ALPINE MOUNTAINS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5678, 28 August 1905, Page 6

ALPINE MOUNTAINS.

.(■MIDST TUB GLACTKHS. A VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS. TVofei-sur G. Carroll an-1 physiologist, of Harvard Lnivorsily, Host on, United Sta H-s Aim.-nua, vlio visited Now Zealand recently; and crossed tlio Cortland Pass to Uio Vest Coast, and visiUvd the Box and Irani-. Joseph Glaciers, has furnished some notes of his iinprcsMons to the Minister in charge of the Tourist Department.

“X count it a favour,’’ ho says, “to ho poniißted to offer you a fen’ observations; from the uclcvs uuklL la.U-Jy among the aipino mountains of .Non Zealand. I can do no hotter than to suj.pleiiioiil the ‘impressions’ loft fm you in 11KI2 by tho eminent Swiss geologist and geographical sculptor, Albert Ucim. Had Proie-sor Heim crossed to tho ivos-tern side of the range tliese additions wouhl ho superfluous. ‘“The student of glaciation,” says Ur Heim, ‘is much disappointed as fie travels in Xow Zealand from tho sea to (ho peaks above tho ioo. Ho finds only moraines, and somelimts glaoierscratched blocks, hut tho “rochos* moutonmsn.ro not to he seen. The rocks of tho mountains do not boar, or if they hear they do net preserve, the polishing that glacial ion produces nearly everywhere in tire European Alps and in Norway. Only occasionally tho rocks are somewhat rounded—the blocks of the moraines I never found polished. Tho glacier-action in tho Mount Cook region is not erosive, hut consists in the expart of shingle and the accumulation of moraines.’

“While this statement of Heim’s appears to bo largely true of the glaciers on tho eastern side of the Alps, it can hardly bo maintained for Now Zealand as a whole, for had bo visited either the Fox or Franz Josef Glaciers ho would have seen not only abundant glaciated surfaces and quite typical 'roches inuntunnes/ but even glacial polished blocks of stone upon tho moraines. “Tho rapid forward movement of somo of the New Zealand glaciers, the vast amount of ‘rock-flower,” ‘the grist of tho glacier’ which gives the milky appearance to tho turbid outlet-streams, and the well-glaciated surfaces so fresh that tho lichens have not as yet taken root upon tho rock, intimate, moreover, that some of the glaciers, and perhaps even tho Mount Cook glaciers, aro erosive. In ancient times they woro remarkably erosive, as many of tho oold’ lakes and West Coast Sounds attest.

“It seems possible that tho apparent scarcity of abrasive effects on tho Mount glaciers is due not so much to hick of active erosion as to a general condition of transportation. “On crossing the range one c£n scarcely fail to bo impressed with the prevailing difference in tahis-accumula-tions. On the east side the rock-waste is notably prominent; it slopes from high up among the peaks, and spreads out in huge fans on the flat-bottomed valleys. Many of tho mountain-tops are nearly buried in debris. This condition is duo to a combination of factors.

“The Alps of New Zealand are at the stag© of denudation called ‘past maturity/ an earlier larger diversity of relief having boon lost by a general degradation of tho land; tho from the shattered peaks has become a dominant feature in tho landscape. While this general condition of topographic development holds throughout the region, and talus is abundant on the west coast slopes, they aro not smothered in debris as on the Canterbury side. Here the streams .from the principal glaciers empty into high-level lakes, usually maintained by morainal dams. While, as at* Lake Pukaki, the outlet holds up the Mount .Cook drainage, preventing the rapid removal of waste from the mountains, the west coast glaciers, on the other hand, flow uninterrupted and direct to the sen, the waste of tho laud passing rapidly Into •the ocean. These conditions seem to largely account for tho differences noted in the Canterbury and yV'estland topography. The waste on the cast side is carried away so slowly that it gathers deep upon the moun-tain-sides, pushing upwards towards the summits, great’ quantities failing upon tho ice, building up enormous lateral moraines, while the bed-rock crumbles ‘in situ/ and offers so little resistance to tho passing glacial stream that it is broken away rather than grooved and striated, polishing, resulting from incessant rubbings being hardly a possibility. “As might be predicted from these conditions, tho west coast glaciers* are burdened with moraines both lateral end terminal, but scanty in comparison to those of the eastern side, and there’ is present a good showing of glacial gouged troughs, ‘roohes moutonucs/, striated surfaces, and grooved and polished blocks on the moraine. I desire to i*ccord that the excellent guides and general equipment at the Mount Cook Hermitage greatly facilitated work among the glaciers.”