WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1930, Page 2

WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

SECOND ARTICLE. '■(Notes from the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Jan- . uary, 1895.) WESTLAND ALT’S, NEW ZEALAND. From November,. 1893, till May, 1894, Messrs C. EL Douglas and A. P. Harper, explorers in the service of the Department of Lands and Survey, New Zealand, were engaged in a reconnaissance survey of the Upper Waiho country, including the hitherto untouched Franz Josef glacier. Their reports and maps appear amongst the appendices to the Survey Report for the current year. Bad weather and the unfavourable condition of the ice rendered it impossible for the explorer* to reach the upper neve and ice-fields, but a route to the glacier was “blazed,” and the glacier itself examined as far as was (practicable. The road-line, river, and terminal face were traversed with chain and compass, and the rest suveyed iby a “compass rav-trace,” heights being ascertained by the use,of two aneroids, the position checked by reference to known points of the Trigonometrical Survey. So far as the river isj concerned, the Waiho seems to differ little from others in Westland. The scenery is, as elsewhere, magnificent; but there is the same story of the gradual extinction of: the native birds. Kiwis and maori-hens grow fewer in number every year, and many of those left fail to mate during the breeding-season. Mr Douglas attributes the scarcity to cats, run wild from deserted diggings, more than to dogs, Norwegian rats, or even stoats,.who usually have to share the blame amongst themselves. Variety as yyell as number is extremely limited; two grey ducks, a pair of blue ducks with five young ones, a solitary shag, and one old gull represent aquatic bird-life. In the bush were found kakas, pigeons, kiwis, hens, crows, storm-birds, and canaries; but, curiously enough, no tomtits, only one robin, f and very few mountain wrens. Numerous spiders were found on the ice, and in the pools, three miles up the glacier, a short but extrtmely! active insect.of a species unknown to the explorers. Off the ice, the insect world was represented only by mosquitoes. The valley of the Waiho is no exception to the) Westland rule as regards the absence of marketable timber. The useful forests are on the flats and broken morainic hills near the sea. In the ranges, and all along' the face of. the outer hills, totaras, pines, and'’cedars only 'occur here and there, and. the whole mountain forest is kanialii'bush, with a few 'ratas', and inos, ribbon-wood in patches, and the usual underscrub of geige, supplejack, lawyers, and pepper-tree. The geige disappears at an elevation of about 500 feet; supplejack ; ranges from SCO to 1500 feet. At about 3000 feet the mountain scrub begins, compose of akeake, black scrub, grasstree, and pepper-tree, besides various kinds of heath, amongst which Mr Douglas specially mentions the pine-apple-topped neinei, with its curious foliage . and habit of growth, a.s a shrub worth introducing in England.' 0n the spurs in the highest places reached were found lilies, anemones, edelweiss, violets, flowering heath, and other alpine plants. One specimen of edelweiss was found as low down as 800 feet; but it appeared to be dwarfed and stunted in growth. The -form and general position of the Franz Josef are best seen from a reproduction of one of Mr photographs. The view is taken looking up the glacier from a point on its left bank, on the Moltke range, 4000 feet above sea-level : and the mountain scrub in the foreground, with a neinei tree to the left, are worth noticing. The Moltke range, with steep or precipitous cliffs extending down to the glacier, passes up into the Kaiser Fritz range behind it, from with two tributary glaciers, the Blumenthal and the Melchior, flow into the Franz Josef. Beyond the Melchior is the south side of the immense neve, which is much broken up, forming really a tributary glacier, and on that account named the Agassiz. The main ice-stream comes from the otherside of the great basin, more to the left of the photograph. The basin is surrounded by lofty peaks; Bismarck’s Peak between the Melchoir and the AgasSjz; a hitherto unnamed summit, now called Comvay’s Peak, at the other end of the range separating tin? Agassiz from the Fox glacier; Mount Spencer; Mount Jervois at the head of the Tusk,"a ridge which separates the Agassiz from the principal stream coining from Graham’s vSaddle, and other saddles leading over to the Tasman, between Mount Jervois and Mount de la Bechp. On the right side’ of the stream the Franz Josef receives the Aimer glacier from the Baird range;'and, somewhat further down, the small Carrel glacier from, the same source, the latter, however, anparentlv entering as a heck through a narrow gorge. The Franz Josef glacier terminates at Sentinel Rock, in latitude 43 degrees 25 f rninutos 30 seconds S.. longitude 170 degrees 10 min. 58 sees. E.: height above .son-level, 092 feet. The total area of the glacier is estimated at 8.4 square miles, and of the watershed at 27:4 square miles, of which 5.9 are forest, 0.8 grass, 2.8 barren river-bod and rock, and 1i.9 fmowfipldjs 'and ice. .1 he suifacelength of the glacier is 8.7 miles, and its mean width 0.53 miles, the horizontal length 8.4 miles, and total fall 8928 feet. The mean direction of flow is N. 41 degrees W.; ratio of

