308 SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



The boatmen sang or rather chanted their wild and rhythmical 

 songs in unison with their rowing ; sometimes gently, and again 

 with a savage impulse that would send the boat aflying. This is 

 one of the refrains that came in most frequently : 

 "Waka tana, Kea wheta, Haka tu u" 



And the boat would fairly leap under the emphasis of the 

 last word. Our boatmen, like many of the Maoris, were great 

 improvisers. Some one of them would give each of us in turn 

 some native name ; and then you would hear that name come 

 out in his song with some other lingo that made them all roar 

 with laughter. It was very evident their remarks were personal, 

 and probably not very complimentary. It is rather a ticklish 

 sensation, I assure you, to hear one's self described in an unknown 

 tongue, by a parcel of savages who knew, or had often heard 

 their fathers tell, of the different flavors of the different breeds 

 of Englishmen. 



At the head of lake Tarawera we land at the mouth of the 

 outlet creek that connects lake Rotomahana with this lake. A 

 canoe is paddled up this creek with the luggage, but most of us 

 prefer to walk about a mile through the bush to lake Rotoma- 

 hana. This celebrated lake with its surroundings is undoubtedly 

 the greatest natural curiosity in the world. Here is a body of 

 water a mile long, set in among mountains, out of the sides of 

 which on every hand are continually pouring innumerable min- 

 eral and boiling springs of every variety and shade of impregna- 

 tion silica, sulphur, iron, lime, magnesia, soda, potash, everything 

 but pure water. In some places the springs are building up 

 immense deposits and incrustations ; in others they are dissolving 

 and crumbling down the solid mountains. No living thing exists 

 in the lake, and but a scanty vegetation in its vicinity. Its waters 

 are hot in all parts, and in places, over sunken springs, very 

 nearly boiling. As we were paddled over these heated and fetid 

 waters in a rolling log canoe, we called to mind the fabled Stygian 

 lake, and wondered if Rotomahana would not have made a more 

 impassable barrier on the borders of Erebus. 



We came upon this remarkable region just at the foot of the 

 White Terraces, Te Tarata," " The Tattooed " as the natives 



