ARRIVE AT ZEBU. 
251 
and Sabuyan ; on the south-west and south by Panay ; 
and on the south-east and east by Pulanduta Point, 
in Masbate. As this, which we may call for con- 
venience the Panay Sea, seemed likely to be one of 
the inclosed basins, presenting peculiarities in the 
distribution of temperature, we stopped to take 
serial soundings and to dredge. From a depth of 
150 fathoms, to the bottom at 700 fathoms, the tem- 
perature was 51*7° Fahr.; while at the surface it 
was 80° Fahr. The other temperatures obtained 
were about intermediate between those in the China 
Seas on the one side and the Zebu Sea on the other, 
leaving it uncertain whether the cleft in the barrier, 
to the depth of 150 fathoms, is between Tablas and 
Panay or between Pomplon and Sabuyan. 
Early on the morning of the 18th we were close 
under the east coast of the island of Zebu, apparently 
the finest of the Philippines, and we steamed along 
the coast all the forenoon. A ridge of hills with a 
rugged crest rises almost from the shore, and behind 
this there is a second and somewhat higher range. 
The first range is cleared nearly to the top, and 
above the clearings there is a belt of trees running 
to the ridge and fringing it against the sky or 
against the foliage of the more distant range. Where 
glimpses can be had into the valleys as we pass, it 
seems to be well cultivated. The sugar-cane gives, 
as usual, the brightest green patches, and the low 7 er 
slopes are covered with groves of the Manilla hemp 
