CHAP. XVII.] MINERAL SPRINGS. 245 



some curious thermal springs. In order to visit 

 them we leave Waimate, and ascend a hill, from 

 which three of the volcanic cones above mentioned 

 present themselves to our view, in an extensive 

 depression of the table-land below. The field is 

 spead over with fragments, often more than fifteen 

 feet in diameter, of a slate-coloured basaltic rock, 

 the spaces between which are covered with fern and 

 flax ; while here and there are patches planted with 

 Indian corn and potatoes. After passing a small 

 native settlement, and crossing a ravine, we ascend 

 a ridge of hills, very barren and steep, with a white 

 clay on the surface, and evidently covered in former 

 times with the kauri-pine. We now come to a 

 lake about one mile in circumference. On its shores 

 are black and half-burnt stems of kauri, and the 

 soil in the neighbourhood is covered with efflora- 

 tions of pure sulphur. At a little distance is another 

 lake, called Ko-huta-kino, smaller than the former, 

 and near this are the mineral springs. There are 

 several of them, all close to the lake. The first 

 which I examined was strongly aluminous, and of a 

 temperature of 62 Fahrenheit. A few feet from it 

 was a tepid spring, of a milk-white colour and an 

 alkaline taste : its temperature was 12.4. A third 

 was acidulous, with a temperature of 154 Fahren- 

 heit. In another, over which rose strong sulphuret- 

 ted hydrogen gas, the thermometer stood at 133, 

 while the temperature of the surrounding air was 80 

 Fahrenheit (Dec. 4. 1840). 



