20 Historical Notes on the 



numerous channels from side to side. The more we advanced, the 

 grander became the scenery. Snowfields with glaciers of the second 

 order descending from them now covered the flanks of the wild serrated 

 peaks on both sides, from which, in every direction, high and 

 picturesque waterfalls issued, often hanging on the rocky precipices 

 like so many ribbons of floating silver, before they plunge into their 

 dark gorges, or fall into the river-bed with one great bound. 

 The beautiful sub-alpine vegetation growing in all luxuriance in such 

 localities with its various forms and the rich tints of the foliage, added 

 another charm to the grand landscape around us. 



On February 24th, we camped a few miles below the terminal face of 

 the two great glaciers by which the valley is closed. This was the last 

 spot where any grass for our horses could be found. For ten days we 

 remained here, occupied with topographical and geological work, during 

 which some extensive excursions over both glaciers were undertaken. 

 Xext clay I started towards the great northern glacier, which I 

 named the Godley after the founder of the Canterbury Province, and 

 the terminal face of which is separated from the other large glacier, 

 coming from the west by a space of a few chains only, where a small 

 rocky ridge stands between them. Proceeding about three miles over 

 river shingle, which gradually became larger and more angular, we 

 reached the outlet of the glacier, rushing wildly in a broad channel and 

 washing on one side the terminal face of the glacier one and a quarter 

 miles wide ; and on the other side the slopes of the high rocky mountain 

 on the eastern side of the valley, and which rose here with an almost 

 perpendicular wall for several hundred feet above the foaming waters. 

 "We were obliged to climb the mountain side and to force our way 

 through a dense sub -alpine vegetation growing here most luxuriantly. 

 The glacier itself formed a vertical or even overhanging wall, two to 

 three hundred feet high, from which at intervals, huge blocks of ice 

 fell with a tremendous crash into the foaming river beneath, and by 

 which the water was thrown up to a great height all around. Some 

 of these blocks of ice are sometimes during heavy freshets taken down 

 by the river as far as ten miles below the terminal face of the glacier, 

 stranding in shallow waters, as I had an opportunity to observe when 

 returning to Lake Tekapo. The river issues from a low ice vault on 

 the eastern side quite close to the mountain slope. Another mountain 

 torrent coming from a glacier on the south-western declivities of 

 Mount Forbes, and flowing in a westerly direction, joins here the outlet 

 of the Godley glacier, shortly after its leaving the ice vault. 



