Hill. — Buapehu and Ngauruhoe. 603 



Art. LIX. — Buapehu and Ngauruhoe. 



By H. Hill, B.A., F.G.S. 



[Bead before the Eawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 10th Aiigust, 1891.] 



Plates XLIII.-XLIX. 



In October, 1889, I had the honour of reading before this 

 society a descriptive account of the geology of the country 

 between Napier and Euapehu Mountain by way of Kuripa- 

 pango and Erehwon.* In this paper it is proposed to con- 

 tinue the description so as to include the volcanic district 

 extending from Euapehu in the south to Tapuaeharuru at the 

 northern end of Lake Taupo. This portion of the volcanic 

 belt of the North Island is even now seldom visited by tourists, 

 and it was almost a terra incognita to scientific men up to the 

 date of the Tarawera eruption in 1886. The destruction of 

 the priceless Terraces and the disappearance of the Eotoma- 

 hana hot lake drew the eyes of the scientific world of geolo- 

 gists to the spot which Hochstetter in 1859 had made classic 

 ground by the brilliant yet simple description of his journey 

 at a time when what is known as the Hot Lake District was 

 little more than a name to Europeans. Hochstetter had 

 travelled from Auckland to the Mokau Eiver, and from thence 

 had struck across country to Tokaanu, an important native 

 settlement at the south end of Lake Tauj)0, and within a few 

 miles of that portion of the volcanic region embraced by the 

 mountains which go by the name of the Tongariro Eange. 

 He had ardently desired to visit the active volcano of Tonga- 

 riro — or, more correctly, Ngauruhoe — just as Dieffenbach had 

 wished to do when he visited the same spot eighteen years 

 before. But Te Heuheu, a great and renowned Maori chief, 

 ruled in those parts ; and the native proverb around Taupo 

 ran thus : ' ' Ko Tongariro te maunga, ko Taupo te moana, ko 

 Te Heuheu te tangata "• — that is to say, "Tongariro is the 

 mountain, Taupo is the sea, Te Heuheu is the man." The 

 authority, or mana, of Te Heuheu extended from Tonga- 

 riro over the whole of the Taupo district. Tapu had 

 been set upon the Tongariro Mountain since the to- 

 hungas had deposited there the bones of a former chief 

 who lost his life at Te Eapa, near Tokaanu, in 1846 ; and 

 woe to any one, be he European or other, who disobeyed 

 the word of such a chief. Thus, then, it was that Hoch- 

 stetter, though within four hours' walk of the northern slopes 

 of Mount Tongariro, did not set foot on the mountain ; nor was 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxii., p. 422. 



