Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-02-23
MuRlATlc Aolo LAKE.
The Seething, Bubbling Mineral Mass
Found on White Island.

The seething, Bubbling Mineral Mass
Found on White Island.
White Island is nearly circular and about
three miles in circumference, writes an
Auckland correspondent of the San Fran
cisco Chronicle. 1t consists of tall cliffs on
three sides formed OF rock and loose rub
bish thrown up from the crater On the
fourth side is large fiat many acres in ex-
tent, broken in two places by tail and fan
tastc rocky eminences, which appear to
have once formed part of the cliffs in which
the flats would seem TO be fault. These
cliffs are eight hundred feet in height, per-
pendicular within and gently sloping to the
sea- Before you is a vast amphitheater of
extraordinary tint. The walls of this basin,
towering up to the sky, appear serrated at
the edges and intersected along the face by
an inextricable network of assures and
crevices. Landed in TIE ships dingy on
the bowlder-strewu beach, we find our
selves within the awe-inspiring inclosure Of
this wonderful place. A large plain of
mineral deposit is before one, and on the
right is seen tramway leading up to what
is known as the Adamant reef In the cen
ter of this plain is the wonderful boiling
lake. As we approach it along a well-beaten
track the ground becomes Of chocolate
color, and all at once the visitor is conscious
OF the most pungent orders as the fumes
| from the surface of the boiling lake and the
base of the surrounding walls of rock
reach him. A few steps more and mag
nlhcent scene bursts upon the view. Below
you lies the most extraordinary tinted piCt-
ure that poet, artist, explorer novelist
tourist or special ever gazed upon. The
| general tone of the ground line is of deep
| chocolate, the walls of rock around of that
! warm color known n madden
brown, relieved with rose maddcr, the edge
of the lake deep orange and the lake it
self blending of the peculiar green of
verdlgris and lemon yellow. At the base of
the rocks issue jets and clouds of vapor.
The tint OF this lake is probably due to
the TACT that as the volume of water has
lessened the chemical properties in the
water have become of greater strength,
and some predominating over others give
the present extraordinary hue. The lake is
simply a seething, bubbling mass of muriatiC
acid, and as the liquid boils up the bubbles
have their sides in shadow, rejecting a
green tinge, the whole surface emitting a
vapor that very soon finds out your lungs
and tickles the mucous membrane of your
nose and throat to say nothing of bringing
to the eyes involuntary tears.
To the right, following the natural basin
VI luC lSlduu Is CudOS llSeI-lOCkS, stones,
chasms, sti cams, pools, lakelets in frantic
confusion, these latter apparently all alive
and each one bent on outshining if not out
noising one another. This was sort of
school-room for the apparent education of
small volcanoes. Amid the kissing, sputter-
ing, choking things could be seen here and
there what looked like huge, mammoth
golden caulitlowers boiling. These were sui
phur formations.
No animal or insect breathes upon the
island. Two hundred fathOms will hardly
reach the bottom within half mile of its
shores. This island is the eastern limit of
the extensive belt of volcanic agitation
which extends from Mount Egmont through
Tongariro, the Taupo Rotomahana lakes to
Whale Island and the adjacent rocks, north
of which line earthquakes are rarely felt.
An analysis of sulphur deposits on this
island made IN the New Zealand Geological
Survey Laboratory shows that one of yell
low sulphur contained 999 per cent. of sui
phur, that another of green sulphur con-
tained 62.5 per cent. sulphur and that a
third of impure sulphur contained 6205 per
cent. sulphur. Inc cnIe1 ImpurlJy was
gypsum, which does not interfere with its
6iStillatiOn