CHAP. XXIV.] HOT-SPRINGS. 339 



x 



The most interesting hot-springs and fumeroles 

 are in the delta which the Waikato has formed in 

 entering the lake on its left shore, and on the sides 

 of the hills which hound the delta to the south- 

 west. The scenery on the western shore of the 

 lake is magnificent, vigorous trees overhanging the 

 black trachitic or basaltic escarpments of the shore : 

 here and there are native houses and cleared places 

 on the precipitous hills. Where this shore joins 

 the delta of the Waikato there is a narrow belt of 

 flat land, on which stands the village of Te-rapa. 

 Behind it the hills rise to about 100 feet above the 

 lake. In ascending, the ground is found to be of 

 a high temperature ; the surface is often bare, or is 

 scantily covered with mosses and lichens ; it is 

 formed of a red or white clay of a soft and alkaline 

 nature, which the natives use instead of soap, and 

 sometimes eat. 1 Gaseous effluvia seem to have con- 

 verted the rock of the hill, which is basalt, and 

 sometimes amygdaloid, into this clay. When we 

 approach the top of this amphitheatre of hills, the 

 scene which presents itself is very striking. Va- 

 pours issue from hundreds of crevices, and in most 

 of these places there are shallow springs, the bottom 

 of which is a soft mud, into which a stick can be 

 easily driven ten feet. The temperature of the 

 water is from 200 to 212 Fahrenheit. In some 

 springs it has an argillaceous, and in others a sul- 

 phurous taste. A subterranean noise is continually 

 heard, resembling the working of a steam-engine, 

 1 Carbonate of magnesia. 



z2 



