112 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



should have been left without provisions or fire-arms. I had 

 previously observed that some large fragments of rock on the 

 beach had been lately displaced, but, until seeing this wave, 

 I did not understand the cause. One side of the creek was 

 formed by a spur of mica-slate ; the head by a cliff of ice about 

 forty feet high ; and the other side by a promontory fifty feet 

 high, built up of huge rounded fragments of granite and mica- 

 slate, out of which old trees were growing. This promontory 

 was evidently a moraine, heaped up at a period when the gla- 

 cier had greater dimensions.* 



Of the glaciers of New Zealand the following succinct 

 account of Whitney must suffice : 



On the western coast of the southern island, between the 

 parallels of 42° and 45°, rises abruptly from the sea a grand 

 range of mountains, the culminating point of which, Mount 

 Cook, is about 13,000 feet in elevation. Along this chain, for 

 a length of about one hundred miles, are developed numerous 

 groups of glaciers, some of which are not much inferior in size 

 to the largest of those of the Alps. The Tasman Glacier is 

 said by Haast, who first scientifically explored and described 

 these mountains, to be ten miles in length and a mile and 

 three quarters broad at its termination, the lower portion, for 

 a distance of three miles, being covered with morainic de- 

 tritus, f 



Glacial conditions prevail over the Antarctic Continent. 

 Icebergs of great size are frequently encountered up to 58° 

 south, latitude, in the direction of Cape Horn, and as far as 

 latitude 33° in the direction of Cape of Good Hope. The 

 number and size of these, of which more particulars will be 

 given presently, are such as to necessitate an extensive area 

 of glaciers about the south pole. Much of all that is known 

 of the Antarctic Continent was discovered by Sir J. C. 

 Ross during the period extending from 1839 to 1843, when, 

 between the parallels of 70° and 78° south latitude, he en- 



* "Voyage of the Beagle," edition of 1872, pp. 224, 225. 

 + " Climatic Changes," pp. 278, 274. 



