278 The American Geologist. November, looi. 
cicr gave numerous examples of daily motion up to 180 inches 
and several to 207. This glacier reaches a lower limit before 
disappearance than any other except the Fox. 
Mr. Harper has summed u]) his observations for a series of 
years upon the recession of the glaciers, "that at present the 
New Zealand glaciers are not receding to any appreciable ex- 
tent." The Spencer and Franz Joseph are retreating, the Tas- 
man is advancing rapidly ; there is no change in tjie Fox, Muel- 
ler, Hooker and Burton, and in all the chief glaciers there are 
no marked signs of recent changes. The government surveyors 
have placed numerous monuments to record future changes. 
GLACIAL FANS AND FLOOD PLAINS. 
The most important feature in New Zealand glaciation is 
the great area of the glacial fans and flood plainV), and we 
can witness their formation. The larger streams are not 
bridged for ordinary highway travel, and fording is often- 
times dangerous. Many persons, including scientific explorers, 
have lost their lives while attempting the passage of these 
streams. The stage route to the Hermitage from the end of the 
railway makes a long detour of a whole day's travel in order 
to avoid the fording of the Tasman river. This river may illus- 
trate the features of the discharge and flow from the greatest 
ice mass. The stream at the end of the ice is 2,456 feet A. T. 
and falls to 1,717 feet at lake Pekaki, about twenty miles. Very 
strong rapids mark the beginning of the flow and Jiere is little 
opportunity for vegetation to gain a foothold upon any of the 
shoals and quicksands. Several terminal and many lateral mo- 
raines skirt the banks. Lake Pakaki is twelve miles long and 
exists because of terminal moraines blocking up the valley, 
whose concentric arrangement can be easily made out — three 
miles broad and 250 feet high — just below the outlet a recent 
cut is very marked, 180 feet high. The upper sixty feet consists 
of white silt, and the lower part is of ordinary stony till. An- 
cient glacial lake markins, the highest coinciding with the sum- 
mit of this cut, were noted in the valley above the outlet. The 
river flows ninety-eight miles below Pakaki to the sea, an aver- 
age of seventeen feet to the mile, oftentimes toO' rapidly for 
canoe navigation. Two other glacial lakes, Tekapo and Ohan 
adjoin Pakaki, and their combined outlets constitute the Waita- 
