338 LAKES AND RIVERS. [PART 11. 



sea. Besides these proofs of a powerful volcanic 

 action, there is in that geographical line a chain 

 of lakes, most of them intimately connected with 

 the eruptive character of the country. Of these 

 lakes Taupo is the largest ; it has an irregular 

 triangular shape, its greatest length is about thirty- 

 six miles, its greatest hreadth not less than twenty- 

 five ; its borders are in many places deeply indented. 

 Several rivers fall into the lake from the southward, 

 and the common outlet of all of them is the Wai- 

 kato. These rivers take their rise in the snow- 

 covered group of the Ruapahu and Tongariro, and 

 from the hills in the neighbourhood of Hawke's 

 Bay. They flow through a low alluvial plain, 

 about fifteen miles in length, and of a triangular 

 shape. On both sides this flat is bounded by hills, 

 which are broken by narrow ravines; an isolated 

 dome-shaped hill, about 500 feet high, rises from 

 this flat. One of the rivers flowing through the 

 alluvial land is called by the natives Waikato, 

 being in fact the largest of all the rivers or creeks 

 flowing into the lake. Where it enters the latter, 

 it has formed a long and low spit of mud, over- 

 grown with bulrushes. This river carries down a 

 large quantity of pumices tone, which mixes with 

 the alluvial soil, or is carried by the Waikato to 

 the sea. The northern and western shores of the 

 lake are the most hilly, while the eastern shore is 

 much more open. Here, to the north-east, a vol- 

 canic cone marks the place where the river Wai- 

 kato issues from the lake. 



