transparent water in the form of a boiling fountain, 

 from which clouds of steam floated constantly upward. 

 This boiling spring formed an intermittent geyser, 

 which during its active intervals threw up a column of 

 water to a height of over 100 ft. The crater, however, 

 was always overflowing and the water, which was highly 

 charged with silica, had by a gradual process of deposi- 

 tion, extending probably over a vast period, formed the 

 present system of terrace (some twenty in number in- 

 cluding those below the surface of the lake.) The tempe- 

 rature varied from boiling point to 70^ F. at the foot 

 of the terrace, the summit of which was over 80 feet 

 above the level of the lake. On the western shore 

 (oj)posite to To Tarata) of the Lake (Rotomahana) lay 

 Te Otukapurangi or the "Fountain of the Clouded Sky^' 

 of the Maoris or the " Pink Terrace '\ rose from the 

 water of the lake to an altitude of nearly 1000 feet 

 (1110 feet measured by Mr K. Nicholls in '83.) Here 

 the deposits of silica assumed the same general formation 

 and each terrace of steps was gracefully and marvellous- 

 ly shaped with rounded edges which swept about in 

 waving curves. The various buttresslike masses which 

 supported the fringed edges of the terraces bent over 

 and formed miniature grottoes resplendent with festoons 

 of pink-tinted silica and rose-coloured stalactites which 

 appeared to have been woven together by nature into 

 an intricate network and the crystallised into their pre- 

 sent shape. Here the successive deposits or layers of 

 silica-rock did not assume, like those of Te Tarata a 



