448 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
passing a little blue lake lying in a deep hollow, in which we 
discovered numerous small fish about four inches long, we 
ascended heaps of newer moraine composed of immense, loose, 
angular boulders, and finding our progress over it most fatiguing 
and slow, we turned off to the left in hopes that the lateral mor- 
aine might prove more practicable: but finding it just as bad, 
and no level ice being in sight, we descended to the hollow between 
the lateral moraine and the mountain side. Here we were en- 
tangled in almost impenetrable scrub composed of wild Irishman 
(Discaria toumatou) and sword-grass (Aciphylla colensot), which 
cut us cruelly. Occasionally we got a more open bit for a change, 
but nowhere could we feel ourselves safe from the chance of a 
broken leg or sprained ankle. After five hours of this sort of 
thing we again surmounted the lateral moraine, and, striking 
right across the glacier, in one hour reached the white ice. The 
cool air off the ice was most refreshing after toiling over the 
heated boulders under bright sunshine and sheltered from any 
wind, so we walked briskly ahead until two o’clock, when we 
reached a point from which we had a splendid view of the great 
cliffs of Mount Cook, and the grand amphitheatre of peaks which 
swept round from left to right. This view I consider quite equal, 
if not superior, to anything in Switzerland, and the glacier 
beneath our feet had an area half as great again as that of the 
Great Aletsch, the largest glacier of the European Alps. Tribu- 
tary glaciers poured in with graceful curves from the mountain 
sides, and long lines of moraine from thirty distinct ice-streams, 
which were in sight from this point, brought their tale of boulders 
to add to the great rampart which had given us such trouble to 
surmount. We scanned the great ice-ridges of Mount Cook 
with anxious eyes ; all its approaches seemed most difficult ; the 
only point which was quite clear was, that our present camp 
would not do, and that in spite of the roughness of the road we 
must shift it up to where we now were. As it was getting well 
on for three p.m., we decided we could at present go no further, 
so, selecting a mark on the hill-sides, I set up a row of stakes 
across the glacier, and, having secured a photograph, we started 
back for camp, which we reached at eight pm. On our way we 
deposited our ice axes, the stand of my camera, and some photo- 
graphic plates, beneath a boulder, so as to have the less to carry 
on our next journey up the glacier. 
At our lower camp the heat during the day was very great, the 
temperature being often 82° in the shade ; the air was clear, with 
the barometer ranging from 27°30 to 27:40; a brisk breeze 
occasionally blowing in sudden strong squalls from the south- 
west or north-west prevailed in the valley, while on the mountain 
ridges a steady fierce wind seemed to blow continuously from 
the west. The wood-hens or wekas (Ocydromus australis) were 
a source of constant amusement ; they seemed to know no fear, 
and would come pecking and examining every article in our camp, 
and were always ready to bolt off with any small object left on 
the ground. They cared little for the stones we threw at them 
