448 Transactions. — Geology. 



on to the Taupo Plateau. From this swamp-area long, deep, 

 and narrow valleys run between cliffs of pumice. These cliffs 

 present steep faces, as if they had been shorn, and they extend 

 for miles without any apparent alteration in their width. The 

 bottom of each valley shows the lava-sheet surface similar to 

 what is to be seen in the Waipunga Stream. In many places 

 the lava is exposed on the surface of the road, where a kind of 

 " scaling " takes place after a frost. At the 67th milestone the 

 height of the plateau is 2,350 ft., and here again the rhyolites are 

 exposed. At the 68th milestone an extensive area of swamp coun- 

 try is reached, and from the basin-like appearance, surrounded 

 by sloping hills, it seems as if this area was the remnant of an 

 old volcanic crater. The walls remain, and what may be termed 

 the crater-lip provides an exit for what is at present a large 

 swamp-lake, and the source of the Waipunga and possibly other 

 streams. Between the 68th and 69th milestones the land begins 

 to rise, and it continues to do so as far as the 73rd milestone, 

 which is 2,320 ft. above sea-level. The ridge separates the 

 volcanic-crater basin from the present Rangitikei River basin. 

 The ridge is made up entirely of loose pumice material overly- 

 ing rhyolite lavas that must be 150 ft. or more below the surface, 

 as the lavas are seen to form the bed of the Rangitikei River 

 just as they do of the Waipunga Stream. The former river 

 crosses the Taupo Plateau seventy-five miles from Napier, and at 

 a height of 2,170 ft. above the sea. From the river the road 

 gradually rises in the direction of Taupo. Thus, at the 78th 

 milestone the height is 2,270 ft. : at the 80th, 2,335 ft. : the 

 83rd, 2,380 ft. This is the highest point of the plateau on the 

 coach-road, and from here onward there is a gradual fall towards 

 the lake. Thus, at the 84th milestone the height is 2,370 Et. : 

 the 85th, 2,300 ft. : the 87th, 2,029 ft. ; the 88th. 1,850 ft. : the 

 91st, 1,720 ft.; the 94th, 1,400 ft.; the 95th, 1.370 ft. This 

 height is not far from the site of the Terrace Hotel, which is 

 about two miles and a half from the Taupo Post-office, and 

 L60ft. above the level of the lake. Cussen gives the height of 

 Lake Taupo ;it 1,200ft., Hochstetter at L,250ft., and Dieffen- 

 bach at 1.337 ft. Compared with the height of the lake, it is 

 interesting to notice the height of the lavas on the Napier side 

 of the Tarawera Township. These lavas are 320ft. above the 

 surface of the lake, fifty miles further inland, and they gradually 

 rise in the direction of Taupo, as they are 2.170 ft. above sea- 

 level at the Rangitikei. and much higher than this in the low- 

 lving hills that cross the plain to the north-west and south-e.ist 

 a few miles further in the direction of Taupo. Between the 

 73rd and 83rd milestones the slope is towards the Rangitikei 

 River, the longer slope being from the south-west. The latter 



