TRANSACTIONS 
Nn NW 2a aan DPN Se Pos 
1-8 7 6. 
I.— MISCELLANEOUS. 
Amr. I.—Notes on the Lake District of the Province of Auckland. 
By W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S. 
, [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2nd September, 1876.] 
Turns is no part of New Zealand which offers greater points of interest to 
the traveller, whether scientifie or merely in search of the picturesque, than 
that which is popularly known as the Lake District of the Province of 
Auckland; and there can be no doubt that, with reasonable facilities for 
reaching it, it would be visited by very large numbers of persons both 
from this and the neighbouring Colonies. Indeed, I was much surprised 
to find, on glancing over the visitors’ books kept at the accommodation- 
houses at Ohinemutu and Wairoa, how many persons, especially from 
Australia, had already been attracted to it by the fame of the sulphur 
baths at Ohinemutu, and by the wonders of Rotomahana. Having had an 
opportunity, during the early part of last month, of making an excursion 
through parts of this district, I have thought it would be interesting to the 
Society if I put together, in the form of a paper, a short description of that 
part of it which the limited time at my command enabled me to visit, and 
certain facts communicated to me by residents on the spot (which were 
partly confirmed by my own observation) in reference to the remarkable 
voleanie phenomena which it everywhere exhibits. 
The Lake District comprises the larger lakes named Rotorua, Rotoiti, 
Rotokakahi, and Tarawera, and a considerable number of smaller lakes in 
the neighbourhood of these larger ones, of which Okataina, Okareka, 
Tikitapu, and others, are chiefly remarkable for the picturesque character 
of their scenery, whilst the Rotomahana, though somewhat deficient in this 
respect, surpasses them all in the interest and wonder which it excites, 
