NEW ZEALAND GLACIERS. 451 
awoke in bright sunshine, and looked out of the tent, we found 
the whole landscape, down almost to the foot of the glacier and 
surrounding hills, covered with a robe of freshly-fallen snow. 
These lower hills are of course covered with snow in winter, but 
it seldom lies in the flat valleys for more than twenty-four hours 
at atime. We were much surprised at learning this from the 
shepherds, as for a long distance the valley may be considered 
to be at the same level as the termination of the glacier, and 
land in such proximity in Switzerland would be covered all 
through the winter with many feet of snow. The wind was now 
from the south, the sky blue, and as the snow was rapidly 
melting, I determined to start by myself forthe camp at the Blue 
Lake, spread out the things to dry, and leave the men to follow 
when they had our lower camp dried and secure. It rained a 
little again at night, but next day was fine enough to continue 
our journey, which we did as usual, my men going over all the 
ground twice, and while they went back the last stage I pitched 
the tent and cut twigs for our bedding, Coprosma and Veronica 
scrub being still in abundance. I shall not go into all the details 
of our troublesome journey; suffice it to say, that our fourth 
camp was pitched on the moraine abreast of the stakes I had 
erected on the glacier. Oh visiting them, however, I found them 
all lying postrate. and blown to some dis tance from the holes in 
which they had stood. The sunshine and storms of the past 
seven days had so altered the surface of the glacier, that we had 
some little difficulty in finding the holes we had made. When 
we set the sticks up again, and I ran my eye along them to the 
mountain side, I found thatthey were'stillinan almost perfect right 
line, showing that in that time no motion of any importance had 
taken place. This was, however, what might have been expected 
owing to the flatness of the lower portion of the glacier, the incline 
being 100 feet to the mile. 
We returned to camp over piles of angular rocks alternating 
with gravel heaps, coming now and then upon a yawning chasm 
with sides of dirty ice and enclosing deep blue pools of ice water. 
The new moraine near the margin of the glacier overtopped a 
rampart of ancient moraine, showing that the glacier at a period 
not very remote was smaller than it is at present. Not only 
there, but at various other parts of our route, I made similar 
observations. The old moraine was consolidated by the dis- 
integration of the rocks composing it, and affording soil for 
numerous tufts of sword-grass and other smaller plants. Here 
for the first time we found the New Zealand Edelweis (Guapha- 
lum grandiceps), and my men seemed to take fresh heart after 
all their fagging work when we had our hat-bands adorned with 
the familiar little felt-like flowers. After a good night’s rest on 
a bed of Veronica hectort, we continued our “ swagging,’ and on 
the next afternoon, February 23rd, we reached our fifth and 
final camp. 
We were now 3750 feet above the sea, having gained bya 
_ week’s labour only 1450 feet of actual elevation, and Mount 
