Canterhury and Westland. 227 



ditions of the western slopes of the Southern Alps, why these glaciers 

 do descend to such low regions, I need not again enter into this 

 subject, but refer the reader to pages 196 to 199. The Prince Alfred 

 glacier is fed by an extensive snow-field stretching from the north- 

 western slopes of Mount Tasman to the south-western of Mount 

 Haidinger, and is separated by a high rocky ridge into two portions. 

 Prom the terminal face of the glacier to its mouth, the Weheka has 

 a nearly westerly course, about 12 miles long, the glacier thus being one 

 mile and a half nearer to the coast than the Francis Joseph glacier. 

 The next or middle branch uniting with the main or northern 

 branch eight miles above its mouth, has a west-by-north course for 

 seven miles, its main source being the Hector (Balfour) glacier, prin- 

 cipally fed from the western slopes of Mount Cook. This glacier lies 

 in a deep gorge, and although I could distinguish, from some hills 

 which I ascended near the coast, several glacier channels both north 

 and south of Mount Cook feeding the trunk glacier, no such con- 

 tinuous channels on that mountain, owing to its steepness, could be 

 discerned ; so that I believe a great deal of this glacier is formed by 

 enormous avalanches falling upon it continually. The western 

 branch uniting, after a north-north-west course for about eight miles, 

 with the outlet of the Balfour glacier, is also formed by several 

 streams issuing from glaciers on the western slopes of the Southern 

 Alps, beginning at Mount Stokes, and reaching as far as Sefton Peak 

 in the Moorhouse range. As before observed, many of the details in 

 the map of this portion of the Southern Alps have been filled up from 

 eye sketches only, although numerous bearings taken all along the 

 coast, of the directions of the valleys, the size and position of the snow- 

 fields, and of the glaciers formed at their lower extremities, have 

 offered me ample material to lay down at least the principal features 

 with some degree of accuracy. 



KaEANGAETJA. 



Four miles south of the "Weheka, another large glacier river 

 enters the sea. It is named the Karangarua. Its northern 

 main branch has a length of twenty miles, and its valley has a 

 nearly straight north-west course ; it issues from a glacier which 

 must be of considerable size, being formed by a large snow-field lying 

 here on the western flanks of the Moorhouse range, well visible from 

 the coast. Ten miles above its mouth, an important confluent joins 



