GRAPHIC NARRATIVE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 990, 3 December 1910, Page 4

GRAPHIC NARRATIVE.

A'PEEP DOWN A VOLCANO. ' (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent) Auckland, December 2. The "Herald's" special correspondent at Waiouru has telegraphed an interesting account of;a visit to Ngauruhoe crater. Ho says:—"A party, including five cyclists. from ■ Auckland, successfully climbed Ngaurulioe on Wednesday. Though the latter part of the ascent was accomplished in a heavy hailstorm, fino weather conditions, pre- , vailed at the summit, where an hour was spent; Owing to. the .abnormal activity of the mountain, the great clouds of wind which carried the steam prevented a minute exploration, but, judging by past descriptions, great changes havo taken place in the mountain's misshapen interior, for, at the present timo, there .are actually four distinct craters. Two of _these, though apparently of recent origin, are now inactive. Near the summit tho peculiar corrugated ridges of the mountain slope are filled with, recentlyejected mud and sand of a leaden colour, and, passing over this on the north-eastern face, is the outer rim of the old crater. This-is reached from its lowest side, which brings one on a level with tho floor of the most-easily extinct crater. This falls inward towards & high overhanging precipice of heat-riven rock,, rising sheer and • gaunt from tho boiling waters of a small lake. . From the upper h'eigta of this pier of stone, _ numerous jets of steam were issuing in long waving streamers'. ■ At the crater proper, situated on the western side of the mountain, considerable caro had to be exercised in moving from point to point, for, at times, the. party became lost to each other in tho enveloping clouds of. sulphur-impregnated steam. It was a weird and uncanny locality. During occasional rifts in the dense whiteness, a glimpso was obtained of a chasm (perhaps a quarter of an acre in extent), from which a whirling column of steam rose as from tho bowels of tho earth, with a terrifia roar. What is going on in the awful depths below is a matter for conjccturo, but tho nover-coasing pounding and crashing of boulders in a boiling cauldroil directly beneath, tho hoarse roar of churned waters, and the weird suddenness with whicli the clouds of ovilsmelling steam literally pour- from' th.o earth, combined with the nauseating odour, point to the fact that a new vent of blow-hole is formed periodical!} within the locality." ■