180 Physical Geography of 



one longitudinal chain for about twenty-two miles, without any con- 

 siderable break, to Whitcombe's Pass, 4212 feet above the sea level, the 

 direction of which, like that of Arthur's Pass, is with the strike of the 

 palaeozoic rocks on both sides. The average height of the principal 

 peaks in this chain may be estimated at about 9000 feet ; they have 

 mostly a pyramidical form, bold'outlines, and glaciers of a smaller size 

 than those met with more to the south, but still of the first order, 

 descending from them far down into the valleys.* 



On the eastern slopes of this range, the eastern branches of the 

 TVilberforce, Stewart, Mathias, and several important affluents of the 

 main Rakaia branch have their sources, whilst the Hokitika river is fed 

 from the western slopes. On the western side of Whitcombe's Pass, 

 rises the magnificent pyramid of Mount Whitcombe, and from here to 

 Haast's Pass, at the head of the Makaroa river, the Alps, with their 

 enormous masses of snow and ice, form for nearly a hundred miles an 

 impassable barrier between the two coasts to the traveller, except to the 

 mountaineer who, alpenstock and ice axe in hand, can cross over several 

 cols by ascending a glacier on one side, and, after passing over a neve 

 saddle, descending on a similar ice stream to the other. It is here that 

 the physical features of the Southern Alps assume truly gigantic pro- 

 portions, where some of the largest glaciers in the Temperate Zone are 

 situated, and the sources of our principal rivers issue already as large 

 impassable torrents from their glacier cradles. It would lead me too 

 far to give here a detailed description of the principal features of this 

 stupendous chain, and I have, therefore, to refer the reader to the 

 narrative of my journeys, in which I have alluded to them ; for those 

 at the head of the Hakaia, to pages 118 to 143 ; for the Havelock, 

 Lawrence, and Clyde, the three main branches of the Eangitata, to 

 pages 3 to 16 ; for the Grodley, Tasman, and Hopkins, the main 



• Mr. G. Miiller, Chief Surveyor of the Westland Province, to whom I am indebted for a great 

 deal of valuable information, draws my attention, however, to a Pass which exists on the main 

 Hokitika branch, seven miles above its entrance into the Hokitika plains. This Pass i9 situated east 

 of Mount Browne, at the head of Pass river, and three miles from its junction with the main river, 

 and is described by the Surveyor who discovered it, as very easy, even more so than Whitcombe's 

 Pass. It' this Pass were to lead through the Southern Alps, it would be of considerable importance, 

 as being m a nearly direct line from the Rakaia by the Mathias branch into the Hokitika, the 

 engineering difficulties being confined to the passage across the central chain. However, I fear that 

 this saddle only leads into another eastern branch of the Hokitika, overlapping the Pass riTer. An 

 examination of the fine map of Westland, on a scale of two miles to one inch, shows at a glance that 

 it is situated too far to the west to be in the dividing range, the summits of which lie about five miles 

 more to the east. The mountains at the head of the Mathias are very high, covered with perpetual 

 snow, and as far as my examination went, there was no sign of any such considerable depression, 

 which, in fact, would be nearly on a level with the upper ralley of that important Rakaia affluent. 



