Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/30

26 of a dark cliff, like a gigantic silken bridal veil, throwing out iridescent colours as the sunbeams play among its folds.

Northward the alpine country gradually diminishes in height and grandeur, and spreads out almost from coast to coast, forming the hills of Nelson and Marlborough.

Southward the ranges rise higher until the chain is



crowned by Mt. Cook, which well deserves its Maori name of Aorangi, or “the heaven piercer.” Snow-clad and grand, it rears up its sharp precipitons peaks some 13,000 feet into the air, surrounded by a large number of minor peaks, second only to itself in height and splendour. Here on all sides the valleys are filled with huge glaciers, stretching out to eighteen miles in length. The glacier streams which flow from their terminal faces fill large glacier lakes; these in turn feed the rivers, which hurry down their gorges to the sea.

Southward beyond this the mountains spread out and cover Otago and Southland; while to the west the scenery along the main chain increases in imposing loveliness. The