The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1881-08-20
Wards Adventure in a
Zealand Volcano.
rrr.;o. Nforo;oo uora1d I


Utica Morning HERALD
Professor Henry A. Ward, formerly OF the
University of Rochester, n. Y, is writing
letters touching his travels in New Zealand,
some of which detail singular experiences.
In his last he says: ~ came from Auckland
by steamer south for 125 miles along the
east coast to the town Tamanga. l hired
twenty ton cutter and started to visit the sea
volcano. We sailed all night, and at day
break we had before us a great mountain OF
black scoria, $50 teet high, from the top of
which, with much force, went white clouds
of vapor to a height of fully 1000 feet.
Reaching the shore it was not easy travel
ing, for in places the black pebbles of the
beach were all astir with water boiling
ND through them-water so hot that a mis-
step might scald the foot seriously. At
this point the center wall has been broken
down almost to the sea level and we
could look into the great hollow
island. The crater is circular, full mile
in diameter, and hemmed in by walls many
hundred feet high and very Precipitous.
The crater floor was an uneven plain of vol
| canic ash and scOria, with many little fuma-
| roles or blow holes, through which hot sui
phur vapors came wheeling out while every
| few minutes there was beneath our feet a
smart trembling and a low, dull, rolling
1
| as we went along, and we soon found the
cause. We were stopped short by great
| lake of steaming water, quite filling this end
| of the crater, and being, as we could see when
the clouds lifted, nearly half mile from
| either side. The water was too hot to
comfortably bear the hand in it, and was,
| further, insupportable to either touch or
taste by strong infusion of alum and sui
phuric acid, which bit painfully ct any
scratch or sore upon our skin. On the fur
| ther border of the lake, and half around its
| shore, was row of the most violent sofia
taras which l have ever seen: They have
| built for themselves little pillar-like cones,
from ten to thirty feet high and YARD or
| two in diameter at its base, and through
these open chimneys they were trumpeting
steam and roaring sulphuric gases
with violence that was frightful
to contemplate and such demonlacal
screetching and din as afflicted our eyes,
even at the long distance where we stood
We dragged the rOw-bOat along the valcano's
floor and launched it upon the boiling lake
The water of the lake was of a milky OPAQUE
cast but We could feel with our oars that II
was in most places not over ten feet deep
Lines upon the shore showed that 1T daily
rose and fell slightly with the tide OF the ses
outside. In many spots the water was boiling
furiOusly with SO much froth and foam
while still its heat was much below INT
Dolling point Oh zlZ ranrehhei'' nv:
da.gerous places the abundant air In TIT
water diminished materially its buoyancy
and our boat sank alarmingly low in cross
ing them. We landed across the lake at on
. of the solfataras nearest to the beaca AM
proceeded to demolish it with our oars. L
was a chimney about two feet in diameter
clay without, and within it was lined wit,
crystals of sulphur of beautiful straw-yel
| low, splashed with vermili0n spots. Pusn
ing in the top of this chimney the fragment
would first fall down his throat and the
come flying out into the air with explosion
that were amusingly like prolonged ster
torian cough"