Yes; here the artist might fairly lose himself in delight amongst the subjects for his brush whilst drinking in the pure sympathy with Nature which seems to float in the very air.
It is no dream, this lovely valley, though it seems as one. But its flowers go with the warm geniality of summer, and when the cold winter comes round it dons its white garment of snow, hiding its beauties until the hand of gentle spring once more wakens them to burst forth anew in all their resplendent glory.
Proceeding up the valley between these magnificent mountains we kept moving onward in a north-easterly direction under the flanks of the Malte Brun Range, on to whose slopes we were now and then forced by encroaching streams from the meandering river, and we arrived early in the afternoon at a large boulder-fan issuing from a rocky gorge above, whence a magnificent waterfall descended. Here we boiled the ‘billy’ and lunched, making an inspection of the scene, which is one of the grandest beauty.
Far up in the heavens stands out a noble peak of the Malte Brun Range, rising out of a glacier which nestles in a basin of rock and bristles with séracs and pinnacles of blue ice pouring into the gorge below, from whence issues an imposing waterfall of seventy or eighty feet, sending up clouds of spray and drenching all within its immediate vicinity. From long action of the water an almost semicircular cylinder about ten feet in circumference has been worn into the solid rock, and the force of water descending this strange funnel seems to drive out in one direction a current of air which carries the spray with it.
All around this fall the vegetation is most luxuriant, and the rocks are covered with flowering plants in great profusion, and, in parts where the spray falls, plants, rare elsewhere, notably the myosotis, flourish in the abundant moisture.
Taking a more northerly direction we came to the terminal face of the glacier, which by aneroid measurement we made 3,640 feet—much the same altitude as our Ball Glacier camp. The survey of the glacier has, however, since been effected, and this point determined as 3,305 feet.
The moraine is composed of unusually large polyhedral masses of rock, and is 200 feet in height at the main exit of the river, which is situated about the middle of the terminal face.
A backward view down the valley revealed but one distant peak—Mount Sealy—the northernmost of the Ben Ohau Range. This peak was evidently the only one from which the clear ice of the Murchison can be seen, if we except those of the Liebig and Malte Brun Ranges, and as none of these peaks have been ascended, this fact probably accounts for the Murchison Glacier, which is the second largest in New Zealand, having lain so long unexplored.
Proceeding up on the western side of the moraine, a new branch glacier descending from the Malte Brun Range opened out on our left, its lower ice forming a fine frozen cascade, whilst a waterfall of some 200 feet descends over a rocky face from its southern and hanging portion. To this glacier and fall we have given the name of ‘Onslow,’ in honour of his Excellency the Earl of Onslow.
As it was now getting dark we decided to bivouac for the night, and selecting a bed of small gravel amongst the larger stones of the moraine, we dined scantily on cold mutton and tea, and wriggling into our waterproof blanket-bags were soon ready for sleep. At first all our attempts at slumber were rendered futile by a congregation of keas, who hopped around within a few feet of us, jabbering and swearing in their own peculiar language at such a party of intruders on their domain.