70 A Sketch of New Zealand. : [ February, 
rise to the numerous glaciers that flow down from the Southern 
Alps. The largest of these ice-streams yet explored is the Great 
Tasman Glacier. This flowing river of solid ice has its source on 
Mt. Cook and the neighboring peaks, and flows for a distance of 
eighteen miles down the valley, bearing on its surface an immense 
load of débris which is slowly carried downwards and at last 
deposited at the extremity of the glacier as a terminal moraine. 
This immense glacier ends abruptly in a wall of ice, stretching 
across the valley one hundred and twenty feet high and nearly 
two miles in length. Another of the numerous glaciers of the 
South Island which has attracted considerable attention from the 
low position it attains before becoming melted by the warm air 
and winds in the lower portion of the valley, is the Francis 
Joseph Glacier. This ice-stream flows towards the west coast, 
and reaches to within about 700 feet of the sea level. 
Far below the present glaciers are found the records left by 
still greater streams of ice, that in times long past descended 
from the same mountains. Sometimes a hundred miles beyond 
the terminus of the existing glaciers, an immense wall of glacier- 
worn boulders and other débris is found, stretching completely 
across the valley. These huge moraines mark the place where 
an ancient glacier terminated, and for many centuries deposited, 
as a terminal moraine, the stones and rubbish that accumu- 
lated on the surface of the ice, and were carried slowly forward 
as lateral and medial moraines. 
To the eastward the mountains slope gradually to the ocean, 
and are bordered by the Plains of Canterbury and other rich areas. 
On the westward they come boldly down to the sea, and are 
penetrated by many picturesque sounds and fiords that extend far 
into the heart of the mountains. Corresponding to the bays and 
sounds that fringe the west coast, we find to the eastward of the 
mountains many beautiful lakes which fill deep Alpine valleys 
and render back the grandeur of the snowy giants that surround 
them. Lake Wakatipu, which is the largest of these, extends 
for a distance of seventy miles into the Southern Alps, and seems 
like a great placid river winding down through the mountains. 
In the grandeur of its scenery this lake is unsurpassed by the 
most celebrated lakes of Switzerland or Scandinavia. Lake 
Wanaka, to the northward of Lake Wakatipu, is pronounced by 
all travelers who have visited it, to be “the most beautiful lake in _ 
all the world,” 
