[CHAPTER X.]
THE HOT LAKE DISTRICT; ITS EXTENT AND PECULIARITIES.—MEDICINAL SPRINGS.—ANALYSIS OF THE WATERS.—FRED'S NARROW ESCAPE.—SCALDED TO DEATH IN A HOT POOL.—LAKE ROTOMAHANA.—THE WHITE TERRACES; HOW THEY ARE FORMED.—THE PINK TERRACES.—BOILING LAKES.—NATURE'S BATH-TUBS.—PETRIFIED BIRDS.—A TABOOED MOUNTAIN.—THE TABU ON DUCKS.—NATIVE DEMORALIZATION.—WAIROA.—DESTRUCTION OF THE TERRACES.—TERRIBLE ERUPTION, WITH LOSS OF LIFE.—A VILLAGE THROWN INTO A LAKE.—TAURANGA AND THE GATE PAH.—MAORI FORTIFICATIONS.—SHORT HISTORY OF THE MAORI WAR; ITS CAUSES AND RESULTS.—FROM TAURANGA TO NAPIER.—A PASTORAL COUNTRY.—ATTRACTIONS OF NAPIER.—OVERLAND TO WELLINGTON.—FARMING AND HERDING SCENES.—A CURIOUS ARTICLE OF COMMERCE.
"The volcanic region of North Island is a large one," wrote Frank in his journal, "and as I can't find any two persons who agree as to its extent, I won't attempt to give its area in square miles or acres; but it is large enough to meet the wants of everybody, and hot enough to suit the most fastidious.
"Long before you reach the neighborhood of the Hot Lakes you find steaming springs, and there is hardly one of them that is not credited with some wonderful healing properties. On an area of a hundred and fifty square miles there are many thousands of hot springs of all temperatures from tepid to boiling, and of all sorts of composition. Only a few have been analyzed, but enough of them to show that hardly any two are alike. All the mineral springs of the world seem to be represented in this district, and when they have been properly catalogued they will form a sanatorium to which the entire globe can send its invalids for relief and healing.
"To make a list of the chemicals they hold in solution would be to copy the index of an exhaustive work on chemistry, and therefore I refrain.
"These springs have been the resort of the Maoris for centuries, and for white people ever since New Zealand could boast a white population. Wonderful cures are recorded or reported, but it is evident that an invalid should have the advice of a competent physician before trying the springs in earnest. To come here and take the baths indiscriminately, when the number and variety are so great, would be much like turning one's self loose in a drug-store and tasting the contents of all the jars in succession. Thus far the principal diseases treated have been gout and rheumatism, and many a sufferer has found relief and been cured of his malady. One bath has been so successful in curing skin diseases that it is known as the 'pain-killer;' its ingredients are sulphate of potash, sulphate of soda, chlorides of sodium, calcium, magnesia, and iron, silica, hydrochloric acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and traces of alumina, lithium, and iodine. What disease could stand such a combination as that?
AMONG THE HOT SPRINGS.