Drainage divide

The Murchison Glacier is the third in size of the New Zealand ice fields, and draws supplies chiefly from the Maltebrun Range.

Between the latter range and the main range the Tasman Glacier, 18 miles in length, flows, receiving several large tributaries from the peaks of the Divide and Mount Cook.

About six miles from the terminal face of the Tasman Glacier, at the inflow of the Ball Glacier, the government in 1891 built an iron hut, and formed a few tracks for the use of climbers, and from that date mountaineering may be said to have assumed a civilised form, for previously a start had to be made from the Hermitage Hotel, and camping necessaries had to be carried on our own shoulders over trackless moraines.

Since the building of the hut I have only been for two expeditions in this district, and, rough as the present arrangements are, as compared with Switzerland, they are luxurious when contrasted with our experience before 1891.