oe 
THE SOUTHERN ALPS. 509 
where they join, a large hole is formed about 5o0oft. deep, which 
most likely reaches right to the bottom of the glacier. The two 
glaciers continue on their course, and as they do not press very 
hard against each other, there is a space left open between the 
two, and that space is thishole. Wecould not see to the bottom 
of it, so that I cannot say whether it reaches to the uderlying 
rock. 
From the Linda ridge we saw what we had not thought to 
be the case, that the mountain which lies at the northern end of 
the glacier was higher than any peak in the Malte Brun range. 
This mountain, the Hochstetter Dome, appears to be pretty 
round when seen with the naked eye, but when looked at through 
the telescope does not look tame at all. When I spoke of 
ascending that hill to one of my porters, he said that it would be 
quite easy, but when he had inspected it with the glasses he said 
it would be impossible. This apparent impossibility is caused 
by the crevasses on its southern slope, which we shall have to 
describe further on. They are remarkable for their breadth and 
depth, and also for their length. We decided to try to ascend 
that mountain, because it appeared to be the highest, and situated 
at a point from which the ranges seemed to radiate. The part 
of the country to the north of the Hochstetter Dome had not 
only never been trodden by the foot of man, but it had never 
even been seen, so that great topographical results were to be 
hoped for from our getting a good view from the top. We 
studied our path very carefully, and came to the conclusion that 
there was in the lower part only one possible route, and that the 
summit might be tried from three sides, but that all three would 
probably turn out to be impracticable. We came back to our 
camp, did some surveying, and started three days later, with our 
last provisions, up the eastern side of the glacier. We kept for 
some distance on our old track to the foot of the Linda ridge, 
and then reached the middle moraine, which is formed by the 
confluence of a great many secondary glaciers of the western 
range. The ice melts away until there is none left visible be- 
tween these moraines, and so they join. The moraine covers the 
surface of the glacier for a mile in the upper part, and half-a-mile 
in the lower part, This narrowing of the moraine is particularly 
interesting, as it shows that here the glacier is jammed up by 
the influx of the Hochstetter and Ball glaciers coming down 
from the west; thereby the moraine is squeezed up, and gets 
narrower, instead of extending in width as it proceeds down- 
wards. After two hours we left the moraine, and soon were 
entangled in the crevasses, which run in two directions in this 
part of the glacier, and cut each other at right angles. We had 
seen’'them from the Linda ridge before, and had picked out our 
course, but when we got there we found it was impracticable. 
One of these systems of crevasses is caused by the manner in 
which the glacier is jammed up. The main stream, following 
the course of the valley, bends round a spur on the eastern side, 
and the crevasses are formed on the convex side, radiating from 
