t, are seen the ruins of a Spanish
mining company; a heap of rubbish, a pit fifty feet deep, a large
house fallen to ruin, and a stream-work four feet broad and six feet
high. The mountain consists of gneiss much decomposed, with quartz
veins in the stream-work, with the exception of the bands of quartz,
which are of almost pure clay earth with sand.

[Edible bird's nests.] On the sides hung some edible nests of the
salangane, but not of the same kind as those found in the caverns
on the south coast of Java. These, which are of much less value than
the latter, are only occasionally collected by the Chinese dealers,
who reckon them nominally at five cents each. We also found a few of
the nest-building birds (Collocalia troglodytes, Gray). [132]

[Abandoned workings.] Around lay so large a number of workings,
and there were so many little abandoned pits, wholly or half fallen
to ruin, and more or less grown over, that it was necessary to step
between with great caution. Some of them were still being worked after
the mode followed at Longos, but with a few slight improvements. The
pits are twice as large as those excavated there, and the rock is
lifted, up by a pulley to a cylindrical framework of bamboo, which
is worked by the feet of a lad who sits on a bank higher up.

[Lead and mica.] Ten minutes north of the village of Malaguit is
a mountain in which lead-glance and red lead have been obtained;
the rock consisting of micaceous gneiss much decomposed. There is
a stream-work over one hundred feet in length. The rock appears to
have been very poor.

The highly prized red-lead ores have been found on the top of this same
hill, N. 30 deg. W. from the village. The quarry was fallen to ruin and
flooded with rain, so that only a shallow hollow in the ground remained
visible; and after a long search amongst the bushes growing there a few
small fragments were found, on which [Chrome-lead ore.] chrome-lead
ore was still clearly to be recognized. Captain Sabino, the former
governor of Paracale, a well-informed Filipino, who, at the suggestion
of the alcalde, accompanied me, had for some years caused excavations
to be carried on, in order to find specimens for a speculator who had
in view the establishment of a new mining company in Spain; but the
specimens which were found had not been removed, as speculation in
mines in the Philippines had, in the interval, fallen into discredit
on the Exchange of Madrid; and as yet only a l