THE HOT LAKES DISTRICT, NEW ZEALAND. 



141 



great thermal circulating system which extends over the whole 

 earth, which radiates from its two thermal poles which lie 

 near the equator, and are antipodes to each other. 



" Owing to my excitement and delight at finding that the 

 geyser answered in every respect to precisely the same general 

 laws and habits of play as many others under my care, except 

 upon a far grander scale, I came away without correctly 

 measuring the amount of spring in the Inferno Lake. The 

 height the geyser had been throwing its shot can be correctly 

 estimated, and also an approximate estimate of the amount of 

 force could be calculated, if the depth and area of the Inferno 

 Lake could be obtained. However, its shot has far exceeded 

 those witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Haines, which I read in that 

 excellent account by ]\Irs. Haines, published in your paper a 

 few weeks ago, viz., 600 to 800 feet. We left the geyser about 

 twelve o'clock, having been favoured with excellent weather, 

 favourable wind and display. We could get and remain close 

 enough to examine the machinery in its immediate neighbour- 

 hood, which all works like a band of music, with the Inferno 

 Lake acting as conductor. It will impress the visitor with the 

 might and power of Nature's forces." 



Since that account was written, I have heard that the 

 Wainiangu geyser has taken to throwing up, not only gold 

 quartz, but the raw material itself. But whether the report is 

 authentic I cannot tell. 



I have quite lately received accounts of the extraordinary 

 eruption which occurred last August, when four persons lost 

 their lives. But the accounts vary as to the height to which the 

 geyser played : one saying 800 feet, others even greater. From 

 the cross shoots observed during this eruption it is inferred 

 that some of Waimangu's subterranean tubes must descend at 

 considerable angles down into the earth. 



Shortly before this great eruption the Government guide 

 (whose brother was one of the victims) succeeded, with another 

 man, in crossing the geyser's basin — of course during quiescence. 

 The measurements of the basin were found to be 134 yards 

 long by 80 broad, and the greatest depth sounded was 48 feet. 



" Some idea of the force of the eruption of the geyser may 

 be gathered from the circumstance that a photograph taken 

 while it was playing shows a stone thrown up to an altitude of 

 1,800 feet, and the stone on falling was found to measure 

 8 feet by 1 2 feet." This seems doubtful. 



In order to bear out the assertion that this new geyser is 

 actually " by far the greatest in the world " it may be as well 



