32 Historical Notes on the 



or any other serious obstacle, of course there were a few small rills, 

 trickling here and there, but they disappeared very soon below the 

 enormous shingle and boulder accumulations filling the whole valley. 



For a few day afterwards we had bad weather, first from the north- 

 west, which turned on the afternoon of the same day to south-east 

 with sleet and snow, by which in a few hours the mountain sides 

 became covered uniformly with a white garment, and it became so cold 

 although still at the end of March, that the water near our tent was 

 frozen over. However, snow and ice disappeared soon in the lower 

 regions, after the first bright day. On the 4th of April, the weather 

 had improved so much that we could continue our explorations. Early 

 in the morning of that day we crossed the Hooker river near the rocks 

 forming here its northern banks, sloping into the river from the southern 

 spur of the Mount Cook range, and proceeded then to the Mueller 

 glacier, by which the lateral valley was closed a few miles higher up. 

 Before us we had the remarkable Moorhouse range, crowned by the 

 bold summit of the Sefton peak, which with its large snowfields and 

 numerous tributary glaciers descending into the valley, forms, without 

 doubt, one of the most striking vistas in the Southern Alps. We 

 reached the glacier, which is advancing in an easterly direction to the 

 south-eastern foot of the Mount Cook range, after an hour's ride. It 

 has here two lateral moraines, of which the outer one, standing more 

 than a hundred feet above the glacier itself, is densely covered with 

 sub-alpine vegetation. Ascending the latter, one of the most glorious 

 views which I ever beheld opened out before us. Across the wide 

 Mueller glacier to our feet which trended to the west, appeared a broad 

 valley to the north, which half-a-mile higher up was closed by the 

 terminal face of a large glacier. This glacier for more than ten miles 

 filled the deep valley between the snow-covered ranges on both sides. 

 At its termination the magnificent pyramid of Mount Cook rose in all 

 its stern grandeur, forming with Mount Stokes on the south-western 

 side of the low snow sa-1dle separating it from the former, a large basin, 

 filled by the ice-streams descending from three sides. My whole party 

 stood riveted to that remarkable spot. 



After crossing the Mueller glacier, also covered with a thick morainic 

 load, scarcely showing any ice exposed, I examined the slopes of the 

 Moorhouse range, which offered a good insight into the geological 

 structure of the district. Eetracing our steps over the glacier, we 

 proceeded to its terminal face, which presents some beautiful and 

 peculiar features. This glacier abuts, as before mentioned, against the 



