CHAP. VII.] OF MOUNT EGMONT. 157 



dicated the former existence of an active volcano. 

 A most extensive view opened before us, and our eye 

 followed the line of coast towards Kawia and Wai- 

 kato. The country over which we looked was but 

 slightly elevated ; here and there broken, or with 

 irregular ramifications of low hills, towards the 

 snowy group of the Ruapahu in the interior, which 

 bore N. 60 W. I had just time to look towards 

 Cook's Straits and distinguish Entry Island, when a 

 dense fog enveloped us, and prevented all further 

 view. Whilst waiting in the hope that the fog 

 would disperse, I tried the temperature of boiling- 

 water with one of Newman's thermometers, and 

 found it to be 197, the temperature of the air being 

 49, which, taking 55 as the mean of the tempera- 

 tures at the summit and the base, would give 8839 

 feet as the height of Mount Egmont; the whole 

 calculated according to the tables given in an article 

 published in the London 'Geographical Journal/ 

 vol. viii., and communicated by Lieutenant-Colonel 

 W. H. Sykes, F.R.S. 



I have above mentioned that the cone, forming 

 the summit of Mount Egmont, rises from a plat- 

 form. The cone of cinders and scoriaceous lava is 

 separated from this platform by a deep saddle, which 

 descends laterally towards the sides of the mountain. 

 The high rocky walls, near the source of the Wai- 

 wakaio, show the composition of the exterior cone 

 to be a hard lava of a bluish-grey colour, which 

 resounds to the hammer like phonolite or clink- 



