THE GEOLOGY OE AtTCKLAXI). 
oi? 
oO 
The Hot Springs. 
Intimatelv acquainted with the described volcanic phono- 
mena of the active and extinct volcanic mountains, are the 
Solfataras , Fimaroles , and Hot Springs. They are found in a 
long series, stretching across the country in a N.N.Jk direction, 
from the active crater Ngauruhoe in the Tongariro system, to 
the active crater of White Island (Whakari). They occupy the 
chasms and fissures to which I have already referred. 
There is only one other place in the world in which such a 
number of hot springs are found that have periodical outbursts 
of boiling water—that is, in Iceland , the well-known geysers of 
which are oi precisely similar character to those in Hew Zealand. 
The geysers or boiling fountains of Icelanci, long celebrated for 
possessing this property in an extraordinary degree, have, 
indeed, strong rivals in the puias and ngawhas of New Zealand. 
Although there may be no single intermittent spring in New 
Zealand of equal magnitude with „tlie great geyser in Iceland, 
yet in the extent of country in whicn such springs occur, in the 
immense number of them, and in the beauty and extent of 
the siliceous incrustations and deposits, New Zealand far exceeds 
Iceland. 
In enumerating the principal of this phenomena, we nray 
begin with— 
1. The active craters of Tongariro , which are at present in the 
condition of soifataras that may be called the state of repose of 
active craters, and with the hot springs rising on the slope and 
at the base of that mountain. 
2. We then pass on to the ToTcanu and Tempo, springs on the 
Southern extremity of the Taupe lake. The principal “puia” 
at Tokanu is called Pirori, an intermittent fountain whose 
column of boiling water, of two feet in diameter, sometimes 
reaches a height of more than 40 feet. 
3. On the opposite side of Taupo, at the Northern extremity 
of the lake, we again meet with hot springs, and with a river of 
warm water called WaipahiM, which, rising in the extinct 
volcanic cone of Tauliara, falls, in a vapour-crowned cascade, 
into Taupo. 
4. Descending from Taupo by the outlet of the Waikato, we 
find, on the left bank, in the midst of a great number of pools of 
I) 
