Huntsville gazette., 1881-08-27
Adventure in New Zealand Volcano,

Prof. Henry A. Ward, formerly of the
University Of Rochester, N. Y, is writ
ing letters touching his travels in New
Zealand, some of which detail singular
experiences. In his last he says: "I
came from Auckland by steamer south
for 125 miles along the east coast to
the town Of Tamanga. I hired a twen-
ty-ton cutter and started to visit the sea
volcano. We sailed all night and at
day-break we had before us great
mountain OF black scofIa, $50 feet high,
from the top of which, with much
force, went white clouds of vapor to
height of nearly 1000 feet. Reaching
the shore it was not easy travelling, for
in places the black pebbles of the beach
were all astir with water boiling up
through them-water SO hot that 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 is
land. The crater is circular, full mile
in diameter, and hemmed in by walls
many hundred feet high and very pre-
cipitous.. The crater floor was an un-
even plane of volcanic ash and scoria,
with many little fumaroles or blow
holes, through which hot sulphur va
pors came oozing out, while every few
minutes there was beneath our feet
smart trembling and low, dull, rolling
roar. The smoke of yapor be-
gan to thicken as we went along, and
we soon found the cause. We were
stopped short by a great lake of steam
ing 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 at any scratch or sore upon
our skin. On the further border Of the
lake and half around its shore, was q
row of the most violent solfataras which
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 trumpet
ing steam and roaring sulphuric gases
with violence that was frightful to
contemplate and such demoniacal
screeching and din as afflicted our ears,
even at the long distance where we
stood. We dragged the row boat along
the volcanoes 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 it was in
most places not over ten feet deep.
Lines upon the shore showed that it
daily rose and fell slightly with the tide
Of the sea outside. In many spots the
water was boiling furiously with SO
much froth and foam, while still its heat
was much below the boiling point of 212
Fahrenheit. These We're dangerous
places, the abundant air in the water
diminished materially its buoyancy, and
our boat sank alarmingly low in cross
ing them. We landed across the lake
at one of the solfataras nearest to the
beach and proceeded to demolish it with
our oars. 1t was a chimney two feet in
diameter, clay without, and within it
was lined with crystals of sulphur of a
beautiful straw-yellow, splashed with
vermillion spots. Pushing in the top of
this chimney the fragments would first
fall down his throat ard then come fly
ing out into the air with explosions that
were amusingly like prolonged stem
torian cough. ."-Jlica (N. ~ Heruld.