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THE NEW ZEALAND ALPS

so from the terminal face, and a short exploration of the lower portions of the Mueller and Hooker Glaciers.

His literary contributions are of greater value to science than to the domain of Alpine record; but naturally they are of the deepest interest to the latter class of literature, inasmuch as they tell the tale of the opening out of fresh Alpine fields which are destined to become—indeed they are now fast becoming—areas of great mountaineering importance.

Though Von Haast was perhaps the first man of science or literature to visit these great glaciers, yet their existence was well known to a few run-holders and early settlers who had penetrated even thus far into the mountains in the 'early days' of New Zealand.

It is to Mr. Edward Percy Sealy of Timaru, however, that we owe the first close acquaintance of the Mueller, Hooker, and Tasman Glaciers. Mr. Sealy was a surveyor by profession and a photographer of no mean ability, and to his energy and perseverance we are indebted for results which furnished Dr. von Haast with material for constructing his map of this part of our Alps.

Upon visiting the glaciers at the present time, and being impressed with the difficulties of transit, one cannot but be filled with admiration for the man who achieved such splendid results in photography, burdened as he was with all the necessary and cumbersome paraphernalia pertaining to the old wet-plate system then in vogue.

Mr. Sealy traversed nearly the whole length of the Mueller Glacier in 1867, and in 1869 pushed his way up the Hooker as far as the tributary Empress Glacier, and up the Tasman as far as the great turn at Mount De la Bêche.

To Mrs. Leonard Harper, of Ilam, belongs the honour of being the first lady to cross to the Aorangi side of the Tasman River.

On this occasion (in March 1873) the party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Harper, of Christchurch, Messrs. G. Dennistoun, G. Parker, Melville Gray, Wright, C. Smith, and Flint. They camped at Governor's Bush, close to where the Hermitage now stands, and went on to the Mueller Glacier and to the terminal face of the Tasman. Mr. and Mrs. Harper re-