at ocean; the narrow straits of San Bernardino, of San Juanico,
and of Surigao. Several considerable, and innumerable smaller islets,
lie within the area of these cursorily explained outlines.

[Batangas coast.] A couple of bays on the south coast of Batangas
offer a road-stead, though but little real protection, to passing
vessels, which in stormy weather make for Porto Galera, in the Island
of Mindoro, which lies directly opposite. A river, a league and a
half in length, joins Taal, the principal port of the province, to
the great inland sea of Taal, or Bombon. This stream was formerly
navigable; but it has now become so sanded up that it is passable
only at flood tides, and then only by very small vessels.

[Batangas exports.] The province of Batangas supplies Manila with
its best cattle, and exports sugar and coffee.

A hilly range bounds the horizon on the Luzon side; the striking
outlines of which enable one to conjecture its volcanic origin. Most
of the smaller islands to the south appear to consist of superimposed
mountainous ranges, terminating seaward in precipitous cliffs. The
lofty and symmetrical peak of Mount Mayon is the highest point in the
panoramic landscape. Towards evening we sighted Mount Bulusan, in the
south-eastern extremity of Luzon; and presently we turned northwards,
and sailed up the Straits of San Bernardino, which separate Luzon
from Samar.

[Bulusan like Vesuvius.] The Bulusan volcano, "which appears to have
been for a long time extinct, but which again began to erupt in 1852,"
[71] is surprisingly like Vesuvius in outline. It has, like its
prototype, a couple of peaks. The western one, a bell-shaped summit,
is the eruption cone. The eastern apex is a tall, rugged mound,
probably the remains of a huge circular crater. As in Vesuvius, the
present crater is in the center of the extinct one. The intervals
between them are considerably larger and more uneven than the Atrio
del Cavallo of the Italian volcano.

[San Bernardino current.] The current is so powerful in the Straits
of San Bernardino that we were obliged to anchor twice to avoid
being carried back again. To our left we had continually in view the
magnificent Bulusan volcano, with a hamlet of the same name nestling at
the foot of its eastern slope in a grove of coco-trees, close to the
sea. Struggling with difficulty against the force of the current, we
succeeded, with the assistance of light and fickle winds, in reaching
Legasp