The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-02-05
A NEW ZEALAND VESUVIUS.
The Whole Aspect of the Country
Changed in Six Hours.


From the Windsor Magazine.
The white terraces of Rotomahana
rose up in series of twenty pla forms
in the form of a gigantic stairway.
Each terrace was perfectly horizontal
and of dazzling witness. The top
step was vertically eighty feet Above
the base and sat 300 feet back. From
every platform bubbles cOpious clouds
of steam. A stream of boiling water
continually flowed from the geyscrs.
and as it fell slowly from tier to tier
the silicates with which the water Was
heavily charged became deposited. on
it's exposure to the air, in wonderful
lace-work designs of infinite variety
and of dazzling purity and Wilderness
were formed. Not far from the white
terrace was another termed the Pink
Terrace" where, owing to some color
ing substance in the silicious waters
falling from the geysers. the deposits
were of delicate pink hue. from
which was derived the name Pink
Terrace"
Unfortunately New Zealand no long
er possesses this unique spectacle, for
the terraces are no more The various
agencies of nature which originally
built up such curious forms served in
turn to destroy them. NJ. Falconer
gives graphic description of the
event. He was residing at that time
about forty miles distant from Tara
vera. In 1886, on June 10, the night
was clear and calm. Heavy rumbling
sounds like distant rolls of thunder
filled the air, but there was no very
great alarm. The next day dawned
dull and gloomy. About 73O o'clock
the morning grew darker and light
grey ash. very fine, began to fall. He
says that, although they surmised an
eruption was taking place in the Hol
Lake district, there was no definite tid-
ings to that effect. so that he could
only wait to see what would happen
By the aid of a lantern he succeeded
In cropping his way to the telegraph
office, and there he learned that a SER
ious disturbance was taking place at
Tarawera and Rotomahana. ABOUT II
o'clock the darkness lifted. All round
the ground was covered with a thin
filmy Lall of fine ash to the depth OF
half arN inch, and it was afterward
found that the intense darkness was
caused by a thick cloud of dust blown
out by the volcano to a height so tre-
mendous that it passed abVye Tauran-
ga and dispersed over the country
some miles away.
The manifestation was accompanied
by intense cold, the thermometer r.,
gistering five degrees of frost. Thi;
is explained by the fact that the col,
ii
out of the craters expanded as they
ascended and absorbed their own heat
which became latent, so that the heat
was distracted from everything rear
A day or two later the government
| geOlogist arrived at Tauranga. and pre-
| parations to inspect the seat of the
| disaster were pushed forward rapidly
| On the fourth day after the eruption
| the party arrived at Wairoa, a Maor
| village. There was scarcely a vestigt
| of the settlement to be seen, the whole
| village having been crushed beneath
| volcanic lava. and the charred and bat.
| tered remains of the little village
| church and other buildings protrudec
| above the surface of the deposit, whicf
| at first measured four feet i'm thick
| ness, but afterward settled down L
half that depth. One young English
man was killed, as well as the Maori'
| who lived in the district and exacteC
tolls from visitors to the Hot Lakes
| The scene was the widest imaginab BILE
| The air rushed over the land with cy'
| clonic fury. uprooting, tearing anC
breaking trees that had survived thu
hail of rocks, leaving here and ther'
gnarled and jagged trunk, denude
| Of branches and stripped of its bark
l The next day the party set off fo