Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/376

372 lack of correspondence between Matawhara, at the east end of the lake, and the deep water which lies some distance to the west of it.

The two lakes Taupo and Rotoiti have in common a tank-like form of basin. It is also possible that a relation between the two may be indicated by the presence in each of isolated banks or shoals. Examples of such shoals are found in the west end of Rotoiti, and in Taupo between Karangahape and the island Motutaiko.

The remaining lakes form a very heterogeneous lot. Kotorua is a saucer-like depression, a mere continuation of the whole catchment basin in which it lies, regular in its outline and in its subaqueous slopes. It can not be compared to the more abrupt and tank-like lakes among which it lies, though it may possibly have with them a common origin in subsidence, similar but less violent.

Waikare and Whangape are so shallow as to rank rather with swamps than with lakes, in spite of their considerable area. The interest of the former lies chiefly in its peculiar relation to the Waikato river, a relation which enables it to reduce the harmful effects of floods, though not lying on the river's actual course.