NOTES ON THE RECENT ERUPTIONS IN THE 

 TAUPO ZONE, NEW ZEALAND. 



By Professor Stephens, M.A., F.G.S., &c. 



In throwing together a few notes upon the recent eruptions in 



the Taupo Zone of New Zealand, I have been actuated solely by 



a desire that the groundwork of the extraordinary phenomena 



which have attracted our attention to that district during the last 



month might be more clearly presented to our minds than it is at 



present, and that in this way the exact and detailed accounts of 



those disasters which we shall by and by receive may be the more 



readily appreciated and interpreted. It is hardly necessary to 



premise that there is little, if any, original work in this paper, 



the object of which is only to diffuse more generally the 



information which is already sufficiently ascertained. It is 



likewise unnecessary to remark that the reports which have as 



yet appeared in our newspapers are imperfect and contradictory, 



and must therefore be to a greater or less extent erroneous and 



misleading. I had hoped to have a more consistent history 



of these events before me at the time when I am now writing 



(June 28). But it is probable that we may have to wait for some 



considerable time longer before a full examination of the records 



of the eruptions as derived from eye-witnesses, and of the more 



important evidence obtained from subsequent exploration of the 



new ground, and from the investigation of its transformations by 



the violent operations to which it has been subjected, can be so 



far completed as to give the world a full history of these 



phenomena and a satisfactory explanation of their causes. 



In the meantime, therefore, a brief sketch of the Geographical 

 and Geological characters of the disturbed district may be of 

 some little service to those who desire to obtain a rational and 



