OVERLAND TO THE LAKES. [BY A TRAMP]

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1367, 5 April 1881, Page 2

OVERLAND TO THE LAKES. [BY A TRAMP]

My friend referred to in my last w»8 a burly German metaphysician and materialist, who would analyse the waters with the ntmost care, and show the curative proper tiea of each, or argue upon the impossibility of the existence of a spiritual apart from a physical life, for a whole day, and would permit no fancies about dimon washerwomen on my part. "G-jtt in Himmel' mein freund" he exclaimed Impatiently to me, as we chattered each in his own style. " The world ia too full of wonderful facts which we cannot fathom for anyone to burden himself with fancies as well. On every side of us be the great facts, which the Maker whoever and wherever He may be, has openly and candidly spread before us, and we, poor blind wretches that we are, cannot yet see them, nor even separate them from the lies in which ignorance has concealed them." " But mem lieber herr," I argued, " I find fancies of the greatest value in softening down hard painful facto, or filling up a painful void. If it were not for fancies, the world would be no more than the fancied hell of ancient mythologists. Just allow me to place my demon washerwoman here if I please, or my fairies in the green woods. They will be none the worse for the peopling, and after all the grimmest reality is nothing but fancy, and fancies by long use become hard realities." Gehen sic zum mittagsessen mit deinir washerwomen !" exclaimed my friend, and if he had been a conventional German he would have roared ; but he was not a conventional German, and he possessed as softly pleasing a voice as my own. By this time we had reached Sulphur Point, and had enough to do to note the facts before us without fancies, and my friend was happy- May his portion be a pleasing one to him for a good old companion who might have become a friend if we had seen one another more, and whenever we think of one another we can stretch across the gulf, whether of time or distance, by means of the fancy ho despised, and exchange a friendly grip, as real, and maybe more true than mere matter-of-fact. On one of the curves and points of the borders of the < lake there is a nest of angry, spitting, roaring, foaming devils, whom man has bound and compelled to be of use to him in some measure, for modern man can't allow even his cast- out devils to pitch themselves into the sea unused, though the warm-tempered gentlemen loudly protest, and swear that they will call in their powerful relatives at work in the bottomless pit, and blow up the whole concern. Some clear, deep blue pools, lying as still and deceitfully beautiful as a sleeping tigress, seem to Avait for some trusting fool to throw himself into their jaws fancying their depths are as cool and sweet as they look. Woe to the poor wretch who should do so, for those clear, deep, blue springs are boiling, and one dip would mean instant death ; some are thick, white, creamy-looking baths of seeming new milk, fit for the delicate limbs of a princess, but they would ruthlessly tear the flesh from the bones of any who trusted to them or used their powers without taking every precaution to keep them in subjection — when they are the best and most active of medical servants. Sulphur lies about everywhere in pure lumps and boulders of any size you like, and there are pools of all shapes and sizes and all gradations of heat that are of wonderful power in the cure of rhumatiam and many other tormenting diseases. Many of these pools are known and named for their qualities, one being known as the "Painkiller," for instance that for the treatment of lumbago, sciatica, chronic rhumatism and other like complaints is infallible. Poor doubled up and completely crippled martyrs come out as fiery young athletes ready to dance a hornpipe, ride a steeplechase, or take into themselves a third wife after ten days or a fortnight of the "Painkiller." The crutches that the cured ones have flung away lie about, and the Pool of Bethesda, beside which lay the great multitude of impatient folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the angel to trouble the water, was nothing to what the Painkiller with only old Dame Nature, or that other old serpent keeping its pot a boiling, can be and will be as a perfect cure in the days when Ohinemutu is properly preached all over the world. Near this lies a shallow pool of about an acre in extent, with here and there deep still dark green spots upon its surface, from which the steam lises, and all around it the steam forces its way through holes in the ground while the stench of sulphur is almost intolerable and the gaseous fumes produce giddiness, and in some u feeling of hysteria not unlike that produced by the "laughing gas, 1 ' the effects of which used to be exhibited to good boys and girls by a professor of chemistry in the quiet shades of the Polytechnic, along with the diving bell and other marvels in the days when the world was Hiirtyfive years younger. Another large deep pool contained, as my learned friend assured me, almost pure sulphuric acid. In another direction a small mud volcano was roaring and choking and gurgling, fluging up its boiling mud with awful fury, and forming a small cone of two or three feet in height. All around this spot there were other pools of boiling mud of every shade of grey, jet black and brown ; and roaring, fiercely-boiling pools of nearly pure sulphur forming cones and surrounding layers of bright, yellow, and white deposits. In another place there was a small geyser in full work, throwing up jets of boiling water for a few feet with terrible noises, and occasionally discharging explosions of steam with the puff and noise of a locomotive funnel. All around lay heaps and broad sheets of sulphur, showing that these openings vary their site very frequently, and break out in fresh places every few weeks or so. One awful pool of about fifty feet in diameter was boiling furiously in the centre. Another contained arsenic in sufficient quantity to render a sip of its waters fatal. The Coffee Pot, a boiling cauldron of thick, brown mud, is very fine for its curative effects, it is said ; but like many other blessings, looked amazingly more like a curse. The Cream Cups were a succession of thick, white baths, evidently containing a large infusion of sulphur and soda, and said to be of marvellous effect in the cure of all sorts of complaints. In fact the whole district is evidently one vast active volcano, and I should not be surprised to hear at any time that the whole of the thin surface had fallen into the big cauldron of the great boiling-down firm always so busily emnloyed below. My Bcientific friend's opinion though, is that these subterranean fires penetrate to no great depth, and are the effect of chemical combinations solely, the theory of central fire being all a mistake. {To be continued.)

Active steps are being taken all ever Victoria to stamp out the rabbit pest. All Saints' Church at Gladstone has just received the present of a bell, weighing a hundredweight from Mr It. Tapper, A cadet on Ardlussa station named Patullo had two of the fingers on his left hand blown off last week through his, gun bnrsting. „ The erection of new buildings in the new Fijian capital, Suva, is causing a great demand, for artisan labour.