24 Historical Notes on the 



junction of the two main valleys was over three miles broad, forming 

 here a magnificent me?- de glace, and surpassing in beauty and size any 

 of the glaciers of the Swiss Alps. The mountains on both sides have 

 outlines of remarkable grandeur which become still more striking by 

 being divided by two low saddles, of which Sealy's Pass, * between 

 Mount Petermann and the Keith Johnstone range, and leading into 

 the head waters of the Whataroa, a large West Coast river, is the most 

 conspicuous. On the north-eastern side of the second saddle the 

 colossal pyramid of Mount Tyndall rises in stern solemnity above the 

 vast snow fields from which the great G-odley glacier takes its rise. 

 Observing that the extreme western side of the united glacier offered 

 a better travelling ground than the huge moraine on which we were 

 the ice appearing there level and without large crevasses, we descended 

 again to its lower portion, and after some trouble caused by the number 

 of small crevasses crossing our path, we at last reached the western 

 edge of the glacier where travelling was easy and progress much more 

 rapid. At the termination of the outrunning spur, between the two main 

 glaciers, I established my principal topographical station, and as the 

 ice was here for a considerable distance comparatively smooth and 

 level, we measured a base line, on the two extreme points of which we 

 fixed all the principal features of the mountains around us, connecting 

 them at the same time with some important stations lower down the 

 valley, which we had previously fixed. It is impossible to convey in 

 words a description of the sublime panorama around us, where every- 

 thing is on a gigantic scale ; and as one specimen of the weird grandeur 

 of the scenery, I may only mention, that a mountain chain on the western 

 side of the Grey glacier is so perpendicular that not a patch of snow 

 will adhere to it, presenting a nearly vertical wall of an altitude of 

 6000 feet, along which the striped appearance of the alternating 

 lavers of the light coloured sandstones and dark clay slates can be 

 easily discerned ; whilst on the opposite side, where it slopes down to 

 the Classen glacier, it is covered with vast snowfields, from which a 

 number of branch glaciers descend to the main glacier. It was late 

 in the afternoon before we were able to proceed on our return 

 journey. Keepiug now along the western side of the glacier, where 

 the ice was comparatively smooth and unbroken, we had only a short 

 scramble over the hu^e blocks of the morainic accumulations uear the 



* Mr. Edward P. Sealy who visited this glacier in 1371 taking a number of beautiful photographs, 

 ascended this n ot saddle, which he ascertained to be about 6000 feet high. He describes the scenery 

 as very grand and wild. 



