Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1909 — New Zealand’s White Island. [ARTICLE]

New Zealand’s White Island.

White Island derives its name from the clouds of white steam in which it appears to be conUauaHy enveloped. Its arfea Is only 600 acres, and its height about 800 feet above the sea level. In form and color it is like a reposing ckmel. while its interior, with its gray, weather-beaten, almost perpendicular cliffs, recalls the Coliseum at Rome. Overhanging the southern landing place stands a column of rock closely resembling a sentinel, which has been dedicated to the memory of Capt. Cook. The water of the Island is of a pale-green hue, and anything dipped into it becomes of a red brick color. The fumes of sulphur are always plainly perceptible. • On a fine moonlight night a wonderful sight is afforded to anyone who will sit in an open boat in one of the lakfes of the island. Covering an area of fifty acres is an immense caldron hissing and snorting and sending forth volumes of poisonous steam, while all chances of egress appear to be denied by the steep, silent and gloomy cliffs.