320 Transactions. — Geology. 



Taupo Lake, and along the Waikato Eiver, on both sides for 

 miles down, are found innumerable hot springs, all in a state of 

 great activity." To the south-west, at a distance of 98 miles, 

 the snow-clad sugarloaf peak of Taranaki (Mount Egmont) 

 reared its head high above the surrounding landscape, 8,270 feet 

 above the sea. We had therefore, as it were, spread out before 

 us, and easily recognisable, the great volcanoes of the Taupo vol- 

 canic zone, nearly all now extinct, but having close to their base 

 steam rising from the hot springs by which they are surrounded, 

 showing, as Mr. Percy Smith says, " that the volcanic forces 

 have simply changed their position and the character of their 

 activity, and are not dead ;" and with these were also within our 

 view some of the grandest variety of lake and mountain scenery 

 in the Colony. 



Geology. 



I regret very much that I cannot supply anything like detail 

 geological sections — to work out the geology of this large dis- 

 trict would be a work of much time and trouble. The superficial 

 deposits of pumice to the westward of Taupo Lake, and all over 

 the valleys of the Tuhua District, render it very difficult to trace 

 the junctions of the beds. I brought with me to Auckland typical 

 specimens of the chief rock formations found in the district ; I 

 am indebted to the great kindness of Professor Thomas for their 

 names. At the cost of considerable time and trouble he made 

 numerous microscopic sections of the rocks, and thereby chiefly 

 I am enabled to give such details of the geological formations in 

 the district as this paper may contain. 



Carboniferous. 



Rocks of the younger palaeozoic formation — fine grained 

 argillaceous slates (the Maitai slates of Hochstetter) appear in at 

 least four places along the top of the main range. At Hau- 

 hungaroa they are found at an elevation of 1,950 feet (nearly 

 the summit of the range), over rhyolitic tuff and audesite ; they 

 appear lower down on the same part of the range in the deep 

 worn beds of the Pungapunga and Mangakotuketuke Streams, 

 at a height of 800 to 1,000 feet above sea-level. At Puketapu, 

 on the Tuhua and Taupo native track, slates are found at 1,700 

 feet above the sea. 



On the eastern slopes of Ranganui and Rangitoto they are 

 seen to be cut by the mountain streams in at least two places, 

 at an elevation of about 1,300 feet above the sea. On the 

 Mokau-iti River, near its junction with the Mokau, slates form 

 the masses of rock through which the river has scooped out its 

 bed. Hochstetter says that " at the Wairere Falls, on the 

 Mokau, slates of the same description as those at Taupiri form 

 the rock masses over which the river falls." So far as I have 

 seen, the slates always appear in patches when found at high 



