Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/160

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There is a remarkable feature of the glaciers of this country which stamps them as unique in one respect—I refer to the very extensive moraines. I write feelingly of this, for my acquaintance with them has been a very close one, and they have impressed me very deeply—in more ways than one.

The large glaciers of which I have written in this work are completely moraine-covered over their lower parts.

Moraines may be divided into four sections: 'Lateral' moraines, fringing the sides of the glaciers, their outlying portions often being 'dead'—that is, at present unmoved by the action of the ice, and forming banks, as it were, for the ice stream to flow between; 'medial' moraines, which begin at the junction of two streams of ice and often continue for many miles to the terminal face; 'terminal' moraines, formed by the depositing of detritus at the melting point or end of the glacier; and, lastly, 'surface' moraines (so called by Professor Hutton of Christchurch, N.Z.), which are the combined accumulations of the first two divisions in the lower parts of the glacier.

It is these 'surface' moraines that are such a characteristic feature of the glaciers situate on the eastern side of the chain in New Zealand. Of those on the western side I am not able to speak with authority, never having visited them myself; but I understand