bunal having been good enough to hold out the prospect of
severe punishment in case the work performed should not correspond
to the working days. After fruitless search for another guide,
we left Buhi in the afternoon, and passed the night in the rancho,
where we had previously been so hospitably received. The fires were
still burning, but the inhabitants, on our approach, had fled. About
six o'clock on the following morning the ascent began. After we had
gone through the forest, by availing ourselves of the path which we
had previously beaten, it led us through grass three or four feet
in height, with keen-edged leaves; succeeded by cane, from seven
to eight feet high, of the same habitat with our Arundo phragmites
(but it was not in flower), which occupied the whole of the upper
part of the mountain as far as the edge. Only in the ravine did the
trees attain any height. The lower declivities were covered with
aroids and ferns; towards the summit were tendrils and mosses; and
here I found a beautiful, new, and peculiarly shaped orchid. [153]
The Cimarrons had cut down some cane; and, beating down our road for
ourselves with bolos, we arrived at the summit a little before ten
o'clock. It was very foggy. In the hope of a clear evening or morning
I caused a hut to be erected, for which purpose the cane was well
fitted. The natives were too lazy to erect a lodging for themselves,
or to procure wood for a watchfire. They squatted on the ground,
squeezed close to one another to warm themselves, ate cold rice,
and suffered thirst because none of them would fetch water. Of the
two water-carriers whom I had taken with me, one had "inadvertently"
upset his water on the road, and the other had thrown it away "because
he thought we should not require it."

[Altitude.] I found the highest points of the Iriga to be 1,212
meters, 1,120 meters above the surface of the Buhi Lake. From Buhi
I went to Batu.

[Changes in Batu Lake.] The Batu Lake (one hundred eleven meters
above the sea) had sunk lower since my last visit in February. The
carpet of algae had increased considerably in breadth, its upper
edge being in many places decomposed; and the lower passed gradually
into a thick consistency of putrid water-plants (charae, algae,
pontederiae, valisneriae, pistiae, etc.), which encompassed the
surface of the water so that only through a few gaps could one reach
the bank. Right across the mouth of the Quinali lies, in the lake,
a bar