344 VOLCANIC MOUNTAIN [PART II. 



tween them, the rain and melted snow had collected 

 into ponds, and in the furrows which the rills had 

 made in the pumiceous soil there was ice. The 

 vegetation consisted of several kinds of coarse tufty 

 grass, dry and yellow from the cold of winter. 

 There were scarcely any other plants in the hollow, 

 but on ascending the ridge I found some curious 

 ones ; several of them were compositous plants. 

 A dwarf Dacrydium, and a very small Gaultheria 

 with purple berries, were the most interesting. 

 The season, however, was not favourable for bota- 

 nizing. The crest of this range was covered with 

 large fragments of black vesicular basalt, ten or 

 twelve feet in diameter. From it opened a very 

 novel view over the heights of the Tongariro, from 

 which a cold south-easterly wind blew with much 

 violence. Our height seemed to be 3468 feet above 

 the level of the sea, and 1576 feet above the level 

 of the Taupo lake, as the temperature of the boil- 

 ing water was 206'5, and that of the air 49 . 1 



Separated from us by a valley about three miles 

 broad, rose a bulky group of mountains, of which 

 a very truncated cone, the Tongariro, bore due 

 south. This cone was only partly covered with 

 snow ; white vapours rose from time to time from 

 the top. From the sides of the hills upon which 

 it stood, and which were steep and bare, smoke 



1 Mr. Bidwill found, near the same spot, on the 5th of March, 

 that the barometer stood at 25 iJ inches, and the thermometer at 

 45. 



