202 Physical Geography of 



Lake Takapo is fifteen miles long with an average breadth of three 

 miles ; it is not only surrounded by morainic accumulations like Lake 

 Pukaki, but owing to the presence of large ranges on both sides, older 

 moraines rising about 1500 feet above its surface, and looking like 

 gigantic terraces, accompany its eastern and western shores. Its 

 waters are also of a milky-white colour, and it possesses several 

 islands situated in about its centre, consisting of a very hard semi- 

 crystalline bluish sandstone very much ice-worn. Unlike Lake 

 Pukaki, where we still meet with small remnants of Fay us forest, 

 Lake Takapo, although only 2437 feet above the sea level, lies already 

 above the forest line, only sub-alpine vegetation growing near its 

 banks. The high mean elevation of the country is, without doubt, the 

 cause of this peculiarity. The difference of level of Lake Takapo, 

 between its highest and lowest water mark, is eight feet ; the lake has 

 been known to rise four feet in twenty-four hours during heavy rain, 

 but it takes some weeks to fall again to its usual level. 'Lake Takapo 

 receives another important affluent on its western side, namely, the 

 Cass, the glacier sources of which are situated on the south-eastern 

 and southern declivities of the Liebig range, its course being nearly 

 due north and south, and about 22 miles long. A few miles below the 

 delta of the Cass, another small stream, the outlet of Lake Alexandrina, 

 joins Lake Takapo. The former is a small picturesque lake, partly 

 surrounded by ice-worn rocks, partly by morainic accumulations, and 

 lies 2460 feet above the sea level, or 23 feet above Lake Takapo. It 

 is five miles long, and about half a mile broad, and was, without doubt, 

 formerly a portion of Lake Takapo, from which it was cut off by the 

 large shingle fan of the Cass river. The outlet of Lake Takapo 

 issuing from its southern end is named the Takapo ; it runs for a 

 number of miles in a deep channel, where it breaks through the 

 morainic accumulations by which the lake is here walled in ; after 

 leaving them it enters the post-pliocene alluvium beds of which the 

 greater portion of the Mackenzie Country is formed, and although 

 still fringed by terraces on both sides, its bed becomes broader and 

 more shallow, fords over it being easily found by an experienced 

 across country rider. After a course of 25 miles, it is joined by the 

 Pukaki river, when, as before mentioned, the united river assumes the 

 name of TTaitaki. 



Plowing for three miles in a south-south-west direction, it is 

 joined by the Ohau, the outlet of Lake Ohau, which, after issuing 

 from that lake, follows an east-south-east course of a length of 



