THE HOT LAKES DISTRICT, NEW ZEALAND. 



185 



Sir James Hector to be the safety-valve of New Zealand : but 

 White Island also claims that distinction. 



Explosion craters are most extraordinary. We saw, or more 

 correctly speaking, heard, one at Wai-o-tapu as we were 

 walki)ig wearily by the alum cliffs and over the brilliant yellow- 

 crusted ground and amongst the many wonders there to be 

 seen, when we Were suddenly startled by an explosion just 

 under tlie earth at our very feet. And we saw another at 

 Whakarewarewa, called the " Torpedo." It is so named from 

 its position under a stream, where it keeps thro\ving up large 

 mud bubbles with a loud explosion each time. 



And now we come to our most important subject, namely, 

 Geysers. But how shall I describe them ? To say that they 

 are wonderful, beautiful, and even awful, beyond description, 

 seems to me to be usmg words which can convey but little 

 meaning to those who have never been fortunate enough to see 

 rthem for themselves. I suppose — indeed, I am sure — that 

 familiarity, even with the Hot Lake District, may to a certain 

 extent breed contempt. For, on our first arrival at Itotorua, 

 where geysers were playing all around us, and where the air 

 .was heavy and laden with strong sulphur fumes, 1 well 

 remember wondering, with an uncanny feeling, whether during 

 the night a new geyser might not burst up under the very 

 house in which we dwelt! But before we left we slept as 

 peacefully through minor shocks of earthquake as w^e should 

 here in England through an insignificant thunder-storm. But, 

 whilst the sense of fear may abate, the sense of awe and wonder 

 at these marvellous displays of the effects of subterranean lieat 

 .can only be stimulated and ever increased by the privilege of a 

 closer acquaintance with Dame Nature in her wrathful moods. 



Mr. Josiah Martin, to whom I have already referred, 

 mentions three distinct types of geyser action, as represented 

 in this district, namely, the intermittent, the periodical, and 

 the explosive. 



The intermittent geysers, are, of course, those in which the 

 accumulations of steam are liberated with a sudden outburst of 

 activity, very short in duration, and at uncertain intervals. 

 The " Crow's Nest " geyser at Taupo, already mentioned, is a 

 specimen of this type. I must have seen many others of this 

 class, but I cannot remember them with sufficient distinctness 

 to give them their names. 



But of periodical geysers we saw several in the Wairakei 

 Valley alone. We were hastened from one spot to another by 

 the guide, who knows exactly at what moment any particular 



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