Canterbury and Westland. 189 



feet high, rise from the Hakataramea Pass, between this river and the 

 lower Mackenzie plains to the Waitaki, another from the Mackenzie 

 Pass to Mount Nimrod, where it subdivides, of which the western 

 branch, running between the Hakataramea and Waihoa, reaches 

 the northern bank of the Waitaki, whilst the eastern one, under 

 the name of the Hunter range, finds its termination near the 

 Waiinate. 



I have repeatedly alluded to the Great New Zealand Ice Period, or 

 Glacier Epoch, and as this remarkable era plays such an important 

 part in the Physical Geology of New Zealand, I may be allowed here 

 to make a few remarks upon it for the general reader, the more so as 

 there are scarcely anywhere alpine countries so easily accessible for 

 the scientific observer, bearing such clear and distinct traces of the 

 post tertiary Glacier Period, as the Alps of New Zealand. The action 

 of the giant ice ploughs, as we may well call these glaciers, has 

 essentially assisted in preparing the lower regions for the use of man, 

 since by it the narrow valleys have been widened, the rugged mountains 

 rounded off, and large plains have been formed. Thus we find every- 

 where, as soon as we penetrate into the New Zealand Alps, where even 

 the outrunning ridges near the plains often attain a height of 6000 

 feet, that the valleys are distinguished, by rugged forms, where the 

 rivers which break through them have not only cut their bed deeply 

 into the rocks, but have also formed such steep precipices that it is 

 often impossible, even for the pedestrian, to pass along their banks, in 

 order to reach the alpine lakes or plains situated in the valleys above. 

 Inside of the eastern divergent chains, as soon as we enter the district 

 of the earlier post tertiary glaciers, the valleys widen out to broad 

 basins, the mountains on both sides — or even standing in the middle of 

 the valley — have the recognised roche moutonnee, or ice-worn rounded- 

 hill form, and the fall of the rivers is less rapid. At the upper end of 

 these flats, which are filled up with drift, alluvium, and glacier deposits, 

 and through which the rivers have cut their new bed, lakes, surrounded 

 by distinct moraines, are generally situated. The regular occurrence 

 of these earlier terminal and lateral moraines supply us with the in- 

 contestable evidence that these lakes have been formed by the retreat 

 of the glaciers. These lakes are found in every possible stage ; some 

 have already disappeared, the delta of the principal tributary entering 

 from the Alps having completely filled them up ; others are very much 

 contracted by the deltas of the main affluent and of the secondary 

 water-courses descending from both sides ; others again are great 



