Inhabited by Polynesians since the thirteenth century and discovered by Europeans in the seventeenth, New Zealand is a geologically diverse island group where active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes have resulted in a rich variety of rock formations and geothermal activity. In 1859 60, the geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829 84) was employed by Auckland's government to undertake the first systematic geological survey of the islands, the results of which were first published in German in 1863 and translated into this English version in 1867. Hochstetter describes his travels across New...