Hill. — RuapeJm and the Volcanic Zone in 1895. 681 



Art. LXXI. — Euapehu and the Volcanic Zone in 1895: 



No. IV. 



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



[Read before the Haiuke's Bay Philosophical Institute, loth July, 1S95.'\ 



The eruption of Euapehu on the 10th March of this year has 

 opened up an interesting question as to what is Hkely to be the 

 future of this mountain : Is it to become dormant and finally 

 extinct, or will it be seen again as an active volcano similar to 

 what it was in times which may be counted by the century ? 

 The last time wdien the mountain displaj'ed signs of increasing 

 activity was on the 1st May, 1889. It is only within the last 

 decade that Euapehu has come to be looked upon as a moun- 

 Ibain whose life is not yet over. Tongariro and Ngauruhoe 

 were known to be active volcanoes, because clouds of steam 

 could be seen rising from them at a distance of fifty miles in 

 the direction of Taupo and the Kaingaroa Plains. When 

 Hochstetter, the famous geologist, was at Tokaanu in 1859 he 

 appears to have made the fullest inquiries from the natives 

 concerning the volcanic group to the southward, although he 

 was forbidden to visit or even to approach any portion of the 

 group. Bidwill and Dyson, in 1839 and 1851 respectively, 

 had secretly visited portions of the group, and their published 

 accounts had no doubt fired Hochstetter with a desire to see 

 what was, at that time, looked upon as the only spot where 

 volcanic phenomena could be studied on a large scale in this 

 country. Of Euapehu, however, nothing was then known, 

 except that native tradition said it was the abode of an evil 

 spirit, Te Eirio, who caused men and women to wander hither 

 and thither over the mountain until bereft of their reason. 

 The fearsome and solitary surroundings in the eyes of an 

 imaginative people caused this mountain to be viewed with 

 awe and dread, and nothing was remembered concerning it 

 beyond the fact that it was the abode of an energy or a cause 

 which brought about injury to humankind. Does this not 

 suggest that the mountain was a centre of danger owing to 

 the frequency of explosion? Hochstetter says, in his great 

 work on New Zealand, page 378, " No one has ever ascended 

 Euapehu or explored it. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt 

 as to its volcanic nature ; but it seems perfectly extinct — there 

 is no trace of a solfatara to be discovered in the distance either 

 at its sides or at the top, and it is totally unknowai whether 

 the broad summit forms a plateau or whether it contains a 

 crater." 



