GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13846, 8 March 1907, Page 5

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

o EXPLORATION IN SOUTH WESTLAND. ffi* United Priss AssocnnoH.) OHRISTCHimCH, March ?. Dp J. 11. 8011, director of the Geological . -Survey Department-, returned last week' from a. tour of exploration in South- Westland. On tlio exploration Dt Bill was accompanied by J. Clarke, formerly, chief : Government, guide at the Hermitage, ami. liow 011 Dr Boll's stall', and l>y Mr Arthur' Wilson, of Cameron's, North "VYcstlatld. According to particulars given to a press. reporter, the party left Scott's accommoda- , tion house, ii( South Wcstland, early in l'chruury, and spent Hires welts in the widest part of that wild country.- jTho ... explorers had shocking bad weather, but' riesoribo the expedition "as thoroughly successful. Scientific and popular interest 1 centres around the really remarkable IJotig-lns Glacier, which Loth Dr 801 l ami, ' Clarko describe as being quito the most extiuonlimny fcaturo tliat they have seen anywhero in so splendid a field of glacial phenomena, as fno Southern Alps. Tho Douglas " neve" occupies a. spacious Jco plateau about- thven miles long 'by cmo milo , wide, lying to the west, of tbc slopes of Mount, Sefkm, on its northern. side. This plateau is bordered bv the ridgo separating . the Twain Douglas Valley from the. Capltllld, wliilo on its southern sido-ifc descends abruptly over a sheer overhanging cliff of rock gully 2000 f- in height into tho deep trough of the Douglas Glacier proper. 'il'lvory few minutes avalanolics of vast size ■descend over this huge elitf, resounding like t-ho roar of a vast cannon across tho broad rock-girt valley. No less than, 32 waterfalls also descend over tho precipice from under the Douglas "neve*" to the Douglas Glacier beneath. The view of tho Douglas "novo" is ono never to ho forgotten.' Tho spacious snowficlds, tlm mighty peaks surrounding it. and more especially tho stupendous ice fall and precipice, form it wild and striking picture. It is a- weird, wild valley, quite hcreft, of trees, though ' with ra.ro patches of brilliant alpino vegetation, and with a silence broken only by the roar of the lingo avalanolics and tho ."Indent shriek of the kca. The Fot-tas G-lacicr is also a foaturo of 'considerable beauty. It descends j u a series of huge ico falls sea,mod with crovassc-s, and abuts in a great cliff of solid ico hundreds of feet in height against the rushing waters of t-ho Landsboi'ough. A great ico cave occupies a prominent place near its frontal face, and it seems especially lovely owing to tho contrast given to tho almost moraine frco white ico by the-dark green forest bordering it, ami brightened by tho brilliant criny .sons of -the* rata.