StNicholas [serial] . Mountain, made up entirelyof earths tinted scarlet and purple, orange and IN THE LAND OF FIRE AND STEAM 497 pink and green. The valley below is fairly robedin vapor-clouds; and here within a few acres areten mighty geysers of boiling water in activeeruption, beside hundreds of miniature mud-vol-canoes forever thumping and bubbling. The very precipices hemming in the valley arestone walls so hot that one can not rest oneshand upon them; and all through the treacherousscrub the ground is quivering and muttering andthrowing sulphur-laden steam. Here is the strangest of volca
StNicholas [serial] . Mountain, made up entirelyof earths tinted scarlet and purple, orange and IN THE LAND OF FIRE AND STEAM 497 pink and green. The valley below is fairly robedin vapor-clouds; and here within a few acres areten mighty geysers of boiling water in activeeruption, beside hundreds of miniature mud-vol-canoes forever thumping and bubbling. The very precipices hemming in the valley arestone walls so hot that one can not rest oneshand upon them; and all through the treacherousscrub the ground is quivering and muttering andthrowing sulphur-laden steam. Here is the strangest of volcanoes, Mount Kakaramea, whoseentire north side appears to have been boiled softby steam from the interior of the earth, so that itappears on the point of collapse. Its summit isblazing crimson in hue; while from every crackand cleft, fierce jets of steam and boiling waterare streaming. It is no wonder the gentle Maori fear suchphenomena. One dark night years ago the nativetown of Te-Rapa was buried, like another Hercu-. THE HUGE BOILING LAKE OF ROTOMAHANA. Champagne Cauldron, the mouth of whichmeasures eighty feet from lip to lip; the bottleis eighty-three feet deep, evidently blown out ofthe solid rock. Amid dense clouds of scaldingsteam the water shoots up periodically, an exquis-ite blue in hue, churned into dazzling foam, out ofwhich effervescent waves are flowing fast uponeach other to the ice-cold river below. Roundabout are great porridge cauldrons, throbbinglike steam-engines, and lovely sapphire-blue poolswith snow-white borders. Only a couple of milesfrom the native village of Tokaanu lies the laneum, under an avalanche of steaming mud, andevery soul perished. Higher up is the smokingpeak of Ngauruhoe, casting hot stones and asheswith violent explosions, and lighting by night thelovely face of Lake Taupo. Look down the walls of Ngauruhoes craterand you will see it literally incrusted with glitter-ing sulphur crystals, weirdly varied with opales-cent shades of red. Is i
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
