CHAPTER XXL 
The Southern Alps. 
The Southern Alps proper. — Explorers. — Dr. Haast’s merits. — Sacrificed lifes. — 
Summits of the central range: Kaimatau, Mt. Tyndall, Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman, Mt. Aspir- 
ing. — Structure of the central chain. — Strike of beds. — Jointed structure of the rocks. 
Two systems of valleys. — Passes. — Geological features. — Two sections through the 
South Island. The glacier regions. — Rangitata valley. — Terraces. — Enormous mass 
ot detritus. Ihe Forbes glacier. — Red snow. — The Clyde glacier. — The Ashburton 
glacier. Lake Te Ivapo. The Godley glacier. — Lake Pukaki. — The glacial region near 
Mt. Cook. The great Tasman glacier. — The Hourglass glacier. — Glaciers on the West 
Coast. — The Francis Joseph glacier. — Difference between the climate of the West Coast 
and East Coast. Si^ns of enormous glaciers of the pleistocene period. — Causes of the 
pleistocene glaciation. — Extensive distribution of the drift deposits. — The Canterbury 
plains. — Their formation. — The rivers of the plains. 
Appendix. The Otira road, the first road across the Southern Alps. 
The Southern Alps proper commence South of the saddle be- 
tween the Teramakau 1 and Hurunui rivers, on the boundary be- 
tween the provinces of Nelson and Canterbury. Here, in the middle 
of the Southern Island, the mountains attain their greatest height; 
and as far as Haast’s Pass on the boundary of the Province of 
Otago, leading from Lake Wanaka to the West Coast, — a distance 
of 200 miles — they form in the direction from N. E. to S. W. a 
chain of towering mountains, which as to the height of their sum- 
mits , 2 and as to size and extent of their snow-fields and glaciers, 
rival with the Pennine and Rhaetian Alps. The first navigators 
on the coast of New Zealand looked already with wonder at those 
1 Alias Taramakau or Teremakau. 
2 Between 11,000 and 13,000 feet above the level of the sea. 
