162 REPORT— 1891. 



4. Toncjariro, NgauruJioe, and Buapchu as Volcanic Cones. 

 By H. Hill, B.A., F.G.S. 



Plates VI. and VII. 



Few places in New Zealand have received greater attention, 

 or, indeed, have demanded more attention, from geologists than 

 what has been appropriately termed the Volcanic Zone of the 

 North Island of New Zealand. Barely five years ago the de- 

 struction of the inimitable White and Pink Terraces, the disap- 

 pearance of the hot lake Botomahana, and the explosion of 

 Mount Tarawera, drew the eyes of the scientific world of 

 geologists to the spot which Hochstetter had made classic by 

 his exact and interesting description of that portion of the dis- 

 trict through which he travelled in the year 1859. 



Before the time of Hochstetter, New Zealand had not been 

 traversed by any geologist of eminence, if we except Dieffenbach, 

 nor had there been published any description of the volcanic 

 clistrict which could give to outsiders a true notion as to the 

 wonders to be seen there. But Hochstetter, much as he de- 

 sired to visit the district to the south of Tokaanu, situated at 

 the south end of Lake Taupo, and much as science would have 

 been benefited had he done so, dared not venture to journey 

 there. Even as INIoses of old viewed the Laud of Promise he 

 dared not enter, so Hochstetter viewed the TongariroEange, with 

 the mighty Euapehu as its furthest limit. But, great pakeha 

 though he was, he dared not disobey the command of Te Heu- 

 heu, the chief of Te Kapu, near Tokaanu, whose mana was 

 great and whose word was law. " Ko Tongariro te maunga, 

 ko Taupo te moana, ko Te Pleuheu te tangata : " so ran the 

 Native saying, which showed that the power or mana of Te 

 Heuheu extended from Taupo to Tongariro ; and Te Heuheu 

 had said that Tongariro was tcqnL, and that was enough. 



Since the date of the Tarawera eruption Sir James Hector, 

 Director of the Geological Survey of this colony. Professors 

 Hutton and Thomas, of the Canterbury and Auckland Colleges 

 respectively, and Mr. Percy Smith, the Surveyor-General, have 

 published descriptive and valuable accounts of what may be 

 appropriately termed the northern portion of the volcanic zone, 

 so that details both descriptive and geological are available for 

 students of vulcanology on the northern portion of the dis- 

 trict ; but information respecting the southern division is still 

 meagre and imperfect. Hochstetter, in his volume, describes 

 Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Euapehu, as far as he was able to 

 do so, from a distance, and he also relates an account of the 

 ascent of the active volcano of Ngauruhoe by a Mr. Dyson in 



