a ee ee ee 
XI, C, 4 Brown, Merrill and Yates: Volcano Island 199 
to be much denser than in the foreground; this appearance is 
deceptive, as in reality the.grass is no thicker on any part of 
the slope than in the foreground. Plate X, fig. 1, is from a 
photograph taken by Gates in April, 1914, of another portion 
of Mount Balantoc where the vegetation at present is very sim- 
ilar to that shown in Plate XI, fig. 1.. A comparison of these 
two views indicates that the revegetation since 1914 has not 
proceeded as rapidly as would be expected if the vegetation seen 
by Gates in the northern part of the island had been entirely new. 
The low divide separating Mount Balantoc and Mount Binin- 
tiang Malaqui is covered by an open stand of Saccharum and 
scattered trees. Bananas and bamboos are present in the vicinity 
of the old villages. All of the bamboos have probably regenerated 
from old rootstocks. One of the varieties of banana appears to 
be spreading to a slight extent. Plants of Saccharum and trees 
are more numerous than when Gates visited the island, but as 
might have been expected there is no evidence of any increase 
in the number of clumps of bamboos. It is interesting that in 
October, 1913, Gates found only three clumps of bananas and 
no clumps of bamboos. “In April, 1914, bananas were fairly 
abundant and indicated quite well the positions of many of the 
former houses,” while bamboos were prominent. This would 
indicate that bananas and bamboos could remain alive for a 
considerable period of time without showing any activity above 
the ground. 
In 1914 the vegetation was fairly well developed in the area 
partly inclosed by Mount Balantoc. This is now covered by an 
open growth of Saccharum and scattered trees. 
Plate XI, fig. 2, is a view of the northwestern part of the island 
from the junction of Mount Pinag-ulbuan with the crater rim. 
Mount Balantoc and Mount Binitiang Malaqui appear in the 
distance. 
The northeastern corner of the island is formed by a peninsula 
containing Mount Pirapiraso and Mount Bignay. In this re- 
gion Gates found the densest vegetation that occurred on the 
island in 1914. His photograph of Mount Pirapiraso and Mount 
Bignay seems to show that here grass predominated, while scat- 
tered trees were fairly abundant. The grass, however, had ap- 
parently not reached its normal density, as Gates in discussing 
areas covered by Saccharum says that even on low slopes the 
bunch-grass habit had not been obliterated. At the present time 
the ground except in a few localities is densely covered by a 
mixture of grass and trees. The trees occupy about as large 
