THE SOUTHERN ALPS. — 507 
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the peculiarity of the rocks which surround them. There are 
very few places to be found where the rocks are jointed so much 
as they are here. The rocks are split along the different joints 
into polyhedric masses by freezing water; they fall on the 
glacier and are carried down the valley. Ceterzs paribus, the 
slower the glacier moves the more moraine will accumulate. 
For miles no part of the ice is visible through the moraine. Mr 
Green, trying to bring into use his experience acquired in Swit- 
zerland, sought in vain for a tongue of clear ice, and. so did we, 
We soon got lost among vast and high hills, composed of loose 
stones of different sizes. We were compelled at last to proceed, 
like Mr Green, along the valley on the western side of the Tas- 
man glacier. This is a very remarkable valley. I have never 
seen a valley alongside an ice-stream of this kind in Europe. 
The glacier does not fill up the whole of the valley, but keeps 
away from the side, at a distance varying from ten to thirty 
chains. This isa fact which tends to prove the slowness of the 
glacier motion. The sun shining on the hillside warms these 
slopes so much that more ice is melted in a given time than the 
glacier can replace by its motion. In its southern part this 
valley is quite covered with dense vegetation. Further up it is 
filled with shingle, and covered here and there with patches 
of grass. It is quite impossible to travel through the scrub, and 
we had to walk along the side of the moraine and descend into 
the valley above the region of scrub. We finally pitched our 
tent, after several days of swagging up provisions, instruments, 
&c,, at the foot of the Ball glacier, eight miles above the ter- 
minal face of the Tasman glacier. Here Mr Green had en- 
camped, and we also made this place the base of our operations, 
It is a nice sheltered nook, and we found some wood here which 
had been brought down by avalanches and ice-water. It had 
taken us six days to get here from the terminal face of the glacier, 
though the distance is only eight miles. During the three weeks 
of our stay here we were provisioned by three men and three 
horses. A depdt of tinned meat, sugar, flour, &c., had been 
erected. at the bottom of the glacier,and one man, with the 
three horses, brought sheep and bread up to that depdét from 
Birchhill station. From there the men had to bring the pro- 
visions up to our camp on their backs. The way was so rough 
that they could go over the ground only once in a day to get 
up the provisions. One day the men went down to the depot, 
the next, one man with the horses went down to the station and 
came back to the depét the same evening, and the third day 
they brought the provisions up to the camp. Although we had 
overworked ourselves in swagging up provisions, and had four 
men and three horses to provide for us two, we starved at the end. 
With such difficulties we had to contend. I have dwelt in detail 
on them because they are the only ones which might thwart an 
expedition, and I think it may be useful to future explorers to 
have my experience at their disposal 
To return to the moraine, which is very interesting, not only 
