SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 309 



call them. They are composed of a series of huge semi-circular 

 steps, rising one back of another until they have reached up the 

 mountain side to a height of nearly one hundred feet. The 

 material is a silicious sinter, deposited from surcharged hot 

 waters, and forming the purest white and most beautiful incrus- 

 tations. As these chemical solutions are destructive to shoes, we 

 climb the steps in stocking-feet. The water that trickles over 

 them grows hotter and hotter as we ascend until we can no longer 

 bear it, and have to hasten out to the sides. Arrived at the top, 

 if the wind is blowing the steam away from us, we can stand on 

 the brink of the huge caldron of boiling and spouting waters. 

 The chasm is a hundred feet across, and in the midst of the 

 clouds of steam we can occasionally see great columns of water 

 thrown up fifteen to twenty feet high. The color of the water 

 that we can see is an intense brilliant blue, even tinging the steam 

 clouds above it the same blue color. 



The fountain of the "White Terraces is a true intermittent 

 geyser. The basin is often completely emptied by an explosive 

 effort that throws the contents to a height of forty feet, inundat- 

 ing everything about it with scalding waters. It however 

 ordinarily rapidly fills up again. But the natives say that when 

 the winds blow strong in a certain direction, the water recedes 

 entirely from the fountain, and they can look down into it as into 

 a deep crater. This is certainly a very singular and inexplic- 

 able phenomenon. I would hardly have believed it if I had 

 not the evidence of a photograph of the terraces with the water 

 nearly all drained out of the step-basins. 



Yery hot water will take up and hold considerable quantities 

 of silica in solution ; but as it cools it loses that power, and con- 

 sequently must leave it deposited. It is owing to this fact that 

 these remarkable terraces have been built up on this grand scale 

 and after the thousands of years that this silicated spring has 

 been pouring out its volumes of water. The pools of hot water 

 that are found in most of the steps, being continually fed with 

 hotter water from above, will not of course grow colder, and 

 consequently will not deposit silicious matter on the bottom or 

 sides. Therefore the basins never decrease in depth or size. But 



