THE HOT LAKES DISTRICT, NEW ZEALAND. 



143 



rest of tlie tlieiiiial region in New Zealand, and undoubtedly acts 

 as a safety valve for the North Island. It is not often visited ; 

 l)iit an excursion is annually run from Opotiki, from which it 

 takes about tliree hours' steaming. Anchorage can only be got 

 in one place, Crater Bay, in about fifty fathoms of water. At 

 certain times, when the air is calm, enormous clouds of steam 

 remain suspended over the island, and can be seen for ndles. 

 Arrived on the island, it is found that only the outside shell 

 remains, the interior being occupied by a lake half a mile long 

 and a quarter of a mile in breadth. The water of the lake is a 

 beautiful green, and is composed of dilute hydrochloric acid, 

 which is ruinous to cotton materials. Directly the water 

 touches it the material loses all its colour and then falls tu pieces. 

 Parts of the lake are boiling, while other parts are cold. At 

 times tlie water of the lake pours into tlie active crater and is 

 rapidly ejected hi clouds of steam. The lake is only six years 

 old, and each year it increases in size, and the time seems not 

 lar distant when the island will be covered with water. The 

 whole surface of the island is composed of sulphur of every 

 possible tint, and some years' ago a party of men were left on 

 the island for the purpose of collecting sulphur for export. 

 After a short stay they were so frightened by the awful 

 surroundings and violent volcanic action that they could not be 

 persuaded to remain any longer. It is sold that a species of 

 rat, red in colour, lives on the island and thrives on a small 

 kind of crab. The fumes of the sulphur are in places over- 

 powering, and w^alking is very dangerous, the safest way 

 being to test every step with a stick before proceedings as in 

 many places the surface is merely a thin crust." 



Before concluding, I should be very glad if anyone here 

 could give, or sugoest, a reason why the " Waimangu Geyser " 

 sprang up so suddenly ? And why it began by assuming such 

 huge proportions ? Assuming, on the " tube " theory, that it 

 has a tube, it does not, I suppose, necessarily follow that the 

 depth of the tube must be in proportion to the height of the 

 geyser's play ? I gather, rather, that it is the reverse' ; for the 

 tube of the " Great Geyser " in Iceland, which is 76 feet deep 

 (and has, I imagine, been growing from below, upwards) has 

 taken, it is estimated, over 1,000 years to form, and we know 

 that its play is on the decrease. 



If then " Waimangu " already has a tube, why has it only so 

 lately made its appearance ? If it has as yet no tube, where 

 does it hold the great bulk of water hurled into the air, together 

 with huge rocks of a rhyolitic character every two or three days? 



