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both branches divide into numerous streams which spring from 
the glistening ice- portals of great valley glaciers (glaciers of the 
first order), plunging with deafening roar over a chaos of broken 
rocks , whilst high above , from the crest of the mountains , cascades 
fall down from the high-glaciers (glaciers of the second order), which 
hang like gigantic icicles from the vast snow fields; wild torrents 
are gushing, which like ribbons of silver, come down between the 
bar walls of rock, or spring from crag to crag in picturesque water- 
falls, dissolving into spray and falling into the valley in the form 
of gentle rain. 
Dr. Idaast writes as follows about his first glacier journeys 
in those distant mountain regions: — “On the 14 March (1861) I 
broke up camp in the Havelock valley and followed up the first 
stream coming in on the right, which I named after the disting- 
uished English naturalist Forbes. I had to cross numerous moun- 
tain streams, which issuing from high glaciers plunged down the 
steep declivities of the mountains with a noise of thunder, and 
after a laborious scramble of several hours over the fallen rubbish 
and enormous blocks of rocks , I came at last in sight of the 
first valley glacier, which I named the Forbes glacier. At its 
lower end the breadth was 600 feet, and the height I estimated 
at 100 feet, consisting of well stratified masses of ice, the layers 
of a thickness from three to five feet , concave and apparently adopt- 
ing the form of the valley. The ice itself was dirty, and the 
glacier completely covered with fragments of rocks, some of them 
of an astonishing size. From a glacial cave twenty feet high and 
equally wide, issued a discoloured glacial stream, which sought 
foaming and roaring for a course among the huge blocks of rocks, 
as they fell continually from the top of the terminal face of the 
glacier. 1 climbed in to the ice-grotto, where I found protection 
from the tumbling pieces of rocks and ice. A beautiful azure-blue 
twilight shone through the grotto; but the walls ol ice were so 
loose that at a single blow from the hammer shattered large masses 
into a thousand pieces. But I was not allowed to stay there very 
long. Seeing that a part of the vault was giving way, I retreated, 
