TE TARATA, MOUTH OF THE BOILING GEYSER.
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IV.
TE TARATA, MOUTH OF THE BOILING GEYSER.
MR. MUNDY, during his visit to Rotomahana, had the good fortune to be enabled to see the crater empty, and to take a photograph of it. He had been told, by the Maori chief Parakia, who accompanied him, that few natives had ever seen the crater empty. This, in fact, takes place but rarely, and there is a notion that it occurs only during violent easterly gales. The whole mass of water is then suddenly thrown out with immense force. On such occasions the empty basin is open to sight to a depth of about thirty feet; but it fills again very quickly. Mr. Mundy was just in time, before the boiling water rose again in the frightful aperture of this geyser, to secure the accompanying view of it. It was with difficulty that his attendant and interpreter could be persuaded to descend and figure in the representation. Ten minutes after the photograph was taken, the geyser, with a dull hissing noise, filled up its whole crater. The violent eruptions of this geyser, at long intervals, can only be compared in grandeur to those of the famous Great Geyser in Iceland. The Te Tarata basin, however, is larger than the Icelandic geyser basin, and the mass of water thrown out therefore must be immense.