220 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, occur there is a great rush of water from a large cavern beneath the bed 
of the lake. The temperature of the lake at seven a. m. was 72°, and 
that of the atmosphere 71°. During a shower of rain it rose to 74°: a 
thermometer at the level of the sea at the same time stood at 77°. One 
side of the lake was bounded by lofty perpendicular precipices, the other 
by a gentle slope covered with the varied verdure of trees, shrubs, and 
ferns, with a few herbaceous plants. The general appearance of the 
country suggested the idea of an enormous avalanche, which stopped 
up the valley, and intercepted the streams that heretofore found their 
way along its bed to the sea. 
The lake was estimated at 1 500 feet above the level of the sea, 
and the cliffs from which this avalanche appeared to have been pre- 
cipitated were considered to be eight hundred feet more, d'hough at so 
great a height, and so far from any large tract of land, this extraor- 
dinary basin is said to abound in fresh- water eels of an enormous size. 
On the margin of the basin, blocks of columnar basalt, with porous and 
vesicular lava, were heaped in great confusion. 
On the eastern side, Mr. Belcher found great quantities of vesicu- 
lar shaggy lava, which led him to suppose a volcano had existed in the 
vicinity ; and he remarks that many persons who have visited the lake 
were of opinion that it was a crater filled with water. In other parts he 
collected some very perfect crystals of basaltic hornblend, and found one 
or two of olivine on t^e surface of the vesicular lava. The lake appeared 
to be falling rapidly when they saw it ; at a place where Mr. Belcher 
was obliged to cross it there were eighteen inches of water ; some time 
after, at sunset, there were only six inches ; and the next morning the 
rock was dry. On examining this place he noticed a large chasm 
beneath a rock, through which it appeared the water had found an 
outlet ; and favoured the opinion of the basin being caused by an 
avalanche. 
The moral is the same as that exhibited in the voyage of Mr- 
Wilson, and mentioned by Captain Cook. Its measurements have been 
given in those voyages, and perhaps more correctly than the present 
dilapidated state of the edifice admits. But its history is interesting? 
as it was told by a descendant of the chief who erected it, and whose 
