Chap. IV. LEGEND OF TARANAKI. 'A 91 
the TVanganm. This stream takes its rise from a small 
lake, situated to the westward of the lowest part of the 
ridge which unites Ruapehu to Para te tai Tonga. The 
lake is at the bottom of a circular basin of rocks, five 
or six miles in diameter, which is stated by the natives 
to have once been the site of Mount Egmont. 
On quarrelling with his friend Tonga Riro about the 
affections of a small volcanic mountain in the neigh- 
bourhood, which is described as a lady mountain of most 
fascinating appearance, old Taranakl is said to have 
torn up his rocky foundations from this basin, and left 
the ragged and splintered edges to it, which are pointed 
out as proofs of the fact. He then clove a path through 
mountain and wood to the sea-coast, and the JVanganui 
sprang up in his ancient site, and followed his footsteps to 
the sea. So runs the native legend ; and the basin is called 
to this day Rua Taranaki, or Taranaki's Dyke. It most 
likely refers to some tremendous eruptions of nature which 
have doubtless torn these islands at some distant date. 
From this open and elevated spot we could distin- 
guish numerous glades like that by which we had en- 
tered the mania, shooting into the wooded country like 
the fingers of an outstretched hand, diverging from 
the volcano in various directions, and of different 
lengths and breadths. On the edges of that along 
which we had travelled, the trees were dead, and many 
of them scathed and blackened. And in the very cen- 
tre of the broad glade, especially among the swampy 
parts, we constantly came upon the trunks of huge trees, 
black as charcoal, and half buried in the soil. From 
these appearances, I concluded that the glades had been 
formed, at the time of these convulsions, by the irrup- 
tion of streams of burning lava into the woods. At 
present. Para te tai Tonga only vomits clouds of steam, 
and that only now and then ; but it has probably, at a 
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