A VISIT TO THE NEW ZEALAND GEYSERS. 357 



the road possesses all the ills to which a bush-road is heir. About 

 three miles from Tauranga the road passes through the celebrated 

 Gate Pah, where English soldiers in a panic ran away from the Maories, 

 and left their officers to be killed. The Pah is well placed on the top of 

 a ridge looking out over Tauranga and the sea. Almost all traces of 

 the earthworks have now disappeared, and the cluster of gravestones 

 in the neglected little cemetery at Tauranga will soon be the only re- 

 maining evidence "of that disastrous day. About eight miles beyond 

 the Pah we had our first experience of a New Zealand bush. It was 

 magnificent. I can not say the same of the road. A great part of it 

 is what is called " corduroy road," that is, trunks of trees, about eight 

 or nine inches in diameter, were laid close together across the track, 

 forming a kind of loose bridge over the soft places. Some of the 

 trees, especially the rimu, a species of yew, here called a pine, were of 

 immense size and age ; in places tangled masses of red flowering 

 creepers completely hid the trees. The tree ferns were the perfection 

 of lightness and beauty, the dark-leaved shrubs setting them off to 

 great advantage. 



At Ohinemutu we found two small hotels ; the charges were very 

 moderate, and the attention paid to visitors is all that can be desired. 

 The land here still belongs to the Maories, who refuse either to sell it 

 or let it ; and the hotel-keepers, who are only tenants-at-will, are nat- 

 urally unwilling to spend much money in building with such an in- 

 secure tenure. One creek of Lake Rotorua, on the banks of which 

 Ohinemutu stands, is filled with boiling springs, which heat the waters 

 of the lake for a considerable distance. This creek is a favorite bath- 

 ing-place, but, as it is dangerous in the dark, my friend and I tried a 

 natural bath, which has been inclosed by the hotel-keeper to keep out 

 the natives. It was as hot as we could bear it, very soft, buoyant, and 

 bubbling, and after our long, bumpy drive, perfectly delicious. "When 

 we had got thoroughly warmed through, I thought lying in the soft 

 bubbling water the most perfect sensuous pleasure I ever experi- 

 enced. 



The next morning we visited the many boiling-water and mud 

 springs in the immediate neighborhood of the village. On a small 

 peninsula, between our hotel and the lake, there are a great many na- 

 tive dwellings, called whares (pronounced worries). A whole tribe 

 formerly lived there, but one night the end of the peninsula suddenly 

 collapsed and disappeared in the lake, destroying, of course, all its in- 

 habitants. There is, in the midst of the village, a large native build- 

 ing called the " Carved House " ; its sides are covered, inside and out, 

 with intricate carving, chiefly of grotesque human figures. By Maori 

 law, the carved figures may only have three fingers on each hand, lest 

 any evil-disposed persons should mistake them for caricatures of their 

 ancestors. This native settlement owes its existence to the many hot 

 springs with which the peninsula abounds, the boiling water standing 



