26 Historical Notes on the 



western shore, and which I named the Cass, in honour of the then 

 Chief Surveyor of the Province. It is a good sized stream, which 

 before joining the lake has cut for several miles through the broad 

 moraine accumulations, here of great thickness, and by which instruc- 

 tive sections were laid open. The main sources of the Cass issue from 

 two glaciers which descend from the high Alpine range bordering the 

 upper valley of the Grodley river on one side, the Murchison glacier on 

 the other. The channel of the river where it passes through the 

 morainic accumulations is sometimes so very narrow and deep that 

 we were obliged to take to the terraces above it, which would have 

 offered favourable travelling ground, but for the existence of a number 

 of very boggy creeks, which were so dangerous, that in one of them we 

 nearly lost one of the pack-horses. However, as soon as we reached 

 the spot where the river flows between the ranges, the valley becomes 

 broader, and for more than ten miles upwards a shingle bed of a 

 quarter of a mile in breadth afforded us anew the means of a more 

 rapid advance. The view up the valley upon the snow-clad mountains 

 with several glaciers descending from them, and of which one forms a 

 splendid ice cascade, is very striking. Several fine waterfalls gave 

 still more animation to the scenery. We camped late in the evening 

 near the junction of the two main branches with one of the glaciers in 

 front of us. This glacier, which I visited next day, and named the 

 Faraday glacier, descends to 4723 feet above the sea level ; it is easy 

 of access, as a broad shingle bed leads up to its terminal face. A very 

 rich alpine flora was growing here, and offered me an opportunity to 

 enrich my collection with a number of new or extremely rare plants. 



Another day was devoted to the exploration of the eastern glacier, 

 which I designated the Huxley glacier. Its position is much higher 

 than the former, the terminal face being 5242 feet above the sea level. 

 It is reached by a gorge of wild beauty with high serrated rocky 

 ranges on both sides, from which several fine large water-courses throw 

 themselves down in picturesque cascades. The glacier itself, which 

 "has a lar^e frontal moraine, has a steep inclination, and is broken a 

 little above its terminal face into a magnificent icefall. Observing a 

 saddle near the the eastern side of the glacier, some 800 feet above the 

 ice-vault, we climbed along the large lateral moraine, skirting here the 

 glacier till we reached that depression. I found that it leads to a 

 small glacier which forms one of the western branches of the upper 

 G-odley, and which I had previously explored. "We ascended after- 

 wards a fine mountain peak on the eastern side of that pass, surrounded 



