rainbow. While one 

 stands in rapt delight, the eye may catch sight of a descending avalanche sending up 

 clouds of snow, and immediately afterwards the ear is startled by the thunderous volley 

 which proceeds from the falling mass. Another important feature of the scene is that 

 formed by the swift and turbulent Hooker River, which issues from the valley of the 

 same name in one large stream close under the spur of Mount Cook, and continues 

 its course across an ample valley until it meets the Tasman. Its sides are bordered, 

 and part of its channel is studded, with heavy boulders, against which the ice-cold waters 

 angrily dash and gurgle in swirling eddies. 



Farther away to the north, and nearer to the west coast, lie two other splendid 

 glaciers the Francis Joseph and the Agassiz of which the former descends from the 

 great snow-fields of Mounts Tasman and De la Beche to the singularly low position of 

 only seven hundred and five feet above the sea-level. It was discovered and named by 

 Von Haast, who has placed on record the following description of the panorama as 

 viewed from Lake Okarita : " The contrast between the ever-restless sea the gigantic 

 waves coming and going without intermission and the quiet water-shed of Lake Okarita, 

 with its numerous islands, surrounded by luxuriant forest, was most striking. Above the 

 forest plains rose low hillocks, also clothed with the same intensely green west-coast vege- 

 tation, over which the Southern Alps appeared a mass of snow, ice, rock and forest. 

 As far as the eye could reach, mountain appeared behind mountain, all clad in their 

 white garments, with which they are covered during the whole year almost entirely, 

 becoming apparently lower until they appeared only as small points over the sea horizon 

 half cloud, half ghost, as a modern philosopher has said so well. But what struck 

 me more than anything was the low position reached by an enormous glacier descending 





