96 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



feet in width, was quite still, except for the bubbles 

 which rose to its surface and the thin steam drifting 

 lazily upward. We passed the danger-line, threaded 

 our way carefully between the boiling springs, and 

 then, climbing down into the crater, stood finally on 

 the brink of the pool itself. One cares to remain but 

 a moment in such a position: Waimungu had ex- 

 ploded during the night and was not actually due to 

 work again for thirty-six hours ; yet the thought of 

 what would be our fate should an irregular eruption 

 occur rendered the spot a peculiarly unattractive 

 one and caused us to climb without delay back to 

 the plateau and so on up to the cliff above the basin. 

 It was well that we did so. Five minutes had 

 scarcely elapsed from the moment that we had stood 

 within the crater. My camera was pointed down 

 for a photograph from the summit of the cliff and I 

 had made the exposure. Then, even before there 

 was time to change the plate, the surface of the pool 

 began suddenly to seethe, I heard B. at my elbow 

 shouting, "My God, man, the thing's going off!" 

 But his voice was quickly drowned in the fearful 

 uproar that immediately ensued. For Waimungu 

 was in eruption ; the formerly placid pond was shot 

 in one terrifying blast into the air far above our 

 heads, black water, black mud, black rocks, and fol- 

 lowing them with the hissing of a thousand rockets 



