Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/303

Rh the other opposite to it, the Mueller glacier (so named in honour of my eminent friend Dr. Ferdinand Müller, of Melbourne), descending from the south-western slopes of the Moorhouse range. The glacial cave of the Müller glacier lies 2851 feet above the sea-level.

The rest of the glaciers do not attain such large dimensions, although some of them are still 500 yards broad, and deserve a few words of description.

The Ashburton glacier, main source of the river Ashburton, descending from Mount Arrowsmith, is one of these. The altitude of its terminal face is 4823 feet above the level of the sea. It was discovered and visited by me in May, 1861. About 300 feet below the present extremity of the glacier an old moraine stretches across the valley. The mean altitude of the range is about 10,000 feet; it consists of a large series of alternating palæozoic sandstones and slates, standing vertically, or at least at a very high angle; their disintegration has given rise to the formation of numberless peaks, needles, and pinnacles. The Ashburton glacier is one of those few New Zealand glaciers of the first order which are pretty free from any moraine, except a ground moraine.

There is an umbelliferous plant very abundant here and peculiar to the Alpine scenery of New Zealand. It is called by the shepherds “bloody Spaniard” (Aciphylla grandis, Hook, fib), its leaves being very pointed like a poniard, exceedingly hard, and often 3 ft. long. My party, both men and horses, suffered greatly from its punctures, body and limbs being covered with blood when working our way through it.

Another of the smaller glaciers is the Clyde, main source of the river Clyde, which is again the main branch of the-river Rangitata. Its terminal face is 3702 feet above the level of the sea. The glacier, the main body of which descends from a valley to the left of the spectator from Mount Tyndall, is entirely covered by a moraine, and the ice is visible only at a few spots, where the glacier forms step-like terraces. At its terminal face it is 1300 feet broad and about 100 feet high, and is therefore only of small size in comparison with others in our Alps, but does not fail nevertheless to be attractive to the visitor, as not only is the glacial cave high, and the deep azure tints of great effect, but the vertical walls of ice, about 120 feet high, also present us with a spectacle worthy of admiration.

During my visit in April, 1861, I observed in tins vertical wall, about 30 feet below its débris roof, a round hole through which a little streamlet fell like water from the gutter of a house. This glacier is difficult of access, because the river issuing from it, setting often against perpendicular cliffs, can only be crossed after a con-