GEYSERS. 167 
this zone running northeast is marked at each end by an. active vol- 
cano, and its course by a line of greatest hydrothermal activity; a 
sinuous line of hot springs following well marked geographic features 
of river valleys, low plains, and lake margins, with higher country on 
either side rising to plateaus of 2,000 to 35,000 feet above the sea. 
Little is known of the geysers on the shores of Lake Taupo, or those 
on the banks of the Waikato River, but the famous terraces of Ro- 
tomahana, called the eighth wonder of the world by James Anthony 
Froude, attracted attention to the geysers which formed them, and 
made their vicinity the best known part of the district. The warm 
lake, called by the Maoris, Rotomahana, was a shallow body of warm 
water, about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad, comprising 
185 acres. The waters were of a dirty, greenish hue, reflecting the 
somber green of the fern and the ti-tree-covered slopes about it, and 
the sedgy margins sheltered large numbers of duck and other water- 
fowl. Rising above its surface like stairways of delicately sculptured 
marble, were the pink and white terraces. At the top of the terrace, 
120 feet above the lake, was the Terata geyser, whose overflow had 
built up this wonderful work and filled the basins and pools with wa- 
ters whose tints were both the delight of the eye and the despair of 
the pen. 
The geyser caldron was some 60 by 80 feet across, its clear and boil- 
ing water usually overflowing, and occasionally ejected to a height of 
40 to 100 feet, wetting the steep banks of bright-colored fumerole clays 
about the crater, but not forming the beaded geyserite, characteristic 
of so many of these fountains. Such eruptions followed a period of 
quiescence, when the waters retired within the pipe for many hours. 
Owing to the comparative inaccessibility of the caldron and the beauty 
ot the terraces, but few observations are on record of the action of the 
geyser. The water carried 159 grains of solid matter to the gallon, of 
which one-third was silica, and the daily outflow of 100,000 to 600,000 
gallons per hour brought up 10 tons of solid matter dissolved out of 
the underlying rocks. It is easy to see what great underground cay- 
erns would be formed by this geyser alone in a comparatively brief time. 
In the voleanic outbreak of Tarawera, in June, 1886, the waters of the 
lake and underground reservoirs were drawn into the newly opened 
fissure, and, by the extraordinary explosion that followed the terraces 
were destroyed, and the site of Rotomahara became a crater that threw 
mud over the surrounding country. 
THE YELLOWSTONE ‘“ GEYSERLAND.” 
The wonderful variety, the great number, and the large size of the 
geysers of America, found in the Yellowstone National Park, demand 
a somewhat longer account of this region, which I am the more willing 
to give as it has been my good fortune to have spent a large part of 
