226 Physical Geography of 



Thomas Pringle lias been added, has for the first three miles of its 

 course a northerly direction, in a narrow channel ; it then receives 

 the Agassiz branch, formed by the outlets of two small glaciers 

 descending from a snow-field north of Mount De la Beche. Both are 

 densely covered with morainic accumulations. After the entrance of 

 both main branches into the broad "Waiau valley, they have to their 

 junction, and then to the sea, a nearly north-west direction, flowing 

 generally in numerous channels with broad shingle reaches ; excepting, 

 however, that, three miles west of the Southern Alps, a large moraine 

 crosses the valley, through which both branches have cut their way. 

 This sign of the last glacier extension is very clear and fresh. It is 

 almost needless to say that ancient morainic accumulations, several 

 hundred feet high, accompany the broad river-bed of the "Waiau on 

 both sides, terminating in the Waiau and Omoeroa cliffs near the 

 coast, about two miles distant from each other. 



The Waikuktipa. 

 Five miles south of the southern Waiau banks, the Waikukupa falls 

 into the sea. It is only an inconsiderable stream, the principal source 

 of which seems to be derived from a small glacier formed by a neve, 

 on the western declivities of Mount Haidinger. 



The Weheka. 

 The next river, the Weheka, may be said to be, with the exception 

 of the Waiau, the most important river on this part of the coast, 

 draining from snow-fields by which the highest peaks of the Southern 

 Alps are here surrounded. It is formed of several confluents, of 

 which the northern, although the shortest, is the most important. 

 This branch issues from the Prince Alfred glacier, the terminal face of 

 which I calculated to be 702 feet above the sea level.* 



This beautiful glacier is, with the Francis Joseph glacier, the lowest 

 in New Zealand. Having already alluded to the characteristic features 

 of the latter, which those of the Prince Alfred glacier resemble 

 in many respects, and having also shown from the meteorological con- 



• A few years afterwards, this glacier was visited by the Hon. W. Fox, and re-named by 

 members of his party, the Fox glacier. Mr. S. H. Cox, of the Geological Survey, paid a visit to 

 the same locality in January, 1S76, and calculated the altitude of its termi n al face to be only 660 

 feet above the sea level. 



