54f REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



The Jake (the Laguna) is about six German 

 miles in circumference ; it empties itself into the 

 Chinese Sea by an outlet, navigable now only for 

 small boats, though formerly it could carry larger 

 vessels ; it runs with great rapidity, and the lengtli 

 of its course is above a German mile. Since the 

 devastation in 1754^, Taal has been removed to its 

 mouth. 



The water in the Laguna is brackish ; but it is, 

 however, drinkable. In the middle it is reported 

 to be unfathomable. It is said to be full of sharks 

 and caymans, of which, however, we saw none. 



As we were embarking from the Laguna for the 

 island, the Tagatese exhorted us to look round us 

 in this haunted place, but to keep silence, and not 

 to irritate the spirit by any incautious, inconsider- 

 ate word. The volcano, they said, showed symp- 

 toms of displeasure whenever a Spaniard visited it, 

 and was indifferent only to the natives. 



The island is nothing but a mass of ashes and 

 scoriae, which has fallen in itself, and formed the 

 wide irregular crater, which creates so much ter- 

 ror. It does not appear that lava has ever flowed 

 out of it. From the bank, where a little grass 

 grows in scanty spots, and where some cattle are 

 kept to pasture, you climb, on the east side, up a 

 bare and steep ascent, and, in about a quarter of 

 an hour, reach the edge, from which you look down 

 into the abyss as into the area of an extensive 

 circus. A pool of yellow, sulphureous water occu- 



