Pond and Smith. — On the Eruption of Mt. Taraivera. 369 



Tarawera Mountain. The deep sand in this direction makes 

 progression most slow and fatiguing, and not without danger 

 from the shps of sand on the steep hill sides. We looked in 

 vain for any sign of the White Terraces ; and as the eye gradually 

 got to recognize some of the more prominent features of the 

 country near there, under their altered shapes and appearance, 

 the conclusion was forced on us that these beautiful terraces — 

 the most lovely and wonderful of their kind on the whole 

 earth — had disappeared for ever from mortal view. The changes 

 in the general appearance of the country near there are so great, 

 that, even with a familiar knowledge of the locality, which had 

 been impressed on the mind in a visit to the same spot on which 

 we now stood only three short months before, we recognized 

 with great difficulty and uncertainty the main features of the 

 land. But, still, the evidence of the whole contour of the 

 country goes to show that the site of the terraces is now occu- 

 pied by a horseshoe-shaped recess or bay in the general line of 

 the main crater, from which an enormous column of steam 

 arises high into the air. Nearer to us than this recess could be 

 seen a gentle declivity, forming a very shallow valley, in which 

 once ran the Kaiwaka Stream, the former outlet to Lake Roto- 

 mahana. This once deep gully is now nearly filled to its top 

 with ejected matter, to a depth of 80 feet, of stone, sand, and 

 mud. All around this part of the crater edge the ground was 

 cracked and fissured by earthquakes, and by the torrents of 

 water ejected from the crater. Lying immediately to the west 

 of it was a large deposit of mud, which extended some way up 

 the range that divides Eotomahana from the Wairoa Stream, 

 and on its surface were occasional pools of water, the remains 

 of deluges cast out from the crater. 



From this same spot a good view of the whole of the south 

 end and top of Tarawera is obtained. The eye is immediately 

 attracted by the altered appearance of the south-west end of the 

 mountain. Here a great rift — an enormous chasm — extends 

 from the plateau-like top to the base of the mountain, ending 

 (apparently) quite close to the site of the former Rotomakariri 

 Lake. Various estimates have been formed of the dimensions of 

 this great rift, and we believe that we are quite within the mark 

 in stating it to be over a mile long, 500 feet wide, and 500 feet 

 deep. No one, up to the present time, has been able to see the 

 actual bottom of it." Out of this chasm rise, at several points, 

 columns of dense black or brown smoke, not continuously, but 

 intermittently; but no sign of any ejection of solid material 

 was visible at the time. The edges were quite sharp and ragged, 



* Subsequent exploration proves that this fissure extends right down to 

 Eotomahana, a distance of over two miles ; and within it, just at the foot 

 of Tarawera, the new Lake Rotomakariri has been formed. 



