that feeds the White Terraces. It is about a quarter of a mile around it, the water in the lake is all the time boiling, and it has the same blue color that I have already mentioned. A cloud of steam rose continually from the surface, and it was only when we got on the windward side of the lake that we could see the water at all, and then only as the wind blew the steam away. All around the lake the rocks were incrusted with sulphur, and the incrustation continued for a good part of the way down the slope.
"We brought away some interesting souvenirs of our visit in the shape of leaves and flowers incrusted with silica, the substance out of which the terraces have been formed. Leaves, flowers, feathers, sticks, any small things placed in the water, become incrusted with the silica in a short time, and are easily preserved by wrapping them in cotton or other soft substances. A bird dropping in the water becomes, as it were, petrified, feathers and all: some of the Maoris who live in the neighborhood have adopted the plan of killing small birds, and after stuffing them with sand or other heavy substance, immersing them in the water long enough to allow the feathers to be incrusted with silica. We have bought some of these petrified birds, and find them very pretty and interesting.
"From the little lake we descended by a small and swift stream to Lake Tarawera, which is about seven miles long by four or five in width. We were in the ordinary canoe of the country, hollowed from the trunk of a tree, and very ticklish to sit in, as you cannot make the least inclination to one side or the other without risk of overturning. The canoe which carried us had eight rowers, so that with ourselves and guide we were twelve in all. The stream connecting the lakes is narrow and crooked, and so swift that it threatened to dash us on the shore and smash things generally; but we got through without accident, and then crossed the lake to the village of Wairoa. On our way we passed near the foot of Mount Tarawera, a truncated cone about two thousand feet high, which is considered sacred by the Maoris. They will neither ascend it nor allow any one else to do so; it is the burial-place of the Arawa tribe of Maoris and the dwelling-place of one of their tutelary gods, and for these double reasons it is held in rigid tabu.
"There's another tabu here, and that is on the ducks and other water-fowl that inhabit the lakes; and as no one is allowed to shoot them, they are in great numbers. The tabu was removed when the Duke of Edinburgh came here, and probably any one who would pay a high price could get it suspended long enough to allow him to satisfy
