Geological Survey of Canterbury. 29 



great altitude, the sharp contours of this glistening ice-clad mountain 

 mass, standing out boldly against the azure sky of a bright summer day, 

 whilst deep below it two large glaciers, one, the Hooker glacier, coming 

 from the southern flanks of Mount Cook, and another, the Mueller 

 glacier, bringing down the ice masses from the Moorhouse range, filled 

 the broad lateral valleys. Nothing I had previously seen can be 

 compared with the sublimity of the scenery, which certainly has not 

 its equal in the European Alps. 



The passage of the river, although divided into so many channels, 

 gave us a great deal of trouble, as we attempted it on foot ; however 

 we managed after some delay in searching for fords, to get across, when 

 we found good travelling ground on grassy banks, till we reached the 

 broad valley of the Hooker, which washes the southern foot of the 

 Mount Cook range. Having crossed this torrent-like river we pro- 

 ceeded for about a mile along the eastern base of that range, and 

 camped in the evening not far from the terminal face of the great 

 glacier, situated 2456 feet above the sea level, and to which I gave the 

 name of the Tasman glacier, in honour of the discoverer of New Zealand. 

 We began our work here on the 31st March, and attempted first to 

 reach the glacier by following the valley on its western side along the 

 mountain slopes. After crossing a small stream, which for a mile flows 

 between them and the western lateral moraine of the Tasman glacier, 

 we arrived at such an impenetrable thicket of " "Wild Irishmen " and 

 " Spaniards," that after more than an hour's battling with the terrific 

 vegetation to gain access to the glacier, we had at last to give 'up the 

 attempt with our clothes torn and hands and faces covered with blood. 

 In descending the valley again for a quarter of a mile, we came upon 

 more open ground, and then reached the terminal face without further 

 delay. The ascent to the summit of the glacier is here very gentle, as 

 several gullies — or I might style them water-courses — run up amongst 

 the morainic accumulations, which are here of enormous thickness. No 

 ice was visible except in one single spot, where a vertical wall of nearly 

 twenty feet, showing very dirty water-worn ice, stood amongst the large 

 blocks of rock, thrown one across the other. The altitude of the 

 summit above the valley is about 200 feet ; when once on the surface 

 of the glacier itself the truly gigantic proportions of the huge ice stream 

 become only then quite manifest. The whole was covered for several 

 miles upwards from side to side with an enormous mass of debris, which 

 with few exceptions concealed the ice everywhere. In many spots a 

 number of alpine flowering plants, grasses and cryptogams were 



