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MISS HILDA BOOED, ON 



geyser will be pla3'ing, also whether an intermittent geyser is 

 likely to be playing between times. We saw, for instance : — 



The Petrifying Geyser, plays high every 2 hrs. 25 mins. 

 The Twins „ „ „ 4-i- „ 



The Eagle's Nest „ „ „ 30 



Great Wairakei „ „ „ 8 



Dragon's Mouth „ „ „ 5 „ 



Feather plays often, but goes high every 2 hours. 

 Pack-Horse, Heron's Nest, and Black Geysers, etc., are 

 irregular. 



The " Pack-Horse " geyser is so named because it sprang up 

 at a spot where a pack-horse plunged about, at last putting 

 his hoof through the treacherous ground, much to his hurt, if 

 not to his destruction. 



Mr. Martin classifies " Pohutu " at Whakarewarewa as a 

 periodical geyser : " the finest geyser in the country," he says ; 

 but he had not, of course, then heard of " Waimangu." But, 

 after a three-months' sojourn within two miles of " Pohutu " I 

 find it necessary to differ from him ; at least, I do not under- 

 stand Mr. Martin in designating " Pohutu " a periodical geyser. 

 For during all that time it never plaved at regular intervals, 

 and by everyone in the neighbourhood it was consideied very 

 erratic indeed. I must own, however, that Mr. Martin says, 

 " Its discharge, tchen not interfered vjitk, occurs at regular 

 periods, and will continue as a beautiful display for two or even 

 three hours." I may add that Pohutu throws its water to a height 

 of 100 feet when at its highest. Now the means of interference 

 with the play of a geyser may be natural, or it may be artificial. 

 It is well known in the Hot Lake District of New Zealand that 

 the action of one geyser in the neighbourhood will often 

 determine the action of another ; or, on the other hand, it may 

 alter or prevent its play altogether. For instance, if one 

 geyser, situated on a certain volcanic crack of the earth's surface, 

 be particularly lively, it may exhaust some of the motive-power 

 which would otherwise be expended on another geyser situated 

 further along that crack, unless, as sometimes happens, all the 

 geysers in that neighbourhood are particularly lively at the same 

 time, which activity is specially noticeable after heavy rainfalls. 

 My crude, and no doubt unscientific, mode of expression may 

 very possibly make the facts I saw and noted appear to clash 

 with Professor Bunsen's Tube theory, which, it seems, would 

 point to the absolutely independent action of each separate 

 geyser. I may, however, be quite wrong in my surmise ; at any 



