39

THE GEOLOGY OF AUCKLAND. 35

The Hot Springs.

Intimately acquainted with the described volcanic pheno-
mena of the active and extinct volcanic mountains, are the
Solfataras, Fumaroles, and Hot Springs. They are found in a
long series, stretcing across the country in a N.N.E. 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 of precisely similar character to those in New Zealand.
The geysers or boiling fountains of Iceland, 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 the great geyser in Iceland,
yet in the extent of country in which 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 may
begin with -

1. The active craters of Tongariro, which are at present in the
condition of solfataras 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 Tokanu and Terapa springs on the
Southern extremity of the Taupo 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 Waipahihi, which, rising in the extinct
volcanic cone of Tauhara, 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
D