148 Historical Notes on the 



remain lodged on the lesser declivities. On both sides of the valley, 

 clear signs of enormous glaciation are not wanting, and were also 

 exhibited for many miles down the main valley, by numerous slightly 

 sloping terraces along both banks, often as high as 3000 feet above the 

 river-bed. About a mile above the junction of the northern branch 

 with the White river, a low saddle — Harman's Pass — about 800 feet 

 high, leads from the latter into the northern source-branch of the 

 Taipo river. After two miles, the rocks on both sides now approach 

 close, and for two miles more the river forms a series of rapids and 

 smaller falls, possessing a different character from that of our larger 

 glacier rivers near their sources. At several points old morainic 

 accumulations cross the valley, through which the river has formed a 

 narrow passage. The vegetation became now very rich, many of the 

 alpine shrubs and creeping plants in seed, were visited by the 

 Kea {Nestor notabilis), and an alpine variety of the Kaka {Nestor 

 montanus), which, as we could observe, had also its nest, together with 

 the Kea, amongst the nearly perpendicular rocks on the right bank. 

 The latter {N.tnontanus) as we had repeatedly an opportunity o£ 

 observing, can easily be distinguished from the common Kaka living in 

 and near our beech forests, by its more soaring night and peculiar 

 notes. 



Near its termination the valley is again considerably enlarged 

 and has the form of an amphitheatre, into which the main glacier, about 

 two hundred yards wide at its terminal face, descends to 4262 feet 

 above the sea level. About half -a-mile from the head of the valley, at an 

 altitude of about 6000 feet, a magnificent sight is offered to the traveller, 

 by a large glacier broken up in the wildest and strangest forms, actually 

 overhanging a perpendicular rocky wall about a thousand feet high, and 

 only on one spot where a small rill could form, it descends for some 

 distance in the shape of a gigantic icicle. During our descent of the 

 valley, we had the rare sight of an enormous ice-fall of a portion of 

 this glacier, pushed over the cliff and precipitated into the valley with 

 a tremendous noise, warning us not to approach too near its channel, 

 where, close by, on alpine meadows, a rich harvest of plants was obtained. 



Another day was devoted to the exploration of the northern sources 

 of the river, which, at its junction, showed by the colourless character 

 and the comparatively small amount of its waters, that it did not come 

 from a glacier source. For more than two miles the valley of the northern 

 branch, as it is called, has quite a park-like appearance, small groves of 



