378 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and many of the fleeing ones were struck down by the falling 

 stones. Houses afforded no protection, because the red-hot stones 

 set them on fire, and the most flourishing villages of the Camarines 

 were thus laid in ashes. Toward 10 a. m. the rain of stones ceased, 

 and was replaced by one of sand, and at about 2 p. m. the noise 

 had lessened and the sky began to clear. Twelve thousand per- 

 sons were killed and many wounded by this eruption. After the 

 mountain had become quiet it presented a frightful appearance, 

 its former picturesque, highly cultivated slopes being covered with 

 barren sand, which enveloped the cocoanut trees to their tops, and 

 some one hundred and twenty feet of its summit had been carried 

 away during the eruption. An enormous opening had been formed 

 on its southern side, near which three other mouths appeared, which 

 continued to emit ashes and smoke. The finest villages of the 

 Camarines were destroyed, and the best part of the province was 

 converted into a sandy waste. 



This mountain has been active at short intervals down to the 

 present time. Sometimes its activity has been continuous for a 

 year or more. Its eruptions were frequently accompanied by 

 earthquakes and storms. The next outbreak after that described 

 above was in 1827. In 1834 and 1835 the mountain was active 

 nearly all the time. There was no eruption of ashes, but every 

 night a stream of molten lava could be seen running into the higher 

 ravines. In 1845 there was an eruption of ashes which lasted sev- 

 eral days; a violent eruption occurred in 1846, two unimportant 

 ones in 1851, and another violent ash and stone eruption occurred 

 on July 27, 1853, during which thirty-one persons were killed. 

 Others "occurred in 1855, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1865, and 1871. 

 The heights of the Philippine volcanoes vary from ten thousand 

 and nine thousand feet (Albay or Mayon) down to Taal, only 

 seven hundred and eighty feet high. This curious volcano is upon 

 an islet in the middle of Lake Bombon, south of Manila. Lake 

 Bombon was originally probably a vast crater. It is separated 

 from the China Sea by a narrow isthmus. Taal contains second- 

 ary craters, crevasses emitting vapors, and lakelets of acid water. 

 It is the principal " show " volcano of the islands, and was in 

 action in 1885, when all the vegetation upon the island was burned 

 up. Lake Bombon was doubtless formerly connected with the sea, 

 the intervening barrier being formed of eruptive scoriae. Its water 

 is still saline, and its marine fauna has adapted itself to its modi- 

 fied environment. 



On the small island Camiguin, on the northwest coast of Min- 

 danao, is the extinct volcano Catarman, with a crater lake upon its 

 summit whose level has been subject to great fluctuations. Some- 



