140 Lecture on the Geology of [No. 9, new series. 



tinued my descent, and at 10 a. m., I reached my residence at Ro- 

 toaire, with the shoes almost torn off my feet. 



As far as I can learn, Mr. Dyson, in 1851, and Mr. Bid well, in 

 1839, are the only Europeans who have ascended the highest 

 cone of Tongariro. 



The difficulty of ascending Tongariro is still the same as when 

 Dr. Thomson published the foregoing account. " It does," as he 

 says, 



" Not entirely arise from its height, or the roughness of the 

 scorise, but from the hostility of the Natives, who have made the 

 mountain " tapu," or sacred, by calling it the backbone and head 

 of their great ancestor. All travellers who have asked permission 

 of the Natives to ascend Tongariro, have met with indirect re- 

 fusals. The only way to get over this difficulty is, to ascend the 

 mountain unknown to the Natives of the place, or even your own 

 Natives. Mr. Dyson did this, but his ascent was discovered by a 

 curious accident. During his progress up the mountain he took 

 for a time the little frequented path which leads along the base of 

 Tongariro to Whanganui. A Native returning from that place 

 observed his foot-marks, and knew them to be those of a Euro- 

 pean. As he saw where the footsteps left the path, he, on his 

 arrival at Rotoaire, proclaimed that a European was now wander- 

 ing about alone on the sacred mountain of Tongariro. The Na- 

 tives immediately suspected it was Mr. Dyson, and they went to 

 his house, waited his return, and took several things from him. 

 He was now a suspected man, and his conduct was watched." 



The second active crater of the Tongariro system, at the top of 

 a lower cone North of Ngauruhoe, is called Ketetahi. According 

 to the Natives the first eruption of this crater took place simulta- 

 neously with the Wellington earthquake of 1854. From Taupo 

 lake I saw large and dense volumes of steam, larger than those 

 from Ngauruhoe, emerging from the Ketetahi crater. The third 

 active point on the Tongariro system is a great Solfatara on the 

 north-western slope of the range. The hot sulphurous springs of 

 that solfatara are often visited by the Natives on account of the 

 relief they experience in respect to their cutaneous diseases.*) 



A grand impression is made upon the traveller by those two 



