up the cone I recollect I hailed with delight the mouth of the great chimney 
up which I had been toiling. The sun had just begun to dip, and I thought 
it might be about 1 p. m., so that I had ascended the mountain from the 
Rotoaire lake in about eight hours. I must confess as I had scarcely any 
food with me that I kept pushing on, at a good pace. On the top of Ton- 
gariro I expected to behold a magnificent prospect, but the day w r as now 
dowdy and 1 could see no distance. The crater is nearly circular, and 
from afterwards measuring with the eye a piece of ground about the same 
size, I should think it was six hundred yards in diameter. 1 The lip of the 
crater was sharp: outside there was almost nothing but loose cinders and 
ashes; inside of the crater there were large overhanging rocks of a pale 
yellow colour, evidently produced by the sublimation of sulphur. The lip 
of the crater is not of equal height all round, but I think I could have 
walked round it. The southern side is the highest, and the northern, where 
I stood, the lowest. There was no possible way of descending the crater. 
I stretched out my neck and looked down the fearful abyss which lay gap- 
ing before me, but my sight was obstructed by large clouds of steam or 
vapour, and I don't think I saw thirty feet down. I dropped into the crater 
several large stones, and it made me shudder to hear some of them re- 
9 
sounding as I supposed from rock to rock, — of some of the stones thrown 
in I heard nothing. There was a low murmuring sound during the whole 
time I was at the top, such as you hear at the boiling springs at Rotoma- 
hana and Taupo, and which is not unlike the noise heard in a steam en- 
gine room wdien the engine is at work. There was no eruption of water 
or ashes during the time I was there, nor was there any appearance that 
there had been one lately. I saw no lava which had a recent appearance; 2 
nothwithstanding all this, I did not feel comfortable where I stood in case 
of an eruption. The air was not cold — the ascent had made me hot — 
but 1 had time to cool, for I remained at the crater nearly an hour. At 
about 2 p. m., I commenced my descent by the same way that I ascended. 
A fog or cloud passed over where I was, and caused me to lose my way 
for a short time. When descending I saw between Tongariro and Ruapahu 
a lake about a mile in diameter. 1 could see no stream flowing out of it 
on its western side. An extinct crater may also be seen near the base of 
Tongariro. It was almost dark before I reached the Whanganui river, and, 
1 This estimate is at any rate much above the mark; the diameter of the crater 
can scarcely be more than 500 feet. 
2 Bidwill speaks of an entirely new stream of lava at the foot of the cone, 
about 3 / 4 of a mile long, and not yet covered with lichens; he describes the lava 
as black, hard and compact. 
