VOLCANO IN THE ISLAND OF CAMIGTJIN. 255 
most prominent part of the island being an older 
volcano, which rises np behind the active cone to a 
height of upwards of 5000 feet. 
Being in shallow water (375 fathoms) the oppor- 
tunity was taken to trawl, and eventually a multi- 
tude of very small sea-urchins, and other specimens 
of great interest, were brought up. 
On the morning of the 26th we gradually ap- 
proached the island, and at noon we were close 
under the volcano, when parties of naturalists landed 
to explore, and the vessel proceeded on and came to 
anchor off the little village of Abajo, a few miles 
distant. It seems, early in the year 1871, this island 
was visited with several violent earthquakes, which 
resulted in the first eruption from this volcano ; from 
this date the accumulation of the mountain has been 
going on gradually, and apparently with little vio- 
lence. The general colour of the cone is a rich 
chocolate brown ; it has now reached some 2000 
feet in height, and its base has gradually extended 
until it entirely covers the town of Camiguin, for- 
merly the largest on the island (with a population of 
10,000 inhabitants). Now only a few ruined walls 
remain of this town, which was formerly on one of 
the most fertile and prosperous of the smaller islands 
of this archipelago. Since the eruptions the island has 
become almost desolate ; only a few hundred inhabit- 
ants remain ; most of the houses are in ruins, and 
the paddy-fields and groves of flax are deserted and 
