Canterbury and Westland. 185 



between Mount Tasman and Mount Cook is well visible, the latter, 

 however, here exhibiting the sharp needle form. Continuing our 

 eourse still more towards the south this appearance gradually changes, 

 so that on Gillespie's beach, south of the mouth of the Karangarua 

 river, Mount Cook's form is the same as seen from the east coast, 

 separated from Mount Tasman by a rocky ridge, which is so very steep 

 that scarcely any snow can accumulate on it.* 



I observed no col of any consequence in this portion of the 

 stupendous alpine chain, the average height of which may be estimated 

 at from 10,000 to 11, 0C ) feet, and which finds its termination in 

 Mount Cook, or Ao-rangi. This mountain not only rises so remarkably 

 above all the others, but it is the more conspicuous, as on its southern 

 side, as already mentioned, it is separated from Mount Tasman by a 

 serrated ridge 8,000 to 9,003 feet high, and on its south -we stern side, 

 from Mount Stokes by a snow covered col of the same altitude, well 

 visible from the Hooker and Mueller glaciers. On the south-western 

 side of this col, the New Zealand Alps soon rise again to a considerable 

 altitude, so that the Sefton Pe. is not much inferior to Mount Cook. 

 They continue towards south-west under the name of the Moorhouse 

 range to Mount Holmes, culminating in the Sefton Peak. From the 

 south and south-western slopes of Mount Cook and the eastern slopes 

 of Mount Stokes and the Moorhouse range the Hooker glacier takes 



* Since this was written, I have seen " Notes on the Valley Systems on the Western Flanks of 

 Mount Cook," by J. H. Cox, F.G.S. (Transactions New Z?aland Institute, Vol. IX ), who ascended 

 the ridge on the southern side of the Prieee Alfred (Fox) glacier, and whose notes confirm my 

 former observations that the Francis Joseph glacier b jags down the vast masses of snow from 

 Mount dela Beche and the north-western flanks of Mount Haidinger, and the Prince Alfred glacier, 

 those of the south-western flacks of Mount Haidinger, and the western slopes of Mount Tasman; 

 the Balfovr glacier being fed principally by avalanches from Mount Cook. This is one of those 

 peculiar glaciers of which several are also found on the eastern side of the Southern Alps, formed in 

 a manner different from the usual mode in which glaciers take their origin. Mr. Cox also states that 

 the southern branch of the Weheka takes its rise near Mot nt Sefton, where glaciers of considerable 

 size descend towards the valleys, as can even be seen from the coast. A gVnce at the map attached 

 to this Keport, will show the reader that this accords perfectly well with my observations, although I 

 had to construct it, for that portion of the Southern Alps, from material which in some essential 

 points was far from satisfactory. As this map shows, only a small portion of the western flanks of 

 Mount Cook drains towards the West Coast, but how the river Whataroa, as Mr. Cox suggests, 

 could possibly take its rise from Mount Cook, is inconceivable to me. An examination of the map 

 will prove that the snow-fields from which the glaciers feeding that river take their rise, are situated 

 on the western slopes of the Hector and Keith Johnstone ranges, at least sixteen miles to the north 

 east of Mount Cook. Moreover, the neves of numerous other glaciers, such as the Francis Joseph, 

 Agassiz, and several others, reach to the very summit of the Southern Alps between these two points ; 

 in fact, Mount Tasman (or " the Dome " of Mr Cox), which is situated north of Mou-.t Cook, sends 

 down from its large snow-fields the Prince Alfred glacier, thus cutting off all commmunication 

 between Mount Cook and the north. 



