﻿Anniversary Address. . H 



this region was forcibly called to mind. He says : — ' A prospect more rude 

 and craggy is rarely to be met with, for inland appeared nothing but the 

 summits of mountains of a stupendous height, and consisting of rocks that are 

 totally barren and naked, except where they are covered with snow.' "We 

 could only compare the scene around us as far as the eye could reach, north to 

 Milford Haven, south to Du.sky Bay, and eastward inland for a distance of 

 sixty miles, to a vast sea of mountains of every possible variety of shape and 

 ruggedness ; the clouds and mist floated far beneath us, and the harbour 

 appeared no more than an insignificant stream. The prospect was most 

 bewildering, and, even to a practised eye, the possibility of recognising any 

 particular mountain, as a point of the survey from a future station, seemed 

 almost hopeless." 



The following extract from Dr. Hector's account of Milford Sound shows 

 the probable mode of its formation :— "Three miles from the entrance of the 

 Sound it becomes contracted to the width of half a mile, and its sides rise 

 perpendicularly from the water's edge, sometimes for 2,000 feet, and then slope 

 at a high angle to the peaks that are covered with perpetual snow. The 

 scenery is quite equal to the finest that can be enjoyed by the most difl&cult 

 and toilsome journeys into the Alps of the interior ; and the effect is greatly 

 enhanced, as well as the access made more easy, by the incursion of the sea, as 

 it were, into their alpine solitudes. The sea, in fact, now occupies a chasm 

 that was in past ages ploughed by an immense glacier ; and it is through the 

 natural progress of events by which the mountain mass has been reduced in 

 altitvide, that the ice stream has been replaced by the waters of the ocean. The 

 evidence of this change may be seen at a glance. The lateral valleys join the 

 main one at various elevations, but are all sharply cut off" by the precipitous 

 wall of the sound, the erosion of which was no doubt continued by a great 

 centi'al glacier long after the subordinate and tributary glaciers had ceased to 

 exist. The precipices exhibit the mai-ks of ice-action with great distinctness, 

 and descend quite abruptly to a depth of 800 to 1200 feet below the water 

 level. Towards its head the sound becomes more expanded, and receives 

 several large valleys that preserve the same character, biit radiate in different 

 directions into the highest ranges. At the time that these valleys were 

 filled with glaciers, a great 'ice lake' must have existed in the ujDper and 

 expanded portion of the soiind, from which the only outlet would be through 

 the chasm which forms its lower part." 



On account of the great depth of water in these inlets, and of the sudden 

 storms of wind rushing down from the mountains above, vessels are generally 

 obliged to moor to trees or pinnacles of rock, whenever they reach a cove in 

 which an anchor can be dropped. Accordingly, while we were in Milford 

 Sound, the ' Clio ' lay at anchor in Harrison's Cove, only a few yards from the 



