08 
EXPLANATION OF THE MAPS. 
The name of u "Warm Lake 51 (Roto—lake; mahana—*warm) 
may in the full sense of the word he given to it. The masses 
of boiling hot water which spring up along the banks and from 
the bottom of the lake, are really collossal. Of course the 
whole lake is warmed by them, but the temperature of the 
water differs considerably in various places, as they are nearer 
or further from the springs. At many points, even in the 
centre of the lake, the thermometer rises from 30° to 40° c., (86° 
to 104° F.) while near its stream 1 found it only 26° c. (78*8° F.) 
The water is thick and swampy, and neither fish nor shell-fish 
can live in it. Otherwise the lake is a favourite resort of innu¬ 
merable aquatic birds, who build their nests on its warm 
banks, while they find their food in the waters and swamps of 
the cold lake Roto-makariri. The natives shoot them at certain 
seasons, but at other times they do not permit either Europeans 
or themselves the pleasure of sport. The birds of Roto-mahana 
are at this period strictly “ tapu.” 
\ isitors who intend to stay a few days at the lake are 
recommended by the natives to select as their quarters the 
small island Puai. This is a rock, 12 feet high, 250 feet 
long, and nearly 100 feet wide. Small huts are there 
erected, in which we made ourselves as comfortable as pos¬ 
sible. But I believe that any one who did not know that 
persons have lived here for several weeks, would only with 
great difficulty be persuaded to remain here even for one 
night. The continual roaring, rushing, singing, buzzing, boiling 
sound, and the intense heat of the ground, impresses a feeling of 
terror, and during the first night of my stay I awoke suddenly, 
as the ground under me became so hot that I could not possibly 
bear it. In examining the temperature, I made a hole in the 
soft ground, and placed the thermometer in it. It rose imme¬ 
diately to boiling-point, and when I took it out, a stream of 
hot steam instantly ascended; so that I hastened to cover it 
again as fast as I could. Indeed, the whole island is nothing 
but a torn and fractured rock, decomposed and softened by 
steam and gases, which, almost boiled to softness, may at any 
moment tumble to pieces, and vanish in the hot water of the 
Jake. Hot water bubbles up everywhere, either below the 
surface of the lake or above it ; and wherever a hole is made in 
the ground^ or the crust removed which is formed over the 
