CHAP. XXV.] WAIKATO RIVER. 375 



told me it was a custom that the stranger should 

 have food, and, if he could not get any given him, 

 he was entitled to take it where and how he could. 

 The disappointment which our last night's hosts 

 would feel when they perceived by the entrails that 

 we had obtained for nothing what they had refused 

 to give us even at a high price, tilled our three 

 natives with delight, and was the subject of much 

 mirth during the whole evening. We took up our 

 quarters on the banks of a large bight, which the 

 lake of Taupo forms at this place, and from which 

 the Waikato issues. Large blocks of a black 

 basaltic lava were lying along the verge of the 

 water. We obtained sufficient fire- wood from a 

 totara-tree which had been washed on shore. The 

 only other wood within our reach was slender 

 stems of the kahikatoa. On this side of the lake 

 wood is very scanty, and is only seen on the top 

 and in the ravines of the Maunga-Tauhara. 



The Waikato is here a very considerable stream, 

 about three hundred yards wide, and apparently 

 very deep. At a distance of about ten miles from 

 us white smoke rose at different points in regular 

 jets, showing the existence of hot-springs of consi- 

 derable size. On the 29th we followed the shores 

 of the bight, and here also steam was issuing at 

 many points on the banks, and from the water of 

 the lake itself near the margin; in the lake the 

 water was lukewarm. Several streamlets coming 

 from the Maunga-Tauhara here discharge their 



