DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1097 



effort to convey an impression of their strange and singular beauty. One writer says: 

 "The dull, uninteresting aspect of the lake, and its scrubby vegetation, served rather to 

 enhance than to detract from the magnificence of those splendid natural stair-cases. The 

 White Terrace surpassed its sister in size and loveliness. At a distance it looked white 

 as alabaster, but on nearer approach was seen not to be white, but 'tinged with a faint 

 salmon or cream colour. Sometimes, when illuminated by the sunshine, it glittered with 

 the varied colours of an opal, an effect, however, not attributable to the substance of 

 the terrace itself, which was opaque, and so nearly white that a close inspection was 

 required to detect the delicate Hush over its surface, but arising from - the action of 



THE WHITE TERRACE. 



light upon the water rippling downwards to the lake. In the crater, and the baths 

 upon the lips of the terrace, this water was a lovely blue, and the crystals deposited 

 in its passage formed themselves into regular groups, covering the whole surface with a 

 line lace-work. There was not an inch of it that had not in this way been chiselled, 

 as it were, into graceful lines and curves which the natives, apt to seize upon resem- 

 blances, had appropriately compared to tattoo, from which the name of Te Tarata 

 was derived. The terrace was fan-shaped, with the crater at the apex, and the full 

 extension on the lake level ; the stairs or buttresses were also of unequal height, varying 

 from a few inches to twelve feet. The Pink Terrace has been formed like the \Yhite, 

 but it was of smaller area, the surface smooth as enamel, and of a pronounced pink 

 hue. The water in the crater was usually calm, just simmering and flowing gently over 

 the rim. One might stand on the margin and look far clown into its azure depths, a 



