CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2339, 6 July 1886, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE EVENING.PRESrf AND THE RECENT ERUPTIONS. To the Editor. Sir,—l notice that the Wellington Evening Press is' somewhat sevore upon Dr. Hector, Colonel McDonnell, and the District Surveyor for. the Taupo district. The Doctor in a recent lecture delivered in Wellington is reported to havo said that there is no underground connection between the sources of volcanic or.hydrothermal enorgy at Tarawera and Tongariro. Now, I hardly think that the Doctor committed himself to that opinion. What I think he wished to convey to the minds of his hearers was that while Tongariro is a volcano proper, vomiting forth at times molten lead, the Tarawera eruption partook more of an immense discharge of elastic vapours, the fireballs, etc., being merely electrical discharges, and the electricity generated chemically or by friction caused by the vapour issuing through the vent. Doctor Hector must have been aware that others beside Col. McDonnell observed the unusual hydro-thermal activity of Tongariro on different days, as even Ruapehu was observed to be ejecting steam. Ik. must not be forgotten that Ngauruhoe (the active cone on Tongariro) is never quiescent. When it is not belching forth molten rock and scoria, it resolves itself into' an immense solfatara or fumerole, and emits elastic vapours in the aspect of steam, and in this form Tongariro showed undoubted aympathy with Tarawera during the latter's recent eruption, No doubt the altered appearance of Ngauruhoe since Col. McDonnell's previous visit to that locality sixteen years ago led the ''Press" to supposo that the alteration had taken place quite recently, but when we consider that steam has bsen constantly issuing from that cone since 1870, weoaneasily imagine that the effector", this issue of steam would be to soften- the ground around the lips of the crater and to cause immense quantities of earth to' become softened and to fall in. There is' nothing in Col. McDonnell's statement to show that this is not what has actually happened. There is one particular phenomenon, vouched for by several eyewitnesses, that no one has as yet attempted to explain, namely, the war canoe, seen on Lake - Tarawera on the dav preceding the eruption. Might not this" have been a mirage ? You will recolleot that it is alleged that this phantom war canoe 'rowed abreast;:of the tourists' canoe.' Now, there must have been an unequal refraction of th* lower strata of

the atmosphere (the condition which pro-1 duces mirages) over Lake Tarawera on that day which would toe. the canoe the tourists were in to be reflected in a fantastio form, thus giving the mirage the appearance of a large war canoe.. lam, &c, G. M. Park. '