It rose
towering in a massy parallelogram, disclosed from top to bottom in the
cloudless sky, far above all the others.
It was exactly opposite to me,
and about the nearest in the whole range. So you may imagine that it
was indeed a splendid spectacle. It has been calculated by the
Admiralty people at 13,200 feet, but Mr. Haast, a gentleman of high
scientific attainments in the employ of Government as geological
surveyor, says that it is considerably higher. For my part, I can well
believe it. Mont Blanc himself is not so grand in shape, and does not
look so imposing. Indeed, I am not sure that Mount Cook is not the
finest in outline of all the snowy mountains that I have ever seen. It
is not visible from many places on the eastern side of the island, and
the front ranges are so lofty that they hide it. It can be seen from
the top of Banks Peninsula, and for a few hundred yards somewhere near
Timaru, and over a good deal of the Mackenzie country, but nowhere else
on the eastern side of this settlement, unless from a great height. It
is, however, well worth any amount of climbing to see. No one can
mistake it. If a person says he THINKS he has seen Mount Cook, you may
be quite sure that he has not seen it. The moment it comes into sight
the exclamation is, "That is Mount Cook!" - not "That MUST be Mount
Cook!" There is no possibility of mistake.
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