868 Transactions. — Geology. 



ripbt hand, and at the eastern base of the hill, is the course o 

 the Hauuii Siream, ^vllich formerly wound its wny from Okaro 

 Lake to Eotcmahana, joining that lake a little to the south-east 

 of the Pink lerraces. But what a change has occurred hire! 

 Diitctly at the base of the hill is a great fi.-sure, from which 

 issues an enormous mass of steam, whilst every now and then, 

 after a loud ie[)ort like a cannon sliot, it is accompanied by 

 laige quantities of stones and sand, shooting up into the air and 

 falling generally back again from whence they came. Imme- 

 diately in front, between us and the crater lip, is a deep dark 

 hide, sending forth a high column of steam. The edges of the 

 crater are covered with fragments of stone ejected from it. 



One looks in vain for any sign of the Pmk Terrace : all 

 view in that direction is cut off by the column of steam. The 

 edge of Eotomahana Lake is now far within the crater wall, 

 which follows round from our immediate front in a westerly, 

 then north-westerly, northerly, and north-easterly direction to 

 the site of the White Terrace. The crater has clearly eaten 

 its way back from the edge of the lake, a distance of at least a 

 quarter of a mile from the site of the Pink Terrace ; and all 

 along the foot of the wall the steam rises from so many points, 

 that it is impossible for the eye to penetrate within its precincts, 

 except on rare occasions when the wind causes a separation of 

 the masses of vapour ; and then is disclosed to view for a short 

 time a cavernous-looking aperture, in which can be discerned 

 a picture once seen never to be forgotten. A dismal coffee- 

 coloured light, penetrating the vast mass of vapour from above, 

 enables us indistinctly to see a horrible mass of seething, boiling 

 waters, stained of a black or dirty brown colour, encircled by 

 walls and hillocks of dreadful-looking hot mud, from which the 

 steam curls up in innumerable places. J\lud volcanoes scatter 

 their contents aioui:d on all sides, whilst every now and then a 

 loud detonation jincedes the discharge of a column of water, 

 mud, and stones high into the air, and as they iall splash the 

 baik mud light and left, 'ihe wlule interior surface of the 

 crfiter, as far as the eve can penc tiat< , seems to have been boiled 

 and sieameu and hurled aLout to such an extent that the old 

 landmaiks aie no longer recognizable, ^^hil8t the gieattst 

 activity seems to follow the loot of the crater-wall round by the 

 western side, the eastern has also its points of ern])tion, from 

 which vast columns of steam arise to join the general mass 

 above ; but, as }et, no one has been able to obtain a dear view 

 of thi-; eastern side. The size of this cratiral lu'llcw is about 

 H mi](S in a Korth and ISouth direction, with a width of about 

 1^ mi (s. 



From a point which was reached \\itli great difficulty on the 

 west side of the crater, a view is obtained looking north-east, 

 past the site of the White Terraces, and embracing the whole of 



