"To stand near the verge and behold this acre of dark world as it is hurled a thousand feet into the air, is worth a trip round this little globe. Language gives but a faint gleam of human passion, and every effort to describe this scene brings but a pathetic consciousness of human frailty. Beholding this mighty convulsion, even the thoughtless stand motionless and mute, and as Milton is dead, Waimangu will never be described in words. "The countless mountain lakes, the wild fiords--from whose deep recesses one but rarely sees the sun--the shady solitudes, so painfully still that one shudders with a chilling sense of loneliness, and the easily-approached glaciers and waterfalls--many with a plunge of over a thousand feet, that amaze the Alpine traveller--thrill and fill the beholder with astonishment. "But for one who enjoys the gun and the rod, there are such tempting opportunities for the diversion of the attention, that the imagination finds ready relaxation, and thus the body and mind gain vigor as the scenes and the days pass by. "Then, Zelania's wonders may be visited with ease, comfort, and perfect safety. Her furies are on their good behaviour, and save on the borders of her terrors, her aspects are as serene as heaven's azure sky. Her mountains are rarely disturbed by the ravings of Pluto, her great geysers are forcible, but not dangerously erratic, and her boiling springs are so amiable that they may be studied and safely observed at short range. "Zelania, thou art by far the most beauteous land, E'er dreamed of fate, or reared by Nature's cunning hand. You've heaven-piercing peaks, crowned with eternal snow, A thousand boiling caldrons--heated from below. You've glaciers dwarfing Alpine scenes, and fiords more wild Than Norway boasts. When fashioned, God beheld and smiled. "That Nature rather recklessly managed this country in early geological times is abundantly evident, but save the activity of the geysers and boiling lakes--which play for the amusement of visitors--and the occasional listing when some great personage steps too close to the edge, _terra_ has been satisfactorily _firma_ ever since the present managers were commissioned in the early '90's. "In every natural feature, this is a country of boundless variety. In climate, it varies from Finland to Italy; and in production, by intelligent transplanting, most of the necessities of civilised life are here." Here the notes say the poetess Vauline inquired whether Mr. Oseba had not minutely described some of these marvellous scenes in his report. With reverential mien, the sage replied:--