structure, however, alternate banks ot a hyaline texture, in which 
the mass assumes more or less the character of obsidian. 
On the 28 lh April I started to the Rotomahana, — by land, 
because the gale blowing from South-West was too heavy, to cross 
the boisterous Tarawera in the small canoes. The distance is ten 
miles. The road leads over the heights on the South-shore of lake 
Tarawera. It is a much frequented foot-path, but very tiresome, 
because the traveller has continually to climb up and down over 
the broken ground. On the road we had a view of the regular 
volcanic cone Patauaki (Mount Edgumbe , 2575 feet high), a di- 
stance of about twenty miles to the North-East. The saddle-shaped 
excavation on the top indicates distinctly the existence of a crater, 
which, however, is extinct. At four p. m. we reached the northern 
shores of the far-famed Rotomahana (warm lake). 
I do not think, that the impression the traveller receives at 
first sight of the small, dirty- green lake, — with its marshy 
shores, and the desolate and dreary -looking, treeless hills about it, 
covered only with a dwarfish copse of fern — corresponds in any 
degree with his previous expectations conceived from hearing so much 
about the marvels of ehis lake. So it w r as at least with us. The lake 
lacks all and every beauty of landscape scenery; that which makes 
it the most remarkable of all New Zealand lakes, — indeed we may 
well say , one of the most wonderful points of the world — must be 
observed quite closely, it being mostly hidden from the eyes of the 
traveller on his first approach. It is only by the steam clouds ascend- 
ing everywhere, that he is led to suspect something worth seeing. 
AT found natives there with a canoe , as Mr. Spencer with 
friendly care had sent already a week ago provisions to the lake, 
supposing that we would travel directly from Taupo to the Roto- 
mahana. In the canoe we crossed over to a small island in the 
lake, called I'uai , and recommended to us by the natives as the 
best dwelling place during the time of our stay about the lake. 
I’uai is a rocky cliff in the lake, 12 feet high, 250 feet long, 
and about 100 feet wide. Manuka, grass and fern grow upon it, 
and for occasional visitors of the lake small raupo-huts have been 
