496 
Still grander glacier -regions lias Dr. Haast discovered in the 
summer of 1862 at the headwaters of the Waitaki river on Mount 
Cook and on the neighbouring gigantic heights of the Alps. The 
Waitaki (or Waitangi), one of the principal rivers of the East coast, 
is formed by three branches, springing from three mountain -lakes 
on the 8- E, foot of Mount Cook, the Tekapo, Pukaki and Oliau. 
Lake ickapo lies 2468 feet above the level of the sea; it measures 
15 miles in length and about 3 miles in breadth. The water of 
the lake is turbid of a milky colour and it is only after months 
of cold and dry weather , that the water becomes somewhat clearer. 
The difference between high and low water amounts to 8 feet. The 
lake abounds in large cels, which, however, disappear in the month 
of April with the setting in of winter, and do not reappear until 
October. It is plainly visible that the lake is filling up rajhdly, 
as the river deltas are extending far into the lake. The shore on 
the lower end of the lake seems to have been formed by the co- 
lossal moraine of an old glacier, through which the outlet of the 
lake gradually forced its way. The principal tributary of the lake 
from the North was called Godley, the northeastern one the Cass. 1 
Both spring from large glaciers descending from the mountains North 
of Mount Cook , the Godley from the great Godley glacier and 
the Classen glacier, the Cass from two glaciers situated about 
20 miles from the lake on the slopes of Mount Darwin. The great 
Godley glacier — at its terminal face one and a quarter of a mile in 
breadth, but farther up, where it receives the Grey glacier about 
three miles broad — may be designated as the a Mer de Glace” of 
New Zealand. The view from its middle moraine upon the ice- 
and snow-fields 2 of Mount Tyndall, Mount Petermann, and the 
Keith- Johnston range Dr. Haast pictures as the grandest scenery 
he ever beheld in the Alps. 
Lake Pukaki, measuring 10 miles in length and 4 miles in 
on the geography of the plants of New Zealand, for which he had collected the 
materials through many years. 
1 To the memory of Mr. Godley the founder of Canterbury and Mr. Cass the 
Chief Surveyor of Canterbury. 
' l Red snow is said to be a very frequent occurrence upon those snow -fields. 
