250 AUSTRAI.ASIA. 



to its modified environment. The great Lake Bay, or the Laguna, south-east of 

 Manilla, was also probably an ancient marine gulf cut off from the sea by the 

 narrow isthmus of recent formation on which stands the capital of the Philippines. 

 According to Semper, the Laguna is inhabited by the shark and another sea-fish 

 found in the neighbouring marine waters. The peninsulas and islets in the 

 northern part of the Laguna, as well as the island of Corregidor, at the entrance of 

 Manilla Bay, consist of igneous rocks, but all have been quiescent throughout the 

 historic period. 



The contradictory statements of Spanish writers leave it doubtful whether any 

 outbursts occurred in the seventeenth century at Mount Aringay, or Santo-Tomas 

 (7,530 feet), which rises above the east side of Lingayen Bay. Data, lying to the 

 north-east of Aringay, is certainly quiescent, although, like several other cones in 

 this group, it is encircled by thermal springs and solfataras. No other volcano 

 occurs between this district and the northern extremity of Luzon, where Cagud 

 (3,920 feet), at the terminal headland, constantly emits wreaths of smoke. 

 Beyond this point the igneous system is continued under the sea to the island of 

 Camiguin (2,415 feet), which contains a productive solfatara. In the neighbour- 

 ing Babuyan, an active volcano rose above the surface in 1856 ; four years later it 

 had attained a height of nearly 700 feet, and since then has continued to grow, its 

 present elevation apparently being about 800 feet. The reefs of Dedica, on which 

 the new volcano stands, would themselves appear to be the remains of an old 

 burning mountain. In this vast igneous chain, which extends from Sangil for 

 about 1,000 miles northwards, the last member is Babuyan Claro, whose fiery cone, 

 over 3,000 feet high, lights up at night the dangerous waters of the Sea of Formosa. 

 This great island is connected with the Philippines through the reefs and islets of 

 the intervening Batanes (Bashee) Archipelago. 



Few regions are more subject to underground disturbances than the Philippines. 

 Despite the numerous " safety-valves " w^hich, according to certain theories, are 

 offered by the active volcanoes to the subterranean forces, this archipelago may be 

 said to be in a continual state of tremor. The seismographs of the Manilla Obser- 

 vatory are constantly vibrating ; the crust of the earth is incessantly quivering 

 with undulations, normally running in the direction from west to east, and few 

 years pass without some disaster caused by these oscillations. The city of Manilla 

 has been frequently wasted by such convulsions, and most of its public buildings 

 and European houses built of stone were levelled to the ground by that of 1863, the 

 most terrible on record. The no less violent shock of 1880 was far less disastrous, 

 the edifices having in the interval been constructed on a plan better able to resist 

 the effects of these oscillations. 



During the earthquake of 1880 Taal and several other volcanoes were in full 

 eruption, and a submarine crater, between the island of Polillo and the east coast 

 of Luzon, rose above the surface ; but the following year this heap of ashes had 

 entirely disappeared, washed away by the waves. 



The disposition of the mountain ranges in parallel chains has afforded space for 

 the development of some considerable streams both in Luzon and Mindanao. The 



