AFTER SEVENTY YEARS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 19 August 1932, Page 18

AFTER SEVENTY YEARS.

MT. COOK REGION,

SIR ARTHUR DOBSON'S VISIT

Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson's recent visit to the Mt. Cook region, his first since 1862, •when he and Sir Julius von Haasfc surveyed the area, proved most interesting to the veteran surveyor, and khe has returned to Christchurch -with tome valuable information about the ■hanges in the glacier formations. Seventy years have seen some cxtcnive alterations to the form of the Tasnan. glacier, and Sir Arthur intends o investigate the reasons for the banges, in company with Professor R. Speight, curator of the Christchurch kluseum, and formerly Professor of ieology at Canterbury College.

In 1862 the Great Tasman was square across its terminal face. To-day, sai* Sir Arthur yesterday, one part of the glacier has jutted out to the extent of about 20 chains. This tributary measured approximately half a mile across, compared with the two mile width of the glacier itself. In some places on the glacier, too, the sides were not nearly as high as they used to be. The stream had subsided in parts by from 100 to 150 feet. A possible explanation was that there might be less snow on the fields and that more was being taken off through other channels.

Vegetation and Scrub Disappeared. Seventy years ago the hills and mountain sides in the vicinity of Mt. Cook and the glaciers were covered with luxuriant vegetation and thick scrub up to 4000 and 5000 feet. Now, in many places, the slopes were bare owing to extensive burning operations. The peaks and the ridges now showed bare and very rugged, and topographical changes -were more likely to occur rapidly since the undergrowth was dastroyed. The Tasman river, fed by the glacier, was largely covered ou its beds by grass in 1862, and in some places moro than half of the area had a strong growth on it. To-day the beds were practically all covered with shingle, a change probably due to burning and stock-feeding. Approach to the Mt. Cook district was a far more arduous task in the days when Sir Arthur Dobson and Sir Julius von Haast made their expeditions than it is to-day. It was a matter of the pack-horse and the camp. Stations were few and far between, and there were hardly any above the lakes —Tekapo and Pukaki. Sir Arthur was most impressed with the improved facilities in travelling and accommodation, which now made a visit to Mt. Cook as simple as it was pleasurable. He said that the Mt. Cook Tourist Company had worked wonders, and that the Hermitage and its surroundings were far ahead of anything else he had seen. The region was magnificent as a mountain resort.

Pioneers Impressed 'with Region. Sir Arthur was topographical assistant to Sir Julius von Haast when that pioneer explored the Mt. Cook district in 1862. Sir Julius, in his book on the geology of Canterbury and Westland, refers to. the magnificence of the Alps in the vicinity of Mt. Cook and to the hardships he and his party underwent in surveying and examining the area. In writing of the Tasman Glacier he said:— "From an erratic block of immense size lying here above all others, we obtained a magnificent, panorama. It is impossible for mo to describe in adequate words the majestic scenery by which we wore surrounded; the weird mountain chains with their crowning peaks in stately forms, and numerous tributary glaciers on their flanks, often broken into innumerable seracs, of which the glorious Hochstetter glacier was the most conspicuous, aad the wide ice stream itself carrying slowly its enormous load of debris to its terminal face, crevassed and with deep ponds all around us—all this impressed our minds with deep admiration. "But this magnificent pyramid of Mt. Cook, or Aorangi, stood high above all, towering into the sky. As far as the eye could reach, everywhere snow and ice and rock appeared around us, and in such gigantic proportions that I sometimes thought I was dreaming, and instead of being in. New Zealand I found myself in the Arctic or Antarctic mountain regions. Tn returning to our camp, keeping to the western side of the glacier, w# discovered lying amongst the western lateral moraine deep below .is; three very pretty lagoons, their waters of an intense blue colour, unruffled by any breeze, and enlivened by numerous Paradise ducks, forming a pleasing contrast with the wild and ddsolate scenery around us."