CHAP. XXIV.] LAKE TAUPO. 343 



temperature, which must be regarded as boiling, 

 these springs seem most to resemble those of Iceland. 

 I shall have to describe others which rival them in 

 grandeur. It will readily be imagined that the 

 impression which this assemblage of volcanic waters 

 makes upon the mind of the beholder is one of no 

 ordinary kind ; knowing as he does that only a thin 

 and frangible crust, spreading over an immense 

 area, separates him from a heated mass, the source 

 of whose heat is still a mystery. 



Although these springs issue from what may be 

 considered a delta, yet the greater part of it is evi- 

 dently an original formation, and the alluvial soil 

 only occupies a small part. The hills which bound 

 the valley to the westward terminate in a remark- 

 able rounded hill, with a saddle-like indentation on 

 its top, and called Pihanga te Waheni na Tongariro 

 (Pihanga the wife of Tongariro). The Waikato 

 flows round the southern slope of this hill, and 

 there enters the flat country. 



In ascending the hills behind Te-rapa, after 

 passing the fumeroles on the sides, we cross over 

 some excellent fern-land, and enter a forest, which 

 principally consists of matai, kahikatea, and hinau 

 (Elaeocarpus hinau). I observed here for the first 

 time a new and beautiful species of Dracaena, with 

 broad leaves, striped purple and green. But soon 

 the vegetation becomes stunted, and I found myself 

 in a desert mountainous region, surrounded by 

 rugged hills. On the flat ground which lay be- 



