THE SOUTHERN ALPS. 505 
Lind glacier during his memorable ascent of Mount Cook. A 
comparison with the Himalayas of Asia, and the Andes of 
America, will show the similarity which exists in many respects 
between these ranges and the Southern Alps, not as far as their 
height is concerned, but as to their effect upon the climate. The 
mountain range runs in a north-east and south-westerly direc- 
tion, parallel to both coast lines of New Zealand, but much 
nearer to the west coast than the other. We meet the same 
thing in America. The European Alps and the Himalayas lie 
nearer the southern shores. All these ranges are situated 
toward the equatorial or toward the western side of the conti- 
nent or island, as the case may be. That is the cause of the 
peculiarity of the climate of these countries. The winds return- 
ing from the tropical zone, which carry the air back from the 
Equator, and above the trade winds, in an equatorial westerly 
direction, come across the ocean, or across the Mediterranean, 
and touch the Alps and Himalayas on the equatorial side, the 
Andes and New Zealand Alps on the western side. Here they 
move up the slopes of the mountains, and cannot retain the 
moisture with which they aré saturated ; losing their high tem- 
perature in the higher and colder regions, they are compelled to 
part with some of the moisture they contain, whereby a large 
quantity of snow and fain is produced. In all these cases the 
narrow strip of land which lies to the west or towards the Equa- 
tor of the main range is therefore abundantly watered, whilst the 
climate of the country on the other side appears comparatively 
dry. Itis well known how little rain falls on the high land of 
Thibet, and how much drier the plains of Canterbury are than 
Hokitika. I cannot devote as much time and attention to this 
interesting subject as I should like to, nor is it necessary that I 
should do so, as the most important points were demonstrated 
by Dr von Haast many years ago. I will at once plunge into 
my narrative. 
We started on our journey at the end of February, going by 
rail to Albury, and from there we went in a vehicle, something 
like a missing link between a buggy and a bullock-dray, drawn 
by three horses. The only road which opens up the Waitaki 
basin, in which the Tasman glacier lies, passes Burke’s Pass ; it 
is called the Mount Cook road. We reached Tekapo, at the 
southern end of a very nice lake, in the evening. Tekapo Lake 
isa large sheet of water formed by the Godley River, which 
flows into it from the north, and the Cass River from the north- 
west. This lake, like other lakes in the basin of the Waitaki, 
is formed by the stopping of the rivers by a dam, the old moraine 
of the glacial period. The Godley River, as well as the Tasman 
and other Alpine rivers, flow into large lakes, the northern ends 
of'which are swampy and partly lying at the foot of high moun- 
tains, while the southern ends are embraced by undulating land, 
which consists of hills of morainic matter. Few places on the 
earth can be found where there is such an accumulation of 
moraine. Here we find a large moraine from seven to ten miles 
