694 ON THE VOLCANO OF TAAL, 



faces are richly festooned with the usual luxuriant foliage of wild 

 vines and tropical plants. 



Befoi'e coming to a description of the details of this singular 

 volcano it will perhaps be better if I describe briefly the mode and 

 times of my visits. I first saw it towards the end of March, 1885,. 

 when, after a long period of tranquillity, the volcano had subsided 

 into a state of repose as great, almost, as ever has been known. I 

 travelled from Manila up the river Pasig into the laguna of Bay 

 by means of a small trading steamer. I landed at the south side 

 of the laguna at the large and populous town of Calamba at the 

 mouth of the river San Juan. From Calamba I followed this 

 river which winds round the base of Mount Maquilin, and passing 

 the town of San Tomas proceeded to Tanauan. This town is 

 almost as important as Calamba, with a fine market place and 

 Casa Reale all in ruins from the earthquake of 1882, or the 

 hurricane of the year after. From Tanauan having crossed the 

 river I descended to the margin of the lake, a distance of about 

 seven miles. I may mention that from the town of Tanauan the 

 peak of the volcano is visible, and was then specially conspicuous 

 by the dense volumes of white smoke which rolled up from the 

 crater high into the air, where, as the day was still and the weather 

 tine, it formed a spreading canopy not unlike a mushroom in shape. 



My journey was a most interesting one thus far, but I intend 

 to give a description of it when publishing the full journal of my 

 travels. It will be sufficient to say now that I embarked in a 

 native canoe at the small village of Barnadero, and in an hour or 

 so crossed over to the volcano. This appeared from a distance to 

 l)e a low, undulating cone of grey ash, with very little vegetation 

 upon it. I landed inside a cape called Caluit, or Calavita, and 

 following a narrow path reached the summit of the crater by a 

 very easy incline. The view from the edge is very startling and 

 extraordinary. One stands on the edge of a crater of oval form, 

 about 2,500 yai'ds in its major, and 2,000 yards in its minor 

 diameter, and about 1,000 feet deep. The first impression is that 

 of a recently extinguished cauldron, from the midst of which two 

 pits, a little separated from each other, were emitting rolling 



