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1 believe there was any, or that the eruption was anything more than hot water and steam; although from the great density of the latter it looked like black smoke.' , Bidwill continued the ascent, and found he had not been climbing the main mountain, but merely a cliff, over which he dropped on to a lava-stream below, "!' which he says, " 1 bad no idea of the meaning of a sea of rocks until 1 crossed them. Tire edges of the stony billows were so sharp that it was very difficult to pass among them without cutting one's clothes into shreds." Arriving finally at the true base of the cone, he had, as is now also the case, great difficulty (iii account of the loose volcanic cinders. " Had it not been for the idea of standing where no man ever stood before, I should certainly have given up the undertaking." " A few patches of a most beautiful snow-white veronica* (Photo. No. 5), which lat first took for snow, were growing among the stones, but they ceased before 1 had ascended a third part of the way. A small grass reached a little higher, but both were so scarce that Ido not think I saw a dozen plants of each in the whole ascent." Bidwill then got on to that lava-flow which comes from the summit of the mountain, thus escaping the loose dust and ashes. He continues, "It was lucky for me another eruption did not take place while I was on it, or 1 should have been infallibly boiled to death, as 1 afterwards found it led to the lowest part of the crater, and, from indubitable proofs, that a stream of hot mud and water had been running there during the time I saw the smoke from the top. The crater was the most terrific abyss I ever looked into or imagined. The rocks overhung it on all sides, and it was not possible to see above ten yards into it from the quantity of steam which it was continually discharging. ... As I did not wish to see an eruption near enough to he either boiled or steamed to death, I made the best of my way down. 1 got back to the tent about seven in the evening. The Natives said they had heard the eruption which took place as 1 was returning, and that the ground shook very much at the time; but I did not feel it, perhaps because I ivas too much occupied with the difficulties of my path." Bidwill paid particular attention to the plants of the region, which he afterwards sent to Sir W. J. Hooker, they forming the first collection made in the interior mountains of the North Island. The Rev. YY. Colenso visited the volcanic plateau in 1847, adding much to our knowledge of the botany of that region. His detailed account was not published till 1884 (7), long after the description of his plants had appeared in the Flora Novae Zealandiee. His collection was made chiefly on the Rangipo Plain and the Onetapu Desert, where he was delayed for two days by a fierce storm from the south-west. " Not really knowing how far we were from help, 1 could only allow two teacups of rice for all my Natives (six in number) for breakfast, and two for their dinner, and for supper one cup of rice was all that could be spared, which, with a few scraps of bacon-fat and a little s;ilt, made a mess of pottage." It was somewhere between this camp and the banks of the River Moawhango that he found on the next day the species of Logania which has not since been rediscovered. In 1841 Diefienbach was unable to gel permission from the Maoris to ascend Tongariro, and in 1850 the same thing occurred to Sir George Grey. In 1851 Mr. Dyson made an ascent of Ngauruhoe, and, like Bidwill, describes how the large clouds of steam hid completely the bottom of the crater from his view. Dyson saw no plant-life of any kind upon the cone. In 1883 Mr. J. H. Kerry-Nicholls made a journey through the King-country, and ascended both Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. He collected a few plants in the region, and some of them are noted in the appendix to his work, published in 1884 (36). He describes the crater as sending forth "enormous jets of steam with a roaring, screeching noise," while hot springs "sent up streams of boiling water," and miniature "cones of dark smoking mud rose up in every direction, while around all was a seething fused mass of almost molten matte)-, which appeared to require just one or two degrees more of heat to transform it into a lake of liquid lava." "No fire was visible in the crater, nor was there any indication of a very recent volcanic eruption." This account seems fairly contradictory, since, judging from the first part of the description, one would think an eruption was almost in progress. Kerry-Nicholls also describes his ascent of Ruapehu to the summit of Te Heuheu peak, but nothing is said regarding the glacier-lake, excepting that on page 249 a note states that such occurs. Hochstetter also was forbidden to make the ascent; nevertheless he gives an interesting and important account of the volcanoes (29, pp. 371, 379). In 1873 Kirk published a paper (38) dealing with the flora of the thermal region. The account ends at the country north of Lake Taupo. He gives some valuable ecological details re plants growing near boiling pools, also a number of facts as to plant-habitats, and some especially valuable observations concerning the occurrence of maritime plants at high levels inland, he firmlv believing such to be strong evidence in favour of former sea-extension. In 1888 Messrs. D. Petrie, A. Hamilton, and H. Hill spent two days on the Rangipo Plain, ascending on to the lower spurs of Ruapehu, and making extensive collections of the plants. No botanical account of this excursion was published, but the plants in Petrie's Herbarium have since been noted by Cheeseman in the Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Mr. L. Cussen in 1887 published an important paper (9a, p. 375) showing that Ruapehu was not extinct, as had been supposed, and that clouds of steam rose at times from a hot lake on its summit. The same observer in 1891 published in the Report for the Department of Lands and Survey a most valuable report on Tongariro, accompanied by an excellent map. Professor J. Park ascended Ruapehu at about the same time as Cussen, but by a southern spur. His account appeared in 1887 (40). He saw neither the crater-lake nor any steam. Mr. Dunnage, who in 1904 and 1905 ascended Ruapehu, published two interesting photographs of the crater-lake (15) and took the temperature of the water. He also noted steam rising from the west of the mountain. The most active investigator of the volcanic region of late years has been Mr. H. Hill, who has visited the district many times, publishing details re its μ-eologv and topography, and collect-

* Veronica epathulata.