1867.] HAAST CANTEKBUEY, NEW ZEALAND. 347 



miles long, and, near its terminal end, still If mile broad, descends 

 only to 2772 feet, whilst the opposite and smaller, Francis Joseph 

 glacier, descends to 708 feet above the level of the sea, its fore- 

 ground being formed by a luxuriant vegetation, amongst which ar- 

 borescent ferns, pine, and fuchsia trees are conspicuous. 



Before proceeding to describe the morainic accumulations under 

 review, it will perhaps be well if I give in a few words a descrip- 

 tion of the configuration of the west coast of this province, princi- 

 pally in reference to the direction of the central chain ; and to do 

 this more effectually, I have appended a small sketch map of that 

 country, in which I have distinguished in general lines between the 

 existing glaciers and snow-fields, and the extent of the morainic 

 accumulations of our great ice-epoch. 



The Southern Alps approach nearest to the sea at the point where 

 they attain their highest mean elevation — namely, in Mount Cook, 

 and in the lofty snow- clad peaks adjoining it, north and south. Con- 

 tinuing to foUow them in their north-east direction they very soon be- 

 come lower, and at the same timerecede towards the centreof the island. 

 Thus, if we draw a line at right angles to the direction of the coast, 

 Mount Tasman is only fifteen miles distant from the Pacific ocean, 

 whilst Mount Kaimatan, where the principal sources of the Waima- 

 kariri are situated, is fifteen miles further inland, or thirty miles 

 from it. As the greatest glaciers descend from the principal moun- 

 tain-system, or Southern Alps proper, between the sources of the 

 Eakaia and Waitaki (east coast) and of the Whataroa andMakawiha 

 (west coast), we find that during the glacier- epoch also the ice 

 masses extended here furthest on both sides, of which circumstance, 

 for the east coast, I have already had the pleasure of laying the prin- 

 cipal facts before the Society. 



On the west coast, near the northern boundary of the Province, 

 we find the morainic beds descend in the Teramakau to 227 feet 

 above the sea-level, forming lakes Brunner and Poerua, ten miles 

 from the coast ; in the valley of the Hokitika river, at the head of 

 which the central chain assumes much more gigantic dimensions 

 than at the head of the former river, they reach to an altitude of 

 150 feet at a distance of six miles from the mouth of the river. 

 But as soon as the Mikonuhi is crossed, it is seen that the Post- 

 pliocene glaciers were of such an enormous size that they not only 

 reached the sea, but must have advanced into it, until their termina- 

 tion was carried off in the form of icebergs. 



The morainic accumulations south of the Mikonuhi cover the 

 lower country, as far as I have travelled along the coast, for fifty 

 miles ; but intelligent travellers, who have followed the coast-line 

 stiU further south, have informed me that for more than forty or 

 fifty miles they stUl continue to form the low hiUs bounding the sea. 



An examination of these remarkable deposits convinced me at 

 once that, as before stated, they form only the lower portion of a 

 huge sheet of morainic accumulation which covers the whole lower 

 western region in that zone, and that they are the lateral, central, 

 and, in some instances, the terminal moraines of huge glaciers which 



VOL. XXIII. PAET I. 2 b 



