1859.] HKArriV' — volcanic country, nkw Zealand. 249 



from Nos. 1 & 2 ? or are they dome-like risings, from the pressure of 

 a dyke below ? These subordinate craters do not range on the same 

 line with each other and the large one. 



c. No. 1 on the map, PI. XII., or Rangitoto Island (see also PL 

 XIII.), is a good type of another class, where successive eruptions, 

 each feebler than the preceding, appear to have taken place from 

 the same vent. 



By the first eruption of this volcano the whole base of the island 

 seems to have been constituted. The scoriaceous matter erupted 

 appears to have heaped itself up until the last scoria? flowed over a 

 crater-lip about 600 feet above the sea. It was then entirely a 

 scorial island (1 b, in PL XIII.), without any trace of tufa, or of 

 small cinders, and the scoriae sharp and clean, and almost vitri- 

 fied on the surface. The second period of eruption heaped up a 

 cone of ashes upon this (1 a, in PL XIII.). 



This second eruption appears to have been but feeble, for the 

 ashes from it are not diffused over the island. Indeed, in some 

 parts of the island there is such an absence of small cinders that 

 vegetation cannot exist, for want of a suitable substance in which to 

 spread a root. A third eruption now took place ; the sides of the 

 cone were broken down by some sluggish lava-streams ; and a new 

 cone (1, in PL XII.) within the last became formed, its highest point 

 being 920 feet above the sea. 



The crater of the highest cone is about 200 yards in diameter, 

 and about 100 yards deep. The scoriae are very sharp, and also 

 wholly undecomposed. 



Another interesting example is met with in Mount "Wellington, of 

 which a sketch-plan is annexed (fig. 7). Here the tufa-crater, A, ap- 

 pears to be the oldest ; it is nearly circular, with a swampy hollow (a), 

 containing a central cone with a partly obliterated crater. The 

 great crater, B, seems then to have come into action ; and sub- 

 sequently the subordinate crater, D, which has thrown out a stream 

 of scoriae, E, to the eastward. This has run into, and partly filled, 

 the hollow, a, before it found an outlet to the northward. 



The question now remains, — how long a period has elapsed since 

 the most recent of these volcanos has been in activity, and are 

 they finally extinct, or merely quiescent? The. relative ages of the 

 different eruptions may be easily determined by careful observa- 

 tion; but the lapse of time since the last took place cannot now 

 even be fairly guessed at. 



It would, however, appear thai the Island of Rangitoto was one 



of the latest in operation. And though the natives have no tra- 

 ditions of this mountain, or indeed of any about Auckland, having 

 been in a state of activity, yet the name which it bears— and con- 

 spicuously in their old songs and traditional stories — is most sig- 

 nificant. Rangitoto means, literally and simply, •■ Bloody sky." 

 Thus. Rangif sky; toto, bloody— a term never used to indicate 

 the red sky of evening or morning. 



The traditions of the New /ealander> yield evidence that the 