trunk to neve, 1 to 5, and of moraine to clear ice, 1 to 52. As, appears from Fig. 1, the ;bcd of the glacier presents steep, roqky sides of very uniform outline, the only important irregularity being Cape. Defiance, on the left side (visible in the photograph), which juts out into the stream and encloses one of the two moraines which cover any extent of surface. Cape Defiance is in many ways the centre of geographical interest. Immediately above it is the Unser Fritz waterfall, the great feature of the region, with its small glacier and enormous precipices on either side. Tnis fall is described as magnificent, especially after rain; under ordinary circumstance,s, its greut height (1209 feet) dwarfs the apparent volume of water. A short distance above Cl\pe Defiance the most important geological features are also, in all probability, to he found. The explorers did not succeed in getting ashore much above this point; but the moraine above Cape Defiance contains a sprinkling of Torlesse slates, of which the medial moraine is exclusively composed, indicating the beginning of the transition from the schists, out of which the valley of the Waiho has been eroded. It may be mentioned that the dip and strike of the rocks are the same here as all over the country—north-north-east, with a dip east. Gneiss shows up at the Sentinel and Terminal rocks; elsetvhere, only schist, and nowhere, traces of dykes —only a few veins of quartz not worth noticing.

As might be expected, the exploration of a glacier which falls 8928 feet in 8J- miles was no easy matter. Such a descent would produce rough and rotten ice on a glacier having an elevation much greater than that of the Franz Josef, even with a less tenlperaie climate at and a greater distance from 1 the sea. It was evident from the first that it was hopeless to find a route straight up the glacier, for about a mile above the terminal face was a small ice-fall, consisting- of ponderous broken ice, caused by huge longitudinal and latitudinal crevasses. An attempt along the south side failed, owing to the ice being lined by ice-worn precipices of 10J feet and more, fringed with scrub -and bush growing on almost precipitous hill-sides, and the ice was very broken and unsafe for some distance from the sides. Only five times during the whole course of their work did the explorers find a practicable route through this rotten ice at the sides, and the nature of these may he gathered from the fact that in one of them it took an hour and three-quart-ers of hard ice-work to make good 300 yards. Finally, the north side of the glacier was 1 attacked, and there the difficulties were found, at first at least, to be less ’ formidable. Some distance up the glacier ice-worn cliffs about 100 feet high were again met with, and a number of small creeks, notably Arch creek, a deep gut between the ibluff on one side and a conical rock—the “Eye-tooth” on the other, in which a face of ice 200 feet high is exposed. Above Rope creek, a bluff of some 50 feet, the ice was skirted for about half a mile, and a route was found on to the glacier above the ice-fall—only, howevei, after six vain attempts. Thence a crossing was effected to a point above Cape Defiance, where the explorers encamped for some days. An attempt was then made to iorce the great icefalls, which Mr Harper describes as second only to the Haast, on tlie Tasman glacier. 'The ice was less broken on the north side, the crevasses and seracs. being smaller near the influx of the Alma glacier, and it was hoped that two day’s work would suffice to gain the head of the glacier. Unfortunately, a stretch of 2CO yards on. the lower neve was found altogether impracticable.,”' and the ■ party was forced to return, although all the remaining distance seemed comparatively easy. Air Harper is of opinion that experienced climbers would find little difficulty in reaching the upper neve during the winter season. The main range must always be difficult climbing, owing to the predominance of bad rock, but Mr Harper believes that Mounts Spencer ancl Jervois, and the saddles between them, would he easier from the Franz Josef side than from the Tasman, once the neve were gained. * The movements of the Franz Josef glacier are necessarily extremely active. Crackings are felt and heard frequently, and two or three days are sufficient to produce serious changes on the surface of. the ice. The changes near the terminal face are immense, ns is only natural so near the level ol the sea. The level of the top of the ice at the face fell about 70 feet by simply melting between November 1 and the end of January, and the retreat during that time was in some places over 130 feet at the terminal face, while along the sides the rocks >vere in some places exposed as much as 50 feet. Until winter observations which we understand have since been made by Air Harper, finally dispose of the matter, it is impossible to say whether the glacier is retreating or not. From sketches made twenty years ago from the flats, it would seem that there is a slight annual retreat; but most of the evidence tends to show a great winter advance quite equal to the summer retreat. Approximate observations ol the motion of the glacier were made with the prismatic compass on two crosslinos, one above Cape Defiance, and another about halfway between it and the terminal face. The results are certainly astonishing.

