as not a green blade remained 
anywhere. 
"The same fate as Taal has 
befahen the towns of Lipa, Tan- 
auan, and so much of Sala as 
still existed. These towns, ■ to- 
gether with Taal, lay around the 
lake, being situated within easy 
reach of it and less than one 
league [4 kilometers] from the 
volcano. The bulk of the popu- 
lation left this neighborhood and 
settled in more distant places. 
Thus out of 1,200 taxpayers, 
whom Taal contained formerly, 
hardly 150 remain in the poorest 
and least respectable villages, 
which suffered little from the 
rain of ashes." 
This eruption caused the final 
abandonment of the sites of the 
old towns of Taal, Lipa, Tan- 
auan, and Sala and the reestab- 
lishment of the first three in new 
and safer places. The sites of 
these old towns are shown on 
the map on page 314. 
In this instance the period of 
activity lasted from the 15th of 
May until early in December. 
The titanic energies emanating 
from this volcanic center were 
apparently then temporarily ex- 
hausted, and there followed a 
period of quiet lasting until 
March, 1808, when there oc- 
curred an outburst which did 
much damage to neighboring 
towns, owing to the great quan- 
tity of ejecta. In the vicinity of 
the volcano there were places 
where the ground was covered 
with "ashes" to a depth of some 
33 inches. This eruption is said 
to have modified profoundly the 
form of the principal crater. 
The next serious disturbance 
occurred on July 19, 1874, when 
there was an eruption of gases 
and "ashes" which killed all the 
live stock on Volcano Island and 
withered or burned the vegeta- 
tion on the western slopes of 
the crater. 
328 
