MOUTH OF THE PIRORI GEYSER, AT TOKANU.
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XVI.
MOUTH OF THE PIRORI GEYSER, AT TOKANU.
THE most powerful column of steam which is seen to ascend at Tokanu, and is visible far above the lake shore, belongs to the large geyser Pirori (a name that signifies fountain or eddy). It is situated on the left bank of the Tokanu Creek. A boiling hot-water column, six feet in diameter, always accompanied by a rapid development of steam, is whirled up at intervals of about eleven seconds, to a height which often varies. The geyser basin is eight feet wide, covered with a siliceous deposit resembling chalcedony; it is called the Jaws of Topohinga, and here the water is continually boiling. Mr. Mundy was informed by the officer commanding the district that he had seen a column of water a hundred feet high rising from it. The whole of the food for several hundred native and other troops was cooked in this geyser, when they were fighting the rebel Te Kooti in the neighbourhood.
A few years ago the Pirori discharged all its water, followed by quantities of boiling mud, stones, and steam, and several native women and children lost their lives in a neighbouring pah, on the banks of the Tokanu Creek, which is now "tapu" and deserted. No soundings have been taken since the eruption.
