147 



Los Banos to Tanauan by rail. The party consisted of four 

 Americans and about twenty Filipino students of the College 

 of Agriculture. From Tanauan the Americans started by car- 

 romata toward the shore of the lake. The roads were ex- 

 ceedingly rough, and in places almost impassable, so that the 

 carromatas had to be abandoned when about halfway to Bombon 

 Lake, and the rest of the trip was made by horseback. Even 

 then, the students who walked reached the lake well ahead of us. 



It was too late to get boats to Volcano Island after our arrival, 

 and there are no accommodations whatever for strangers in the 

 little village of Banadero, on the shore of the lake. The students 

 took refuge in the houses of the natives, while the four Americans 

 climbed to the flat roof of the Seismological Observatory, and 

 spent the night rolled in their blankets under the stars. 



The shore of Bombon Lake is bordered by mountains or high 

 hills on every side, except at the northeast in the direction of 

 Tanauan. Here there is a gradual slope to a table land estimated 

 at five hundred feet above the lake. At the north of the lake is 

 a high plateau with steep southern escarpment facing the lake. 

 The crest is mostly covered with forest and cogon, and the 

 sparse cultivation is confined to the foothills. At the south, 

 on the east side of the lake, stands Mt. Macolod, with its western 

 face almost vertical for about a thousand feet. There are some 

 other precipitous islands and headlands in the same vicinity, 

 covered with scattered groves and much cogon, and seemingly 

 connected with the general table land to the east. Volcano 

 Island, examined through the field glasses from a distance of 

 five miles, showed a very sparse vegetation and great areas of 

 bare yellow-brown volcanic ash. Its surface is rolling, with 

 several isolated peaks, but culminates in the volcanic peak 

 proper, around which the rim of the broad crater reaches heights 

 of a thousand feet. 



The shore of the lake is composed principally of black vol- 

 canic sand, and the principal vegetation is a mixed association 

 of the creeping morning glory, Ipomoea pes-caprae, and the 

 legume Canavalia lineata. These plants cover the sand with 

 their long prostrate stems, and their erect leaves are on petioles 



