650 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and I ran my eye along them to the mountain side, I found that they 

 were still in an almost perfect right line, showing that in that time no 

 motion of any importance had taken place. This was, however, what 

 might have been expected, owing to the ilatness of the lower portion 

 of the glacier, the incline being about 100 feet to the mile. 



We returned to camp over piles of angular rocks alternating with 

 gravel heaps, coming now and then upon a yawning chasm with sides 

 of dirty ice and enclosing deep blue pools of ice water. The new 

 moraine near the margin of the glacier overtopped a rampart of 

 ancient moraine, showing that the glacier at a period not very remote 

 was smaller than it is at present. Not only there, but at various other 

 parts of our route, I made similar observations. The old moraine was 

 consolidated by the disintegration of the rocks composing it, and 

 afforded soil for numerous tufts of sword-grass and other smaller 

 plants. Here for the first time we found the New Zealand Edelweis 

 ( Gnaflialium grandiceps), and my men seemed to take fresh heart after 

 all their fagging work when we had our hat-bands adorned with the 

 familiar little felt-like flowers. After a good night's rest on a bed of 

 Veronica hectori, we continued our "swagging," and on the next after- 

 noon, February 23rd, we reached our fifth and final camp. 



We were now 3750 feet above the sea, having gained by a week's 

 labour only 1450 feet of actual elevation, and Mount Cook still towered 

 nearly 9000 feet above us. Our advance was here checked by the ice 

 of the much-broken Ball glacier coming down from our left, and though 

 we carried our " swags " on to its surface in hopes of camping farther 

 up, the absence of scrub on the farther spurs of sufficient size to promise 

 a supply of fire-wood made us retrace our steps and pitch our tent on 

 a gravel flat, close to the mountain side in the angle formed by the 

 Mount Cook and Tasman glaciers. Here a glacier stream provided us 

 with water, and the vicinity of our camp was strewn with dead wood 

 brought down by landslips and avalanches from the steep slopes above. 

 While looking for a suitable nook for our tent, Boss came upon a little 

 square patch of dwarf gnarled coprosma exactly the square of our tent : 

 it grew by itself on the gravel in a snug corner, and seemed as if pre- 

 pared so specially for our use that we did not wish to decline the hos- 

 pitality of nature, so filling up the centre of the square with some cut 

 bushes, we pitched our tent on it. Never was a bed more comfortable ; 

 its spring was perfect. We never sank to within less than five or six 

 inches of the ground, and so long as the wekas contented themselves 

 with squeaking and grunting, and not pecking upwards, we did not 

 wish to deny them the comfortable lodging beneath us which they 

 seemed to appreciate. 



Prom this camp we made a long day's excursion up the main 

 glacier, and completed our reconnaissance of the ridges of Mount 

 Cook ; and from a point on the medial moraine I took a circle of 

 angles with a view to making my map, and secured a couple of nega- 

 tives of the Hochstetter ice fall ; but the light was so brilliant, there 

 not being a cloud in the sky, that over exposure of my plates was 



