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our experiences on Terata. Tophet must have been a paradise to 
this spot; and if Dante could have visited Eotomahana, what fear- 
ful horrors would have been suggested to his vivid imagination. 
Across a platform of hot stones and the remains of an old 
sinter terrace broken up by the shifting soil, we find a geyser, 
once furiously active, now nearly extinct, and so quiet that it is 
used as a favourite cooking place by the natives, who dare not 
venture too close to the more terrible of the group. 
In a deep hollow of forbidding aspect are several mud holes 
ejecting an edible acidulated mud. We declined a meal upon 
such dainty fare, but one hole was suggestive of a giant’s 
porridge pot. The rising of bubbles, the annular eruptions* 
and the effects of volcanic discharges in plastic clay forming 
ridges and rings, would be interesting to a student of seleno- 
graphy. From hasty observation we. failed to trace any dis- 
tinct resemblance to lunar craters. 
The green lake, a pool of pea- green water, is a striking con- 
trast to the prevailing character of the scenery. The water 
is deep and cold, slightly acidulated ; but we are not aware of 
any analysis to account for its remarkably verdant colour. The 
border of the pool shades into blue, and its level is reported to 
be unaltered. 
There used to be a small steam-whistle, but some inquiring 
tourist, emulating the famous juvenile experiment upon the 
domestic bellows, inserted his walking-stick into the narrow 
vent and effectually stopped its music. 
There are several whares or native huts on this point and on 
two small islands in the lake, but they have been long since 
deserted except by rats and fleas ; the ground is so honeycombed 
with boiling springs that it must be very dangerous for occu- 
pancy. In one of these deserted huts we found luncheon pre- 
pared ; our potatoes and kaura (small cray fish) had been 
cooked in one of the natural kettles, and we found that Bass’s 
pale ale was not to be despised, although at a cost of 2s. 6d. per 
bottle and a porterage of many miles. 
Otakapuarangi — the Pink Terrace (PI. IX. fig. 1). 
A native canoe ferries the visitor across the lake to the foot 
•of the Pink Terrace, which is seen rising in fairy beauty, tinted 
as with rosy sunset hues, and like its paler sister broken into 
about fifty distinct terraces and cascades of varied height and 
form. Enclosed in a horse-shoe curve of the hill this formation 
becomes much narrower at its embouchure on the lake. 
Ascending the steps, the observer is struck with many points of 
resemblance to Terata, and also with essential points of difference. 
