april — sept. 1859.] the Province of Auckland, 



137 



imagine that tremendous earthquakes occurred — that parts of the 

 newly-formed crust gave way and fell in, forming vast chasms and 

 fissures, which are now occupied by the Lakes, Hot Springs, and 

 Solfataras. 



Thus we now find in the central part of the Northern Island an 

 extensive volcanic plateau of an elevation of 2000 feet, from which 

 rise two gigantic mountains, Tongariro and Ruapahu. They are 

 surrounded by many smaller cones, as Pihanga, Kakaramea, Ka- 

 harua, Rangitukua, Puke Onake, Hauhanga. The natives have 

 well named these latter, " the wives and children of the two 

 giants Tongariro and Ruapahu ;" and they have a legend to the 

 effect, that a third giant named TaranaJci, formerly stood near 

 these two — but quarrelling with his companions about their 

 wives, was worsted in combat, and forced to fly to the West coast, 

 where he now stands in solitary grandeur, the magnificent snow- 

 capped beacon of Mount Egmont (8270 feet). These are the 

 three principal trachytic cones of the Northern Island. 



By far the grandest and loftiest of the three is Ruapahu, whose 

 truncated cone, standing on a basis of about 25 miles in diameter, 

 attains a height of 9 to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea — 

 about 3,000 feet of which is covered with glaciers and perpetual 

 snow. Ruapahu, like Taranaki, is extinct. Tongariro alone can 

 be said to be active. I was enabled to distinguish five craters on 

 Tongariro, three of which are to a certain extent active. Steam is 

 always issuing from them, and the natives state that from the prin- 

 cipal crater, called Ngauruhoe, on the top of the highest cone of 

 eruption (7500 feet), occasional eruptions of black ashes and dust 

 take place, accompanied with loud subterranean noises. I may re- 

 mark, that the shape of the cone is changing, the western side, for 

 instance, having, during the great earthquake at Wellington, in 

 1854, fallen in, so that the interior of the crater is now visible from 

 the higher points in the Tuhua district on the Upper Whanganui. 

 The remarkable fact, that snow does not rest upon some of the up- 

 per points of the Tongariro system, while the lower ones are cover- 

 ed all the winter through, shows that those parts are of a high 

 temperature. 



(*I had no opportunity myself of ascending Tongariro, but I have 

 Vol. xx. o. a. Vol. vi. n. s. 



