353 
The terrace formation, so remarkable on the Waipa is still 
more marked in these as well as in all the other valleys of the 
Upper Wanganui district. There are here three terraces in the 
valley and as many on the declivities of the bordering hills. The 
former are cut into thick beds of pumicestone gravel, which fill 
the bottom of the valley; the latter into trachyte-tuff, composing 
the hills and mountains on the sides of the valley. To the ter- 
^Tgariha 
1350 - 
Terrace-formation in the Ongarulie- Valley. 
a. Tertiary sandstone and clay. b. Trachyte-tuff. c. Pumicestone-gravei. 
races on the sides of the valley correspond farther up the valley 
extensive table-lands covered witli pumicestone, and everything in- 
dicates to the observer that he is drawing nearer and nearer to a 
powerful volcanic hearth, from which those huge masses of pumice- 
stone and trachyte-tuff are originating. 
Hoping to have a view of the Tongariro and Ruapaliu, 
which we had approached by this time to within a distance of 
twenty-five miles, and in order to execute another series of obser- 
vations for the compilation of a map, I ascended the Ngariha on 
the 10 th of April. Although the mountain rises only 900 feet above 
the bottom of the valley, and is entirely free from woods, the as- 
cent was nevertheless quite difficult, as we had to break our way 
through ferns of the size of a man. Bathed in perspiration , we 
at length arrived at the top; but we found ourselves amply rewarded 
for our toils by the view now presented to our eyes. Even llie 
natives, who had accompanied us from Katiaho, and who had never 
before scaled this hill , were greatly surprised. The eyes of all 
turned in one direction. There lay the volcano Tongariro before 
us , all clear from foot to top. The still active cone , called by the 
natives Ngauruhoe, with its regular conical form arises majestically 
Tlorhstetter, New Zealand. 23 
