FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 313 
more luminous than the dark-green Pitons, but the sky effect sur- 
rounding the latter was more colorful. After a light breakfast, 
and armed with Swiss ice-axes, smoked glasses and Alpine ropes, 
we struck the trail. Occasional glimpses of the mountain, now 
crowned at times with a halo of wispy mist, reassured us that the 
Inorning would continue clear. Once when going through the 
scrub, a cloud closed in about us with the accompanying halos and 
‘‘spotlights’’, and a little later a stratum of clouds closed in be- 
low us shutting off the forest and plain and leaving us alone with 
the mountain. Climbing over the scoria was tiresome, but the 
snow was hard and firm. In a few places steps were cut with the 
ice-axes largely as a matter of precaution and lest the mountain 
become engulfed in clouds and fog, a few landmarks were thrown 
up at intervals as possible guideposts on our return. Three hours 
after the start we reached Fantham’s Peak, a parasitic cone, some 
distance below the summit. Progress beyond this point was 
deemed unwise, for there was above us a heavy fall of loose snow. 
With our glasses we could see the snow drifting about the daz- 
zlingly white crest from which protruded the black ‘‘Shark’s 
Tooth’’, a bit of the edge of the crater’s rim, silhouetted against 
the blue sky. 
A view of Ruapehu and his companions on the Waimarino 
plain nearly one hundred miles away was clear and distinct; 
through the field glass, the darker gullies on the slopes of 
Ngauruhoe simulated great flows of fresh lava. Just below, the 
plain of Taranaki dotted with farmsteads and villages was a pret- 
ty sight and alone well worth the climb. 
Egmont’s base is broad and its flows extend far out on the 
plain and to the sea on three sides. They have added perceptibly 
to the land area of North Island and the weathered andesite rock 
makes a fertile soil. Geologically, Egmont like Ruapehu dates 
back to the late Pliocene, and both are older than the lava cones 
about Auckland. The low Pouakai Range on the northwest flank 
of Egmont is thought to be more or less contemporaneous with 
its latest eruptions, but the Kaitaki Range of hills between Pou- 
akai and the coast is considerably older and is correlated in age 
with the striking Sugar-loaf hills of New Plymouth. The im- 
mediate vicinity of Mount Egmont is directly exposed to the 
moisture-bearing winds, and it receives a rainfall of close to one 
hundred inches annually. The numerous streams radiating down 
