NGAURUHOE ERUPTION.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13374, 16 March 1909, Page 7

NGAURUHOE ERUPTION.

ASOEXT OF THE MOUNTAIN. (fcPFCIAI.. TO "THE PRESS.") AUCKLAND, March 15. A representative of the "New Zealand Herald-" made the ascent of Ngauruhoe on Saturday, but owing to thick weather very little could be eeon. Hβ writes*:— "At length the fog thinned out a little, and the explorers got a peep for a moment or two as through a cfhiffon, veil into the heart of the crater. Steam holes were shooting up wicked-looking columns with great rapidity. One vent -was throwing up steam and tlien. showers of dust and stones. Above th© roaring of th© steam from the vents, which seemed countless, there was a harsh, grinding sound, from the centre of activity. From this vent there issued a rush of steam something like thnt from the great blow-hole on White Island. Then came a elunver of sand. Ero that sand had timo to fall back, tihere was a bigger rush, and then a bigger still, and etones were flying up and lost to view in tho dense masses of steam continually billowing trp. The crater is a quarter of a mile across, but it was impossible, in the fog and steam, to see more than half of it for just a brief second. The lip of the crater, on what was taken to bo th© west side, loomed dimly through the fog, and it seemed as if some change had taken i>la<?e there. Portion of the wall seemed to bo missing, but whether it had actually been blown out or whether that i>ortion wae still thero and concealed by ono of the billows of steam, it was impossible to say. No lava streams could be seen, but there was plenty of scoria about, and a piece of flint, which seemed to have beon only juist deposited on the cd.go of the crater, was brought away as a souvenir."