468 



Transactions. — Miscellaneous, 









PLAN OF THE 

 FOCUS OF ERUPT/ON 



TARAWERA RANGE 

 a THE GRE/iT FISSURE 



BY 



JJiMES HECTOR. June I4-.I88 6. 



SCALE or MILES. 



Flirtis of Clcii\e eru/iHon s/'enn, tAus ® 



Another view of Tarawera was obtained from Te Hape-o- 

 Toroa, a hill close to Rotomahana ; and here a fissure was 

 seen, as in the above woodcut, to the south end of Tarawera 

 Mountain, running in a S.W. direction. The eastern side of 

 the fissure was tolerably straight, but the view was much ob- 

 scured by steam. It has the appearance as if part of the moun- 

 tain, 2,000 feet by 500 by 200 feet, had been blown out. There 

 is quite sound ground between the south end of the fissure and 

 Okaro Lake. The direction of the fissure passes to the west of 

 that lake ; and Mr. Park, who examined that part of the field 

 most closely, estimated that not more than three chains of 

 ground separates the original edge of the lake fi-om the point 

 to which the fissure has reached. The fissure is not of the 

 nature of a fault by a downthrow, but is really a row of 

 pit-like craters, having two sides pretty much on a level, the 

 material that occupied the intervening space having been simply 

 blown out. The whole country in the vicinity is covered with 

 the dazzling white sand, which creaks like starch under the foot. 

 It was still quite hot on the fourth or fifth day, and where it has 

 covered old forest trees they were smoking and burning. The 

 valleys were all partially tilled up, and the hill-tops covered, as 

 if with terrific snow-drifts. This white sand must have been 

 matter thrown out of the rent that intersected Rotomahana. 



At one point the fissure was building a cone of stones thrown 

 out by a volcano. Several craters were throwing stones 800 

 to 1,000 feet high. One crater, Mount Hazard, was double- 



