646 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



night at Birch Hill sheep station, we started early next morning, 

 and were camped at the foot of the Tasman glacier by mid-day. 



Early on the loth we started from the camp, taking with us some 

 slight poles for observations on the motion of the glaciers, my photogra- 

 phic apparatus, our ice axes, and provisions for the day. Crossing a rude 

 bridge which we had constructed, an hour's smart walking over grass- 

 covered flats brought us to the terminal moraine, which rises up here in 

 grassy knolls to a height of 200 feet, and, assuming a more recent appear- 

 ance to the eastward, extends right across the valley, a distance of about 

 two miles in a straight line. Kowhere is ice visible except near the far- 

 ther shore where the river breaks forth. The truncated form of this ter- 

 mination of the glacier shows, I think, that it cannot be retreating very 

 rapidly, if it is retreating at all, as the absence of any heaps of terminal 

 moraine on the flat plains near to its face proves that the river outlet 

 must have changed many times along the present terminal face to have 

 so completely swept the valley of all outliers, except one small heap 

 which has been protected by boulders of unusual dimensions. It 

 may be stationary, but from consideration of the appearance of the 

 terminal face, and from observations on the relations of the present 

 lateral moraine to more ancient ones, to which I shall allude further 

 on, I would conclude that the glacier is at present advancing ; or if 

 it is not doing so at the present moment, it has done so since its last 

 retreat, as there is good evidence to prove that at a period not very 

 remote the glacier was smaller than it now is. 



We ascended the outer line of grass-covered moraine, and passing 

 a little blue lake lying in a deep hollow, in which we discovered nu- 

 merous small fish about four inches long, we ascended heaps of newer 

 moraine composed of immense, loose, angular boulders, and finding our 

 progress over it most fatiguing and slow, we turned off to the left in 

 hopes that the lateral moraine might prove more practicable ; but find- 

 ing it just as bad, and no level ice being in sight, we descended to the 

 hollow between the lateral moraine and the mountain side. Here we 

 were entangled in almost impenetrable scrub composed of wild Irish- 

 man {Biscaria toumatoo) and sword-grass {^Aciphylla colensoi), which 

 cut us cruelly. Occasionally we got a more open bit for a change, 

 but nowhere could we feel ourselves safe from the chance of a broken 

 leg or sprained ankle. After five hours of this sort of thing we again 

 surmounted the lateral moraine, and, striking right across the glacier, 

 in one hour reached the white ice. The cool air off the ice was most 

 refreshing after toiling over the heated boulders under bright sunshine 

 and sheltered from any wind, so we walked briskly ahead until two 

 o'clock, when we reached a point from which we had a splendid view 

 of the great cliffs of Mount Cook, and the grand amphitheatre of peaks 

 which swept round from left to right. This view I consider quite 

 equal, if not superior, to anything in Switzerland, and the glacier 

 beneath our feet had an area half as gi'eat again as that of the Great 

 Aletsch, the largest glacier of the European Alps. Tributary glaciers 

 poured in with graceful curves from the mountain sides, and long lines 



