CHAP. XVII.] 



243 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Waimate, Lake Maupere, and Thermal Springs. 



AFTER emerging from the hills which surround 

 Hokianga on all sides, and which are still covered 

 with a primitive forest of pines, we descend into a 

 comparatively level country ; and about fifteen miles 

 from the head of the harbour we leave the bush, 

 and the country is open to the Bay of Islands. We 

 may regard the whole country to the westward and 

 northward of the Bay of Islands as a volcanic table- 

 land. If we enter this table-land from Hokianga 

 we have to our right the Lake Maupere. In its 

 immediate neighbourhood is an ancient crater, 

 which forms a regular cone, with the exception 

 that the western margin has fallen in. .Large 

 angular pieces of a very scoriaceous and vesicular 

 lava of different colours, and amygdaloidal basalt, 

 cover its sides and base. With much labour the 

 natives have collected these rocks into mounds, and 

 have cultivated the black soil between them. The 

 lavas and the crater closely resemble those in the 

 Auvergne. In general the lavas of New Zealand 



R2 



