Criwfokd. — Geolorjij of tJie Noi^th Island of New Zealand. 323 



ashes and cinders were gi'adually formed. These eruptions breaking tlirougla 

 the original submarine layers of trachytic lava, breccia and tuff, raised them 

 and left them, as we now find them, forming a more or less regular belt 

 round the central cones, and having a slight inclination from the centre 

 outwards. These belts I shall have occasion to refer to under the name of 

 ' tuff craters,' or ' cones of tuffs,' or ' craters of elevation.' In the course of 

 time the volcanic action decreased, and we must now imagine that tremend- 

 ous earthquakes occurred, that parts of the newly-formed crust gave way 

 and fell in, forming vast chasms and fissures, v^^hich are now occupied by the 

 lakes, hot springs, and solfataras. 



" Thus we now find in the central part of the Northern Island an exten- 

 sive volcanic plateau of an elevation of 2,000 feet, from which rise two 

 gigantic mountains — Tongariro and Ruapehu. They are surrounded by 

 many smaller ones, as Pihanga, Kakaramea, Kaharua, Hangitukua, Puke 

 Onaki, ITauhanga. The natives have well-named these latter — ' the wives 

 and children of the two giants Tongariro and Euapehu ' — and they have a 

 legend to the effect that a third giant, named Taranaki, formerly stood near 

 these two, but quarrelling with his companions about their wives, was 

 worsted in combat and forced to fly to the West Coast, where he now stands 

 in solitary grandeur, the magnificent snow-capped beacon of Mount Egmont 

 (8,270 feet). These are the three principal trachytic cones of the Northern 

 Island. 



" By far the grandest and loftiest of the three is Euapehu, whose 

 truncated cone, standing on a basis of about twenty-five miles in diameter, 

 attains a height of 9,000 to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, about 

 3,000 feet of which is covered with glaciers and perpetual snow. Euapehu, 

 like Taranaki, is extinct ; Tongariro can alone be said to be active. I was 

 enabled to distinguish five craters on 'Tongariro, three of which are, to a 

 certain extent, active. Steam is always issuing from them, and the natives 

 state that from the principal crater, called Ngauruhoe, on the top of the 

 highest cone of eruption (6,500 feet), occasional eruptions of black ashes 

 and dust took place, accompanied by loud subterranean noises." 



To this description I will add that Tongariro appeared' to me to be a 

 truncated cone, of which the main crater had fallen in, and had j)robably 

 at one time exceeded Euapehu in height. Ngauruhoe rises from its flank 

 as a lateral cone. 



The plateau under the eastern side of Euapehu is called Onetapw, or 

 sacred ground. The wild appearance of this tract is well described by 

 Dieffenbach. Here the trees, principally birch and totara, are dwarfed from 

 the elevation, and the ground is scarred by the washing of torrents or from 

 the effects of winter frosts. 