Line I.—l. (176 yards from side), 153.3 inches per day : 2, 158.0 inches per day: 3, 200.0 inches per day; 4, 207.0 inches per day; 5, nil inches per day; 6, (1.32 yards from side), 71.0 inches per day.

Line ll.—-1, (15 yards from rocks) 5.0 inches per day; 2, 3t).0 inches pei day; '3, 132.75 inches per day; 4. 102.0 inches per days; 5, *53.0 inches per day; 6, nil inches per day. Lino I. is just below the great icefall and above a steep decline in the glacier; Line 11. above a small ice fall.

As already mentioned, there is ven little moraine either on, the surface or along the sides. The, surface ol the glacier is, contrary to the general New Zealand 1 rule, practically clear of debris, with the exception oi a, narrow strip along the south side, coming from the rocks immediately below the influx of the Blumentha glacier. This accumulates to some extent in the bend above C;ipo Defiance and is continued to the only large piece of surface moraine, which i? situated almost opposite Arch creek, and was probably caused by a slip which must have come down within the last two years. Air Douglas speaks with great emphasis of tin importance of observing the future movements of this slip, which, according to the data given above, ought to reach the terminal face during the present spring, and to disfigure the snout of the glacier for some years to come with stones and dirty ice. Mr Douglas believes that a large terminal moraine will be formed at the present terminal face, similar to one already existing somewhat lower down or else a new lateral moraine, which may cause the old one to be attacked. In the latter case, data will probably bo obtained by which .to fix the age of a large moraine several miles further down the valley. In valleys containing large glaciers, four tiers of old ice-lines are always found; but in the Franz Josef no certain remains of No. 4 terrace have been identified, and Air Douglas concludes that, although at present the largest, it was during the great Ice period of only second or third rate importance, far eclipsed by Cook’s glacier and the Karangarua. The moraines of the Franz Josef are composed of a large! proportion of Torlesse slates according as they come fiom points higher up the valley, and these points may have been determined by the possibility of slips occurring like that which came down two years ago. I lie .older moraine probably came from between Unser Fritz waterfalls and the Blumenthal at the time the glacier was at the level of No. 2 terrace. After completing the Franz Josef glacier, Alessrs. Douglas and Harper explored the Balfour glacier, from which tlie middle branch of' the Cook river flows; and partially mapped and explored the Fox glacier, the source of another branch of the same river. The main branch of the Cook, with the La Peronse glacier at its head, was also 'partly surveyed; but, owing to early snow coming on in April, the work had to be left incomplete.

The Fox glacier (Fig. 4), like the Franz Josef, descends to within 700 feet above the sea, and is 12 miles from the beach. Previous sketches taken from low-level stations were found to be incorrect, in so far as the Victoria glacier does not join the main ice-stream at all, but lies in a valley of its own. The general configuration is made clear by Fig. I. All the peaks and chief spurs of the main range have been fixed with reference to points of the Trigonometrical Survey, and the explorers are now completing the details of the general reconnaissance survey, ou which Air Douglas has been engaged for' several years.

The surface of the country as a whole is extremely broken, and up to a height of 3500 feet the ground is covered with almost impenetrable forest and scrub, necessitating the cutting of tracks up the river gorges. The difficulties of the work are greatly increased by the excessive rainfall, which often cuts the explorers off from supplies. The bush, however, usually provides birds in sufficient numbers, and it is only necessary to carry oatmeal, tea sugar, and such necessaries. In the absence of guides and porters, the camp is restricted to the lightest possible articles, usually only a “flv” to sleep under, which can be supplemented by a shelter of scrubs and ferns in bad weather.