SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 311 



throwing great columns of water 30 and 40 feet high, others 

 dashing their boiling waters about their basins as if possessed by 

 a demon. It was frightful to witness the play of such mighty 

 forces, and then to think that all this was only the last expiring 

 manifestation of the tremendous volcanic agencies which once 

 tossed and tilted this rugged island. 



Leaving this side of the lake, we all got into the log canoe, 

 twelve of us dark and white, and were paddled across to the 

 Pink Terraces. Some think these are even more beautiful than 

 the White Terraces. There is the same enormous fountain of 

 silicated waters, and at about the same elevation above the lake. 

 The overflow has not spread over as much territory, or pushed its 

 marble pavement as far into the lake. But there is in the Pink 

 Terraces more regularity in the great semi-circular steps, while 

 the embossed sculpture of the frontal walls is tinged with a del- 

 icate and variegated pink. They are both, the White and the 

 Pink, among the most exquisite creations in nature. But to 

 decide between them is like the award of beauty among the 

 goddesses ; no mortal man could give it arid have any more peace 

 in life. 



Our guide, Kate, had reserved for the last halting place of our 

 trip, the unsurpassed luxury of a bath in a perfectly extravagant 

 supply of deliciously warm and medicated waters. The basins 

 of the higher steps of the Pink Terraces are spacious swimming 

 pools having a depth of four or five feet. The water is delight- 

 fully soft, and of course can be chosen of any desired tempera- 

 ture. It is of an indescribable blue tint, making objects immersed 

 in it glisten like burnished silver. The basins appear as if they 

 had been sculptured out of gorgeously tinted carnelian, 

 and overarched by cornices of mingled rubies and chalcedony. 

 No such baths ever existed elsewhere, outside of oriental pictures. 

 Here we all undressed and scrambled into the water, light and 

 dark together; such a salt and pepper group as would have sea- 

 soned the richest painting that ever yet was put on canvas. 



There is no place in any country where the thermal baths are 

 quite as enjoyable as in New Zealand. The great abundance of 

 the hot waters, and their exceeding softness as well as variety of 



