706 ON THE VOLCANO OF TAAL, 



look rather smaller than one would anticipate from the great 

 clouds of white smoke which unceasingly issue from the mountains. 

 Still they look large enough and very significant of the volcanic 

 forces below. The next thing which attracts the notice, is the 

 extraordinary vai'iety and vividness of the colours on the rocfes, 

 and in the lakes. First of all there is the large irregular shaped 

 basin of bright emerald green water, extending like a pond at 

 least half way round the crater. This forms such a strong 

 contrast with the sulphur flat of lemon yellow, golden and oi-ange. 

 In the centre of the basin there is an extinct crater forming a 

 somewhat smaller lake of pale bluish green water, which is like a 

 turquoise set in copper, for this is the aspect of the purple-red 

 crater walls nearly all round. To the left of this and undei-neath 

 the highest part of the cx-ater walls, are the two smoking craters? 

 and above this the steep slope of the wall is all smoking, and quite 

 yellow with a sulphur incrustation. The walls themselves are 

 stratified in coloured lines of pale yellow and brown. This 

 however is by no means uniform, for there are gaps, crevices and 

 landslips where the ash has fallen down, and these are purple and 

 brown or darkish blue. It would be almost impossible to describe 

 the number and variety of the coloured stains upon the walls, all 

 of them suggesting a fiery or a smoky origin, but yet very unlike 

 the action of any ordinary fire with which one is familiar. 



This was the state of the crater at the time of my visit, which 

 was probably two and a half years after that of Senor Centeno, 

 and though the general features of this basin have not changed 

 much in the 300 years during which Europeans have been 

 acquainted with it, yet there are some modifications, which we 

 can gather from the different accounts that observers have furnished 

 us with. This will be seen from the following extract from the 

 notes of a geologist made about thirteen years previous to the time 

 of my visit. 



" In the same province is the Taal volcano, in the centre of 

 which there is a small lake, the waters of which are charged with 

 sulphuric acid. In the centre of the Laguna de Bombon, there 

 is a small volcanic island with a crater of no great height and 



