170
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

But whether it was three hours or four that I was
clambering up the cone Lrecollect Thailed with delight
the month of the great chimney up which I had been
toiling. The sun had just begun to dip, and I thought
it might be about i p.m., so that I had ascended the
mountain from the Rotoaire lake in about eight hours.
I must confess as I had scarcely any food with me
that I kept pushing on at a good pace. On the top of
Tongariro L'expected to behold a magnificent prospect,
but the was now cloudy and I could see no dis-
tance. The crater is nearly circular, and from after-
wards measuring with the eye a piece of ground about
the same size, I should think it was six hundred yards
in diameter The lip of the crater was sharp out-
side there was almost nothing but loose cinders and
ashes; inside of the crater there were large over-
hanging rocks of a pale yellow colour, evidently pro-
duced by the sublimation of sulphur. The lip of the
crater is not of equal height all round, but I think I
could have walked round it. The southern side is the
highest, and the northern, where I stood, the lowest.
There was no possible way of descending the crater.
I stretched out my neck and looked down the fearful
abyss which lay gaping before me, but my sight was
obstructed by large clouds of steam or vapour, and I
don't think I saw thirty feet down. I dropped into
the crater several large stones, and it made me shudder
to hear some of them rebounding as I supposed from
rock to rock. of some of the stones thrown in I heard
nothing There was a low murmuring sound during
the whole time I was at the top, such as you
hear at the boiling springs at Rotomahana and Taupo,
and which is not unlike the noise heard in a steam
engine room when the engine is at work. There was
no eruption of water or ashes during the time I was
there, nor was there any appearance that there had
been one lately. I saw no lava which had a recent
appearance; notwithstanding all this, I did not feel
comfortable where I stood in case of an eruption. The
air was not cold-the ascent had made me hot-but I
had time to cool, for I remained at the crater nearly
an hour. At about 2 p.m., I commenced my descent
by the same way that I ascended. A fog or cloud
passed over where I was, and caused me to lose my
way for a short time. When descending I saw between
Tongariro and Ruapahu a lake about a mile in
diameter. I could see no stream flowing out of it on
its western side. An extinct crater may also be seen
near the base of Tongariro. It was almost dark
before I reached the Whanganui river, and, although
in strong condition and a good walker, I felt com-
pletely done up, and I fell asleep in a dry water-course
The night was cold, but I slept soundly until daylight,
when I immediately rose and continued my descent,
and at 10, a.m, I reached my residence at Rotoaire,
with the shoes almost torn off my feet.

As far as I can learn, Mr. Dyson, in 1851,
and Mr. Bidwell, in 1839, are the only
Europeans who have ascended the highest cone
of Tongariro.

The difficulty of ascending Tongariro is
still the same as when Dr. Thomson published
the foregoing account. "It does," as he says,
Not entirely arise from its height, or the roughness
of the scoriæ, but from the hostility of the natives,
who have made the mountain "tapu," or sacred, by
calling it the backbone and head of their great ances-
tor. All travellers who have asked permission of the
natives to ascend Tongariro, have met with indirect
refusals. The only way to get over this difficulty is,
to ascend the mountain unknown to the natives of the
place, or even your own natives. Mr. Dyson did this,
but his ascent was discovered by a curious accident.
During his progress up the mountain he took for a
time the little frequented path which leads along the
base of Tongariro to Whanganui. A native returning
from that place observed his foot-marks, and knew
them to be those of a European. As he saw where
the footsteps left the path, he, on his arrival at Roto-
aire, proclaimed that a European was now wandering
about alone on the sacred mountain of Tongariro.

The natives immediately suspected it was Mr. Dyson,
and they went to his house, waited his return, and
took several things from him. He was now a sus-
pected man, and his conduct was watched.

The second active crater of the Tongarito
system, at the top of a lower cone North of
Ngauruhoe, is called Ketetahi. According to
the Natives the first eruption of this crater took
place simultaneously with the Wellington
earthquake of 1854. From Taupo lake I saw
large and dense volumes of steam, larger than
those from Ngauruhoe, emerging from the
Ketetahi crater. The third active point on
the Tongariro: system is a great Solfatara on
the north-western slope of the range. The
hot sulphurous springs of that solfatara are
often visited by the natives on account of the
relief they experience in respect to their cuta-
neous diseases.*)

A grand impression is made upon the tra-
veller by those two magnificent volcanie cones,
-Ruapahu, shining with the brilliancy of per-
petual snow, Tongariro, with its black cinder-
cone.capped with a rising cloud of white steam;
the two majestic mountains standing side by
side upon a barren desert of pumice (called by
the natives, One-tapu,) and the whole reflected,
as by a mirror, by the waters of Lake Taupo.

LAKE TAUPO is 22 English miles long
in the direction from te Terepa to Tapuacha
ruru, and 16 broad. This lake is surrounded
by elevated pumice stone plateaus, about 2000
feet above the sea, and 700 feet above the
lake. The Waikato river, taking its rise from
Tongariro, flows through the lake, traversing
the pumice-stone plateaus on either side. In
accordance with the names I have already pro-
posed for the Middle and Lower Waikato
Plains, the Taupo Country will form the
"Upper Waikato Basin"*

It is one of the most characteristic
features in the structure of the Northern
Island, that, from the shores of Taupo
lake, an almost level pumice-store, plain-
called Kuingaroa Plain-stretches at the foot
of the East Cape range, with a very gradual
descent to the coast between Whakatane and
Matata. A plain which, though now present-
ing a sterile appearance, will, I hope, at no
distant day, be converted into fine grassy plains,
capable of supporting large flocks of sheep.

In a similar way, a higher volcanic plateau,
consisting of trachytic tuff and breccia, and
various other volcanic rocks, stretches in a
more northerly direction to the East Coast,
between Maketu and Tauranga, the farthest
extremities of which reach even to the Auck-
land District. On one side of Hauraki Gulf,

• The following positions of some of the principal
  points in the Upper Waikato Basin, as they result
  from my observations, may be of interest: -