FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 305 
sinter intermingled with yellow sulphur still harbors a series of 
hissing, sputtering steam vents. Pohutu, Wairoa, and Papakura 
are other geysers of greater or lesser reputation. The place is 
erowded with solfataric action of every sort. 
Lake Rotorua, six or seven miles in diameter, is but one of a 
dozen of more large lakes in the district which occupy old ex- 
plosion craters or depressions dammed by lava flows. Near the 
center of the lake rises the conical island of Mokoia which re- 
minded us of Wizard island in our Crater Lake and its origin is 
doubtless similar. Besides the water-filled craters there are several 
rim-broken, drained depressions—doubtless old craters—and also 
many hills of voleanic origin culminating in Moerangi (2440 feet) 
and Ngongotaha (2554 feet). 
THE TARAWERA ERUPTIONS 
Fifteen miles from Rotorua there is another much visited region 
made famous by the eruption of Mt. Tarawera (3770 feet) on the 
morning of June 10, 1886. This flat-topped eminence standing 
some 2500 feet above Lake Tarawera near its base had never 
shown any signs of activity. A few miles to the southwest of the 
sleeping giant lay a geyser basin larger than that at Whakare- 
warewa and justly famous for its magnificent Pink and White 
Terraces similar to those of our Yellowstone Park. On the night 
referred to after a few premonitory rumblings and earthquakes, 
the mountain split in two, the fissure continuing down its south- 
west face through Lakes Rotomakariri and Rotomahana to the . 
geyser basin. The rent was eight and three-fourths miles long 
with an average width of forty rods and a depth from nearly a 
thousand feet in the mountain to some three hundred feet at the 
south. The fissure, still largely open, is the most awesome on the 
face of the earth. During the eruption an enormous quantity of 
fragmentary material was ejected mainly in the form of fine dust, 
but in the vicinity of the fissure there was much coarse material, 
the heaviest blocks weighing as much as eighty tons. The roar of 
the explosion was terrific, and the steam was lifted nearly three. 
miles into the air. The result was a large pit over 500 feet in 
depth at whose bottom was a violently boiling lakelet. Since 
then the pit has filled with water, making the present Lake 
Rotomahana, four miles long and two miles wide. It is 520 feet 
in depth and covers not only the area of the two small lakes men- 
