nd nearness to Manila, and to the fantastic
description of it by a former owner, De la Gironniere. The soil
of the peninsula is volcanic; its range of hills is very rugged,
and the watercourses bring down annually a quantity of soil from the
mountains, which increases the deposits at their base. The shore-line,
overgrown with grass and prickly sensitive-plants quite eight feet
high, makes capital pasture for carabaos. Behind it broad fields of
rice and sugar extend themselves up to the base of the hills. Towards
the north the estate is bounded by the thickly-wooded Sembrano,
the highest mountain in the peninsula; on the remaining sides it
is surrounded with water. With the exception of the flat shore, the
whole place is hilly and overgrown with grass and clumps of trees,
capital pasture for its numerous herds--a thousand carabaos, one
thousand five hundred to two thousand bullocks, and from six to seven
hundred nearly wild horses. As we were descending one of the hills,
we were suddenly surrounded by half-a-dozen armed men, who took us
for cattle-thieves, but who, to their disappointment, were obliged
to forego their expected chance of a reward.

[Los Banos hot springs.] Beyond Jalajala, on the south coast of
the Lagoon of Bay, lies the hamlet of Los Banos, so called from a
hot spring at the foot of the Makiling volcano. Even prior to the
arrival of the Spaniards, the natives used its waters as a remedy,
[64] but they are now very little patronized. The shore of the lake is
at this point, and indeed all round its circumference, so flat that it
is impossible to land with dry feet from the shallowest canoe. It is
quite covered with sand mussels. North-west of Los Banos there lies
a small volcanic lake fringed with thick woods, called Dagatan (the
enchanted lagoon of travellers), to distinguish it from Dagat, as the
Tagals call the great Lagoon of Bay. I saw nothing of the crocodiles
which are supposed to infest it, but we flushed several flocks of wild
fowl, disturbed by our invasion of their solitude. From Los Banos I had
intended to go to Lupang Puti (white earth), where, judging from the
samples shown me, there is a deposit of fine white silicious earth,
which is purified in Manila and used as paint. I did not reach the
place, as the guide whom I had with difficulty obtained, pretended,
after a couple of miles, to be dead beat. From the inquiries I made,
however, I apprehend that it is a kind of solfatara. Several depo