GrREEN — A Journey among the New Zealand Glaciers. 649 



tent shivering till mid-day, and at three o'clock, seeing that it pro- 

 mised for a similar night, and all our things were wet, we determined 

 to secure the tent and provisions as best we could, and retreat to our 

 lower camp. The wet scrub drenched us as we pushed our way 

 through it, but on reaching our camp we were soon into dry clothes. 

 The weather cleared for an hour or so about sunset, allowing us to 

 get our supper in comfort ; but as it began to blow and rain as night 

 came on, we made ourselves snug in our hammocks, and slept, in 

 spite of the banging of the tent walls and beating of the rain. ISText 

 day was stormy, wet, and cold, the highest temperature being only 

 42°. After our mid-day meal we set off in our waterproofs to try 

 and reach the Hooker glacier ; but finding we should have to mount 

 the steep slopes of the spur of Mount Cook through dripping ferns, we 

 relinquished the attempt, and amused ourselves by running after and 

 catching some young wekas. The old birds came from all points to 

 remonstrate, and forming a wide circle, squealed and grunted forth 

 their indignation, and as we returned their young ones unharmed, 

 they were, I am sure, quite satisfied that their interference had a 

 most important influence over our actions. It cleared a little about 

 sunset, showing the mountains glistening with fresh-fallen snow, and 

 then settled in again for a bad night, the wind still blowing a gale 

 from the north-west. At midnight we were aroused by the most 

 awful torrents of rain ; there seemed to be no wind with it, and in 

 the morning, when we awoke in bright sunshine, and looked out of 

 the tent, we found the whole landscape, down almost to the foot of 

 the glacier and surrounding hills, covered with a robe of freshly- 

 fallen snow. These lower hills are of course covered with snow in 

 winter, but it seldom lies on the flat valley for more than twenty-four 

 hours at a time. We were much surprised at learning this from the 

 shepherds, as for a long distance the valley may be considered to be 

 at the same level as the termination of the glacier, and land in such 

 proximity in Switzerland would be covered all through the winter 

 with many feet of snow. The wind was now from the south, the sky 

 blue, and as the snow was rapidly melting, I determined to start by 

 myself for the camp at the Blue Lake, spread out the things to dry, 

 and leave the men to follow when they had our lower camp dried and 

 secure. It rained a little again at night, but next day was fine 

 enough to continue our journey, which we did as usual, my men 

 going over all the ground twice, and while they went back the 

 last stage I pitched the tent, and cut twigs for our bedding, coprosma 

 and veronica scrub being still in abundance. I shall not go into all the 

 details of our troublesome journey ; suffice it to say, that our fourth 

 camp was pitched on the moraine abreast of the stakes I had erected 

 on the glacier. On visiting them, however, I found them all lying 

 prostrate, and blown to some distance from the holes in which they 

 had stood. The sunshine and storms of the past seven days had 

 so altered the surface of the glacier, that we had some little difficulty 

 in finding the holes we had made. AVhen we set the sticks up again, 



