402 
sudden catastrophe by falling in, and covering the Eotoreka-plain 
with a flood of hot mud. 
Our route continued across the marshy plain at the foot of the 
Pairoa- range. Anxious to reach a convenient place for camping, 
we marched on till after night fall; but we had after all to be con- 
tent with a place , where no firewood was to be had. We had ar- 
rived at the Waikite creek, where numerous deep pools with boil- 
ing water are scattered right and left, close by the road-side, and 
the natives deemed it a dangerous risk to pass there in the dark. 
The Maoris with timely foresight had provided themselves with 
tent-poles from the Manuka-shrubs on the Pairoa, and thus avg cam- 
ped in the immediate vicinity of the hot springs, the seething noise 
of which I had all night in my ears. 
April 26. — The Waikite springs are real boiling wells. In 
well-shaped, circular holes, six, eight or ten feet Avide and equally 
deep, partly clear, partly turbid water of a milky colour is boiling; 
in some of them also mere mud. None of them are full to the brim; 
nor are there any silicious incrustations to be seen. It is in con- 
sequence of this peculiarity , that plants can settle and spread upon 
the inside of the holes , and that the vegetation in them some- 
times reaches a depth of four feet. Whatever grows there, grows 
in a uniformly warm steam -atmosphere. The plants were ferns of 
luxuriant growth; but forms such as we had as yet observed now- 
here else. We were therefore very desirous of gathering them, al- 
though the job was not entirely without danger. The most success- 
ful method for accomplishing our object was that one of us laid 
himself flat upon the ground, and, while the others were holding 
him fast by the legs , gradually pushed the upper part of his body 
so far over the margin of the hole, that he could reach far enough 
down with one arm. Our delight on first seeing the beautiful ferns 
was fully justified; for the result proved they were species, 1 which 
are usually found only in tropical countries, and singularly occur 
here, in the interior of the island, isolated at a place, where by 
means of hot springs the proportions of moisture and temperature 
1 Nephrolepis tuberosa and Nephrodium molle . 
