Evening star., 1913-02-15

| fierce activity, the whole scene canopied
| by dense clouds of steam. The earth
trembles, and, sulphur-incruSted and per-
forated with steam holes. crumbles
treacherOuSly uEderfoot SuffOcating and
repulsve odors are waited in dense, hot
Steam clouds. and the earth throbs and
quivers with the movement OF mighty un-
deTground forces. There are no steam
bowholes quite so appalling in the Yel-
lowstone as those of Waimungu and
Kara pitt in New Zealand from which the
steam rusheS with deafening roar in i'm
mense volume, and with appalling force
and velocity. Rotorua'S volcanoes sent
out hot ashes, rocks and mud with ter
rifle force. destroying life. The Yellow
stone volcanoes operate less powerfully,
sending out as d rule water and steam
threatening life.
Wherein the Yellowstone Excels.
a. The Yellowstone excels Rotorua in
waterfalls. The Hulla falls of the
| Waikato river in Rotorua carry a fine
| volume but the fall itself is low COM
pared with either the upper or lower Yel-
| lows:one falls, the latter's drop having
the inimitab,e setting of the Yellowstone
canyon with it's precipitOuS sides cOlOred
| in all shades and tints of red. orange,
! yellow and purple.
| t2) There IS nothing in ROtorua or in
| compare with the Yellowstone canyon in
| it's rich and varied colorirg. The canyon
| is a cleft in the surface of rock and
earth, a thousand feet deep and twenty
miles long. Hot water from the earth 9
center with It's chemical deposits has
painted OH its sides on grand scale the
decorations which the borders OF
springs and geyser craters ii has painted
on Il small scale. The color scheme in
cludes the green of the trees at the top
t.,rf md W
water at the bottom and on the walls
patches and streaks of yellow gray,
blue gray. old pink, light terra Gotta,
delicate golden brown. lemon yellow,
white shading into cream yellow, Old rose
and vermillion. The Yellowstone Park
d sp,ays natures gorgeous painting not
only in the canyon but in the calcareous
deposits at Mammoth Hot Springs and in
the silicious deposits of the geysers-
Comb ned with the gray of the geyserlte
il, brilliant colorinG in yellows and reds
and in delicate pink, saffron and green:
At ROtorua. between Waiotapu ana
Wainiungu is Rainbow mountain. so
called from its varied and brill ant color
ing. every shade of red pink and yellow
being visible on it's sides. Though Rotorua
IS. therefore. not entirely lacking in ma
tures work artist. it IS far surpass-
ed in this respect by the Yellowstone.
80 The active geyserS of the yell
lowstone far exceed those now In opera
ton in Rotorua in number. in height and
volume of eruption and in size ana curl
Gus shapes Of Seyser craters Al
the Upper Gcyser basin alone Tin the yell
lowstone) there are a dozen geysers play
ing from so to 80 feet in height and
many more erupting not so high. but
with some peculiar attractiveness IN
shape of the stream erupted OF in the
form or coloring of the crater deposit.
The Yellow stone geysers are the largest
in the world. eXcelling those of Iceland
as we'll as New Zealand 1t has about
1CO geysers and 4 600 hot springs, capable
of conversion into geysers.
In the geyser region Of Iceland in a cir
cult OF about two miles are over 100 hot
springs. potential geysers. the region be-
ing covered. as in the Yellowstone and in
Rotorua. with clouds of sulphurous vapor
from the springs. The chief spouting
springs of Iceland are the Great Geyser
and the Great Strokr. The Great Geyser
(from which as the grandfather of all
geysers the name geyser is derived)
is a venerable crater-building water
volcano like the Castle in the fel-
lowstone and Waikite in Rotorua.
| 1t has as a crater a circular mound Of
siIicious incrustations twenty feet high
on one side and ten on the other The
heights of its eruption have been various
ly estimated by different travellers, the
lowest estimate being sixty seventy
feet. Nontrol. in IT. estimates ninety
two feet: Sir John Stanley. in 1879, ninety
six feet: Lieut.. o. Fl. Olsen. Danish Of
| iicer, in 1904. determined by quadrant
2l2 feet: Sir George Mckenzie, in 1870
| ninety feet. and Henderson. in 1915, 80
feet. It's eruptions have been diminishing
i'm force and frequency, and it may be
dying of old age. The Great Strokr is
only about 900 feet from the Great Gey-
ser. and its eruptions have varied from
40 to 151 feet in height. 1t is a giant
infant. like Excelsior and Waimungu, and
has no special mound or crater
In the same vicinity are two large,
merly active geyserS Thus in Iceland as
| in the Yellowstone and in New Zealand,
are boiling springs that may become gey-
sers. hot quiet springs that have been
geysers. venerable crater-making seysers
and powerfully erupting geyserS too
young to have formed craters.
Feeble and Fickle Geysers.
! The geysers Of Rotorua are compare
| lively speaking, both feeble and tickle.
The geyser region near the town and lake
of Rotorua is at Whakarewarewa. ma
tive suburb about a mile out of Roto-
rua village. The geyser park climbs
hillside to points from which pleasing
giimpses of Lake Rotorua are obtained,
and an interesting model Maori village Is
visited. In hot and boiling springs, mud
volcanoes, small and very active geysers
like the Pigeon seyser, with its dark gray
terraces yellow spotted with sulphur;
impressive craters of extinct geysers like
| Waikite. and in all the other indica-
tions in sound. sight and smells of intense
thermal activity, Whaka is the typical
geyser region; but in great and reliably
erupting geysers it is woefully lacking.
One of its great geysers the Wairoa, has
been artiticially stimulated to erupt by the
administration of soap until 1t refuses to
respond even to this stimulant. and its
| crater is ingloriously boarded over
to the end that the geyser forces
may accumulate in order to furnish
the display of eruption under the
stimulus Of soap when some distin-
guished visitor comes to Wnaka. The
other great geyser of Whaka is Pohotu,
with it's supply pool or ca!dron Of furious
Iy boiling water. which, when 1t plays,
sends up from it's open mouth tall,