THE ASCENT OF MOUNT COOK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1017, 14 October 1882, Page 1

THE ASCENT OF MOUNT COOK.

The Rev. W. S. Green, who ascended Mount Cook in the month of March last, accompanied by his two Swiss guides, has been famishing the August number of the Alpine Journal with a few facts in connection with his exploration of the highest mountain in New Zealand. In his account of the ascent Mr Green writes :—“ We spent some time sounding crevasses ; into one molin I lowered a stone with 32ft feet of cord, but as the cord was found to have tangled the observation could not be relied on, We then timed the fall of large stones, and on several occasions measured five seconds by my watch before the first crash was heard, giving a depth of SOOft; and then a series of bangs followed for as long again ; the crevasses must be at the lowest computation 500 ft deep. The glacier which I have named Ball glacier, after John Ball, M.R.I. A., one of the founders of Alpine exploration, close to our camps had some points of special interest, Flowing from the S.W. it met the current of the main glacier coming from the north, and, failing to stem it, was pushed aside down the valley, its lower portion making an acute angle with its former course. As our tent was in this angle I had abundant opportunity for watching great slabs of ice which stood up high above the moraine, and by observation I found the ice moved past at a rate of one foot per day. At one point the pressure had been sufficient to push down the moraine, as a great wall might have been tumbled over ; while immediately in front of our camp the glac'er was building up the rampart by a constant dropping of angular stones. Even in the stillness of night these evidenced its icy life ; and one night we heard a bang as of a cannon shot when some new crevasses sprang into existence,