THE THEATRE OF ERUPTION. Description of the District.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 6

THE THEATRE OF ERUPTION. Description of the District.

Dr Hocnstotter's Description of the Lakt Tarawera and the Mountain. The following brief but interesting description of the scene of the disaster is taken from Dr. Hochstetter's" work on New Zealand, written after his visit in 1885 :— Tha scenery of Tarawera Lake surpasses in wildness and grandeur that of any of all the lakes in the Lake district. The word signifies "burnt cliffs." Its general form, exclusive of its deep side covers," is thatv.of a rhombus, with its main diagonal running from west to east. In this direction it is seven miles long, having a breadth of about five miles. Its shores are mostly rugged, rocky bluffsshadedby pohutakawa trees. Thechief ornament of the adjoining' landscapes is Tarawera mountain, with its crown of rocks, divided into three parts by deep ravines." It rises on the south-east side of the lake to a height of at least two thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is an imposing table mountain, consisting of obsidian and rhyolitic 'rocks, and" it is not to be wondered at that its dark ravines 1 and vertical sides have given rise to many odd stories in rogue among the Maoris. Among others, a huge monster 24 feet long, resembling a crocodile, is said to haunt the clefts of the rocks, devouring everyone whe dares to scale th* <nountain, • ■ -