Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/115

Rh Murchison Valley, whose mouth could be discerned some two miles distant across the Tasman Glacier.

It is a fact worthy of notice that with the exception of mountaineering parties equipped for climbing—and the numbers of these could be counted on the fingers of both hands—Messrs. Wells and Timson were the first two tourists to venture so far up the Tasman as our camp, and since that time only one other has succeeded in reaching the same point, that gentleman being his Excellency the Earl of Onslow, Governor of the colony, whose practical penetration regarding all matters connected with New Zealand entitles him to the respect and gratitude of those subjects over whom he exercises vice-regal control.

Since the visit of Lord Onslow a track which had then been formed within two or three miles of the Ball Glacier has been completed, making the task of reaching the spot one of comparative ease and pleasure. Further conveniences for tourists and mountaineers in the shape of tracks and huts are now in course of construction by a far-seeing Government, who recognise the fact that New Zealand is fast becoming the playground of Australasia and the Switzerland of the South.

From careful inquiries made at the Survey Office, from Mr. Sealy—a gentleman whose early work of exploration amongst the New Zealand glaciers is too readily forgotten—and from the run-holders and station hands in the district, we had every reason to believe that the valley had only once been entered (by Mr. Burnett of Mount Cook sheep station), and that the face of the glacier had never been reached; only in one case could we hear of the clear ice having been seen—