Hill. — B^iajjchn and the Volcanic Zone in 1895. 683 



where, and they suggest a partial fusing of pumice with a 

 greenish-looking rock, but before the fusion was complete ' 

 they were ejected from an orifice and fell on the desert 

 where they are now to be found. Their partially-rounded 

 surfaces imply cooling during their translation, and their 

 freshness and position suggest their eruption from Euapehu 

 at a very recent date. 



A reference to a map of the North Island will show the 

 line of direction of what is known as the volcanic belt. This 

 belt in a measure takes the form of an ellipse, with its major 

 axis running north-east and south-west. The length of this 

 axis is not less than 140 miles, whilst the minor axis extends 

 about 75 miles in a north-west and south-east direction. Ima- 

 gine a line drawn from the top of Euapehu, at the south end of 

 the major axis, at a height of 9,000ft., to the top of Whakaari 

 or White Island, in the Bay of Plenty, 800ft., and you have 

 a plane representing the slope of all the intervening cones 

 between these two extremes. These include Ngauruhoe, 

 Tongariro, Pihanga, Tauhara, Tarawera, and Edgecumbe. 

 Including Euapehu and Whakaari, five of the cones may be 

 said to sliow signs of activity. The entire country included 

 within this elliptic belt presents direct evidence of volcanic 

 action. The surface is covered either with pumiceous de- 

 posits or with lavas of many grades and characters. The 

 boundary, of the belt is macte up of mountainous country 

 presenting a somewhat scarped face to the volcanic area, 

 and suggesting either an elevation of the bounding rocks 

 or a depression of the enclosing area. Numerous streams 

 and rivers pass through the volcanic belt, and in most of 

 the exposures I have seen trachytic lavas make their ap- 

 pearance, giving one the idea that the entire area is made up 

 of lavas overlaid by pumice - washings and other kinds of 

 volcanic ejectamenta. 



On the Taupo Eoad, between Tarawera (Hawke's Bay) 

 and Eununga, most of the exposures present trachytic lavas. 

 In the bed of the Waipunga Stream, which crosses the Taupo 

 Eoad at Eununga, the lavas form the bed, and strike across 

 country in every direction. At the Eaugitikei Eiver, some 

 twelve miles further on in the direction of Taupo, the same 

 trachytic lavas are to be seen, and they continue along the 

 Kaingaroa Plains, both in the direction of Galatea and the 

 Waiotapu Valley. They surround Taupo Lake ; they form 

 the rocks exposed on the banks of the Waikato Eiver from its 

 exit at the lake as far as Ateamuri ; they surround Lake Eoto- 

 aira, near Tongariro ; and they continue along the west side 

 of the volcanic group on to the Waimarino Plain. 



Along the centre of this immense belt of trachytes, which 

 covers the entire country like a large sheet, the volcanic cones 



