124 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
to have been once the bed of a mighty glacier ; the southern arm 
seems to tone down to a somewhat softer outline, and probably 
is marked by an old moraine, through which the waters of the 
lake have cut a channel for themselves. 
We had not long emerged on the main lake when the wind, 
which daily troubles its surface, began to freshen, and compelled 
us to take shelter in the only sort of bay visible, where a con- 
siderable stretch of level land had been formed by the debris of 
a large creek. Here we pitched camp and were compelled to 
stay for a day and a half, as the wind raised so high a sea that 
progress was impossible. Traces of rabbits were so abundant 
that we named the stream Rabbit Creek, and it is a tribute to 
the marvellous powers of spreading possessed by these animals, 
that they were the only introduced things visible, all the vegeta- 
tion even being apparently indigenous. 
The sand and rocks here, as at every point touched at along 
the lake, appear to be composed of syenite or syenitic gneiss, but 
we failed to find signs of any distinct quartz reefs, though quartz 
pebbles were abundant. 
As soon as the weather calmed we made a start again—our 
seventh day out—and took the precaution of being away by 
daylight, when several hours of quiet may be usually depended 
upon. A few hours pulling brought us to the head of the lake, 
A small stream flows in here, which has its source about six 
miles from its outlet, at the junction of the Princess and Billow 
Mountains. The upper part of the lake fora few miles is very 
narrow, barely a mile wide, and serpentine in form, a gloomy 
sheet of water, saddened on every side by a three thousand feet 
rocky wall, draped with its sombre mantle of green. The water, 
too, is dark as Erebus, and altogether it is an ugly spot to get 
caught in in a squall, as frequently for stretches of more than a 
mile there is not a gap in the unbroken wall into which one 
might thrust the nose of a boat. 
Pulling round the head, we landed at a very little bay on ‘its 
S.W. side, close by a cascade, and at the foot of the only spur 
of the Princess Mountains which seemed at all surmountable. 
Being rather tired we contented ourselves with a sort of recon- 
naissance survey of the ground, climbing about a thousand feet 
through the bush, and we repented afterwards we had not per- 
severed, as the fine weather only lasted one day. 
Next morning broke wet and windy, but our time and supply 
of provisions being limited, it became a question of “now or 
never,” so we started for the mountain tops. Not only was the 
ground obstructed with thick bush, but it was excessively steep 
and razor-ridged; not a difficult track to follow when ascending, 
but positively dangerous to come down, owing to the precipices 
on either side. Everything was dripping, and when we emerged 
from the bush at an elevation of about 3200 feet above the sea 
level we were in a “pulpy” condition, feeling rather washed out. 
The rest of the way was comparatively easy, but for the fierce 
wind and torrents of rain and sleet, which chilled us to the mar- 
